Economic Impacts of Parks, Rivers, Trails and Greenways

Consumer purchases of sporting goods, in general, were even more significant. Not allof these purchases are for use in parks and along trails, but in 2002, nearly $78 billionof durable goods were purchased.Table 9. Consumer Purchases by Category, Sales of Sporting Goods (2003)Equipment $21,799,000,000Footwear $14,446,000,000Clothing $9,573,000,000Subtotal $45,797,000,000Recreational Transport (Bicycles, $32,788,000,000pleasure boats, RVs andsnowmobiles; projections providedby other associations.)TOTAL $ 78,585,000,000According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, between 1990 and2002 (est.) the U.S. wholesale market for sports apparel and athletic footwear grewto $31.3 billion from $20.6 billion (Columbia, 2004)Consider the various sports that take place in your park or along your trail system.Use the following tables for ideas of sporting equipment that people may use whenthey participate and how much such equipment costs. The Sporting GoodsManufacturers Association also publishes data manufacturers’ shipments inwholesale dollars for the industry. 4Table 10. 2003 Consumer Equipment Purchases by Sport (NSGA, 2004)Archery$281.1 millionBaseball & Softball$340.9 millionBasketball$306.3 millionCamping$1,484.4 millionExercise$4,726.9 millionFishing Tackle$1,981.4 millionFootball$83.2 millionHockey & Ice Skates$149.7 millionHunting & Firearms$2,508.6 millionOptics$840.1 millionSkin Diving & Scuba Gear$337.8 millionSkiing, Cross-Country$44.6 millionSoccer Balls$63.5 millionTennis$343.1 millionVolleyball & Badminton Sets $30.8 millionWater Skis$51.0 millionWheel Sports & Pogo Sticks $439.7 millionTeam Goods Sales$2,467.8 million4 http://www.sgma.com/reports/data/2004/market-rec-report2004.pdf34