OT: What does the future hold for sports?

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Rocko604

Sports will break your heart.
Apr 29, 2009
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Anyone have any thoughts on the future of collegiate sports. If lots here think football dies, does that include CFB or just pro football?

Football isn't going to die, but I eventually see a split between P5 (ACC, B1G, Big 12, Pac12 and SEC) and G5 conferences (AAC, Mountain, MAC, Sun Belt, C-USA).

I also wouldn't be surprised to see some G5 football programs either fold or drop down to the FCS division. Idaho is planning to do it, and I remember there was talk of Eastern Michigan looking to do it as well, if not drop the football program altogether.

Hockey might expand to more schools, Pac 12 and ACC ideally, but it's not a sure bet.

And while it's not a money generator, rugby is only going to get bigger as Rugby USA is making college rugby what college football is to the NFL.
 

cutchemist42

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Apr 7, 2011
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Another one I thought that is similar to the big Euro clubs consolidating into a closed league. As NPB and KBO are restricted in their growth by market size, could you ever see a merger of baseball leagues in the future? Or basketball leagues?
 

KevFu

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May 22, 2009
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First of all, I 100% agree with your conclusion regarding headers.

As for the air travel, I think the main flaw in your argument is that you're trying to determine what is physically/economically feasible in the future using present day technologies. Assuming the laws of physics aren't 'revised' in the next 100 years, there are still ways we could cross the oceans faster. Google tells me that the Concorde had a max cruising altitude of 60,000' (didn't realise it was that high -- not bad). What's to say that we won't be able to go higher than that in 50 years? At 100,000 feet, I'd imagine that you could create sonic booms all you want over populated areas without an issue. Even using present day tech, you'd have to imagine that the 400+ million dollar A380 would cost substantially less in 50 years.

You know, I thought I made a disclaimer about future technology.

Overall though, my point was this:
We've had advancements in technology over time, obviously.

But what you saw with the Concorde was the principle of diminishing returns. There's a difference between innovation to see what's possible, and the limit on innovation due to PRACTICALITY.

It's not the actual AIRPLANES preventing airline travel from being much faster. We had the Concorde, it was far faster than most standard flights now.

But it's the SYSTEM that's limiting the speed of airplanes: The Traffic patterns, some flights being short flights, medium flights, long flights. And how all those flights interweave into a massive global flight pattern that has to be managed by controllers.
 

joelef

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Nov 22, 2011
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American sports will become more globalized while international sports soccer and rugby will be bigger in America. Also with the demographic changes of the USA I think NHL will have very tough time.
 

alko

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American sports will become more globalized while international sports soccer and rugby will be bigger in America. Also with the demographic changes of the USA I think NHL will have very tough time.

IMO, american sports will be in decline comparing it to soccer. And other sports popular in Africa and Asia.
Simply because the most population grow will be from this continents.
 

joelef

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Nov 22, 2011
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Another one I thought that is similar to the big Euro clubs consolidating into a closed league. As NPB and KBO are restricted in their growth by market size, could you ever see a merger of baseball leagues in the future? Or basketball leagues?

no there restricted by there nativist policies.
 

killer1980

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Sep 15, 2014
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Technology has created a scenario that has given the millennials so much to do that they do not want to invest the time and money to become fully engaged in NA sports. The injuries (concussions) have also become a major turnoff. Compound that with the fact that the major carriers of these sports have no clue how to attract a shifting demographic and I foresee a dramatic change in the sports and the way we watch them over the next decade. From my perspective, this is a good thing as most involved in pro sports have been ripping off and alienating the true fan for years. And, the revolution in what we watch and the way we watch it is still in its infancy.
 
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alko

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Is there a chance, that floorball will overtake ice-hockey position in popularity?

I know, that in Sweden it is very popular. And when you consider the input costs....
 

tarheelhockey

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Feb 12, 2010
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Is there a chance, that floorball will overtake ice-hockey position in popularity?

I know, that in Sweden it is very popular. And when you consider the input costs....

I don't see that happening. If anything replaces ice hockey in the North American sports world, it will be lacrosse.
 

m302291

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Jun 2, 2015
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Basketball is already taking off in a big way around the world. Europe, Australia, obviously Asia...

Soccer is going to reign supreme for the foreseeable future.

Hockey is growing and will continue to grow in Europe and North America. I'm really excited to see how the sudden emergence of Switzerland as a hockey factory affects the sport.

MMA is the bloodlust sport that has replaced boxing and the briefly popular WWE. It's growing rapidly, but I don't see it reaching Big 4 sports level.

Baseball is on the down swing everywhere except Latin America. I think the sport will continue to slowly lose the American interest in favor of more exciting, fast paced, athletic sports.

Football is a ticking time bomb. I can't see it remaining a big sport outside of the American South and Midwest in like 20 years when coastal schools won't fund it and as kids get hooked on more flashy, accessible, and more "cultural" (as in history, atmosphere, cool role models) alternatives like soccer and hockey. It'll also lose its bloodlust fans to MMA.

Rugby I really don't see catching on in a big way. It'll always be a favorite on college campuses, but not much more.

Lacrosse will never be relevant. I come from prime lax country. It's one of the worst sports to watch as a spectator, if not the worst, it's expensive to play, it's expensive to train, and they don't really have much to build on.
 

tarheelhockey

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Feb 12, 2010
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Football is a ticking time bomb. I can't see it remaining a big sport outside of the American South and Midwest in like 20 years when coastal schools won't fund it and as kids get hooked on more flashy, accessible, and more "cultural" (as in history, atmosphere, cool role models) alternatives like soccer and hockey.

What does that mean?
 

USAUSA1

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Dec 1, 2016
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Nba,nfl,mlb,nhl,fifa and ncaa will be fine. These sports went through much worse in the past. As long as humans exist, there will be no issues.
 
Jan 8, 2012
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If we're talking fairly distant future, hopefully we can watch hockey games live in VR from the point of view of any player on the ice. Imagine seeing what that era's Ovechkin sees as he rips a one timer. The technological possibilities are endless.

The concussion and insurance issue was brought up earlier in this thread and will seriously have to be looked at and addressed by hockey and football if they want to continue to exist.
 

USAUSA1

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Dec 1, 2016
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If we're talking fairly distant future, hopefully we can watch hockey games live in VR from the point of view of any player on the ice. Imagine seeing what that era's Ovechkin sees as he rips a one timer. The technological possibilities are endless.

The concussion and insurance issue was brought up earlier in this thread and will seriously have to be looked at and addressed by hockey and football if they want to continue to exist.

Believe it or not, Concussions are a big problem in Soccer too. The only way to avoid concussions is to not play. Plain and simple, all this research and stuff is really just money being spent. It's part of the game. It's like driving a car, you know there's always a chance of getting into an accident. Life is about risks.
 

Big McLargehuge

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May 9, 2002
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I don't see that happening. If anything replaces ice hockey in the North American sports world, it will be lacrosse.

I just don't see that. Unless you live in a place where lacrosse is kinda big it just doesn't exist at all. It comes with almost all of the negatives that cap hockey's popularity (prohibitively expensive, highly regional, translates poorly to TV), too, so...not sure I see the growth potential there. It's an inherently niche sport.

I can see soccer knocking hockey out of the 4th spot, that's it.
 
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USAUSA1

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Dec 1, 2016
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No it won't Lacrosse is completely irrelevant outside of certain parts of the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada. It's expensive to play and hard to watch...I just can't see lacrosse getting any more popular than it is.

I can see soccer knocking hockey out of the 4th spot, that's it.

I just don't see a soccer event in North America that can do Stanley Cup numbers in primetime. Not La Liga MX and definitely not MLS.
 

Big McLargehuge

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I just don't see a soccer event in North America that can do Stanley Cup numbers in primetime. Not La Liga MX and definitely not MLS.

I didn't say I expected it to happen next week.

Considering soccer's popularity in this country today compared to when I was born 30 years ago I think it's silly to assume that soccer is just going to stop growing in popularity.
 

cutchemist42

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Apr 7, 2011
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I didn't say I expected it to happen next week.

Considering soccer's popularity in this country today compared to when I was born 30 years ago I think it's silly to assume that soccer is just going to stop growing in popularity.

I've always wondered something kinda related about soccer's growth, in relation to some of the news that sports holds a smaller %of interest from the public compared to decades ago.

When it comes to the overall sports "pie" how much of it comes from:


-completely new fans who hated all sport options before and never participated in the pie until soccer? (Thus making the pie overall bigger)

-Overall pie size remains the same, soccer is just replacing other sports in the pie.

-Pie size increasing because the current base of fans watch more soccer while consuming the same amount of other sports as before. Basically if they had any other freetime aside from watching old sports, this freetime just has soccer occupying it now.

-Overall pie size decreasing, soccer replacing sports.
 

leer2006

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Jan 20, 2010
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I don't see that happening. If anything replaces ice hockey in the North American sports world, it will be lacrosse.

I would say Ball Hockey. Lacrosse is to much of a fringe sport. Ball hockey is expanding at a exponential pace. But as far as Professional Sports goes. There will be a breaking point at some time where cost becomes to much for the masses and people start spending their money else where. Ticket prices to high. Cost to play to high. Will also cause the level of player to fall as the number of people playing sports continues to fall and as more kids would rather play video games. The future may actually be artifical video game leagues. Kids today are a different breed.
 

Zegras Zebra

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May 7, 2016
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Winnipeg, Manitoba
I don't think lacrosse will have any real possibility of becoming a major sport in North America and beyond for a few reasons. The first is the fact that lacrosse is an expensive sport to play. The second is which version of the game will become popular? Will box lacrosse which is more popular in Canada immerge as the most popular version of the game, or would it be field lacrosse which is popular with colleges in the Eastern USA (ACC/ Big East regions). The third is the large overlap in players who play in youth lacrosse leagues, as most also play hockey (Canada) or football (USA). Would lacrosse be able to get enough elite athletes to play professionally to make the North American leagues a big enough draw to compete head to head with the big 4 and the MLS?
 

joelef

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Nov 22, 2011
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lacrosse is growing at the youth level though. Illinois and Ohio just added as a varsity HS sport which would bring HS varsity lacrosse to 22 states. More then High school hockey.

I just don't see a soccer event in North America that can do Stanley Cup numbers in primetime. Not La Liga MX and definitely not MLS.

2016 Copa America did
 

BattleBorn

50% to winning as many division titles as Toronto
Feb 6, 2015
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lacrosse is growing at the youth level though. Illinois and Ohio just added as a varsity HS sport which would bring HS varsity lacrosse to 22 states. More then High school hockey.



2016 Copa America did

Copa America was in the US, wasn't it?

If we're looking at high school sports participation, I'm guessing any sport that doesn't require special facilities is going to surpass hockey fairly easily. I'm not saying it's a poor indicator, it's just not going to give you the whole story.

You could likely show Bo-taoshi on ESPN for a year and have ten state high school associations paying it at a varsity level in five years. :laugh:
 

Zegras Zebra

Registered User
May 7, 2016
525
120
Winnipeg, Manitoba
What do you think will happen to auto racing in the future? Personally I don't think it looks good due to the more globalized effort to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The drivers in the top series seem to have lost their personalities the most compared to other sports since big sponsorship money started coming in. The cars are for the most part much safer now compared to the past. Proof of this is there hasn't been a death in a Sprint Cup race since Dale Earnhardt died in the 2001 Daytona 500, and its been since 1994 that Ayrton Senna died at Imola. This is a great thing for driver safety, but it probably causes a loss of "bloodlust" fans. There are hundreds of other factors, but I think that will become a bigger one in the next few decades. Here is what I think will happen with different racing series:

NASCAR: Originally a southern sport, NASCAR became a more national sport around the late 1980's/ early 1990's and capitalized on the opportunity by expanding its reach and building more tracks nationally during the 1990's. It seemed to peak sometime around 2006, a few years after the sport introduced its version of the playoffs "The Chase." Jimmie Johnson has dominated the sport since the introduction of The Chase, and with colourful characters from the past retiring from the sport coupled with the recession, and the cars becoming more and more alike, has lead to the sports downfall in recent years. The tv coverage of the sport has gone down a bit since the SPEED channel became FS1. It should also be pointed out that less crashes and more "phantom debris" cautions (which generally always help one of the top drivers at a critical time) have turned away long time fans of the sport. NASCAR will probably remain relevant nationally in the USA, but will never be as popular as the stick and ball sports which it competes against for tv ratings, and won't receive much support from international markets.

F1: Considered the top racing series in the world, F1 like soccer has grown internationally and is one of the most popular sporting events globally. However, unlike NASCAR which has outdated technology and promotes parity, F1 has the opposite problem where you know which manufacturer will win each race/ championship based on which team designed the best car, and you can pretty much tell who will win a race based on who leads the first lap. It is starting to overlook its fanbase by having more races in the Middle East and surrounding regions than its historic European based schedule, which causes races to start at inconvenient times for the European and North/South American fans. I think F1 is pretty much at its peak now and will begin to become less popular in the coming decades.

Indy Car: Probably the most exciting auto racing series in the world, but lacks an identity outside of the annual Indianapolis 500 every May. I don't think driver's appearances on "Dancing with the Stars" will do enough to increase its popularity. The death of Dan Wheldon (Justin Wilson's was a freak accident), and Danica Patrick's decision to leave for NASCAR hasn't helped the series. Indy Car has been in a bad place since CART and IndyCar split in the mid 1990's, and I can't see it improving anytime soon.
 

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