Probably it was just a case of there not being enough voters from Baseball/softball playing areas to make it make the cut. The implication was that all sports get voted on Apparently not having those events will save £50 million, according to the BBC.
I agree! men's/women's baseball/softball should be reinstated! maybe.... they should drop soccer instead! Ducks head!
It really come down to one factor cost. Unless the games are in the US, Japan, South Korea, or Canada the host nation would have to build facilities to host it. Athens showed cost cutting by just having one permanent stadium each for baseball and softball. The sports in line to replace it don't have that much overhead.
Baseball will survive just fine w/o the Olympics, but softball will be hurt badly. Well, at least the British and the Euro's won't have to worry about getting their butts handed to them by a bunch of Latin's, Yanks, and Asians.
I'm not sure what your point is here. Old Fulton County stadium was always going to be replaced after the Olympics because the Olympic stadium was converted into a state of the art baseball facility...now called Turner Field. The fact that it was replaced has nothing to do with baseball's popularity as a sport in the Olympics or in Atlanta.
If MLB would have allowed their players to play in the Olympics, it would have survived. But why have a competition with minor leaguers in a sport already without wide international popularity? As for softball, those US ladies would have been well served last year to at least let a few teams to play them close. By winning every game and outscoring their opponents 51-1, they just proved the point that there is not enough international competition in softball.
Being popular in one and a half countries anyone has ever heard of is one thing. But being so arrogant as not to even bother sending its best players is mind-boggling. How can anyone have the gall to be outraged at this decision? Baseball has made no effort at all to prove it deserves inclusion. The fact that it survived this long is a miracle.
Not a very good comparison, since winter sports by nature has less worldwide appeal than equivalent summer sports.
Not picking on you, shurik, but once upon a time, only amateurs were allowed in the Olympics (yeah, I know, the rules were widely flaunted). The whole principle of the founding of the modern Games, the whole Olympic ideal was tied to the spirit of competition- now it's just "Win, baby win". All we care about is medal count and the great international pissing match. How about this- let's get rid of all the team sports, do away with national teams, and let the best athletes in each remaining event compete without regard to nationality. Why do we not do this? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ It's all about the money. That's what is killing the Olympics.
There is no way on Earth baseball has as much popularity as ice hockey. IIHF has 45 member nations. The best hockey countries are US, Canada, Russia (the third most populous nation in the world, thank you very much), Czech Republic, Sovakia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Latvia and Belarus. Besides the US and Japan, what is the value of baseball besides giving Dominican Republic and excuse to have an Olympic Committee?
Right, but that tells you no one, including the US, has any real need for an Olympic-sized baseball facility. So when you eliminate baseball/softball, there's one less venue you have to build.
Don't know why they're cutting baseball. Maybe they're ditching it in favor of Cricket, now that the games are in London. But they're adding Golf, which is also an American sport.
The last time Olympics were about amateurism was... well, I wanted to name a BC date, but the correct answer is probably never. Baseball is an extremely unpopular sport. For a sport of its status the whole idea behind Olympic participation is to expand its popularity. Not bothering to send its best players is peeing all over that idea. In effect, baseball excluded itself. The only people being anti-American here are American baseball officials who said "Screw the Olympics".
Actually, the concept of amateurism was created by "sportsmen" to keep working class riff raffs out of sports. Soccer used to be this way too. The whole amateur-professional divide was one big sham, but thanks to a clever bit of marketing, not being compensated for money-making events became a virtue, something Olympic and Rugby Union viewers bought for a very long time. The good old days were never that good, just old.
So? If this was the deciding factor, the Olympics would've had World Championship Hog Calling and Team Harakiri a long time ago.
Basketball is different. It's a real sport with world-wide popularity, and America is the best by far. So it's the IOC's responsibility to be more accomodating to America and not the other way around. But in any event, no worries, basketball will be there, for a long long time.
I know you like to kid Shurik, but baseball is also quite popular in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Taiwan, South Korea, Nicaragua and Panama - and has seen players come from Australia, the Netherlands Antilles and Colombia. Hockey is bigger, but you can't seriously be telling me that those 45 IIHF nations are all serious hockey countries? What was the score of the last Mexico-South Africa tilt in the IIHF World Championship Tier 3 spectacular?Apart from the countries you named, I can't think of any other places that have supplied NHL players except for Poland and Ukraine. Let's be united in saying that Golf is far stupider than baseball and has less basis for inclusion in the Olympics. Stupid ********ing golf.
Why are you (and everyone else) comparing a Summer Games event to a Winter Games event? Of course a winter event has few participants. No ********.
We sent our 10th team the other time. And still gave them a run for their money. Next time we'll send our 5th team to teach them a lesson.
I think you missed my point. The Americans have pretty well shunned basketball for the last two Olympics. Pro teams don't want to send their star players for fear of injury, and some of the top players consider it beneath them to play for free. Witness the debacle in Athens last year.