Football is by far the most popular spectator-sport on the planet but there are countries where the game is not the most followed at all. How about here in Asia?
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Philippines, China(?), Chinese Taipei, Guam, Mongolia all like other irrelevant sports ahead of football.
2014 average attendance in Japan NPB (baseball league) - 26,457 (72 home games) J-League Division 1 - 17,240 (17 home games) J-League Division 2 - 6,589 (21 home games) J-League Division 3 - 2,247 (15 or 16 home games) Baseball has been the most popular sport in Japan ever since the professional league (NPB) began there in the 1920s. I mean NPB has the second highest total attendance among professional sports leagues in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...ports_leagues#Top_leagues_in_total_attendance
Lebanon Basketball > Football You can see a Basketball stadiums full of crowds while their football stadiums near empty. Also I think based on what i watch on news they have a good media coverage on Basketball than Football.
Bangladesh : Cricket India : Cricket Pakistan : Cricket Sri Lanka : Cricket Chinese Taipei : Baseball Japan : Baseball Australia : Australian football Philippines : Basketball Mongolia : Wrestling Cambodia : Volleyball
In the Philippines, football falls far behind basketball and boxing as a spectator sport. Until recently in the modern era, professional football had difficulty getting any traction. Fortunately they now have a year round league the UFL, but still fall far behind basketball in terms of popularity. The local basketball league(PBA) was able to open their 2014 season in the new Philippine Arena in front of more than 50,000 spectators, while the UFL attendance usually number in the hundreds or a few thousands.
Baseball: 11,301 Soccer: 7,932 Keep in mind Baseball team plays 128 games per regular season whereas Soccer team plays 38 AND the price for baseball ticket is more expensive as well. If you flip through the sport channels in Korea you'll only see baseball and it'll probably be the same game as well even though soccer is playing at the same time.
Soccer is probably 4th/5th most popular sport here in Aus...behind Aussie Rules of course, cricket, and possibly Rugby League AND/OR Union.
My opinion only. Cricket is the most popular sport nation wide. Australian Football is the most popular in the southern states, Rugby League the most popular in NSW and QLD. Association footbal has fairly solid support nation wide, but not as strong as the others I've mentioned in any one location. Rugby Union is a minor sport everywhere.
Football is the most popular participation sport in auz but professionally it ranks behind Aussie rules and rugby league. It is in front of cricket in some aspects but behind in most. Rugby union is well behind football Football like cricket has a presence nation wide, but isn't the top dog of any major city or state like Aussie rules(south and west coast of aus) and rugby league(east coast) however these 2 codes while super popular in their areas don't have as much influence in rival states that prefer the other code while like what was said earlier,cricket and football have solid following country wide
Football in Pakistan, is well behind Cricket, though I don't know and can't judge, theres also squash, kabbadi and hockey, all I think more popular then football for the time being.
Their biggest problem is that they don't support their own leagues and teams. I think they should learn from Japan's development. Japan only qualified for their first Asian Cup in 1988, losing all three group games without scoring. But now Japan holds the most Asian Cup titles, qualifies for the World Cup finals every time and has many established players in the top European leagues.
Yea In Lebanon : basketball > football Basektball have more sponsors and more money in Lebanon, for ex Whiteside, Miami player, played in Lebanon..
Football is number one in the country. Their president Xi Jinping is well known as an enthusiastic football fan and thanks to him their league is getting richer.
worked in China and Japan. Football is by far the most watched sport in China and more people play sports like badminton and table tennis. But I don't think sport participation is a good metric to judge popularity..... For example, there are more people playing football than American football, baseball, basketball and hockey in the US. So I would say football is the most popular sport in China. As for Japan, I was surprised that baseball was still far ahead of football in terms of media exposure even though the popularity of their baseball league has been on the decline since they started to allow their top players to sign with MLB teams in the 1990s. Their national football team has captured everyones attention... not so much club teams. J-League/European games are rarely shown on regular tv. Sumo wrestling is still popular and gets higher tv ratings than J-League games.
And Jianzi! I have never in my life seen a sport that is so thoroughly enjoyed by both men and women of all ages and all social backgrounds as the Chinese enjoy Jianzi. But of course you'd never say, "Let's turn on Channel 3 and watch the Jianzi national semifinals."
http://www.worldofstadiums.com Here you can find more information. As you can see, soccer is the most popular sport in almost every country.
With Manny Pacquaio being one of the most popular boxers in the world, the sport of boxing is experiencing a renaissance in the Philippines within the past decade, rivaling and surpassing even basketball as a viewing event. The country literally shuts down when Manny fights with even the rebels and the soldiers having an undeclared ceasefire and the crime rates plummets to almost zero as most of the criminals and the cops that police them glued to their TV. In terms of revenue, the recent Pacquaio-Mayweather fight is setting records for the most lucrative single day sporting event in PPV (pay per view) history. Here was the projected single day revenue prior to the fight compared to other sporting events: Acc. to the latest estimates, the latest estimates for revenue post event are even higher(greater than $500 million) rivaling or possibly surpassing the Super Bowl. http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/i...-pacquiao-fight-shatters-all-live-gate-record "Mayweather could earn $250 million, with Pacquiao set to make more than $120 million. The event will easily soar past $500 million in total revenue, making it by far the richest fight in boxing history." Obviously other world tournaments that last more than a day like the World Cup can be even more lucrative, but for a single day event, this fight you can say has attracted more attention and revenue than any other PPV event in history. As a participation sport though, basketball is still king by a wide margin in the Philippines. The good news though is that football(soccer) is considered the fastest growing sport both in terms of participation and popularity, although coming from a very low level.
It depends one which aspect you look at it... In everything (attendance, TV money, TV ratings) the AFL is king it has the highest of every sport, international cricket is a clear second except for TV money thereafter it's a little more complicated. Rugby league gets the next highest TV money deal about $500 mil more than Cricket even though it gets roughly the same ratings, Cricket gets a much higher attendance and rates just as well as Rugby league. I terms of average attendance Soccer (a-league) slightly edges Rugby League and is a clear third in terms of TV money and ratings. Rugby Union is a massive 4 (maybe even fifth behind netball), in Queensland it's quite popular but most people in Melbourne don't even know what it is, it was a clear loser in the last generation of TV deals and outside of Queensland doesn't rate very well either, occasionally when the Waratahs play the Reds it goes well in NSW but they're more interested in League more than anything, the Sydney derby and MVFC's rivalries with City group, Sydney, Adelaide and WSW garners much more interest. And if you look at it in terms of active participation soccer dominates them all.
btch please...... in iran we don't have to pay a cent to pay for EPL rights, instead IRIB steals the signals of Turkish and Arabic channels