Sports Biz

Published: Thursday, 9 Apr 2009 | 12:44 PM ET

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I was just reviewing stats put together by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, which always provides extremely interesting data that is rarely covered by the mainstream media.

The U.S. sporting goods industry was down 3.2 percent in 2008 to $66.3 billion.

The best nugget? Ultimate frisbee is on the rise.

In 2006, there were 3.9 million people playing competitive frisbee. In 2007, that number climbed to 4 million and last year, there were 4.9 million ultimate frisbee players.

Another encouraging sign for the sport? More people are playing ultimate frisbee more often. The SGMA says that 18 percent of ultimate frisbee players played the game at least 25 times in 2008.

The Ultimate Players Association, which is the national governing body for the sport, is hosting the UPA College Ultimate Championships at Ohio State from May 22-24. The organization says that there are more than 10,000 kids on more than 600 college teams throughout the US and Canada that are eligible to compete in the tournament.

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