The Climate Cost of Growth in Sport

Prelude

The restructuring of the Big East Conference in 2013 and, more recently, the destruction of my beloved Pac-12 Conference opened my eyes to how the pursuit of television revenue could reshape sports. In between, the National Football League (NFL) expanded its calendar and playoffs, the National Basketball Association (NBA) added play-in games, and the Major League Baseball (MLB) decided to allow a third wild card team into the playoffs. Then last year, the College Football Playoff grew from 4 to 12 teams and already there are rumors about upcoming expansion to 16 teams!

As I sat frustrated by how these changes de-value regular season games, a more troubling thought occurred to me. Adding more teams to the playoffs and more games to the calendar is not just decreasing the value of regular seasons, it is increasing the impact that sports have on the climate! Every added match causes more air travel for teams and fans and more emissions as a result. And it's not just domestic sports leagues in the U.S., the next World Cup will feature more teams and cover more area than ever before.

As a true lover of sports, I hate to see leagues and competitions moving in the wrong direction on climate. And as a ball-knower, tuning out is not a realistic option for me. I was thrilled when I finally connected the dots and realized the sports industry could provide a massive demand signal for the durable carbon removal industry and have a real climate impact beyond just compensating for its emissions, by helping catalyze a necessary industry.

An invitation to match growth with responsibility

A new tradition of extreme heat waves each summer is reshaping sports schedules, pushing marathon start times earlier, moving youth practices indoors, and forcing leagues to plan entire seasons around unsafe temperatures. Matches pause for hydration breaks and turf fields radiate heat long after sunset. This is a new reality that leagues, city planners, and coaches are forced to plan around.

We play and watch sports because they give us something rare: a shared heartbeat, nerves stretched across a stadium, and the feeling that hope remains as long as there is time on the clock. Sports give children their first heroes and adults a reason to believe that this might be their year. They teach us how to chase a common goal together and how to regroup and try again when we fall short. Climate action should feel the same way. It should be joyful, ambitious, and competitive. It should look like teams and leagues taking on the hardest problems together and winning.

Our new report, The Climate Cost of Growth in Sport, delivers a clear message. Global sporting competitions are growing and earning larger revenues from their broadcast partnerships. However, as competitions expand, travel-related emissions follow. While the emissions associated with venues and operations are shrinking across the industry, increased aviation for teams, staff, officials, and fans is running up the score in the opposite direction. This report is an invitation to match growth with responsibility and to turn the economic engine of sport into a powerful climate ally.

Build the market that removes what sports emit

High-quality carbon removal is at a hinge point. The IPCC has clearly stated our need for carbon removal to help us avoid the worst impacts of climate change, yet today’s market is far too small to get us there. The technologies that permanently store carbon exist, but they need demand that is big, steady, and bankable so projects can be financed and built. We need visionary leadership from sustainability-minded organizations to step in now, not later, and invest in carbon removal. The sporting industry is uniquely positioned to support the growth of the carbon removal industry: a share of their rapidly-growing revenues can provide the demand that brings new projects online and pushes the whole field forward.

Some sectors (such as aviation and shipping) have low profits per tonne of emissions and face technical barriers that make rapid decarbonization difficult. They are not able to move fast enough on their own. Other industries, including sport, sit downstream with higher profits per tonne and a direct Scope 3 link to hard-to-abate activities.

If a sports product relies on people flying to distant venues, then that travel should be considered as part of the team’s and league’s responsibility. Team and fan travel materially increase flight demand, often on specific corridors and dates. Also, many leagues and events have strong margins and extract substantial value from air-enabled activities (national schedules, global tournaments, international fan bases). They should reduce emissions where possible, then account for continuing emissions with high-quality removals that remain stored for as long as the emitted carbon remains in the atmosphere.

Tournaments and competitions create both the travel and the special moments we remember. They can also contribute to the solution by pairing tighter logistics with a durable removal program that fans and sponsors can see and verify. If they do both, then the narrative flips from problem to progress.

Move from scattered efforts to a common scoreboard

Within a league, the sustainability initiatives of individual teams (outside of facility decarbonization) are often scattered. One club may focus on educating the local community about sustainability while a rival focuses on minimizing food waste in the stadium. These are positive initiatives, but they fail to capitalize on the potential scale that sports possess. Our biggest sports teams are global brands and their sustainability work should match that impact.

In addition, investing in carbon removal can serve as a common metric across leagues and teams. Teams can compete to invest the most in durable removals, signing multi-year offtakes with the impactful projects, and turning broadcast revenue into long-lived climate impact. That kind of competition stimulates momentum and rewards organizations that move first.

All of this starts from what sport already does best. It brings people from different backgrounds into the same space and gives them something in common. That common ground is the most fundamental ingredient in the recipe for progress. When we stand shoulder to shoulder for a team, we are already practicing the kind of cooperation this moment requires. Sport has always been a stage for collective effort; let's make it a stage for climate leadership!

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The Climate Cost of Growth in Sport shows that growth is turbo-charging sports emissions, with air travel overwhelming progress in venue and operations decarbonization as leagues add teams, games, and miles. The sporting industry should account for these emissions by investing in high-quality carbon removal and leverage its position as a global cultural engine to accelerate the growth of a necessary climate solution.

Access the full report here: https://www.milkywire.com/climate-cost-of-growth-in-sport