The Economics of Sport : The impact of professional sports on the local economy

Sammanfattning: Economics of sport is not an extensively well covered subject in Sweden and the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of professional sport on the local economy, and also shed some light on the situation of this subject in Sweden. Seven municipalities housing a professional hockey team and seven municipalities without any hockey team was compared and analysed to view any differ-ence of two sets of local economies. The finding was that professional sport has no effect on the number of workers in the restaurant sector. This sector act as an indicator on how the local economy was affected. Therefore, the local government should not motivate investments and subsidies aimed at profes-sional sport with the promises that it will increase income and job in the municipalities.