So who saw this survey?

ebox99

Registered User
May 8, 2009
271
0
If you consider NA and not just US, then hockey has a solid footing. Considering, it's an expensive sport to play and ice is limited in the US. Hockey does pretty good.


Also, Olympic hockey will increase appreciation of the sport. Top billing in Russia and Canada will show how some countries love hockey.

Plus other European countries that hold future Olympics will have hockey as top draw.
 

Fugu

RIP Barb
Nov 26, 2004
36,952
220
϶(°o°)ϵ
I don't understand how anyone can watch pro football. It's like 10 minutes of action over a span of 3 hours. That would drive me insane.



You're catching some flak over this, but I agree. However, I'd rank baseball as the most boring to watch. I honestly can not make it through an entire game any longer, but could be forced to watch football and soccer at the higher levels of play.

Only follow hockey these days.


I wish this study had those breakdowns at the end for all the major sports. Hockey usually ranks the highest in popularity with post-grad education, income and tech savvy groups.
 

masa2009

Registered User
May 11, 2011
229
15
I don't understand how anyone can watch soccer. It's like 5 minutes of actual excitement over a span of 2 hours. Plus a lot of the players are soft. That would drive me insane.

Soccer is not popular because it's spectacular. Soccer is popular because it's cheap, so most people have played it in their youth, and that makes for a readymade audience that identifies with, and is ready to follow the athletes who play the professional game.
 
Last edited:

Fugu

RIP Barb
Nov 26, 2004
36,952
220
϶(°o°)ϵ
Soccer is not popular because it's spectacular. Soccer is popular because it's cheap, so most people have played it in their youth, and that makes for a readymade audience that identifies with and is ready to follow the athlètes that play the professional game.


This may also get back to what's engrained culturally, what you grow up watching, friends/family, etc. Soccer is the world's favorite sport not because people sit down at some point-- watch all the different sports and choose what they find most entertaining. No, it's what's available to them, either to play or as the sports entertainment choice of their society.
 

TheMoreYouKnow

Registered User
May 3, 2007
16,385
3,411
38° N 77° W
I wonder how much this survey would change based on time of the year. i.e. people with mixed feelings on what their favorite sport may be could change depending on what playoff season it is

I don't know whether that is statistically significant but I find that generally to be true with myself. My favorite sport September to January is college football then it starts shifting and by the time of the trade deadline it's usually hockey.
 

Ugmo

Registered User
Oct 24, 2011
12,300
0
Soccer is not popular because it's spectacular. Soccer is popular because it's cheap, so most people have played it in their youth, and that makes for a readymade audience that identifies with, and is ready to follow the athletes who play the professional game.

Er, not sure about this. Very few people in Europe have played competitive soccer at any level, yet most people in Europe are crazy about soccer.

The flip side of this... which I assume you are referring to, is that a lot of kids in America play soccer because it's cheap. However, that has yet to translate into a huge audience for the game in America (except among Latinos, where it's a huge spectator sport for cultural reasons).

Plus, soccer can certainly be spectacular - every bit as much as any other sport. Never saw Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria in the last World Cup? The victory over Portugal in the 2002 World Cup, or the victory over Colombia in the 94 World Cup? Absolutely spectacular moments, and that's just for American soccer.
 

htpwn

Registered User
Nov 4, 2009
20,530
2,607
Toronto
I believe he was laughing at the fact that one of the largest support groups for racing was "those with a HS diploma or less" while one of the lowest support groups for it was "postgrads", thus suggesting a correlation between lack of education and interest in auto racing.

It would be interesting to see how it correlates to other countries.

Does a sport like Formula 1 have similar demographics in England?

Or, is it more of a survey of NASCAR's demographics (which no doubt dominates that category) over "Racing" as a whole?
 

He Lied to Mario

Registered User
May 16, 2009
388
6
So from the beginning of the poll in 1985, the number of people who say hockey is their favorite sport has increased 150%. Also, since the 2004-05 lockout, the number has been relatively steady at 5%.
 

Bullwine85

Registered User
Jan 3, 2013
482
0
Neenah, WI
Be interesting to see if they ever did a survey like this on a state-by-state basis. Would be interesting to see which sport would be most popular in, say, Wisconsin for example. Of course, the NFL, MLB, and College Football would be the top 3 here, but afterwards it could get interesting, but most likely College Basketball would be #4
 

masa2009

Registered User
May 11, 2011
229
15
Er, not sure about this. Very few people in Europe have played competitive soccer at any level, yet most people in Europe are crazy about soccer.

The flip side of this... which I assume you are referring to, is that a lot of kids in America play soccer because it's cheap. However, that has yet to translate into a huge audience for the game in America (except among Latinos, where it's a huge spectator sport for cultural reasons).

Plus, soccer can certainly be spectacular - every bit as much as any other sport. Never saw Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria in the last World Cup? The victory over Portugal in the 2002 World Cup, or the victory over Colombia in the 94 World Cup? Absolutely spectacular moments, and that's just for American soccer.

First, why should we just be talking about competitive soccer? You don't need to have played competitively to get a feel for the game and identify with it. Even playing pickup with friends can get you into it.
Second, there absolutely are a lot of people who have played competitive soccer in Europe. At any given moment there are millions who are members of the FAs of the larger Euro countries.
So if you add all the grown up kids who used to be members in their youth and quit for some reason, but keep an interest, that's in fact a huge number.

As far as Donovan's goal and the likes (I don't remember the others you talk about because I'm European), it's easy to put a magnifying glass on a few moments, but it doesn't make them representative of the sport.

It's like saying US football is great because of that one handed 40-yard diving catch that happened in that one Superbowl. It doesn't change the fact that most US football plays are 4-yard plays followed by an artificially inflated amount of waiting time. Comparing just the best moments in every sport is not fair, comparing the frequency at which standout moments happen is.
 

Syckle78

Registered User
Nov 5, 2011
14,585
7,824
Redford, MI
I think you would see a lot more viewers for soccer if there were important games televised on a regular basis. I know MSL teams are doing decently but its not a big league. You don't have teams in all the major cities. It's also a very young league and not close to being the best in the world.

This isn't something North American sports fans are accustomed to. NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA are all the undisputed best leagues with the best of the best players in the world. If twenty or fifty years down the road that league expands to the size of the big four leagues it may over take the NHL in popularity and ratings in the US.

It's not that soccer is boring to watch, because it isn't. It's that we don't have a vested interest and no real reason to tune in outside of World Cup years. I can flip through channels stop on a soccer game and end up watching until the end. Because if the back and forth without a commercial break every five minutes unlike in the NFL. I like football, I love the Lions but its hard to watch. No, not because the Lions suck year in and year out, but because every time something happens it's time to cut to commercial. And yet there I am every week tuning in because I have reason to because I have a long ingrained vested interest since childhood. That's the only thing missing for soccer. If they ever accomplish that watch out.
 
Last edited:

Ugmo

Registered User
Oct 24, 2011
12,300
0
First, why should we just be talking about competitive soccer? You don't need to have played competitively to get a feel for the game and identify with it. Even playing pickup with friends can get you into it.
Second, there absolutely are a lot of people who have played competitive soccer in Europe. At any given moment there are millions who are members of the FAs of the larger Euro countries.
So if you add all the grown up kids who used to be members in their youth and quit for some reason, but keep an interest, that's in fact a huge number.

But the U.S. experience directly contradicts this. No country in the world has as many kids registered in youth leagues as the U.S. (not even close as a matter of fact), yet MLS and the NASL before it have been waiting for decades for those kids to grow up and become soccer fans, and it's never happened. Indeed, MLS has now all but ditched the strategy of trying to appeal to youth soccer players and their families, and is now in its more successful markets appealing to rowdy 20-and 30-year-olds with disposable income.

If you want to consider all the kids in the U.S. who haven't played in competitive leagues but have played soccer in school gym classes, you'll probably get to near saturation, but pro soccer still struggles comparitively in the U.S. Whereas pro football is a behemoth - but how many people have played American football of any kind?

The number of current and former competitive soccer players in Europe is dwarfed by the overall population, but soccer is undeniably the number one spectator sport by a wide margin.

I would say viewership of professional sports is almost certainly based overwhelmingly on cultural factors rather than on experience playing the sport.



As far as Donovan's goal and the likes (I don't remember the others you talk about because I'm European), it's easy to put a magnifying glass on a few moments, but it doesn't make them representative of the sport.

It's like saying US football is great because of that one handed 40-yard diving catch that happened in that one Superbowl. It doesn't change the fact that most US football plays are 4-yard plays followed by an artificially inflated amount of waiting time. Comparing just the best moments in every sport is not fair, comparing the frequency at which standout moments happen is.

Ok.
 

TheMoreYouKnow

Registered User
May 3, 2007
16,385
3,411
38° N 77° W
In the soccer hotbeds of Europe and Latin America there's plenty of people who don't like soccer much but if you're the kind of guy who is into sports you'll probably be a soccer nut. There's simply no escaping it. It's not like 6 year olds set up sidewalk pickup matches using tin cans as balls because they just randomly come across it - it's because that's the sport your dad/older brother/grandpa like, that's what the media focuses on. It's impossible to pin down the exact reason because it has the sort of encompassing cultural embeddedness that's impossible to quantify.

That's the same for hockey in Canada (among European-Canadians), rugby in NZ, cricket on the subcontinent and in the past baseball and today football in America. In countries where multiple sports are similarly popular there's usually a geographical/class/ethnic divide that shows this cultural embeddedness works even on a small scale. For example, it's obvious football is bigger in Texas than elsewhere whereas basketball is obviously bigger in the big urban centers on the East and West coast.
 

masa2009

Registered User
May 11, 2011
229
15
But the U.S. experience directly contradicts this. No country in the world has as many kids registered in youth leagues as the U.S. (not even close as a matter of fact), yet MLS and the NASL before it have been waiting for decades for those kids to grow up and become soccer fans, and it's never happened. Indeed, MLS has now all but ditched the strategy of trying to appeal to youth soccer players and their families, and is now in its more successful markets appealing to rowdy 20-and 30-year-olds with disposable income.

If you want to consider all the kids in the U.S. who haven't played in competitive leagues but have played soccer in school gym classes, you'll probably get to near saturation, but pro soccer still struggles comparitively in the U.S. Whereas pro football is a behemoth - but how many people have played American football of any kind?

The number of current and former competitive soccer players in Europe is dwarfed by the overall population, but soccer is undeniably the number one spectator sport by a wide margin.

I would say viewership of professional sports is almost certainly based overwhelmingly on cultural factors rather than on experience playing the sport.
But cultural factors, and the reason why a sport becomes embedded in the public consciousness of a nation in the first place, are largely influenced by accessibility more than the entertainment value and fast pace of said sport.

The US is different from most countries in that soccer didn't become pro early enough, while at the same time the US were a very precocious country in the development of pro sports.
For decades, soccer was a sport associated with European immigrants, and largely confined to amateur or semi-pro "ethnic" metropolitan leagues.

At the same time, WASP Americans already had an accessible, professionalized grassroot sport of their own, baseball.
Slow paced, unspectacular, yet cheap and easy to pick up, baseball was America's soccer.
 

Dave is a killer

Dave's a Mess
Oct 17, 2002
26,507
18
Cumming GA
More

Less

please

ugmo is right


According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes.

In other words, if you tally up everything that happens between the time the ball is snapped and the play is whistled dead by the officials, there's barely enough time to prepare a hard-boiled egg. In fact, the average telecast devotes 56% more time to showing replays.
 

TheKule

Registered User
Jun 3, 2011
1,897
752
The thing is, what is about educated people that makes them like hockey?

Educated people are rich. And being rich is a prerequisite to playing hockey. That's probably why. I doubt it has anything to do with the dirty proles' inability to see the puck on their povertyscreens.

What it definitely means is that if Hockey were more accessible as a participation sport in the USA, it'd be far far more popular.
 

Ramenbot

Registered User
May 2, 2010
605
0
Burbank
Soccer has terrific pace and amazing tension. Plus no commercials, the play is pretty constant, and games are done in under 2 hours. It's great.

Let's face it: soccer is a bad version of hockey. You have the same basic premise, but with fewer scoring chances and interesting plays. .
 

Ugmo

Registered User
Oct 24, 2011
12,300
0
Let's face it: soccer is a bad version of hockey. You have the same basic premise, but with fewer scoring chances and interesting plays. .

By that equation you could say basketball is a better version of hockey - the teams score hundreds of points a game! Does that make it more exciting?

Don't get me wrong, I love hockey. But with soccer each goal is more valuable because there aren't as many of them. I saw a quote once by Alexi Lalas comparing soccer to sex. A quote which I'm obviously not going to paraphrase here (and Alexi Lalas is kind of a buffoon in general), but you probably get the point!
 

Ramenbot

Registered User
May 2, 2010
605
0
Burbank
By that equation you could say basketball is a better version of hockey - the teams score hundreds of points a game! Does that make it more exciting?

No, because I didn't imply that scoring alone makes a sport interesting.
 

Betamax*

Guest
You're catching some flak over this, but I agree. However, I'd rank baseball as the most boring to watch. I honestly can not make it through an entire game any longer, but could be forced to watch football and soccer at the higher levels of play.

Only follow hockey these days.


I wish this study had those breakdowns at the end for all the major sports. Hockey usually ranks the highest in popularity with post-grad education, income and tech savvy groups.

Personally I love watching Football. IMO, it's the best sport to watch on television even usurping Hockey.

For example, if there was a game involving two marquee teams --

e.g. NFL Sunday Night Football i.e. Patriots (Brady) vs. Broncos (Manning) and on another channel at the same time they had Penguins (Crosby) vs. Capitals (Ovechkin) ... to be honest I'd probably be watching more of the NFL game versus the NHL game.

As for your last point, I would be interested in seeing the statistical break down when it comes to identifying the race of the respondents in terms of interest of their favourite sport. Hockey is the only one of the Big Four Major league Team Sport where the majority of its players are white.
 

Fugu

RIP Barb
Nov 26, 2004
36,952
220
϶(°o°)ϵ
Educated people are rich. And being rich is a prerequisite to playing hockey. That's probably why. I doubt it has anything to do with the dirty proles' inability to see the puck on their povertyscreens.

What it definitely means is that if Hockey were more accessible as a participation sport in the USA, it'd be far far more popular.


Most US hockey fans probably have never played hockey, especially once you get out of the hotbed states like Mass, Michigan, and Minnesota. 40% of NHL fans are women, so that ~possibly~ takes that figure down even further.

Personally I love watching Football. IMO, it's the best sport to watch on television even usurping Hockey.

For example, if there was a game involving two marquee teams --

e.g. NFL Sunday Night Football i.e. Patriots (Brady) vs. Broncos (Manning) and on another channel at the same time they had Penguins (Crosby) vs. Capitals (Ovechkin) ... to be honest I'd probably be watching more of the NFL game versus the NHL game.

As for your last point, I would be interested in seeing the statistical break down when it comes to identifying the race of the respondents in terms of interest of their favourite sport. Hockey is the only one of the Big Four Major league Team Sport where the majority of its players are white.


The NBA was the only sport, in previous surveys which probably are linked here on BOH, where a larger portion of fans were African-American. Then if you factor the percentage of the US population that is African-American (which is in the low teens, iirc), it's not enough to override that NFL and MLB are predominantly 'white guy' sports. I think, but am guessing, that the NHL indeed is predominantly viewed by Caucasians.
 

Ugmo

Registered User
Oct 24, 2011
12,300
0
Educated people are rich. And being rich is a prerequisite to playing hockey. That's probably why. I doubt it has anything to do with the dirty proles' inability to see the puck on their povertyscreens.

What it definitely means is that if Hockey were more accessible as a participation sport in the USA, it'd be far far more popular.

Once again though, how many people play (American) football as a participation sport?
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->