Sports like rugby seeing rise in popularity in the USA
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When it comes to sports television in America, the three sports that rule the airwaves are football, baseball and basketball.
Other sports like hockey, tennis and golf can be found on basic cable and sometimes network TV for bigger events. But they’re still considered secondary sports by most American sports fans.
NFL is by far the most popular television sport in America. The most recent Super Bowl between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots in Indianapolis had over 111 million viewers, making it the most watched Super Bowl in NFL history.
People all over America even plan a home theater design around the big game each year and spend tons of money on parties surrounding the event.
There are some other sports like football, rugby and cricket that are gaining popularity in certain parts of the United States. There was a time where one would probably be made fun of in school for playing one of these sports.
But, with the ability to stream these sports on the Internet and more and more channels popping up from dish and cable TV providers comes increased access to all different kinds of sporting events. Americans are starting to discover and enjoy watching these events.
Football – football has seen a huge increase in popularity in America as the United States World Cup team continues to improve and get farther and farther in the tournament each time. The U.S. has also made a strong push to improve the popularity of the sport through youth organisations over the last couple of decades as well.
The MLS has even made strides to sign top world players like David Beckham to bring an international audience to the league and increase its visibility. Teams like Seattle have rabid fan-bases that often sell out games, which is something that has never happened before in a professional soccer league in America.
Cricket – This is a sport I first learned of while watching the John Goodman movie “King Ralph”. It probably wins the award for the sport that has seemingly no presence in America despite being absolutely huge in countries like India, Pakistan and England.
It’s practically non-existent on TV in America and the only way you can find it is by streaming it online. The popularity of baseball makes it hard for this sport to gain a footing in the U.S.
Rugby – Rugby is more popular than cricket in the U.S. In recent years, high schools all over the country have started rugby club programs and the sport recently secured the first major TV deal so Americans could watch the most recent Rugby World Cup played on TV.
Rugby has a shot to become even more popular as the problems with concussions continue to rise in American football and more and more high school students continue to play the sport competitively.
Americans love sports. They love to compete and they love to win. The best way to get these under-the-radar sports to have a larger TV audience and become more popular in America is to put a winner on the field.
Part of the reason soccer has had such a slow growth over the years is that the U.S. has been generally a non-factor in every major soccer event like the World Cup and the Olympics. The same goes for rugby and cricket. The TV audience comes with public interest.
By developing youth programs and getting the top athletes to shirk football, basketball and baseball in favour of these sports, the U.S. will have better results and the popularity will increase exponentially.
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The Crowd Says (6) | Page 1 of Comments
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May 17th 2012 @ 2:36am
King of the Gorgonites said | May 17th 2012 @ 2:36am | Report comment
Nice article. Really interested in how rugby will develop in the us in coming years, especially as their is now sevens in the Olympics.
May 17th 2012 @ 4:21am
Gavin said | May 17th 2012 @ 4:21am | Report comment
Hi,
Great article. I am particularly interested in the growth of rugby here in the States. I am a former pro rugby player from Ireland but now I coach rugby in the US. It is the fastest growing team sport in the country and, that growth looks set to continue.
Fingers crossed….
May 17th 2012 @ 5:12am
peeeko said | May 17th 2012 @ 5:12am | Report comment
i have always loved the line “fastest growing sport” it is currently being used in ads for the lingerie football league in Australia. i have been in the USA for the past nine months and soccer gets some decent coverage but rugby and cricket are very minor sports, expecially cricket. rugby may grow slightly but dont expect it to be “exponential” as stated in the article. Also ice hockey is pretty much in the same league as the big 3 especially in the north. The US like to do things their own way, they have their own sports, still write cheques, still dont use the metric system or celsius and write dates back to front
May 17th 2012 @ 7:08am
GeoffP said | May 17th 2012 @ 7:08am | Report comment
As an American now living in Australia, the growth of rugby has shocked me a bit. I’ve always been aware of cricket thanks to the Pakistani family that lived in our street when I was young. Rugby has always had a presence as it is often referred to as the father of american football and it has always been played in colleges. What has really shocked me is the fact that it has become a legitimate high school and junior sport. I never thought I would see the day where the college rugby championships would be shown on NBC. The program of rookie rugby has been an amazing success and won an American sports award.
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May 17th 2012 @ 10:06am
Johnno said | May 17th 2012 @ 10:06am | Report comment
Great article megan I am so happy rugby in the USA is developing I hope it gets bigger and bigger, as rugby marches towards being a truly global sports. 7evens rugby being in the Olympics is helping that march.
But markets like USA/Canada,Russia/Argentina/Brazil/JapanChina/india/mexico/Germany these type of nations rugby union is developing nicely and will really help the sport as big populations and tv ratings $$$$.
May 19th 2012 @ 12:27am
KNACKERS said | May 19th 2012 @ 12:27am | Report comment
Interesting to see how one can linguistically tie oneself up in ambiguous knots when calling soccer football in a discussion of the US sports scene
Now what country does that remind you of ?
Maybe that’s why the English language has a number of words for the various forms of the generic term ” football ” ( rather like Eskimos have a nunber of terms for types of ” snow ” )