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Most popular sports in america

IceyShanks

IceyShanks

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I had a hard time finding most recent stats from Harris as their website kept erroring on me, but here's some stats from 2014:

2014 Favorite Sport
35% Pro football
14% Baseball
11% College football
7% Auto racing
6% Men's pro basketball
5% Hockey
3% Men's college basketball
2% Men's golf
2% Men's Soccer
2% Swimming
2% Boxing
2% Men's tennis
1% Bowling
1% Horse racing
1% Track & field
1% Women's tennis
1% Women's college basketball
* Women's soccer
* Women's pro basketball
* Women's golf
3% Not sure
*Less than 0.5 percent.
Click to expand...

1985
24% NFL
23% MLB

My question is this, say even 2 years from now, 2020, will NFL still be top? What will the new percentages be?

Can golf ever crack into the top? or as numbers drop is it an uphill battle they'll never catch the bigger sports.
 
I think NFL will still be #1 by a wide margin in 2020. 2030 will be the question. No I don't think golf will ever see a significant portion.
 
Hmmm, I don't know things change that much in the next 5-10 years. NFL may drop a bit, and perhaps soccer gains some ground. I've seen the youth soccer interest gain momentum just over the past few years. Also Premier league being televised on Saturday's, replacing local broadcasts of MLB or Basketball is interesting. I feel like broadcasting MLB and NBA on cable networks and going with the NBA and MLB channels is actually losing viewership. The only reason I made that blanket statement is that I find it hard to find some MLB or NBA games that I actually do want to watch.
 
I honestly think Basketball will continue to rise, just a hunch.
 
According to Gallup, here are the top 4 most popular sports in America.

gallup-poll.png
 
IceyShanks said:
I honestly think Basketball will continue to rise, just a hunch.
Click to expand...

I agree... easiest sport to play as a youth and don't necessarily need a team to practice a lot and is more affordable.
 
It's only a matter of time till soccer creeps up to #1 or #2. By the time my kids are grown (around 2035) I think it will be the most popular.
 
I think basketball and soccer will increase quite a bit and I think that Football will decrease more and more. It won't fall off all of a sudden, but the product is bad (and getting worse it seams) and the health concerns make watching less fun and will eventually limit the talent pool of those that will play it.

golf I doubt ever makes a run at the top 5.
 
If asked in August, given our increasingly relaxed societal norms, I would have said to look out for the rise of Calvinball*, but the NFL, through the efforts of video review and Al Riveron, have pre-emptively captured that space.

*the game played in the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes in which you make up the rules as you go along and "the only permanent rule is that you can't play it the same way twice."
 
So why the big differences between the Harris and Gallup polls?

I think the NFL, MLB and NBA will continue to decline, not drastically of course. I think soccer's popularity here will be the main reason (gross).
 
Before my daughter started playing volleyball, I didn't realize how much the sport is growing. Now we're even seeing boys teams at tourneys around us.

It is so fast-paced and full of scoring, I can see it really catching on an outpacing some of the other sports in the next 20 years.
 
Soccer is listed there as 2%. Is that accurate. Seems like NBC are putting a lot of effort into a sport that’s basically fringe according to those numbers. I’ve heard from multiple sources that rugby is the fastest growing sport in the US. Don’t know how true that is, but the US needs more rugby!!!! As for NFL, I can’t see a time ever when it’s not too dog over here. It’s even getting a foothold in the UK. Sky actually dropped out of bidding for the PGA tour rights a few years back to make sure they had the money to get NFL rights!!


#FiberLaunch
 
Soccer is on the rise in the under 50 group and will continue to rise. Golf will always be a rich man’s sport and is not very compelling as a spectator sport to non-golfers. I’m a long time avid golfer and watch way more football and hockey than I do golf.
 
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