Climate Breakdown Is Destabilising The Global Sports Industry

PHILADELPHIA, PA – JANUARY 19, 2025: Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) points to his head in blizzard conditions during the NFC Divisional playoff against the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on January 19, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The global sports industry is built on predictable schedules, reliable infrastructure and functioning supply chains. Warnings delivered at the U.K.’s first national emergency briefing on climate and nature last week, which called for urgent and radical action to prevent systemic breakdown, carry profound implications for one of the world’s most valuable cultural and economic sectors.

The foundations of the ninth biggest industry in the world, and a multi-trillion dollar ecosystem, are being destabilised. Every corner of sport, from investors, executives, athletes, participants and fans, will feel the consequences. While policymakers at the briefing heard that climate disruption threatens national security, food systems and economic stability, the sport sector faces a parallel reckoning.

From flooded pitches stopping play, to play continuing in blizzards, overheated stadiums, collapsing supply chains and rising insurance costs, the impacts are already being felt from the highest levels of professional competition to grassroots and youth sports. Experts at the briefing were crystal clear that incrementalism is no longer an option, and sport, one of society’s most powerful cultural institutions, is not insulated from this reality.

Professional Sports Business Model On The Line

At the elite level, the concerns raised by scientists and security experts translate into operational and financial instability. Lieutenant general (ret’d) Richard Nugee’s raised the concern of “crises cascading together” and overwhelming Governments, and the sport sector faces its own version of this. Multiple climate-driven shocks and implications hitting simultaneously will erode conditions required for safe play and profitable competitions.

Extreme heat is disrupting sports, with major sporting bodies, including World Rugby, FIFA, the International Olympic Committee, recently adjusting or expanding heat protocols. Wildfire smoke has caused match cancellations or postponements across the MLS, MLB, and NWSL in the past two seasons. Floods and extreme rainfall are repeatedly damaging stadiums, venues and sports grounds. Heat stress is putting athletes, staff and spectators at medical risk. Global supply-chain instability, another risk highlighted during the national briefing, affects everything from team travel and broadcast operations to kit manufacturing and stadium catering.

For sport executives, the economic repercussions are stark. Climate impacts can directly influence event scheduling and broadcast commitments, player welfare and match performance, stadium maintenance and capital expenditure. Global tournaments face viability questions. Commercial planning and sponsorship portfolios become vulnerable as climate shocks destabilise economies.

The climate crisis is now a business risk, a performance risk, and a brand risk for professional sports. Incremental adaptations such as cooling breaks, shade canopies, pitch covers, will not be enough to continue business as usual as warming accelerates.

Grassroots Sports Participation Is Under Threat

Climate breakdown is reshaping the physical environment grassroots sport depends on. Increased flooding, extreme heat, poor air quality, and deteriorating natural surfaces are making fields and facilities less safe and less available. In the U.S. it was estimated that youth sports lost an average of seven days of “sports practices or competitions in 2024 due to very hot temperatures, wildfires or wildfire smoke, flooding or changing winters.” In California that nearly doubled, at 13 days lost. High schoolers are dying from extreme heat impacts, and it is an issue that is increasing existing injustices.

Professor Nathalie Seddon’s warning that “nature is critical national infrastructure” applies directly here. Losing biodiversity means losing the healthy soils, drainage, shade, and temperature regulation needed for outdoor sport. As nature degrades, grassroots sport becomes more fragile, fewer young people can participate, and physical inactivity, which already costs health systems billions, increases. For youth pathways, this is existential. The next generation’s development pipeline will not thrive if young athletes cannot safely train or compete.

A Tipping-Point For Sports

Professor Tim Lenton’s reminder that positive tipping points are possible is perhaps where sport holds the greatest power. The sector has shown repeatedly, on issues from racism to gender equity and mental health, that it can transform public behaviour when it leads with clarity and urgency.

Experts at the briefing emphasised that this moment demands courage, not incrementalism. For sport, that courage means setting science-based climate targets, accelerating stadium energy transitions, designing seasons and competitions around heat and other extreme weather thresholds, protecting nature-based facilities through restoration, reducing travel emissions and supporting equitable grassroots access. Sport influences culture like very few other sectors. If sport embraces climate action at emergency speed, it can become a catalyst for wider societal resilience.

The core message from the U.K. national emergency briefing applies directly to the global sports sector. We have the tools, but leadership has yet to treat the climate crisis and its wide-ranging impacts with the urgency required. Whether sport in 2050 remains a thriving global industry or becomes a fragmented, heat-stressed shadow of itself will depend on decisions made in the next few years. The question for sport’s decision makers and investors is urgent and simple. Will you act boldly and at scale before the window closes, and decisions are forced upon you?