INDEED, sports are not sports in the traditional sense anymore. Those who continue to believe that sports are some kind of singular economic contest will be swept away by the tsunami of rapid economic development of the 21st Century. Gao (2012) argues that in an era of rapid economic development, new economic forms emerge. These new economic forms and I would add content are available for any nation, only if they would take the time and resources to first identify them and then modify them for adoption purposes.
The entertainment economy with the capacity to influence the sports economy, are new economic forms and new contents, new engines of development with which only some Western nations and other countries like China have a love affair. In fairness to these countries, sustaining this love affair requires innovativeness and creativity.
Countries engaged in this love affair recognise the importance of integrating the sports industry with the entertainment economy. In fact, the sports industry manifested through athletics and influenced by the  entertainment economy, acquired a global annual output value of in excess of US$450 billion with an annual growth rate of 20% (Liu Boli et al., 2003). And Gao (2012) believes that the sports industry should abort itself from the traditional mode of development and integrate with industries associated with entertainment as, music, tourism, game, lottery, media, etc.

China circa 1994 commenced integration of its sports and tourism industries and has a 30-40% growth rate. China has about 100 sports events/tourism festivals and 11 sports/tourism products nationwide (Fanyun and Zhenglun, 1999); today, China has increased its sports tourism products and festivals. The success of the sports tourism industry in the medium term can attract other industries into its fold, and further national development.
The developing world hardly has anything approximating a sports tourism industry, but they could now commence activities in pursuit of that goal. A sports tourism industry as a staple characteristic in the developing world has the probability of providing a better showing in international sports events as well as simultaneously consolidating national development.
Gao (2012) proposes five ways to develop the sports tourism industry; investigating market scale and future market potential for tourist demands; designing and developing sports tourism products from the time the tourist first receives services to the endpoint of those services; promotion and publicity of the magic of sports tourism; determining target market and formulate sports tourism product strategy, pricing, and sales strategy for the sports tourism products; and establish sports tourism courses in secondary and technical schools and institute a comprehensive sports tourism specialty at the university level to nurture talents for the nation.
There is little dispute that China is fast emerging as an economic superpower. Concomitant with this development is that China since 1994 has begun to see sports as a new engine of development abandoning the traditional mode of development, where sports have now become integrated into its tourism industry. China for some time now has abandoned the notion of sports as a traditional being.
And the aggressive development of China’s sports tourism industry is well reflected in its gaining of 45 medals with 21 Gold on Day 7 of the Olympic Games 2012 London. The USA also with an entrenched sports tourism industry captured 46 medals with with 23 Gold on Day 7 of the Olympic Games 2012 London. It is remarkable that about 50% of both countries’ medals is Gold, countries that now fully embrace sports tourism. On Day 7, the only other countries reaching double figures in overall medals were Great Britain, Russian Federation, France, Germany, South Korea, Australia, and Italy, all of them with only a modicum of sports tourism as an industry.
In many parts of the world, traditional modes of development are failing; and perhaps, it is timely to harness sport for development that countries like the U.S., China, U.K., Switzerland, Canada, Norway, and Australia have already taken up. And development people should critically review what the ILO pointed out in 2005 that ‘in most cases development leaders perceive sports as a recreational tool rather than value-based engine for social changes’. And endorse sports for national development through creating a viable sports tourism industry.