Destino Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Cricket and Rugby both have bigger global TV audiences than basketball, baseball and certainly ice hockey. Outside the US all of those 3 are minority sports as is football. Add in soccer as the dominant world game. Conversely soccer, cricket and rugby are minority sports in the US. You'll need to support that comment. Baseball and Basketball are huge international sports claiming they are as small as football is nonsense. Basketball is getting close to being "played everywhere" like soccer. There are pro basketball leagues springing up all over the world and tons of international games. Hockey isn't huge but with North and Easter Europe, Russia, and North America it's better than football. I also think you are greatly over estimating rugby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinC Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 You'll need to support that comment. Baseball and Basketball are huge international sports claiming they are as small as football is nonsense. Basketball is getting close to being "played everywhere" like soccer. There are pro basketball leagues springing up all over the world and tons of international games. Hockey isn't huge but with North and Easter Europe, Russia, and North America it's better than football. I also think you are greatly over estimating rugby. A fair response - and by the way I am not claiming football is as 'small' in participation/global reach as basketball and baseball are. So I did some searching and the first thing that becomes apparent is there are all kinds of ways to 'rank' sports - TV audience, participation, at event spectators, net revenue generated etc etc. Just about anyway you measure it what was clear from just about all the lists out there is football (i.e soccer) is clearly the worlds number 1 sport. If you measure by global TV audience and interest Cricket somes out in a solid second place. Then come basketball and baseball with Rugby Union in number 5. Ice Hockey comes in 8 with the NFL in at 9. Rugby League comes in at 10 (so if you combine Rugby Union and Rugby League it probably ranks behind basketball at 4. http://www.globeltechnology.com/2011/04/top-ten-most-popular-team-sports-in-the-world.html I suspect if you ranked by money genertated you would get a much different rating with the NFL being a lot higher even though its essentially a US only sport. Facts are though that most of the 'global' sports were invented in Britain - soccer, cricket, rugby, golf and even baseball. They were spread globally across the then British Empire and then TV has taken them wider while US focused sports have stayed largely focused within the US. You rightly point that basketball is spreading but mainly at amateur level, the professional leagues outside the US are pretty minor in the context of global sport - basketball outside the US is pretty much like soccer is in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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