Popularity of other sports in your home country

[frightwig]

I periodically see the thread here which discusses the popularity of soccer relative to other sports in the US, how it could become more popular, more accepted in the media, and whether it could ever rival one of the Big Four, etc. But I wonder, how popular are other sports relative to The Beautiful Game in other countries?

Yesterday I was watching some of a cricket match on FSW (a game I've never seen before except in highlight clips), and I wondered how popular the game really is in Australia or England, or anywhere else. Are cricket and rugby really big in England, are they just as popular as soccer/football? What other sports are considered Major sports there? Golf? Auto racing? Track and field?

How would you rank the popularity of the major sports in your own home country? Are there other sports which capture your interest about as much, or more, than this game?

[aloisius]

I would say that popularity of soccer in Europe is equal to total popularity of football, baseball and basketball in USA. So the sport that is the second most popular is a very distant second. There are some exceptions. Basketball is no.1 in the Baltic states. Hockey is on top in Scandinavia and very close to top in Russia. Basketball is also huge in Greece. The atmosphere in the Olympiakos-Panathaniakos games is insane.

[denver_mugwamp]

...sports that are very popular in home country but which they don't play well. An example would be the huge popularity of the NBA and its star players all over Mexico, Central America and South America. As another example, at one time it seemed that everyone in England had a favorite NFL and MLB team and you'd see people wearing their clothing on the London subway. There seems to be a lot of parallels bewteen this and the popularity of Man U and Real Madrid in the US.

[AvidSinger]

Well here's my uninformed guesses as to what sports, not counting football, are most popular (based on viewership and/or participation) in various countries:

Australia: Australian Football
Brazil: Basketball
Canada: Ice Hockey
China: Swimming & Diving
Costa Rica: Boxing
Cuba: Baseball
Dominican Republic: Baseball
England: Cricket
Finland: Ski Jumping
France: Basketball
Germany: Ice Hockey
India: Field Hockey
Ireland: Hurling
Lithuania: Basketball
Japan: Baseball
Netherlands: Field Hockey
New Zealand: Rugby
Norway: Skiing
Mexico: Boxing
Pakistan: Field Hockey
Puerto Rico: Boxing
Russia: Ice Hockey
Scotland: Golf
South Korea: Taekwondo
Spain: Basketball
Sri Lanka: Cricket
Sweden: Team Handball
Switzerland: Skiing
USA: American football
Wales: Cricket
Yugoslavia: Basketball

[comme]

In England football is the main sport. It is on the back pages of every news paper and is the most watched by a mile.

Cricket is very popular in summer, and also people like to watch the winter tours, but because the season only runs from April-September, it cannot rival football.

Rugby Union is not that popular in England, alot of people watch the national team, but club rugby is not very popular. It is a very middle class sport and is confined to the south of England. Most people have never played rugby in their lives.

Rugby League is confined to the north of England and is less popular than rugby union.

Golf is popular, but more as a sport to be played than to watch. the British Open and rider Cup draw alot of viewers, but other than that not much.

[Dandal]

Corrections(?) and additions
Originally posted by AvidSinger
Finland: Ski Jumping
Sweden: Team Handball

Despite more successfull participation in these sports, ice hockey is the second (in Finland perhaps the first) sport when it comes to viewing and media exposure.

Originally posted by AvidSinger
India: Field Hockey
Pakistan: Field Hockey

I'm pretty sure cricket is bigger in both countries. I think asking "What do kids play in the street?" often gives you the right answer.

And the second sport in South Africa is rugby.

[comme]

Continued.

Motor racing is fairly popular, but mainly formula one.

Athletics is popular, but is obviously confined to the summer.

Basketball is moderately popular, but only the NBA, people don't really like the BBL.

Ice hockey is fairly popular, but mainly the British teams not the NHL.

Baseball is completely neglected, it is seen as a glorified games of rounders, and the poor man's cricket.

American football was quite big for a while, but is now pretty dead.

In Wales rugby is the national game, although football is taking over.

[SportBoy333]

In Australia Aussie Rules is most popular in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania. While Rugby League is 1# in Queensland, New South Wales, and the ACT.

[RichardL]

In England football really does massively dwarf any other sport, but Rugby and Cricket are very big when it comes to international matches. Top division Rugby Union matches are generally at the 5-10 thousand level. Rugby League, with a slightly bigger top division, varies slightly more at both ends of the scale. Rugby (of both codes) gets a lot more covrage in the papers these days after SKY got the TV rights, and therefore extra coverage in the Murdoch owned papers. (Ice) hockey & basketball have lower support and attract little or no interest except among the committed. The cricket county championship draws very poor support with the exception of a few games, but the sunday league gets a few thousand.
Formula 1 gets good ratings and the Silverstone GP is always the highest attended sporting event in the country.

As for participation football is again No.1 by a mile. I've never seen a single kid playing rugby in my life, but then again I'm not from a rugby area. Cricket seems to have slumped a bit in popularity, but you do need a fair bit of space to play it (no, games don't last 5 days when kids play). You do see a few more basketball hoops about these days, but it's still uncommon to see them being used. Ice Hockey is nearly impossible to play and there is incredibly little public ice (England doesn't get cold enough for ponds to freeze over).

[dm3mdgtr]

comme, when you say athletics do you mean it as track and field? Just curious.

[classicalmusic]

Originally posted by AvidSinger
Well here's my uninformed guesses as to what sports, not counting football, are most popular (based on viewership and/or participation) in various countries:


India: Field Hockey






You must be seriously out of your mind to say field hockey is the most popular sport in India. It is cricket all the way. It is not even close. The situation is the same in Pakistan.

[classicalmusic]

Originally posted by Dandal

And the second sport in South Africa is rugby.



In South Africa there is a clear-cut racial divide when it comes to sports preference. With whites, rugby and cricket are more popular. For blacks, soccer is the preferred sport.

[freis]

In Europe, soccer is by far the most important sport. In Portugal there are other sports wich have some importance, most of them are sports in wich we are very good, like roller hockey, sailing, beach Volley, beach Soccer, athletics and motor sports. But soccer is without a doubt the most import sport.

[persiantiger]

In Iran , Wrestling is our number 1 sport

[Bauvafa]

Speaking of wrestling, the World Championship in freestyle is coming up in NYC. Anyone knows of a good discussion board about the event?

[vico]

in sweden ice hockey is the second sport after soccer followed by handball

basketball is not very popular over here

in peru the second most popular sport is volleyball the female volleyball team is the second most popular national team after the men's soccer team

[Parkhead_Faithful]

We have other sports? ;)

[Ronaldo+10]

Originally posted by AvidSinger
Well here's my uninformed guesses as to what sports, not counting football, are most popular (based on viewership and/or participation) in various countries:
Brazil: Basketball
Canada: Ice Hockey

I don't know, i think volleyball is more popular then basketball in Brazil, mostly because of the national team. Altough the 2 would be very close.

[EasyStreet]

Originally posted by classicalmusic
You must be seriously out of your mind to say field hockey is the most popular sport in India. It is cricket all the way. It is not even close. The situation is the same in Pakistan.

Filed Hockey in India haa haa What a joke. Cricket is by far the most pouplar.

[Frank Cunha]

In Portugal Roller Hockey, Team Handball, Cycling, Basketball are profissional sports beside Soccer