LITHUANIA: Towards Professionalization of the Private Sport Sector

This chapter gives an overview of the organization and management of sport in the public, private and voluntary sectors in Lithuania. Special attention is given to the private sport sector’s position among other sport sectors in the country. Private sport sector analysis is based on the approach used by Gratton and Taylor (2002). The sport goods sector (manufacturing and distribution) and sport services sector (spectator events, commercial leisure, business services, media and sponsorship) are growing and expanding their brands internationally. Economic indicators of the country’s sport sector are revealed and presented for the period of 2010–2014. The added value of sport industry is about 0.8% of the gross value added. Sport-related production is growing slightly and sport-related employment remains almost the same at 1.4% of the country’s total employed population. Special attention is given to the research outcomes about annual consumer’s expenditure on active and passive sport in Lithuania during 2014. The structure of the private sport sector is presented by directly sport-related NACE Rev. 2 (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community) classes that cover the main business fields and the largest companies based on the data from 2013. Important changes in Lithuania’s private sport sector during the 2000’s have been mainly influenced by the country’s membership in the EU and joint actions in various activities through international partnerships. The future challenges of the Lithuanian private sport sector will depend on closer public private partnerships based on mutual understanding, trust and agreed values.