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"Biggest" sport in your country

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Don't be late Pedro

Don't be late Pedro

Aug 13, 2010
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gooner said:
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/
Click to expand...
Both GA and hurling used to be shown on Channel 4 years ago as did AFL.

Then again the BBC also used to show highlights of the NBA around then. Not sure they could afford that now.
 
gooner

gooner

Mar 25, 2013
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Don't be late Pedro said:
Both GA and hurling used to be shown on Channel 4 years ago as did AFL.

Then again the BBC also used to show highlights of the NBA around then. Not sure they could afford that now.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there was some highlights and coverage shown before over there.

The difference now is these 14 games are exclusively live to Sky Sports, meaning if you haven't subscribed to Sky you won't be able to see them. Down the years all 45 games were on free to air with most of them on RTE and a small few on TV3. RTE still have 31 but it's a big topic of heated discussion over here. A lot of traditionalists are against it and say since the players don't get paid a cent which the GAA promote the game on, there is a hypocrisy then in going down the PPV route.

Just to add, Sky really have 20 games because they are showing the semis in both football and hurling which RTE are showing live as well at the same time. It's mainly 14 games that are the main talking point. I see on Wednesday's they have a hour highlights package every week. This could be the start of them monopolising the TV coverage of football and hurling.

Strange seeing the game getting hyped up all week on Sky Sports News. I never thought I'd see it.

Judging by the reaction on twitter people in Britain were quite impressed with the game.

For me, hurling is a game that deserves more exposure. It's too good of a game to stay within one border. The skill level is off the scales.
 
darwin553

darwin553

Jun 25, 2013
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Australia wins:

1. Rugby League
2. Aussie Rules
3. Cricket
4. Football
5. Motor Racing
6. Rugby Union
7. Tennis
8. Golf
9. Swimming
10. Horse Racing
11. Surfing
12. Boxing

Oh and cycling too :D
 
S

stefank

Mar 10, 2009
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darwin553 said:
Australia wins:

1. Rugby League
2. Aussie Rules
3. Cricket
4. Football
5. Motor Racing
6. Rugby Union
7. Tennis
8. Golf
9. Swimming
10. Horse Racing
11. Surfing
12. Boxing

Oh and cycling too :D
Click to expand...
I wonder what the participation figures are. I wouldn't be surprised if sports like netball, hockey (-ice) and lawn bowls were fairly well up on that list.
 
S

simo1733

Jun 15, 2010
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I saw a list of worldwide sports leagues ranked by attendence.It was dominated by US leagues but I was surprised to see that the 2nd division of English football was 10 with almost 10 million attendence.
 
darwin553

darwin553

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stefank said:
I wonder what the participation figures are. I wouldn't be surprised if sports like netball, hockey (-ice) and lawn bowls were fairly well up on that list.
Click to expand...

You could be right about Netball although I would never class it as a 'big sport' given my prejudice against it. :D
 
Alpe d'Huez

Alpe d'Huez

Mar 11, 2009
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In the United States it really goes like this:

1. NFL Football

(Big Gap)

2. MLB Baseball
3. NCAA Football

(Big gap)

4. Auto racing (mostly NASCAR)
5. NBA (They like to imply they are right behind NFL and MLB, and the media tries to hype the NBA, but it's not even close.)
6. NCAA Basketball
7. NHL
8. Golf

A little surprised F1 is that popular worldwide. I like it and think there's more to it than Indy and certainly NASCAR, but I didn't realize it was that big.
 
Hugo87

Hugo87

Mar 21, 2013
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Portugal

1. Football

(Really Insane gap)

2. Cycling
3. Tennis
4. Indoor Football
5. Indoor Hockey
6. Motor Racing
7. NBA
8. Volleyball
9. Basketball
10. Handball
 
darwin553

darwin553

Jun 25, 2013
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Hugo87 said:
Portugal

1. Football

(Really Insane gap)

2. Cycling
3. Tennis
4. Indoor Football
5. Indoor Hockey
6. Motor Racing
7. NBA
8. Volleyball
9. Basketball
10. Handball
Click to expand...

lol basketball being behind the NBA :D
 
FoxxyBrown1111

FoxxyBrown1111

Jun 15, 2009
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Alpe d'Huez said:
In the United States it really goes like this:
...
4. Auto racing (mostly NASCAR)
...
A little surprised F1 is that popular worldwide. I like it and think there's more to it than Indy and certainly NASCAR, but I didn't realize it was that big.
Click to expand...

Eshnar said:
It's all due to the golden age of the past century. Right now F1 sucks.
Click to expand...

I am always surprised that Nascar is ranked higher than IndyCar. It just looks slower and less exciting than Indy.
Now it is sad what happened to Wheldon and others, but deep inside everybody (who saw Indy racing) must come to the conclusion it is the best out there.
I mean where you see cars running 3-wide, sometimes even 4. Where you see those beautiful overtakings, tight races, and crazy crashes?
F-1 fans and people joked about Indy racing, by saying something like "they only go in circles turning left all the time..."
Well, and what about F-1? The also go in cycles. Only difference: They also turn right sometimes. But in a very boooring way. No overtaking outside the boxes. Stupid fuel rules, and more. Crazy gaps between competitive cars and those who are not. I am 100% sure Vettel would be nothing in a crap car. OTOH, in Indy the competition is pretty tight, thus racer talent (even though less than those of F-1 drivers) is still one of the deciding factors. As it should be.

As Eshnar said it. F-1 lives of its past glory. The last true duells I witnessed were around 1987 between Piquet, Mansell, Prost and Senna. From there on it was one or two dominating teams with one true No 1 driver killing all competition. Led to year-in year-out absurd results like Vettel or Schumacher winning 12/13 races out of 17/18. Ridicoulous.

USA has major political and society flaws, but they really know how to make sports exciting. By far the number 1. Even boring baseball games still have thrill as I found out in last years World series.

I am absolutely sure, if FIFA would disapear and the US sport guys take over, they would make soccer one awesome thing. A good taste of what could be, came with the NASL (shoot-outs, realtime playing and play-offs)
 
Hugo87

Hugo87

Mar 21, 2013
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Netserk said:
Seriously? I could understand that in Spain, but Portugal suck big time. They aren't even playing the EC.
Click to expand...
It's explained by the participation of the 3 big football clubs in the sport (Benfica,Porto and Sporting), so people only care about who wins, to "show-off" the trophies against other football rivals fans.

But in terms of "true fans", Surf and Athletics probably have more popularity.

Ruby United said:
I'm surprised to see cycling so high up.
Click to expand...
Till the late 90's was no doubt the 2nd sport in Portugal, had a little bit of downsize in the 00's mainly due indoor football/doping cases, but after 2010 with the appearance of the best portuguese cyclist since Joaquim Agostinho, the media became interested again and the exposure of cycling became big again.
(Probably the unique sport, which rarely can make the cover of a sports journal besides football and an olympian medalist)

80% are bandwagon fans and many just watch Le Tour and Volta a Portugal, but clearly exists a strong young group of fans here, cycling events are the most viewed on Eurosport consistently.

darwin553 said:
lol basketball being behind the NBA :D
Click to expand...
Strange, but true.

Here people really like NBA, but they couldn't care less about the national basketball league, it's very hard to find a live Portuguese basketball game without Benfica on TV and only it's transmitted by Benfica's TV.
 
Alpe d'Huez

Alpe d'Huez

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FoxxyBrown1111 said:
I am always surprised that Nascar is ranked higher than IndyCar.
Click to expand...
Back in the 70's-90's Indy had CART (Champ Car) which was better run and had numerous road courses. It was comparable to F1, with many drivers moving back and forth, and quite driver centered as a sport. Everyone got greedy (welcome to the USA), the guy that owned the Indy 500 and some team owners didn't like CART and road courses, so they split in two, and that killed slowly CART and virtually all Indy (style) open wheel racing, and NASCAR got huge. Indy has new ownership and it is getting better, but still much behind NASCAR in fanbase, and F1 in car quality.

The F1 I watched as a kid (the movie Rush!), was much more interesting than when I see in F1 in recent years, and and I agree with all you say Foxxy. It must be living on past glory.

As to FIFA, the sad part in the US is that we have the ability through MLS to make some subtle rule changes to Football (soccer) to make the game more exciting - we in the US are good at that - and I'd simply suggest changing offsides rules, making the clock count down, and changing overtime rules to get rid of awful penalty kicks, and more organized and hyped playoffs leading to a Superbowl of MLS. But MLS is overly afraid and respectful of FIFA, they fear if they change rules they won't get FIFA's support (who cares?). Won't get top players anymore (who cares? No one in the US can name the top world players! And I say if the money is there, the players will come), or US players won't be able to play on a global level (again, who cares? The US is never going to win the World Cup as is). Such potential exists in MLS, but when they look back at NASL's mistakes, they see rule changes as a flaw, when that wasn't the problem at all, NASL (and USL) didn't go far enough. MLS is otherwise well run and doing okay, but could be doing much better.

Don't get me wrong, I love the sport. It's beautiful, and I've been to numerous MLS matches, and USL matches before that. I just think the sport has the ability to double in size in the US, maybe much more, if they'd think on their own and not cower behind FIFA and their tradition.
 
Buffalo Soldier

Buffalo Soldier

Apr 12, 2009
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Netserk said:
Seriously? I could understand that in Spain, but Portugal suck big time. They aren't even playing the EC.
Click to expand...
That doesn't really matter, right? Until recently Belgium was far worse in football than Portugal (the national league still is), but it has always been the number 1 sport, and will always be. Both in terms of spectators and participants.
 
The Hitch

The Hitch

Jun 14, 2010
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Hugo87 said:
It's explained by the participation of the 3 big football clubs in the sport (Benfica,Porto and Sporting), so people only care about who wins, to "show-off" the trophies against other football rivals fans.

But in terms of "true fans", Surf and Athletics probably have more popularity.


Till the late 90's was no doubt the 2nd sport in Portugal, had a little bit of downsize in the 00's mainly due indoor football/doping cases, but after 2010 with the appearance of the best portuguese cyclist since Joaquim Agostinho, the media became interested again and the exposure of cycling became big again.
(Probably the unique sport, which rarely can make the cover of a sports journal besides football and an olympian medalist)

80% are bandwagon fans and many just watch Le Tour and Volta a Portugal, but clearly exists a strong young group of fans here, cycling events are the most viewed on Eurosport consistently.


Strange, but true.

Here people really like NBA, but they couldn't care less about the national basketball league, it's very hard to find a live Portuguese basketball game without Benfica on TV and only it's transmitted by Benfica's TV.
Click to expand...
Rui Costa's worlds win really didn't get much fanfair. It was seen as equal to some nobdoy winning a meaningless tennis event.
 
oldcrank

oldcrank

Jul 24, 2009
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stefank said:
I wonder what the participation figures are. I wouldn't be surprised if sports like netball, hockey (-ice) and lawn bowls were fairly well up on that list.
Click to expand...
Yes, I would agree that netball has very high participation
numbers from school girls through to masters women.
Basketball is also very popular for both sexes, in some
jurisdictions possibly among the highest participation
levels of any sport in Australia.
 
P

pmcg76

Mar 6, 2009
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darwin553 said:
Australia wins:

1. Rugby League
2. Aussie Rules
3. Cricket
4. Football
5. Motor Racing
6. Rugby Union
7. Tennis
8. Golf
9. Swimming
10. Horse Racing
11. Surfing
12. Boxing

Oh and cycling too :D
Click to expand...

Having lived in Australia for a year, I would have guessed Aussie Rules was above Rugby League in popularity. League seems to be huge in Sydney whilst AFL is huge in Melbourne and a bit more nationwide so therefore bigger.

Again as an outsider I was surprised at how little interest there is in Rugby Union in comparison when I think most Union fans would consider Australia as one of the Top 3-4 teams in the world.
 
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