Survey Thursday January 22

mjp28

Let's see what 'Merica thinks about it's sports, yeah baby !

The most popular team sports in the United States are American football, baseball/softball, basketball, ice hockey, and soccer. All five of these team sports are popular with fans, are widely watched on television, have a fully professional league, are played by millions of Americans, enjoy varsity status at many Division I colleges, and are played in high schools throughout the country.

Sport	Favorite sport^[19]	TV viewing record (since 2010)¹	Major professional league	Participants (millions)^[20]	NCAA DI Teams (Men + Women)	States (HS)²
American football	37%	111.9m	NFL	8.9 m	249 (249M + 0W)	51
Basketball	11%	24.4m	NBA	30.3 m	589 (298M + 291W)	51
Baseball/Softball	9%	40.0m	MLB	29.3 m	698 (351M + 349W)	49
Soccer	7%	27.3m	MLS	13.6 m	531 (205M + 332W)	51
Ice hockey	4%	27.6m	NHL	3.1 m	95 (59M + 36W)	15

The following table shows additional sports that are played by over 500,000 people in the United States.

Sport	Participants (millions)	NCAA teams (Men + Women)^[38]	Semi-Pro League(s)	Attendance Record¹	TV Viewership Record²	Olympic Sport
Volleyball	10.7 m^[20]	1,173 (109M + 1,064W)	PVL	18,516	794,000	Yes
Ultimate	4.9 m^[39]	0	AUDL, PUL	3,000	150,000	No
Rugby	1.4 m^[40]	19 (2M + 17W)	MLR	61,500	9,000,000	Yes
Lacrosse	0.7 m^[41]	782 (339M + 443W)	NLL; MLL; PLL	52,004	476,000	Yes

The 2018–19 school year was the first in 30 years to see a decrease in high school sports participation. Increases through the previous decades had been largely driven by growth in girls' participation.^[85] The high school sports with the highest number of participants for 2018–19 are:

Team sports^[85]

Football^{[hs 1]} – 1,008,417
Basketball – 939,836
Baseball/Softball^{[hs 2]} – 854,859
Soccer – 853,182
Volleyball – 516,371

Individual sports^[85]

Track & field (outdoor) – 1,093,621
Cross country – 488,640
Tennis – 348,750
Swimming & diving – 309,726
Wrestling – 268,565

And of course the big one which sports bring in the most money..... which is the lifeblood of most sports.

Sports are also widely broadcast at the local level, ranging from college and professional sports down to (on some smaller stations) recreational and youth leagues.^[89] Internet radio has allowed these broadcasts to reach a worldwide audience.

U.S. TV sports rights
Sports rights	Sport	National TV contract	Total Revenues (Per Year)	Ref
National Football League (NFL)	American football	CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, DirecTV, Verizon, Amazon	$56bn ($7.0bn)
National Basketball Association (NBA)	Basketball	ABC, ESPN, TNT	$24bn ($2.7bn)	^[92]
Major League Baseball (MLB)	Baseball	Fox, ESPN, TBS	$12bn ($1.6bn)
March Madness	Basketball	CBS, Turner	$8.8bn ($1.1bn)
NASCAR	Auto racing	NBC, Fox	$8.2bn ($820m)
Olympic Games	Multi-sport	NBC	$7.8bn ($705m)
College Football Playoff	American football	ESPN	$5.6bn ($470m)
Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12)	College sports	Fox, ESPN	$3.0bn ($250m)
Big Ten Conference (Big Ten or B1G)	College sports	Fox, ESPN	$2.6bn ($440m)	^[93]
Big 12 Conference (Big 12)	College sports	Fox, ESPN	$2.6bn ($200m)
National Hockey League (NHL)	Ice hockey	NBC	$2.0bn ($200m)	^[94]
U.S. Open (golf)	Golf	Fox	$1.1bn ($93m)
FIFA World Cup	Soccer	Fox, Telemundo	$1.0bn ($125m)
English Premier League	Soccer	NBC	$1.0bn ($167m)
Southeastern Conference (SEC)	College sports	CBS	$0.8bn ($55m)
US Open (tennis)	Tennis	ESPN	$0.8bn ($70m)
Major League Soccer (MLS)	Soccer	Fox, ESPN, Univision	$0.7bn ($90m)	^[95]

The following table shows the major professional sports leagues, which average over 15,000 fans per game and that have a national TV contract that pays rights fees. YES, fans in seats it also reflects the number of games played.

League	Sport	Teams	National TV contract	Average Attendance	Total Annual Attendance	Ref
Major League Baseball (MLB)	Baseball	30	Fox, FS1, ESPN, TBS, MLBN	28,187	68,494,752	^[97]
National Basketball Association (NBA)	Basketball	30	ABC, ESPN, TNT, NBATV	17,857	21,964,447	^[98]
National Hockey League (NHL)	Ice hockey	31	NBC, NBCSN, NHLN	17,500	21,525,777	^[99]
National Football League (NFL)	American football	32	CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, NFLN	67,100	17,177,581	^[100]
Major League Soccer (MLS)	Soccer	24	Fox, FS1, ESPN, Univision	21,305	8,676,109	^[101]

So there you go.......

The Gipper

Great....now how about giving us YOUR opinion.

mjp28

@the-gipper said:

Great....now how about giving us YOUR opinion.

Still being tabulated.

ballpeen

@the-gipper said:

Here is todays Survey. A bit different. I am going to list a variety of Sports. You tell us how much interest you have in each sport  on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being of the highest interest and 0 being, well -0- interest. Start with the big ones:

NFL Football:    The Browns 10 The rest of the league maybe 3

College Football:    10

Major League Baseball 10

NBA Basketball: 4

College Basketball: 3

WNBA: 0

Women's college basketball 0

NHL hockey 8

MLS/Premier League/World Cup soccer 1

Golf 10

Tennis 2

Winter Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish) 5

Summer Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish) 4

NASCAR/Indy/Formula One auto racing 6

Boxing 1

UFC 1

Cricket 0

College/High School Wrestling (real wrestling) 0

Bowling 0

Cue Sports: Pool/Billiards/Snooker 0

Lacrosse 0

Horse Racing 2

Rugby 0

Rodeo 5

Surfing 0

Ultimate Frisbee 0

eSports 0

Did I miss anything. (Fake wrestling is not a sport any more than ballroom dancing)

The Gipper

If my son were doing this poll he would have a -0- on like just about everything. But, one thing your link mentioned is "Ultimate Disc League"....which is basically Frisbee football. (not called that). Be he IS into Disc Golf. And there are a lot of Disc Golf courses popping up all over the place. There are a couple of them right here within a couple of miles of where I live. That is becoming a popular recreation sport, plus there are tournaments.

ballpeen

I will add a sport..

NCAA womens diving....10

mjp28

@ballpeen said:

I will add a sport..

NCAA womens diving....10

Or porn on your home TV and it's FREE.

The Gipper

@ballpeen said:

I will add a sport..

NCAA womens diving....10

Did you have someone involved?

(my daughter did swimming in HS....and she would yell at me for not putting "cheerleading" on the list, as she participated in competitive cheering for some years from like 6th to 12th grade, and she was a cheerleader for 4 years at college)

I could have added a lot more sports if I had listed each Olympic sport separately: Swimming/diving/ Track and Field, archery, skiing, curling, Bobsled, etc. etc.

SdBacker80

@the-gipper said:

Here is todays Survey. A bit different. I am going to list a variety of Sports. You tell us how much interest you have in each sport on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being of the highest interest and 0 being, well -0- interest. Start with the big ones:

NFL Football: 10

College Football: 10

Major League Baseball 8

NBA Basketball: 3

College Basketball: 5 (NCAA tourney brings it up)

WNBA: 1

Women's college basketball: 1

NHL hockey: 3

MLS/Premier League/World Cup soccer: 2

Golf: 5 (just the majors)

Tennis:1

Winter Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish): 5

Summer Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish): 5

NASCAR/Indy/Formula One auto racing: -

Boxing: 3

UFC: 8

Cricket: 1

College/High School Wrestling (real wrestling): 10 (collegiate wrestler, love the sport)

Bowling: 1

Cue Sports: Pool/Billiards/Snooker: 2

LaCrosse: 4

Horse Racing: 10. Love me some Del Mar. gambling and non gambling holds my interest

Rugby: 1

Rodeo: 4 (mildly interested in it)

Surfing: 1

Ultimate Frisbee: 1

eSport: ?????

Did I miss anything. (Fake wrestling is not a sport any more than ballroom dancing)

thank you heck no to WWE

Ibleedbrown

@the-gipper said:

Here is todays Survey. A bit different. I am going to list a variety of Sports. You tell us how much interest you have in each sport on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being of the highest interest and 0 being, well -0- interest. Start with the big ones:

NFL Football: 9

College Football:4

Major League Baseball 10

NBA Basketball: 1

College Basketball: 2

WNBA:1

Women's college basketball 1

NHL hockey 0

MLS/Premier League/World Cup soccer 4

Golf 0, but l did work at a golf course and had a good ol’ time racing the carts around. Back when they were gas powered they had a little more oomph.

Tennis 1

Winter Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish) 7

Summer Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish) 7

NASCAR/Indy/Formula One auto racing 1

Boxing 0

UFC 0

Cricket 1, it intrigues me, but l don’t quite follow what’s going on.

College/High School Wrestling (real wrestling) 0

Bowling 1

Cue Sports: Pool/Billiards/Snooker 6, l do like playing the occasional game of pool.

LaCrosse 3

Horse Racing 3

Rugby 2

Rodeo 1

Surfing 5

Ultimate Frisbee 1

eSports 1

Did I miss anything. (Fake wrestling is not a sport any more than ballroom dancing)

Women’s fastpitch softball is fun. Similar to baseball but has its own nuances. Everything is closer together, base paths, and rubber to mound, so the action is fast. Also, there are more types of pitches in softball than in baseball, like rise balls and drop curves to go with fastballs and change ups and such.

hoorta

@the-gipper said:

Here is todays Survey. A bit different. I am going to list a variety of Sports. You tell us how much interest you have in each sport on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being of the highest interest and 0 being, well -0- interest. Start with the big ones:

NFL Football: 9.5

College Football: 8

Major League Baseball 2

NBA Basketball: 5 higher when the Cavs were decent

College Basketball: 6 this year- Dayton is in the top 10 for the first time in over 50 years

WNBA: 0

Women's college basketball 0

NHL hockey 5

MLS/Premier League/World Cup soccer 3, World Cup 7

Golf 2

Tennis 5

Winter Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish) 5

Summer Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish) 5

NASCAR/Indy/Formula One auto racing 1

Boxing 1

UFC 0

Cricket 0

College/High School Wrestling (real wrestling) 0

Bowling 1

Cue Sports: Pool/Billiards/Snooker 0

LaCrosse 0

Horse Racing 3 Triple Crown only

Rugby 0

Rodeo 0

Surfing o

Ultimate Frisbee 0

eSports 0

Did I miss anything. (Fake wrestling is not a sport any more than ballroom dancing)

X Games, Winter\ Summer 0

The Gipper

eSport: ?????

Apparently my college, Akron U, has one of the most prominent eSports programs in the nation, even giving scholarships for it:

https://esportsinsider.com/2018/10/university-of-akron-esports-facility/

TexasAg1969

@ibleedbrown said:

Women’s fastpitch softball is fun. Similar to baseball but has its own nuances. Everything is closer together, base paths, and rubber to mound, so the action is fast. Also, there are more types of pitches in softball than in baseball, like rise balls and drop curves to go with fastballs and change ups and such.

One of the greatest pitcher - hitter duels I ever saw was between UT-Austin's 6'2" lefty and all-time great Cat Osterman and Megan Gibson one of A&M's greatest ever pitcher/hitters. Cat had two strikes on her and Megan, being the pitcher that she was, knew that Cat's best strikeout pitch would appear to be a fastball that was coming right down the middle, but would tail into an inside curve dipping out of the strike zone about 6 inches off the ground near the ankles. As the pitch came in Megan shifted her left foot towards 3rd base and golfed the ball on a line drive over the right field fence for a 3 run homer. As soon as Cat saw where it was going she looked back at her catcher and Megan tossing her bat away and mouthed the word, "Wow!" No one had ever done that to her strikeout pitch before that night.

The Gipper

When I was growing up, my next door neighbor, who later became Chief of Police in Barberton, was a fastpitch softball pitcher. He could hurl a softball, underhand, at close to 90 MPH. He was later killed in a motorcycle accident. This was in the 80s. Here he was, a Chief of Police, and he was not wearing a helmet riding his motorbike.

He had this unusual deal that when he pitched the ball, underhand remember, he would slap the side of his leg with the hand that held the ball in. Not sure why that was done, but he still threw the thing fast as hell.

BrownsnMopar

@the-gipper said:

Here is todays Survey. A bit different. I am going to list a variety of Sports. You tell us how much interest you have in each sport on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being of the highest interest and 0 being, well -0- interest. Start with the big ones:

NFL Football: 10

College Football: 10

Major League Baseball 8

NBA Basketball: 2

College Basketball: 2

WNBA: 0

Women's college basketball 0

NHL hockey 3

MLS/Premier League/World Cup soccer 0

Golf. 5

Tennis 0

Winter Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish) 8

Summer Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish) 8

NASCAR/Indy/Formula One auto racing 3

Boxing 3

UFC 3

Cricket 0

College/High School Wrestling (real wrestling) 2

Bowling 2

Cue Sports: Pool/Billiards/Snooker 2

LaCrosse 0

Horse Racing 0

Rugby 2

Rodeo 0

Surfing 0

Ultimate Frisbee 0

eSports 0

Did I miss anything. (Fake wrestling is not a sport any more than ballroom dancing) LOL right

mjp28

My voting on a 10 point must system being 10 is my must watch and -0- being I would never watch.

NFL Football:. 9 being that I never miss a BROWNS game

College Football:. 10 my favorite sport

Major League Baseball 8 since I'm retired I watch almost all of the INDIANS games

NBA Basketball: 0 since LBJ left CLE

College Basketball: 9 for MARCH MADNESS

WNBA: 0 women play basketball?

Women's college basketball 0

NHL hockey. 3 some Pittsburgh Penguins

MLS/Premier League/World Cup soccer 0 boring

Golf. 1 used to watch Arnie and Jack

Tennis 0

Winter Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish). 9. love it.

Summer Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish) 9 love it.

NASCAR/Indy/Formula One auto racing. 1 rather watch the cars in Walmart's parking lot

Boxing 4 maybe not what it used to be.

UFC 0

Cricket 0

College/High School Wrestling (real wrestling) 0

Bowling 1 used to watch a few decades ago

Cue Sports: Pool/Billiards/Snooker 0

LaCrosse 0

Horse Racing 2, maybe the Derby.

Rugby 1

Rodeo 0

Surfing 3 mainly for the scenery.

Ultimate Frisbee 0 really?

eSports 0 the downfall of the American youth and our country.

Did I miss anything. (Fake wrestling is not a sport any more than ballroom dancing) Wasting time doing stupid stuff online like filling out surveys and polls?

hoorta

@the-gipper said:

Did you have someone involved?

(my daughter did swimming in HS....and she would yell at me for not putting "cheerleading" on the list, as she participated in competitive cheering for some years from like 6th to 12th grade, and she was a cheerleader for 4 years at college)

I could have added a lot more sports if I had listed each Olympic sport separately: Swimming/diving/ Track and Field, archery, skiing, curling, Bobsled, etc. etc.

Yeah, it wouldn't affect me, but if you broke it down into sub categories, the wife is very interested in swimming (former competitive swimmer) and figure skating.

E-sports? How in the world can you call that a sport? Misnomer, may as well call World Championship Poker, or chess a "sport". To my mind a sport has to involve a certain minimal amount of physical activity, and playing on a computer doesn't rate. Call it an E-GAME and I'm good with it.

Adding on to mjp's list not to be sexist, but there's women's lacrosse and ice hockey.

I did forget one sport of mine that I watch once a year - professional men's cycling. I'll watch hours of the Tour de France every year. If you ride a lot, it's mind boggling how good those guys are. Average schmucks couldn't keep up with them for 5 minutes. Even on the last day of the Tour in the first hour of the ride when they're just screwing around drinking champagne, you'd have to be at least a Class A rider (average 18 mph+ over 100 miles) to be able to keep up.

The Gipper

@hoorta said:

Yeah, it wouldn't affect me, but if you broke it down into sub categories, the wife is very interested in swimming (former competitive swimmer) and figure skating.

E-sports? How in the world can you call that a sport? Misnomer, may as well call World Championship Poker, or chess a "sport". To my mind a sport has to involve a certain minimal amount of physical activity, and playing on a computer doesn't rate. Call it an E-GAME and I'm good with it.

I think that is fair....to call it a game, not a sport. I put it on here because it was a category in wiki, plus I knew that Akron U had a top program going there.

If physical activity though were all that a sport required, then ballroom or ballet dancing would be considered sports, as those take a ton of physical output.

Adding on to mjp's list not to be sexist, but there's women's lacrosse and ice hockey.

Yea, admittedly I left off a lot of women's sports. Ergo the "what did I miss" question.

I did forget one sport of mine that I watch once a year - professional men's cycling. I'll watch hours of the Tour de France every year. If you ride a lot, it's mind boggling how good those guys are. Average schmucks couldn't keep up with them for 5 minutes. Even on the last day of the Tour in the first hour of the ride when they're just screwing around drinking champagne, you'd have to be at least a Class A rider (average 18 mph+ over 100 miles) to be able to keep up.

I basically included the cycling in with Olympics sports, as who really gives a rat's ass about it other than at the Olympics, and some peak in to the Tour de France. I guess there is also a big Tour of California in this country.

Momszer

NFL Football: 10

College Football: 10

Major League Baseball 7

NBA Basketball: 5

College Basketball: Infinity and Beyond GO UD FLYERS!!!

WNBA: 1

Women's college basketball 2

NHL hockey 3

MLS/Premier League/World Cup soccer 1

Golf 5

Tennis 3

Winter Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish) 9

Summer Olympics Sports (break it down if you wish) 10

NASCAR/Indy/Formula One auto racing 7

Boxing 1

UFC 5

Cricket 0

College/High School Wrestling (real wrestling) 0

Bowling 2

Cue Sports: Pool/Billiards/Snooker 0

LaCrosse 2

Horse Racing 5

Rugby 3

Rodeo 0

Surfing 0

Ultimate Frisbee 0

eSports 0

Ibleedbrown

@the-gipper said:

When I was growing up, my next door neighbor, who later became Chief of Police in Barberton, was a fastpitch softball pitcher. He could hurl a softball, underhand, at close to 90 MPH. He was later killed in a motorcycle accident. This was in the 80s. Here he was, a Chief of Police, and he was not wearing a helmet riding his motorbike.

He had this unusual deal that when he pitched the ball, underhand remember, he would slap the side of his leg with the hand that held the ball in. Not sure why that was done, but he still threw the thing fast as hell.

I knew it was a men’s sport back in the day. 90 mph seems high. Like world record high. The best of the best of the girls tops out at around 70.

The leg slap is likely a mechanism to find the release point for the pitch.