(Statement by Todd Deacon, General Manager, Sweeney Sports)
Despite no Australian male or female player being ranked in the top 50 of the world’s tennis players, tennis retains its position as the sport in which most Australians are interested.
Almost six of every ten people (58%) are interested in tennis while swimming, the most popular sport from 2000 to 2004, is the second most popular, also with more than half the population (54%) interested in it (table follows).
Soccer, fifth on the list of favourite sports with 50% interest, was the only sport in the top seven to post an increase in interest, although it was marginal.
The results are contained in the tenth winter edition of the Sweeney Sports Report. The Report, recognised as Australia’s most comprehensive and authoritative sports and sponsorship survey, calculates ‘interest’ by combining data about the proportions of adult Australians in capital cities who participate in, attend, watch television programs, listen to radio broadcasts, read print media reports and use the internet for information about each sport.
In a period where most sports lost ground, soccer narrowed the gap between it and the traditional power sports. The gain was primarily the result of growth in attendance – a four percentage point increase to 18% of the population, making it the third most attended sport behind AFL and cricket. It was also the only sport to post gains, although very slight, for all media – television, radio, newspapers, and Internet.
Swimming, the second most popular sport, posted the biggest loss in interest during the winter, mainly because of a fall in television viewing compared with the winter of 2007 when Melbourne hosted the FINA world swimming championships. A decline in participation of seven percentage points to less than one of every five people (18%) also contributed to the negative result.
Tennis, like most other sports, also lost ground, but in an environment where Australian players are struggling to break into the top 50, the extent of the decline was probably lessened by the game continuing to attract the world’s best players to our shores each summer, maintaining interest, particularly through television viewing.
In other results:
• contrary to the trend of decreasing newspaper circulations as internet news services become more popular, print media readership about sports has reached record levels for most sports: almost one of every five people (19%) sources print media for Australian Rules football information, more than one of every six (16%) for cricket information and one of every ten (10%) for Rugby League information.
• Internet usage for sporting information has continued to increase but only marginally during the past year, Australian Rules (12%) being the favourite sport followed by Rugby League and soccer (10% each).
• a general decrease in participation, tennis, swimming and golf now being at their lowest levels since the Sweeney Sports winter surveys began - less than one of every five people (18%) say they participate in tennis and swimming and about one of every seven (15%) say they play golf.
• Melbourne continues to reign as Australia’s sporting capital, hosting the country’s three most important sporting events. However, the AFL
To read more about this press release, please download the PDF by clicking on the link below.
For information about the Sweeney Sports Report, please contact Todd Deacon on todd.deacon@sweeneyresearch.com.au
