Basketball is growing quick but I would guess guys like Torres, Ronaldo and Messi would be more recognizable world wide. Is basketball number two right now? What about cricket?
In terms of most played and watched, most studies I have seen put football at #1 and cricket at #2 (mostly thanks to India). They're both in the billions of played/watched. Then you have a significant gap, followed by a group including field hockey, volleyball, table tennis and sometimes basketball (in various orders). They all have several hundred million participants/spectators. What comes after that is pretty variable. If you google it, you'll come up with a dozen lists.
Jordan can be high up but I don't know if he would be among the top 5. He's not bigger than Pele or Maradona. And that's two up there. I really don't know but what I'm sure is that Oprah is definitely not one of the 5 most popular persons on earth. His saying they are 3 of the 5 is insane.
It looks like the town of Chicago is not happy that they will possibly be getting the Olympics in a few hours. The economics and construction plans (which will also destroy youth soccer fields) are not popular with most citizens. When you think about it, it does sort of suck for the host city. They have to put all of that work into it and the rest of us get to watch on tv, or go to the Olympics, if we feel like it.
Chicago out... Tokyo out... London has 2012. Consecutive Olympics in Europe? Never been held in South America. Surely, it's going to Rio, right?
Final presentations before the vote... (From Associated Press) Madrid portrayed itself as a low-risk option, saying that 77 percent of the needed infrastructure for the games was already in place. "This is a sure candidacy," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said. Former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch made an unusual appeal for Madrid, reminding the IOC members as he asked for their vote that, at age 89, "I am very near the end of my time." Rio played up the wow factor of its fabulous scenery, with computer-generated bird's eye images of how venues would be spread across the city, with sailing in the shadow of Sugar Loaf mountain and volleyball on Copacabana beach. The governor of the central bank said Brazil's economic vibrancy should reassure IOC members, and the head of Rio state played down concerns over security. But Rio's hardest sell was that the IOC could ignore South America no longer. "It is a time to address this imbalance," Silva said. "It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country." Rio bid president Carlos Nuzman, who is also an IOC member, added: "When you push the button today, you have the chance to inspire a new continent, make Olympic history."
Well, I realize Indian has over a billion people, but I think you have to choose a list that takes into account the breadth of a sport's popularity as well. There are, what, 8 official test cricket countries? Admittedly that counts the West Indies as a country, but you get the point.
I know, but my point is that I am not crying that Chicago didn't get the Olympics like I will be if the USA doesn't get 2018/2022.
wow! Brazil gets the world cup in 2014 and the olympics in 2016? lucky! looks like it's a good time to move to brazil (as long as u don't fall into poverty!! :0 )
Congrats, Brasil! (Why would Chicago think it deserved the games if New York didn't get it for 2012?)
I'm not really "choosing" anything. Popularity is a numbers thing - most popular = most people. If you want to introduce weighting factors like the number of countries that play it then it becomes a lot more subjective. And frankly, its hard enough to work out how many people play/watch a particular sport around the world even before you start messing with the nuimbers like that.
But people only like to use that measure when it backs up their arguments - when you are the "largest" in something then only the raw number matters. If someone else is larger then all of a sudden you need to take other factors into account. J
That is no different than USA 94 and Atlanta 96. I read somewhere that if Brazil won the 2016 bid they would be the 4th nation to host the FIFA World Cup and Summer Olympics back to back.