Bye, Bye Baseball after 2008 Olympics

no wrote:

The sport everyone hates is American Football.

As someone who doesn't care much for football, as much as I'd like to agree with this statement, I can't. How do you explain the Super Bowl being the most-watched sporting event in the world? BILLIONS of people around the world watch it.

The finals of the world cup is the most viewed television event. More people watched the last World Cup final than all the super bowls combined. People in Europe have absolutely no interest in Football.

The European Cup (soccer) drew more viewers than the super bowl.

Is that why companies pay 1 mill for a 30second spot during the Superbowl? Because everyone hates it?

Oh here comes all the soccer crap. That sport blows. When one of the designed plays is to fake an injury so the other guy gets thrown out, that sport sucks. You see those soccer jackasses being carted off the field regularly as if they were dead an two minutes later their sprinting down the field. In the NFL if a guy is getting carted off it is atleast season ending and often a life threatening injury. Soccer sucks.

actually, it is $2.5 mil, but since just about everyone in america watches it, it is worth it to them. The comercials are actually the best part of the whole thing. The rest of the world however is a different story. Ever hear of a skill position football player from anywhere other than the US and maybe Canada? Thought so.

How about baseball? Players from all over North, South and Central America as well as parts of Asia.

There was a reason baseball was dropped and it had very little to do with lack of popularity. The Olympics just happen to take place during the MLB season and the best players in the world could not participate. Therefore, it is stupid to have it as an olympic sport.

Soccer is easily the most boring game in the world.

billions watch the super bowl??? where did you get that stat?

i lived in europe for years and could only watch on armed forces network or second day coverage via nbc super channel.

nfl europe only works when located nearby american bases

football with its limited action is just not popular outside the US. a 3 hr telecast has about 8 - 9 minutes of actual playtime, that does not work in places where most people would never think of spending more than an hour a day watching the tube

Actually it's 60 minutes of playing time.

Ethan Farrell wrote:

Luckily we will get to watch ballroom dancing instead.

Not in the Olympics...

METERS wrote:

Baseball is yet another American sport the rest of the world hates.

Hates or is indifferent to?

You might want to see Venezuala, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Japan and more Latin American countries unless they are not part of the rest of the world.

In general you are right that a chunk of the world does not care and that much of it has never seen a game. Who cares?

How many people really care about track and field?

drunk wrote:

Actually it's 60 minutes of playing time.

It is 60 minutes of clock time, but get a stopwatch and track the action time. Let's say from breaking the huddle to the time the play is whistled dead. If you really want to you can also time the play from the snap to the whistle.

I really like college football-during the football season that is how I spend a lot of Saturday and yet a great line about football comes from George Will. It might be exactly right, but...

"Football combines the two worst aspects of American culture: violence and committee meetings".

How much real action is there in soccer? I still love "The Simpsons" where they go to a soccer match and two guys just kick the ball back and forth. Soccer is a fine game; I just do not want to watch it.

60 minutes of playing time or 60 minutes of a clock running? There is a lot of standing around with the clock running especially late in the game. In a given game, there are about 150 plays at between 5 and 10 seconds a play that's less than 30 minutes of actual playing and probably closer to 15. exciting huh?

True. But yes, it is exciting. But then, I played football for years so I'm biased

I just love these sorts of threads because they sometimes reinforce the "ignorant, arrogant American" stereotype, the guy who thinks that anything which exists beyond the borders is of no consequence. (OK, I happen to like dark, sardonic humor.)

Folks, football may be number one in the USA, but even if every single man, woman, and child in the country watched the Superbowl, that's still only 5% of the global population.

I agree that American football is not one of the world's most popular sports, soccer definately is. And it doens't take anything to play other than a ball and some open space, so it is much more accessible.

But estimated put Superbowl 2002 viewers at 800 million. That's a hell of a lot of people. And the bottom line for any sports league is money. So in that regard, American football has a good amount of clout.

FACT

soccer is the worlds favourite game

FACT

more people watch the world cup final than any other event, sporting or otherwise

FACT

soccer is played in more countries around the world tahn any other sport

FACT

American football is shit, stop start stop start, its Rugby for pussys, someone here complained about soccer stars reacting to injuries, maybe we should wrap the players up in ole vault crash matts like these overpaid over weight fatties in 'Gridiron'.

Olympics is about sports which are universal, hell in the uk we could introduce polo or croquet or tiddlywinks, but we don't asthey are not 'global' sports. the thing is Baseball is your home sport and you still never win it!

I just love these sorts of threads because they sometimes reinforce the "ignorant, arrogant anti-American" stereotype

Try playing american football without pads, and get back to me.

FACT

soccer is boring as shit

yes, we should only play sports that the rest of the world likes so they will all be our friends