NAICS 7112Industry group · 4-digitlocal market1 market record

Spectator sports

This industry group comprises professional, semi-professional, or amateur sports clubs primarily engaged in presenting sporting events before an audience. These establishments may or may not operate the facility for presenting these events. Independent professional, semi-professional or amateur athletes (in their role as athletes), and operators of race tracks are also included. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 379
Under 10 employeesA: 55%
Establishments · USA: 5,034
Employment · USA: 127,403
Payroll · USA: $29.4B

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–415140%

5–95715%

10–194712%

20–496417%

50–99257%

100–199164%

200–499123%

500+72%

Of 379 Canadian establishments with employees, 55% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario16744%

Quebec6116%

British Columbia4512%

Alberta4211%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation, US · opened 2020

81.3%

1 year

70.3%

3 years

57.1%

5 years

40.8%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 711, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

local competitionlow capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 711 Performing arts, spectator sports and related industries

Costs that ticket prices have never covered, met by grants and donations. Promoters and agents are the commercial, enterable edge.

Who sets the price: Ticket buyers, donors and grant bodies.
The software it runs on: Ticketing, donor management and booking.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Operating businessScreened

Minor-League Sports Team & RacetrackStructure decides

binding constraint: capital intensity

The pre-screen said franchises are not purchasable at entry scale, and the top of the market confirms it with a price: Rogers paid C$4.7B for Bell's 37.5% of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, agreed in September 2024 and closed on 1 July 2025, which values the whole at about C$12.5B [A]. That is one ownership group in one city. But major-league clubs are a handful of the 379 Canadian establishments, 55% of which have fewer than ten employees [A] — the rest are junior hockey teams, minor-league baseball, racetracks and independent athletes, and that is where an entrant would actually look. It still cuts on capital, in a less obvious way. A minor-league team is a league-granted territory whose revenue is tickets and local sponsorship across a short home schedule, played in an arena the team almost never owns, so the municipality or the arena operator holds the lease and the dates. Franchise values at that level are set by scarcity rather than earnings, which makes them a purchase justified by something other than return. Racetracks are land, a licence and a wagering agreement. US payroll runs to about $230,000 per employee [A], which is player salaries — the cost that league rules, not the owner, largely determine.

NAICS 71125 vendors named10 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

No vertical software market has been recorded along this branch. What the subsector typically runs on: Ticketing, donor management and booking.

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Companies in this industry · 6

Every company this research names that is filed here or beneath — the operators, and the vendors that sell to them — largest disclosed revenue first. The rank is within the company’s own six-digit industry.

Company	Filed under	Revenue	Rank
Canadian Hockey League clubsPrivate	Spectator sports7112	—	1/6
Century CasinosNASDAQ:CNTY	Spectator sports7112	—	2/6
Diamond Baseball HoldingsPrivate	Spectator sports7112	—	3/6
Great Canadian EntertainmentGCGMF	Spectator sports7112	—	4/6
Maple Leaf Sports & EntertainmentPrivate	Spectator sports7112	—	5/6
Woodbine EntertainmentPrivate	Spectator sports7112	—	6/6

Who works here

The occupations employed in Arts, entertainment and recreation, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Tagged to this industry

Athletes, coaches, referees and related occupations

Concentrated in this sectorA

Occupations related to museums and art galleries Mostly one sector 63.2%

Support occupations in accommodation, travel, tourism and amusement services Mostly one sector 58.2%

Tourism and amusement services occupations Mostly one sector 51%

Program leaders and instructors in recreation, sport and fitness Mostly one sector 49.8%

Athletes, coaches, referees and related occupations Mostly one sector 45.3%

Managers in art, culture, recreation and sport Mostly one sector 44.1%

Support occupations in art and culture Mostly one sector 41.2%

Logging, forestry, landscaping and other related labourers Mostly one sector 13.7%

Librarians, archivists, conservators and curators One industry 10.4%

Technical occupations in motion pictures, broadcasting and the performing arts Mostly one sector 5.8%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 2.9%

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 2.9%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 1.7%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 1.2%

Other technical trades Across the economy 1.2%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 1%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 7112, and 5 in all once every level is counted. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
71121	Spectator sports	379	screened at 7112

Alongside it, under 711 Performing arts, spectator sports and related industries

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
7111	Performing arts companies	1,152	Performing Arts Company
7113	Promoters (presenters) of performing arts, sports and similar events	1,396	Event Ticketing & Venue Operations Software
7114	Agents and managers for artists, athletes, entertainers and other public figures	481	Talent & Booking Agency Software
7115	Independent artists, writers and performers	2,293	Independent Artist & Writer Practice