What's the most popular sport in America???
 

I know this is a rather subjective question but I'm just interested to see how a few Americans rank the popularity of each sport

What's the most popular sport? Are college sports more popular than the professional leagues?

This would have made a great poll question. PM me or any mod for help in setting up a poll.

I'd have to say baseball. The sheer number of games almost guarentee that attendance figures will be the largest.

"As American as baseball and apple pie."

NFL, imo.

Case and point: no one cares about baseball when the football season kicks off.

football!

look @ the tv viewership and the ratings that a football game gets.

it blows baseball away.

:D

I knew this would be rather subjective. Obviously different sports are played at different times of the year. It might be better to list what's popular in winter / summer etc.

I know here in Australia Cricket is our main summer sport with all the football's taking over in winter.

One thing all the football vs. baseball posters seem to be forgetting is that the major leagues are actually the smaller percentage of total baseball attendance. In point of fact, 38.6 million people attended minor league baseball games last year, dwarfing the attendance of the NHL, NBA, and... the NFL. Add to that the millions upon millions who see professional games each year, and you've got, at least in terms of live attendance, the most popular professional sport in America. I don't have time right now to total up the attendance for major league parks in that same year, but if Seattle can draw 3.5 million alone, then I'm sure that MLB as a whole will equal or surpass 38.6 million. Meaning that in all likelihood, at least 77 million people attended professional baseball games in 2002.

Please note that this leaves out high-school and college games of all sports, as they're amateurs and not professionals. But in terms of professional sports, baseball quite simply dominates the landscape.

Baseball has a lot more games, and a lot more stadiums, but I think that in general the country is more captivated by football. Probably because it's only once a week so people can follow every game much better.

It's tough to rank the sports because you have to specify "regular" interest versus "peak" interest - like baseball in July vs. Super Bowl/NCAA final four.

That said, trying to bridge the two, I would say:

NFL
MLB
NCAA Football
NCAA Basketball
NBA

I have to go with the NFL, followed by baseball. As soon as 1994 I would've argued for baseball, but after the strike no way. There is still a chance for baseball to overtake football, but there have to be several things happening in just the right way.

NASCAR........

36 Races in a season, For the Winston Cup races...its ALWAYS sold out. When was the last time you saw 200,000 fans at any other sporting event?

Football by far.

Attendance figures can't be used unless they're adjusted accordingly. Mainly because, baseball has a 146 game advantage. They SHOULD draw more fans in that case.

But then look at TV ratings. I'm pretty sure a big time regular season football game can surpass the World Series. MNF definately can.

And there's the little thing called the Super Bowl.

My List of Leagues:
--------------------------
NFL
College Football
College Basketball
MLB
NBA
NHL

My List of Most Popular SPORTS
--------------------------------------------------
Football
Basketball
Tie- Hockey and Baseball

Not in terms of attendance but in terms of national interest its probably the NFL followed by college football. The NBA has slipped some recently.

I am Canadian...It's Hockey of course.
I can't stand Baseball & basketball.

I watch the NFL games sometimes on Sundays.

I will watch golf before I watch baseball & Basketball.

zipper is right, its been proven that Nascar really is the most poplar sport, in terms of attendance and TV ratings.

However my favorite would be
NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL

no way, Nascar? I would have thought it would be one of the least popular sports. It doesn't get much airtime and not many are household names compared with every other sport.

nascar makes me ashamed to be american
rednecks shouldn't count on TV ratings (if you are a redneck, please take this opportunity to take a step back and find the humor in my statement)

football is the most media-supported sport
baseball attracts the most attendance (by sheer number of games and size of stadiums)

I agree that it is probably the NFL, personally my favorite is MLB.

NASCAR has to be one of the most popular. It has coverage on NBC, TNT, FOX, SPEED.

36 races a year, which are all sold out with at least 100,000 fans attending and some races with 250,000 fans at them plus millions more watching on TV.

Plus the fact that companies are paying millions of dollars a year to sponsor a team, and reach out to those same millions of people so they can get them to spend some money on their products.

And it is one of the fastest growing spectator sports in the world.

nfl no question wins tv ratings

my vote college basketball


yea i am form indiana

the two networks (fox and nbc) has the season's booked up till 06 or so.

also, NASCAR is the fastest growing sport in america.

and...........the tv ratings for nascar is ONLY passed by the NFL.

- #8 Budweiser Chevrolet Fan

Nascar would need to be a sport to be the answer to "what is the most popular sport in America." It's actually Sports Entertainment, and even if it wasn't it wouldn't be the correct answer. The answer is NFL football.

Take a drive at Bristol with 42 other 3,000 lb hunks of metal and you will be convinced that NASCAR is a sport. Plus, the Bristol Races are the hardest tickets EVER to get in the entire sports industry, harder than the Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, ANYTHING. Bristol blows them away.

U of M, or Notre Dame football has been far more popular for a much longer time. Give them 200,000 seats and they would still be scalpin tickets. Can somebody clue me in as to what makes NASCAR so popular? I love ESPN's coverage of it, they show the crashes and the winner and they move on to the more important items.:D

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...8355&highlight

that should explain to you why nascar is becommin more and more popular.


and the nascar drivers are prolly in better physical condition that some other athletes. they have to sit in the car (without AC) for 4-5 hours straight and no peeing or anything.

and sometimes, they lose power steering and they continue on.

in the world, soccer
in North America, basketball

Football by far when training camp starts people forget about baseball.

My favorite sport is football, but I would have to say NASCAR is the most popular now.