Although the next few years should see significant new investments in a range of sports as the country prepares for a strong home showing in the Rio 2016 Olympics, there is absolutely no denying the overwhelming dominance of football on the Brazilian sporting scene. In the latest part of our series of reports on stats and trends in the wider Brazilian sport industry, we take a look at sport sponsorship spending in the country, which only confirms the comprehensiveness of football´s supremacy.
As reported last week, total sport sponsorship in Brazil in 2008 was R$328,460,000 (approx. AU$ or US$200 million), according to the Brazilian Institute of Sports Marketing. Of this, football received a whopping 63%, or R$205,300,000, although the ongoing preparations for the 2014 World Cup and recent renaissance of Brazil´s national football league would no doubt have added to this number since 2008.
Of this R$205.3 mllion, the breakdown was:
- Club sponsorships = 82,630,000
- Stadium branding = 38,000,000
- Individual athlete deals = 1,920,000
- Brazilian national team = 81,000,000
- Events and tournaments = 1,750,000
After football comes:
2 - Volleyball - 15% - 49,000,000
NOTE: Brazil is currently the world’s most successful country when taking into account all forms and levels of volleyball, with the men’s indoor team ranked number one in the world and the women number two, while the country is also very strong at beach volleyball. The country’s professional team competition is well supported and gains significant television coverage.
3 - Basketball - 5% - 16,496,000
NOTE: Has lost some ground to volleyball in recent years but Brazil continues to perform strongly on the international stage, while the national professional league remains popular and gains regular pay TV coverage.
4 - Futsal - 2% - 5,626,000
NOTE: This indoor version of football boasts very strong participation rates with a popular national league featuring regularly on Pay TV.
5 - Tennis - 2% - 7,900,000
NOTE: Gained popularity thanks to Gustavo Kuerten’s success in the late 90s and early 00s but has a poor national organisation. Practiced widely on an amateur basis with plenty of courts available nationwide, albeit mainly for the upper middle class and above.
6 - Motor Sport - 1% - 3,872,000
NOTE: Brazilians follow the F1 championship very strongly, as well as the Indy championship and some other international events to a lesser extent, however domestic competitions, including stock car and truck racing and rally, have become increasingly popular in recent years, signalling that motor sport should gain a larger piece of the pie in years to come.
7 - Others - 12% - 40,266,000
Further details on these other sports will be provided in the final report for this series next week.