"Biggest" sport in your country

[Potomac]

USA:

No surprise that professional football, the NFL, is the biggest sport, but the #2 sport is the USA is amateur football, the NCAA.

 

[sublimit]

Does any country take golf seriously? It looks a pastime for fat, old people from where I'm looking apart from Woods.

Ryder cup is good though but otherwise its like watching paint dry.

 

[plooton]

Does any country take golf seriously? It looks a pastime for fat, old people from where I'm looking apart from Woods.

Ryder cup is good though but otherwise its like watching paint dry.

Personally I love watching golf, at least PGA tournaments, but have no info on ratings on Czech television, but I think a fan base is quite large and stable.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

USA:

No surprise that professional football, the NFL, is the biggest sport, but the #2 sport is the USA is amateur football, the NCAA.

Is that in terms of media attention? Or participation? Money?

 

[screaming fist]

Germany:

1. Football

then a huge gap - - the popularity of other sports hugely depends on how German athletes are doing right now. At the moment, Formula 1 is very big again, due to Sebastian Vettel, as it was when Michael Schumacher was dominating. Tennis was big when Boris Becker and Steffi Graf were there.
The most popular winter sport over the last years has been biathlon, but now the super-successfull generation has retired, so we'll have to see. Of course, during Jan Ullrich's career, cycling was huge too.
So right now I'd guess

2. F1
3. Biathlon

Besides football there's not much interest in the national leagues of other sports...

 

[Netserk]

What about handball?

 

[screaming fist]

Handball had quite a hype with the national team a few years back, and I think it also has a solid fan base with good live audience. But as I see it, it's far from being a really big sport, audience wise. That said, there's a lot of active players and it's surely the second biggest team ball sport.

Boxing is quite big too, with regular live broadcasts. Don't really know how big, as I don't care about it at all

 

[Peccio89]

In italy i would say
1 Soccer

huge gap

2 F1

huge gap

everything else.

 

[pinarello 1]

South Africa

1. Local Football (soccer) mainly played and supported by black population. The leagues from England, Germany, Italy and Spain are televised

2. Rugby, mainly played and supported by the white population

3. Cricket

All other sport struggle to get sponsors

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Netherlands:

1. Football
2. Ice Skating

big gap

3. bunch of sports get decent attention, probably cycling is the biggest, though it's in decline.

 

[Netserk]

How big was cycling back in the 70's and 80's?

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

How big was cycling back in the 70's and 80's?

Don't know, I was born in 1992

 

[Netserk]

Don't know, I was born in 1992

A year older than me I see

 

[the asian]

Sri Lanka.

1. Cricket




2. Rugby Union.




3. Football

 

[Froome19]

Sri Lankan's in a bit of a mess in the cricket atm need a good partnership to help them out..

 

[Bavarianrider]

1. Drinking Beer
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. Everything else

 

[Nastyy]

For Finland it's

1. Ice Hockey
2. XC Skiing
3. Probably athletics

Other wintersports are popular too and floorball has big number when it comes to players and football has a lot of players as well but they don't get big audiences.

Old people seem to watch a lot of sports which explains the popularity of XC Skiing and athletics.

Cycling is a very minor sport. Cancellara was called a sprinter by a big news site a few days ago so that pretty much sums it up.

 

[The Hitch]

For Finland it's

1. Ice Hockey
2. XC Skiing
3. Probably athletics

Other wintersports are popular too and floorball has big number when it comes to players and football has a lot of players as well but they don't get big audiences.

Old people seem to watch a lot of sports which explains the popularity of XC Skiing and athletics.

Cycling is a very minor sport. Cancellara was called a sprinter by a big news site a few days ago so that pretty much sums it up.

Wow, no football? A european country that doesn't worship football, brilliant.

 

[l.Harm]

Netherlands:

1. Football
2. Ice Skating

big gap

3. bunch of sports get decent attention, probably cycling is the biggest, though it's in decline.

To add: hockey (field) is at a good level, but doesn't get a lot of attention. But the best competition in the world is the Dutch one I thought. Foreign players are coming to Holland to play in the Dutch league. Dutch teams almost always win international competitions.

I'd say (ordered by the attention it gets)

1 Football, by far.

2 Ice skating
3 Cycling, although the NOS is broadcasting less races.
4 Tennis
5 Darts, because RTL7 broadcasts a lot of PDC tournaments nowadays. Even the UK Open is broadcasted this weekend. But the hype is not as big as when Van Barneveld was winning world titles at the BDO. I think everyone knew him by then, I don't think the majority of the people knows Van Gerwen. Maybe it has passed tennis by now.
6 Typical olympic sports, only attention once in four years. Holland is pretty good in judo, rowing for example. Swimming also actually, but probably gets a little more attention because the NOS sometimes also broadcasts European championships and the worlds. And equestrianism, especially dressage.

edit: and I forgot to include hockey Probably between 3 and 4.

 

[RedheadDane]

Don't know, I was born in 1992

A year older than me I see

Aww... you're just kittle kiddies!

For Finland it's

1. Ice Hockey
2. XC Skiing
3. Probably athletics

What? No Sauna. No Wife Carrying?

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

To add: hockey (field) is at a good level, but doesn't get a lot of attention. But the best competition in the world is the Dutch one I thought. Foreign players are coming to Holland to play in the Dutch league. Dutch teams almost always win international competitions.

edit: and I forgot to include hockey Probably between 3 and 4.

Having seen the Dutch women's hockey team I would find it hard to believe it does not get more attention...

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

6 Typical olympic sports, only attention once in four years. Holland is pretty good in judo

How about Kickboxing/K1/Thai boxing/MMA. Does it have anything other than a niche following.

 

[l.Harm]

Having seen the Dutch women's hockey team I would find it hard to believe it does not get more attention...

Traditionally hockey is a sport for the elite. Especially rich people play it, so it doesn't appeal to the average Dutchman. I really think cycling gets more attention on tv, which is pretty weird if you compare the performances of the Dutch in hockey and in cycling But as said before, it's still pretty much a sport for the relatively rich people. That's why teams in small towns can be topteams (Den Bosch (women), Bloemendaal) I think.

How about Kickboxing/K1/Thai boxing/MMA. Does it have anything other than a niche following.

Judo is very different to this ones. Judo is pretty 'normal' to do, although not very much people do it in Holland. But kickboxing and the other fight sports don't have a good image around here. I know in kickboxing we have some guys who're top of the world (I think so, but I don't really follow it actually). This guy Badr Hari is pretty famous in Holland, but not because of his performances in the sport actually He has beaten several people in public, he can't control his aggression. And he's dating the ex-wife of Ruud Gullit.

So yes, it's a niche and it doesn't have a good image. That's because of some things happened at kickbox galas, where it became very violent. I think it's mostly played by immigrants, I think the most Dutch top kick boxers aren't originally Dutch.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Traditionally hockey is a sport for the elite. Especially rich people play it, so it doesn't appeal to the average Dutchman. I really think cycling gets more attention on tv, which is pretty weird if you compare the performances of the Dutch in hockey and in cycling But as said before, it's still pretty much a sport for the relatively rich people. That's why teams in small towns can be topteams (Den Bosch (women), Bloemendaal) I think.



Judo is very different to this ones. Judo is pretty 'normal' to do, although not very much people do it in Holland. But kickboxing and the other fight sports don't have a good image around here. I know in kickboxing we have some guys who're top of the world (I think so, but I don't really follow it actually). This guy Badr Hari is pretty famous in Holland, but not because of his performances in the sport actually He has beaten several people in public, he can't control his aggression. And he's dating the ex-wife of Ruud Gullit.

So yes, it's a niche and it doesn't have a good image. That's because of some things happened at kickbox galas, where it became very violent. I think it's mostly played by immigrants, I think the most Dutch top kick boxers aren't originally Dutch.

Thanks for reply.

In the UK hockey is seen as somewhat as a sport for posh people (or at least was) and does not have a big following either.

I guess because Judo is an Olympic sport it is more accepted (probably in much the same way Tae Kwon Do might be). Many MMA fighters now train with Judo as well.

Badr Hari is indeed infamous to anyone that follows the sport because of his in the ring and out the ring antics. Alistair Overeem is probably now more famous for MMA with Bas Rutten also being well known.

Holland does indeed have/had some of the top Thai/K1 guys.
Ernesto Hoost
Peter Aerts
Semmy Schilt
to name but a few.

 

[gooner]

Hurling made it's debut on Sky Sports tonight. It's a controversial move over here when the GAA sold some of the TV rights to Sky and made 14 games from the Championship PPV. Nevertheless, I'm in favour of it and I want to see the game get more exposure beyond our borders.

I thought Sky's coverage was good even though the game was too one sided. Just wondering, did any of our UK posters take a look at it? What did you think of it?

Some of the reaction on twitter from people over there was quite funny.

http://balls.ie/gaa/twitter-hurling-reaction/