Head of User Services
& Business Librarian
Find Industry Information
The first thing you will want to do is to get the lay of the land of both the sports market and the specific product market or industry.
A good understanding of both the sports scene as well as the overall industry will go a long way in securing a sponsorship deal.
The resources below can help you get up to speed quickly with your industry and market.
- Use IbisWorld to search for “sports franchises” to get a general overview of the industry in the U.S.
- IbisWorld is also a great resource to get a broad understanding of other large industries, such as the casual dining industry in the U.S.
- First Research provides quick and easy to understand industry analyses
- Search for “professional sports” to find a very useful report.
- Similarly, First Research will have reports that cover the broad industry of your potential sponsor.
- First Research
Provides industry profiles on over 600 industry segments. The reports are very easy to read and can help you gather a quick understanding of the industry.
- Statista is a great place to look for a variety of sports statistics, covering revenues, attendance, participation, expenses, and more.
- Statista may also have statistics on the industry of your sponsor, as well as statistics about the company and competitors.
- Passport has some useful information in a report called “Sporting and Recreational Services" for several major international markets. You can find this report by searching for the title in the Passport search box.
- Also use Passport to understand consumer industries in countries around the world, including the USA. Use this data to better understand your sponsor's industry.
- Passport
Passport offers comprehensive coverage of international consumer markets, consumer lifestyles in other countries, economic statistics, demographic forecasting, and industry reports for most major markets and consumer products, and more.
Trade Publications & Journals
- Use Business Source Complete to find trade publications about the industry in which the potential sponsor operates.
- Trade Publications can give you "insider" information into what's happening in an industry.
- Business Source Complete
Provides full text access of more than 3500 journals, trade publications, magazines, company reports, and more, in the disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance and more.
Also useful for finding company profiles, industry profiles, and SWOT analysis for companies.
- SPORTDiscus
A good place to find articles on sports business. Note that in addition to sports business publications, you will also find publications that deal with sports medicine, exercise science, coaching, and sports education topics. SPORTDiscus also contains publications for niche sports activities and markets, such as Backpacker, Cross Country Skier, Equus, Dirt Biker, and many more.
