The crowding-out effect

My apologies to non-football loving fans that this blog has been somewhat preoccupied by football in recent days. Summer's here, and so the football postings should die down for a while (unless I find something to say about the upcoming Confederations Cup). This blogger's preoccupation nevertheless raises an important issue: is football crowding out other sports? That is, does the popularity of and interest in football occupy space that might otherwise be occupied by other sports? Extending this viewpoint, does football attract revenues from e.g. broadcasters, sponsors etc., at the expense, and to the detriment, of other sports? Can other sports offer the returns (e.g. in terms of exposure and recognition) that football can? Are we therefore seeing a process of industrial concentration taking place whereby football will ultimately becomes a dominant industrial force, with only a small number of other sports surrounding it? Or is this an overly-apocalyptic scenario, the view of someone observing events from the perspective of a football-obsessed nation? Are other sports strong enough to resist the crowding-out effect? Perhaps the notion that crowding-out is taking place (or that it actually exists) is entirely fallacious? And may be industrial concentration in sport is the wrong way to look at a game (football) that is incredibly popular?