Employment
140,107
Total employees (Census CBP)
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation ·NAICS 7112
NAICS 7112 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Spectator Sports - Industry Benchmarks
$235,617/yr average annual pay, with 274 SBA loans on record for NAICS 7112.
- 11.0%
- Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector margin
- 140K
- Workers employed
- $235,617/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $161M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 7112
California leads Spectator Sports activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector runs a 11.0% net margin.
- 11.0%
- Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 140K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $235,617/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $161M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Spectator Sports
Spectator Sports sits inside Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation, a sector that runs a 11.0% net margin overall.
5,147 establishments employ 140,107 workers (27.2/location) at $235,617/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Florida and New York.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$235,617/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
5,147
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 12,704; establishment count increased by 113. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $33.0B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 27.2
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Spectator Sports NAICS 71121 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 16,047 |
| Florida | 14,349 |
| New York | 9,053 |
| Texas | 8,752 |
| Ohio | 7,988 |
| North Carolina | 6,046 |
| Indiana | 5,107 |
| Missouri | 4,233 |
| Kentucky | 3,907 |
| Georgia | 3,779 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
274
Total Loan Volume
$161M
Avg Loan Size
$587K
Jobs Supported
2,217
Program Breakdown
7(a) 230 (84%)
504 44 (16%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
31 loans in this industry
New Business Share
33.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 22
2021 35
2022 49
2023 43
2024 51
2025 63
2026 11
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Spectator Sports?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 7112 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector runs a 11.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Spectator Sports?
5,147 business establishments. Together they employ 140,107 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Spectator Sports?
$235,617/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 27.2 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Spectator Sports employment?
California leads with 16,047 workers. Florida (14,349) and New York (9,053) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Spectator Sports receive?
Spectator Sports businesses received 274 SBA loans totaling $161 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $587K. These loans supported 2,217 jobs at origination. Most lending (84%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Its Census employment total exceeds 41% of that same 259-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Death Care Services 140,806
- Rubber Product Manufacturing 138,686
- Educational Support Services 141,678
Benchmarking Spectator Sports
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation
- 5,147 establishments, 140,107 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 274 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 7112 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.