This week is an interesting one for sports; Major League Baseball just started, college basketball wrapped, high schools are deep into their track and field events, and soccer has started for my two young kids. We all have a sport that we gravitate toward, and some we see as more popular than another. It is the idea of perceived popularity that intrigues me, and perhaps you have an idea or two to share. While we can’t list every sport, we can present a listing of some of the readily accessible sports, and ask you, our most favorite people in the world, which is the most popular sport to watch in the United States of America?
Stephen Schleicher
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
12 Comments
When you have entire towns in southern states (Alabama, Texas) that go dark for even high school football games, I think it’s safe to say that football right now is the most popular sport in these states united.
American Football. I’m just saying, when I worked at a grocery store, we didn’t have special crisis meetings on how to handle the throngs of people for the World Series.
As much as I love Baseball I know Football is the more popular form of professional athletics in America. It’s not called the “Super bowl” for nothing.
I mean its not that I think it is,more that I wish Ice Hockey was the most popular. I think we all know its basically Football given that is the only sport a large number of the people down south believe in.
I thought people down south only believed in NASCAR. (Kidding! Kidding!)
But it does make me sad that hockey isn’t as popular as some sports. The local-ish minor league hockey team we have has been through so many changes in the last 10 or so years, switching to different groups and changing from one league to another (despite being in Illinois, It is now part of the Southern Professional Hockey League, which merits a mention on the SPHL wiki page that the league operates “in the Southeastern United States and Illinois”).
I voted for American football because it is so popular. But I cant wait for the day that soccer becomes as popular in the US as it is in the rest of the world!
I chose Martial Arts because I figured most people wouldn’t even think of it as a sport, yet there are usually more schools for various forms of martial arts in most places I’ve been than there are sports teams combined in the same areas. It might not be the most popular spectator sport, but the sheer number of people who practice to varying degrees one form or another is larger than you might think.
That is a very good point.
Now I kind of wish I could change my vote.
By spectators it’s American Football. I’m from Texas, and Thursday nights are packed with Jr High games, Friday nights are dominated by massive high school games, Saturday nights are college, and Sunday and Monday are the NFL. In small towns that have schools too small to field regular teams, they even play an old school game of 6V6. And the fanatacism isn’t just relegated to the South. Last year I was in Hawaii, coming down from watching the sunset on Haleakala and you could immediately locate every high school by the stadium lights. Additionally, the nightly sports news was about 70% high school football, and this was during the world series.
If your basing it on participation its a different story. I’d say it’s probably a toss up between baseball/softball and soccer. I guess if you include driving in traffic motor sports would take number 1.
I know american football is the most popular right now, but me, being from north europe, I like ice hockey best. Its also only global team sport we are good at as a country too so its the most interesting to watch.
American Football hands down is the most popular; because using my dad as an example, he can miss a baseball game because there are like 120 in a year, but god help you if you miss 1/16th of the season. The numbers games bring in both at the stadium and on TV, plus football knows the power it has over people not cutting the cord.
It should be ice hockey.
I went with Basketball. It’s played in pretty much every neighborhood around the country, and its popularity and accessibility cuts across social and economic groups.