The North East sports economy could contribute even more millions into the region if it boosted investment in women's professional sport, a study suggests.
A new report from law firm Irwin Mitchell and the Centre for Economics and Business Research showed Newcastle and Sunderland contributed £118m gross value added and supported 5,160 jobs between 2019-2020. The authors also say more is possible, making several recommendations including boosting investment in women’s professional sport, the creation of guidelines and funding to support environmental objectives and calls for Government to prioritise the introduction of new legislation for a new independent regulator for English Football.
The study - which defined the sports economy as the operation of sports and fitness facilities, clubs, the manufacturing of sporting goods and retailing of sporting equipment - used Office for National Statistics data to estimate the economic activity directly generated by sports activities for each city.
