The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

There's always talk about a new sport coming in and establishing a presence in the US and there's also talk about beloved sports losing favor.  Do you think that we're stuck with the same major sports or do you think that we'll add some new ones?  If we do add new ones, will one of our major sports have to fall off?

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I think that certain sports will remain at a steady level of popularity.  They will neither gain full popularity with the masses, nor drop off.  These include mostly individual sports, like Tennis and Golf.

I think that the major team sports, like Baseball and Football and stuff will likely shift among themselves over the years, but will all maintain a large share of interest.  This includes hockey, that's probably at a low-point right now.

Nascar is the best example of a "new" sport to establish mainstream popularity. 

I think that other possibilities are soccer and MMA, in the next 30 years.

The only sport I see in danger of losing what it once had is boxing.

NASCAR is actually dropping in popularity in a scary fashion.

I can see that.

I watched quite a bit of Nascar 2 years ago.  I wasn't diehard or anything, but I used to put it on at home while I either worked on my laptop or took a nap.  It had gotten pretty big.  I still watch from time to time, but it seems like every time I catch it, it's a rain delay.

if you have something on TV while taking a nap, does that till count as "watching it?"

I don't see anything on the rise to the point I would call it a major sport. Although NASCAR has had decreasing ratings, they are still high when considering other sports events so I don't see them dropping out either. I think for the time being what we have is all there will be.

I watch it until I fall asleep...that's kinda what I meant.  The monotonous buzzing of the cars is relaxing, up until the hillbillies start screaming about a wreck, in which case, I wake up.  It's a pretty good system.

MMA will replace boxing.

Football will always be king sport.  Baseball is on a serious decline because of the steroid fiasco. 

^^ I disagree with this.  Seems to me that Baseball is pretty damn popular.  I don't care what players took steroids 5 or 8 years ago, as long as they're not doing it now...

Please feel free to stop talking out of your ass.

2008's MLB attendance was the highest in the HISTORY of the game at 78,614,880.  

The staggering aspect of that?  The ballparks of today are smaller (seating wise).  Teams like Cleveland, Milwaukee, both NY teams, Baltimore, etc...all playing in parks less than 20 years old.  All with less capacity than the previous homes they played in.  

Lakefront seated 74,438 for baseball, the Jake seats 43,515.  
Memorial seated 53,371 and Camden Yards 48,876.
Milwaukee County Stadium seated 53,192 and Miller Park seats 41,900.
Tiger Stadium seated 52,416 and Comerica seats 41,782.

Baseball's overall attendance since 1999 has grown by almost 9,000,000...and with smaller parks to sit in.

There is nothing in "serious decline" in regards to MLB.  Feel free to look beyond the ratings of the Phillies and Rays WS before you start spouting off amazingly incorrect things.

TV ratings for this year are up slighly on a national basis and up dramatically in larger markets.  The Texas Rangers, for example, are pulling staggering numbers on TV (and thriving at the gate).

Are numbers dropping off this season.  Of course.  In case you haven't noticed there is this thing called a recession going on.  The drop in numbers this season (which every sport including football is going to experience) has nothing to do with the vitality of the sport.

^^^

The new Yankee Stadium is smaller than the old one? I don't know one way or the other, but I just can't believe it.

To me there are some sports that I like to play,but hate to watch....Basketball,Golf,Swimming/diving...and hell even poker....
So I'm a little confused if it matters,in the sense of what professional sport will take off,or more people play..What's the criteria...

A few years ago, the next big thing was Texas hold'em....It was everywhere,and it's dying as fast as it boomed...

I remember (soccer guys) telling me 20 years ago when I was a kid "Soccer is growing in America,look at all the kids playing youth soccer" I don't see all the kids playing = Great Soccer in America.....I want to believe that the better the American teams do in international competitions,the bigger soccer gets,but the women Won the world cup,and have won gold in the olympics.....So I think unless the US is good constantly, I see soccer still a feel good story every few years,then it fades away.....

The X games....Was supposed to be the next big thing....They're a Blip now....

I think,the sport that will almost disappear big time sport (that's not already been mentioned),is open wheel racing....I feel with racing there is too much division,drag racing,dirt track,oval,drag racing,Stadium,baja...

Yep, it's smaller.  At one point in time the old stadium seated over 80,000 for a game.  It's been made smaller over time. 

Old Yankee Stadium, 2008 capacity = 56,936
New Yankee Stadium = 52,325

^ New Busch is smaller than the old one.

On a different subject:

As for soccer.  It has never been anything but a nice sport and I don't see it gaining widespread popularity in this country ever.  There is no good explaination for it but I think people find it boring because it is not a high scoring game.  If you don't understand the fine points of it, it probably is boring.  NASL and MISL had their moments but they eventually faded.  I love the sport and wish it were more popular here but I just don't see it happening anytime soon.

the NHL is on the rise.  the lockout was actually pretty good for the sport.  it forced rule changes, which opened up the offense and made the game more fun and fast paced.  add to that the fact that the recent trend of drafting european players is starting to pay dividends.  there is a HUGE wave of exciting, skilled, and YOUNG players.  the NHL also has a ton of domestic young stars establishing themselves.  the next few years will definitely be exciting as we see the next generation of the NHL ready to take over.

Baseball Football Basketball and Hockey are going to flip-flop among themselves, and then if you want to fill out a top five it's going to go back and forth between NASCAR and maybe Golf or Soccer or MMA or who the hell knows. 

NASCAR's (and all of auto racing, F1, Indycar, NHRA) shit has hit the fan and I don't think its popularity will go back up anytime soon, even if Danica starts winning and all their driver diversity stuff pans out. 

What's the reason behind the Nascar fall?

I don't watch as much just for circumstantial reasons...rain, busy, etc.  ...not that I don't enjoy it if it's on.

The fall of NASCAR may be a bit overstated in this thread. I think their television ratings are right up there and are still higher than some of the other sports. The interest in the sport peaked and is now leveling off. some people just jump on board when things are popular. I think we are seeing the effect of a nation full of viewers just like Dave.

It isn't that NASCAR is in decline as much as they pissed a lot of us old-timers off with their recent round of changes. 

Changes in rules/competition format/marketing etc. are a regular part of any auto-racing body.  They went for the new audience so quick that they left a lot of us in the dust and apparently forgot or didn't realize we're the ones that spend most of the money.

Plus it doesn't help that they invented the Chase format to prevent Jeff Gordon from winning every year and now Jimmy Johnson is winning it every year. 

I'm fine with the changes Nascar made, but there's still a problem of having races not matter down the stretch as much as they should.  It seems like every time I turn on the TV, they're stopping the action for rain, track conditions, or competition cautions or something.

I've watched more NASCAR this season than ever in my life, so I see it as growing in popularity.

Sports in general...definitely on the way up.

lollerskates.  Must be fun just spouting incorrect knowledge such as this tidbit. The poker boom happened in 2003 when the WPT was created along with Chris Moneymaker winning the WSOP with new hole card cams for television broadcasts.  Has the popularity peaked, yes probably.  Is it dying as fast as it boomed, lol, obviously not. 

World Series of Poker Main Event Entrants
1999 - 393
2000 - 512
2001 - 613
2002 - 631
2003 - 839 (poker boom)
2004 - 2576
2005 - 5619
2006 - 8773
2007 - 6358
2008 - 6844
2009 - 6494

This year close to 1500 people were turned away on the last day to enter since the day was already sold out at 2700 people.  Anyways, lol at your comment.

I watch all of the WSOP every year.

I really enjoy it.

There are more poker shows on TV now than ever before, so it's hard to say that poker is in decline right now. I use ESPN's WSOP broadcasts as filler-tube. If nothing else is on that's worth watching, I'll flip it to the WSOP.

People entring the tournament...Dosen't mean jack didly fuck.....Love the cherry picking a stat,that doesn't mean shit...That's like saying there's now 300 Poker webstires,while in 2004 there were only ten....It's meaningless...Lol...

There aren't the the 20 different shows on T.V. showing texas hold em..Where are all the Celebrities playing texas hold'em shows? Poker dome...all those shows...they're gone....The Poker Boom died as fast as it appeared......

celebrity poker lol.  that is like saying basketball is on the decline cause they don't have rock and jock bball anymore.

There are still plenty of poker shows on tv.  http://pokertube.com/TvShows.aspx

omg,Where's RTW's Laughing smiley now...a list made of mainly shows that aren't on the air anymore.......Thank you for making my point.....

Boxing is Dead to me.   MMA woot woot   ;D ;D

Watching poker is as boring as watching frogs mate.

before the boom there was the wsop main event on 1 time a year for a 2 hour broadcast.  Now there show multiple events from the worst series of poker, poker after dark is on every night, high stakes cash game is on once a week, wpt is on once a week.  surprisingly the european poker tour isn't on tv in the us, neither is the irish open.  but yea, poker is dead. lol,

Modified by Maine.  Feel free to leave personal insults out of your posts.  Next time the entire post is deleted. Let's all play nice, please.