The Economic Impacts of Football Clubs in the Thai League on the Nationwide Economy of Thailand: An Income Multiplier Approach

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the economic impact of the Thai football League on the nationwide economy of Thailand. The study investigated the impacts between bigger and smaller football clubs in the three-year interval from 2015 to 2017. This study divides the whole 13 football club from Thai league 2019 into 2 groups categorized by their average revenue of 2015 to 2017. The division separates to (1) the big club whose revenue are above the average, and (2) the small club whose revenue are below the average. The expense data from football club were categorized into I-O categories and matching with income multiplier. The result show that the total multiplied expense of football club was 0.0198 per cent of Thailand’s GDP in 2015, 0.0225 per cent of Thailand’s GDP in 2016, and 0.0252 per cent

of Thailand’s GDP in 2017. The big club expenditure can impact the economy more than the small club expenditure. Moreover, the results showed that the major spillovers from football industry helps boosting the economic sectors. The highest spillover from the expenditure of football club to industries were Textile Products, Other Services, Business Services, and Restaurants and Hotels. Finally, the study also suggests that if government support would encourage the industry to increase positive impact to the country.