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Sports with Waning Popularity

calamity

calamity

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Off the top of my head (i.e. I have no hard numbers to cite nor am I really digging into them), baseball has probably taken the biggest hit in popularity over the course of my lifetime. Used to be baseball was all anyone ever talked about. Today, you mention something to someone about this new kid on the Dodgers with multiple four home run games during his first 3 months in the league, and they look at you like you are talking about solving differential equations in advanced linear algebra. Most of us, including me, don't even know this kid's name.

Right behind baseball would have to be boxing and car racing. Boxing was actually on free TV once. Almost everyone knew Mohammed Ali was world heavyweight champ. Nowadays, I couldn't name the WHC if my life depended on it.

Car racing, same thing. Back in the day, everyone knew who won at Indy. Now? I have no idea, and the race was only two weeks ago. All I know about this year's race was that there was a hell of a crash, where the car flipped a few times and landed smack-dab on the wall, but the driver managed to walk away. Nascar too went from everyone is talking about it to who cares. I don't even know if they are still racing those damned things or if the season is over. I imagine it's still going---gotta be--but really, I couldn't tell you the name of any winner of any race this year. Not one.

Basketball may be the next sport to fall down the rabbit hole. Sure it has its niche. And, odds are that the NBA will always be big in the larger cities with good teams. But, seriously, unless your team is one of the top 4 or 5 in the league, who cares? I'm sure no one is dying to see the Nuggets play the Suns, even if you live in Denver or Phoenix. College? No one cares about NCAA until March.

Hockey? I used to love hockey. But, hockey always was just a sport only a true fan could love. So, I doubt its popularity is waning. It never was popular to begin with. Hockey has nowhere to go but up.
 
calamity said:
Off the top of my head (i.e. I have no hard numbers to cite nor am I really digging into them), baseball has probably taken the biggest hit in popularity over the course of my lifetime. Used to be baseball was all anyone ever talked about. Today, you mention something to someone about this new kid on the Dodgers with multiple four home run games during his first 3 months in the league, and they look at you like you are talking about solving differential equations in advanced linear algebra. Most of us, including me, don't even know this kid's name.

Right behind baseball would have to be boxing and car racing. Boxing was actually on free TV once. Almost everyone knew Mohammed Ali was world heavyweight champ. Nowadays, I couldn't name the WHC if my life depended on it.

Car racing, same thing. Back in the day, everyone knew who won at Indy. Now? I have no idea, and the race was only two weeks ago. All I know about this year's race was that there was a hell of a crash, where the car flipped a few times and landed smack-dab on the wall, but the driver managed to walk away. Nascar too went from everyone is talking about it to who cares. I don't even know if they are still racing those damned things or if the season is over. I imagine it's still going---gotta be--but really, I couldn't tell you the name of any winner of any race this year. Not one.

Basketball may be the next sport to fall down the rabbit hole. Sure it has its niche. And, odds are that the NBA will always be big in the larger cities with good teams. But, seriously, unless your team is one of the top 4 or 5 in the league, who cares? I'm sure no one is dying to see the Nuggets play the Suns, even if you live in Denver or Phoenix. College? No one cares about NCAA until March.

Hockey? I used to love hockey. But, hockey always was just a sport only a true fan could love. So, I doubt its popularity is waning. It never was popular to begin with. Hockey has nowhere to go but up.
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Here in Europe I am seeing an explosiin of supra national cups and competitions in soccer. My suspicion is that it is to give the population a feeling of European identity. But the privat stations have bot most of the rights now and it is getting to the point that there are too many events to have time for. I could imagine that after tennis, athletics, Olympics and cycling the next to face decline will be soccer. But who knows?
 
joG said:
Here in Europe I am seeing an explosiin of supra national cups and competitions in soccer. My suspicion is that it is to give the population a feeling of European identity. But the privat stations have bot most of the rights now and it is getting to the point that there are too many events to have time for. I could imagine that after tennis, athletics, Olympics and cycling the next to face decline will be soccer. But who knows?
Click to expand...

Soccer is apparently not only a team sport but, a fan sport.
465x0_8rusia.jpg
 
joG said:
Here in Europe I am seeing an explosiin of supra national cups and competitions in soccer. My suspicion is that it is to give the population a feeling of European identity. But the privat stations have bot most of the rights now and it is getting to the point that there are too many events to have time for. I could imagine that after tennis, athletics, Olympics and cycling the next to face decline will be soccer. But who knows?
Click to expand...

Here, in the US, soccer is known mostly for only one thing.

 
WCH said:
Soccer is apparently not only a team sport but, a fan sport.
465x0_8rusia.jpg
Click to expand...

The State government of Bremen wants to charge the club for the large number of police they need to patrol the city on days of competition, because of the after game fun and hilarity.
 
joG said:
The State government of Bremen wants to charge the club for the large number of police they need to patrol the city on days of competition, because of the after game fun and hilarity.
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When my sports team loses, I'm just mildly depressed for a few hours. :)
 
Correction in my OP.

.@Cody_Bellinger now has FOUR multi-HR games in his first 45 career contests.

He’s the only player in @MLB history to do that.
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I wrote that he had multiple four-homerun games. My bad.
 
joG said:
The State government of Bremen wants to charge the club for the large number of police they need to patrol the city on days of competition, because of the after game fun and hilarity.
Click to expand...

I read once that the idea for Rollerball came about when the writer observed Euro soccer morphing into a vicarious form of national identity.
 
calamity said:
Off the top of my head (i.e. I have no hard numbers to cite nor am I really digging into them), baseball has probably taken the biggest hit in popularity over the course of my lifetime. Used to be baseball was all anyone ever talked about. Today, you mention something to someone about this new kid on the Dodgers with multiple four home run games during his first 3 months in the league, and they look at you like you are talking about solving differential equations in advanced linear algebra. Most of us, including me, don't even know this kid's name.

Right behind baseball would have to be boxing and car racing. Boxing was actually on free TV once. Almost everyone knew Mohammed Ali was world heavyweight champ. Nowadays, I couldn't name the WHC if my life depended on it.

Car racing, same thing. Back in the day, everyone knew who won at Indy. Now? I have no idea, and the race was only two weeks ago. All I know about this year's race was that there was a hell of a crash, where the car flipped a few times and landed smack-dab on the wall, but the driver managed to walk away. Nascar too went from everyone is talking about it to who cares. I don't even know if they are still racing those damned things or if the season is over. I imagine it's still going---gotta be--but really, I couldn't tell you the name of any winner of any race this year. Not one.

Basketball may be the next sport to fall down the rabbit hole. Sure it has its niche. And, odds are that the NBA will always be big in the larger cities with good teams. But, seriously, unless your team is one of the top 4 or 5 in the league, who cares? I'm sure no one is dying to see the Nuggets play the Suns, even if you live in Denver or Phoenix. College? No one cares about NCAA until March.

Hockey? I used to love hockey. But, hockey always was just a sport only a true fan could love. So, I doubt its popularity is waning. It never was popular to begin with. Hockey has nowhere to go but up.
Click to expand...

Baseball has always been a boring game to watch, although as a kid it was something to do to pass the time playing since there was no such thing as the internet or X-Box.

Think about it as a viewer, if you go to the game you need binoculars to watch it, spend hours watching people mostly standing around waiting for someone to hit and maybe get on a base. Why? You are hoping to see "action" in the form of a home run. Then there is the dreaded danger of "extra innings." :yawn:

Car racing is just as bad, the whole point is to watch cars go round and round a track lap after lap to see who finishes first. All the while sitting and hoping for...a major pile-up. Yep, waiting to see who crashes. :roll:

Boxing was only interesting if you like to see people beating the hell out of each other for the privilege of being declared "champion of the world" or whatever...even though not everyone in the world is boxing. :shrug:

Most sports were watched for something to pass the time, when there was no television, or now no internet. People simply don't have the attention span anymore.
 
Captain Adverse said:
Baseball has always been a boring game to watch, although as a kid it was something to do to pass the time playing since there was no such thing as the internet or X-Box.

Think about it as a viewer, if you go to the game you need binoculars to watch it, spend hours watching people mostly standing around waiting for someone to hit and maybe get on a base. Why? You are hoping to see "action" in the form of a home run. Then there is the dreaded danger of "extra innings." :yawn:

Car racing is just as bad, the whole point is to watch cars go round and round a track lap after lap to see who finishes first. All the while sitting and hoping for...a major pile-up. Yep, waiting to see who crashes. :roll:

Boxing was only interesting if you like to see people beating the hell out of each other for the privilege of being declared "champion of the world" or whatever...even though not everyone in the world is boxing. :shrug:

Most sports were watched for something to pass the time, when there was no television, or now no internet. People simply don't have the attention span anymore.
Click to expand...

You certainly nailed the boring thing on the head. Baseball is so boring, I cannot watch a whole game even if it is Game 7 of a World Series. Sorry, baseball purists, but studying each pitch and determining if it was the right call to throw a curve ball or fast one doesn't do it for me.

Racing too...when all the cars are going 200 mph in a circle, they may as well be going 20 mph. It really is only interesting when one loses control and you see what 200 mph really means as it flips 14 times before coming to a stop.
 
Viewership of pretty much all sports in the US, including football, has been declining, especially with younger people. Even more niche sports like MMA is down.

Personally I think it is because the way we watch TV is changing. And there is just so much good on demand TV out there to compete with. I have heard many people say the only reason they haven't cut the cable is because they couldn't watch their sports. Well, for those of us who only watched sports occasionally that isn't a good enough reason to keep it. And all of us occasional viewers add up.
 
Golf..

Horse Racing..

Bowling..

Boxing..

Baseball..

Let's face it. In today's world there's a ton of other things to do for entertainment, than for example, pay $100 for green fees and walk about a golf course for 4 hours.
 
calamity said:
Off the top of my head (i.e. I have no hard numbers to cite nor am I really digging into them), baseball has probably taken the biggest hit in popularity over the course of my lifetime. Used to be baseball was all anyone ever talked about. Today, you mention something to someone about this new kid on the Dodgers with multiple four home run games during his first 3 months in the league, and they look at you like you are talking about solving differential equations in advanced linear algebra. Most of us, including me, don't even know this kid's name.

Right behind baseball would have to be boxing and car racing. Boxing was actually on free TV once. Almost everyone knew Mohammed Ali was world heavyweight champ. Nowadays, I couldn't name the WHC if my life depended on it.

Car racing, same thing. Back in the day, everyone knew who won at Indy. Now? I have no idea, and the race was only two weeks ago. All I know about this year's race was that there was a hell of a crash, where the car flipped a few times and landed smack-dab on the wall, but the driver managed to walk away. Nascar too went from everyone is talking about it to who cares. I don't even know if they are still racing those damned things or if the season is over. I imagine it's still going---gotta be--but really, I couldn't tell you the name of any winner of any race this year. Not one.

Basketball may be the next sport to fall down the rabbit hole. Sure it has its niche. And, odds are that the NBA will always be big in the larger cities with good teams. But, seriously, unless your team is one of the top 4 or 5 in the league, who cares? I'm sure no one is dying to see the Nuggets play the Suns, even if you live in Denver or Phoenix. College? No one cares about NCAA until March.

Hockey? I used to love hockey. But, hockey always was just a sport only a true fan could love. So, I doubt its popularity is waning. It never was popular to begin with. Hockey has nowhere to go but up.
Click to expand...

Do you have any actual attendance numbers to back up your suspicions?
 
haymarket said:
Do you have any actual attendance numbers to back up your suspicions?
Click to expand...

Considering our population has nearly doubled since I was a kid, I'm sure gross numbers are up, but I suspect per capita numbers are terrible.
 
SenorXm/Sirius said:
Golf..

Horse Racing..

Bowling..

Boxing..

Baseball..

Let's face it. In today's world there's a ton of other things to do for entertainment, than for example, pay $100 for green fees and walk about a golf course for 4 hours.
Click to expand...

lol...I remember watching bowling on Saturday afternoons when weather was bad back in the 70's. I also spent a few years trying to figure out the mystery of curling. I never understood why they were using brooms to sweep the ice (I know now, but at 13 it was like one of the world's great unknowns). This was when I lived in Michigan and we got the Canandian feed on one of the channels.
 
calamity said:
lol...I remember watching bowling on Saturday afternoons when weather was bad back in the 70's. I also spent a few years trying to figure out the mystery of curling. This was when I lived in Michigan and we got the Canandian feed on one of the channels.
Click to expand...

As a Lefty Earl Anthony was my hero. lol

BTW I even threw a 300 game, in a league. I threw 17 strikes in a row.. 12 for the 300 game, than 5 the next game. I was on fire, until the 3rd game when I threw a 150 or so game because I was stone drunk from all the beers everyone was buying for me because of the 300 game. That 3rd game I was seeing 20 pins. lol
 
SenorXm/Sirius said:
As a Lefty Earl Anthony was my hero. lol

BTW I even threw a 300 game, in a league. I threw 17 strikes in a row.. 12 for the 300 game, than 5 the next game. I was on fire, until the 3rd game when I threw a 150 or so game because I was stone drunk from all the beers everyone was buying for me because of the 300 game. That 3rd game I was seeing 20 pins. lol
Click to expand...

We bowled a lot as kids. Every Saturday morning in the fall was league play, and pretty much two or three days a week in summer we spent long hours at the alley. The best I ever did was throwing maybe 5 strikes in a row. Spares were pretty common though.

I stopped sometime in my early to mid twenties...and, yeah, the beers made it much more challenging. I'm not sure why I quit. Maybe just lost interest. Good times though.
 
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