How Australia’s fascination with overseas sports is beginning to hurt

The Australian sports market is one of the most cluttered and competitive in the world. In a country of just 25 million people, in 2020 the Australian sports market will consist of 114 professional teams, all competing for the same, limited number of supporters, members, sponsors, advertisers, and media rights holders. As such, some of the smaller sports leagues in Australia are beginning to feel the financial strain of competing in such a cluttered market. However, one of the biggest and most significant threats to domestic sports in Australia is not coming from within, but rather from overseas, in particular, from the USA and Europe with the rising popularity of global sports leagues such as the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the English Premier League (EPL). This is particularly evident amongst millennials and Generation Z sports fans. This article explores what these younger demographics find appealing about overseas sports leagues, using the responses of focus group participants, which included twenty-one sports fans aged between 18 and 30. Furthermore, the responses are used to make recommendations for Australia’s domestic sports’ leagues and teams to ensure they remain viable in the future and to predict what Australia’s domestic sports will look like in the coming years.