Employment
140,107
Total employees (Census CBP)
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation ·NAICS 71121
NAICS 71121 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Spectator Sports - Industry Benchmarks
$235,617/yr average annual pay, with 274 SBA loans on record for NAICS 71121.
- 3.8%
- Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector margin
- 140K
- Workers employed
- $235,617/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $161M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 71121
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 3.8% net margin.
- 3.8%
- Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 140K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $235,617/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $161M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Spectator Sports's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Spectator Sports is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.
Source: IRS SOI (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Spectator Sports
Spectator Sports sits inside Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation, a sector that runs a 3.8% 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.
Spectator Sports sits in the 69th percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $33.0B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 27.2
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Other Spectator Sports NAICS 711219 | N/A |
| Racetracks NAICS 711212 | N/A |
| Sports Teams and Clubs NAICS 711211 | 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 71121 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector runs a 3.8% net margin (IRS SOI 2013 C corp).
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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Spectator Sports, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Spectator Sports ranks #171 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (140,107 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation · 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 71121 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.