Sports form an important part of the culture of the United States. The four most popular team sports are ones that developed in North America: American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey. The major leagues of these sports, the National Football League (NFL), the Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) enjoy massive media exposure and are considered the preeminent competitions in their respective sports in the world. Three of those leagues have teams that represent Canadian cities, and all four are among the most lucrative sports leagues in the world. Soccer (association football) is less popular as a spectator sport in the United States than it is in many other countries, though it has wide participation in amateur and semi-professional levels, particularly among youths and people of Mexican and Central American descent.
Professional teams in all major sports operate as franchises within a league. All major sports leagues use the same type of schedule with a playoff tournament after the regular season ends. In addition to the major league-level organizations, several sports also have professional minor leagues.
Sports are particularly associated with education in the United States, with most high schools and universities having organized sports. College sports competitions play an important role in the American sporting culture. In many cases college athletics are more popular than professional sports, with the major sanctioning body being the NCAA.
Team sport
American football
American football, known within the country as simply football, has the most participants of any sport at both high school[1] and college levels.[2]
The NFL is the preeminent professional football league in the United States. Through expansion teams and the landmark merger with the American Football League in 1970, the NFL has reached its current mark of 32 franchises divided into two conferences. After a 16-game regular season, each conference sends six teams to the NFL Playoffs, which eventually culminate in the league's championship game, the Super Bowl.
Millions watch college football throughout the fall months, and some communities, particularly in rural areas, place great emphasis on their local high school football teams. The popularity of college and high school football in areas such as the Southern United States and the Great Plains stems largely from the fact that these areas historically generally did not possess markets large enough for a professional team[citation needed]. Nonetheless, college football has a rich history in the United States, predating the NFL by decades, and fans and alumni are generally very passionate about their teams.
Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest annual sporting event held in the United States. The Super Bowl itself is always among the highest-rated programs annually in the Nielsen ratings. Some notable players include Joe Montana, Jim Brown, Roger Staubach, Brett Favre, Dick Butkus, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Greene, Dan Marino, Troy Aikman, Otto Graham, Emmitt Smith, John Elway, Jerry Rice, Fran Tarkenton, Kurt Warner, Johnny Unitas and Lawrence Taylor. Some notable current NFL players include Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Ray Lewis, Tony Romo, Tom Brady, Brian Urlacher, Adrian Peterson, Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers, Calvin Johnson, Michael Vick, Jared Allen, Ben Roethlisberger, Wes Welker and Andre Johnson.
Arena football, a form of football played in indoor arenas, has a professional league, the Arena Football League. The original league was active from 1987 to 2008 and folded in 2009, but several teams from the AFL and its former minor league, af2, relaunched the league in 2010. Several semi-professional leagues, mostly regional in nature, also exist.
Baseball
The World Series of Major League Baseball is the culmination of the sport's postseason each October. It is played between the winner of each of the two leagues, the American League and the National League, and the winner is determined through a best-of-seven playoff.
Notable American baseball players in history include Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Roberto Clemente, Hank Greenberg, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Al Kaline, Stan Musial, Pete Rose, Hank Aaron, Nolan Ryan, Mike Schmidt, Honus Wagner, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and Jackie Robinson, who was instrumental in dissolving the color line and allowing African-Americans into the major leagues. Today, some of the notable American players include Derek Jeter, Josh Hamilton, Ryan Braun, Chase Utley, Joe Mauer, Roy Halladay, Alex Rodriguez, Carl Crawford, Tim Lincecum.
Baseball and the variant, softball, are also popular participatory sports in the U.S. However, unlike American football, baseball is also popular in many other countries, notably Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Latin American countries such as the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Venezuela.
These countries are represented well in Major League Baseball today by players such as Hideki Matsui, Magglio Ordóñez, David Ortiz, Albert Pujols (born in the Dominican Republic, but developed in the U.S. and a naturalized American), Iván Rodríguez, Johan Santana, and Ichiro Suzuki. Canada, where baseball developed in tandem with the U.S., is also well represented in MLB with players such as past greats Ferguson Jenkins and Larry Walker and current stars John Axford, Jason Bay, Russell Martin, Justin Morneau, and Joey Votto.
Basketball
Basketball was invented in 1891 by Canadian-born physical education teacher James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts. Of those Americans citing their favorite sport, basketball is ranked second (counting amateur levels) behind football. However, in regards to professional sports, basketball, or the NBA, is ranked third.[3]
The National Basketball Association, more popularly known as the NBA, is the world's premier men's professional basketball league and one of the major professional sports leagues of North America. It contains 30 teams (29 teams in the U.S. and 1 in Canada) that play an 82-game season from October to June. After the regular season, eight teams from each conference compete in the playoffs for the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. The American Basketball Association, active from 1967 until 1976, when it merged with the NBA, was the last major competitor of the NBA.
Notable NBA players in history include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Magic Johnson, Bob Cousy, Pete Maravich, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, John Stockton, Julius Erving, Shaquille O'Neal, and Jerry West, whose silhouette is featured on the NBA's logo. Notable players in the NBA today include Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Pau Gasol, Dwyane Wade, Paul Pierce, Carmelo Anthony, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Love, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Ray Allen, Jason Kidd, Blake Griffin and Amar'e Stoudemire.
In the past decade, an increasing number of players born outside the United States have signed with NBA teams, sparking league interest in different parts of the world. Among the notable foreign-born players in the NBA today are two-time MVP Steve Nash (a South Africa-born Canadian), Peja Stojakovic (Serbia), Andrei Kirilenko (Russia), Andrea Bargnani (Italy), Žydrūnas Ilgauskas (Lithuania), Yao Ming (China), 2007 Finals MVP Tony Parker (France), Gasol brothers Pau and Marc (Spain), Manu Ginóbili (Argentina), and Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), who was the first European player to win the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. Notable retired foreign-born players include Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria), who won an MVP award, two Defensive Player of the Year awards, and two Finals MVP awards, and Dikembe Mutumbo (DR Congo), who has won four Defensive Player of the Year awards.
Since the 1992 Summer Olympics, NBA players have represented the United States in international competition and won several important tournaments. The Dream Team was the unofficial nickname of the United States men's basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics.
Like American football, basketball at both the college and high school levels is quite popular throughout the country. Every March, a 68-team, six-round, single-elimination tournament determines the national champions of NCAA Division I men's college basketball.
Most U.S. states also crown state champions among their high schools. Also like American football, many high school basketball teams have intense local followings, especially in the Midwest and Upper South. In states like Indiana and Kentucky, it is common for local high school basketball teams to play in gyms that seat more than 5,000 spectators, even in the more rural areas.[4] Indiana alone has 10 of the 12 largest high school gyms in the United States and is famous for its basketball passion, famously known as Hoosier Hysteria.
More Americans play basketball than any other team sport, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.
Netball, a derivative of basketball invented in the United States and usually played by women, is popular in Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the West Indies.
Ice hockey
Ice hockey is another popular sport in the United States. Originating from North America, the sport is commonly referred to simply as "hockey." In the U.S. the game is most popular in regions of the country with a cold winter climate, namely New England, the northern half of the Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest, including the states of Alaska, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. However, since the 1990s hockey has become increasingly popular in the Sun Belt due in large part to the expansion of the National Hockey League to cities like Anaheim, California; Tampa, Florida; Dallas, Texas; Raleigh, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and Phoenix, Arizona.
The NHL is the major professional hockey league in North America, with 23 U.S.-based teams and 7 Canadian-based teams competing for the Stanley Cup. Other professional leagues in the U.S. include the American Hockey League and the ECHL. Additionally, nine U.S.-based teams compete in the three member leagues of the Canadian Hockey League.
USA Hockey is the official governing body for amateur hockey in the U.S. The United States Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Eveleth, Minnesota.
Although hockey does not enjoy the same popularity as football, baseball and basketball in the U.S., one of the nation's greatest ever sporting moments came during the 1980 Winter Olympics when the U.S. hockey team beat the Soviet Union 4–3 in the first game of the medal round before going on to beat Finland to claim the gold medal. The game has since been called the "Miracle on Ice". Over the course of the last few years, many Americans have become more familiar with the great excitement, speed, and physical play of hockey, and it is gaining on the NBA in terms of popularity and is slowly becoming a more familiar sport to the average American family.
Historically, the vast majority of NHL players had come from Canada, with a small handful of Americans; only one European-trained player made his NHL debut during the 1942–67 Original Six era. After the NHL doubled in size in 1967, this began to change. During the 1970s and 1980s, the number of American-trained players dramatically increased, and the first wave of European players entered the league, mostly from Sweden and Finland with a number of defectors from the then-Communist states of Eastern Europe.
After the fall of communism in Europe, many players from the former Soviet bloc flocked to the NHL, primarily from the Czech Republic, Russia, and Slovakia. Western European players also significantly increased their presence following the fall of communism. The late first decade of the 21st century saw another surge in the number of American-trained players. Today, a slight majority of NHL players are Canadian, slightly more than 20% are Americans, and virtually all of the remainder are European-trained. (For a more complete discussion, see Origin of NHL players.) Notable NHL players in history include Wayne Gretzky, Eddie Shore, Stan Mikita, Guy Lafleur, Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, Dominik Hasek and Bobby Orr. Famous NHL players today include Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Martin Brodeur, Joe Thornton, Chris Pronger, Ryan Miller, Henrik Lundqvist, Patrick Kane, Brad Richards, Mike Richards, Derek Roy, Roberto Luongo, Patrick Sharp, Jonathan Toews and Ryan Getzlaf.
Soccer
Main articles: Soccer in the United States, Major League Soccer, North American Soccer League, USL Pro
Soccer, commonly known as "football" (see names for association football) in countries where they normally don't wear shoes, is the least popular of the five sports traditionally considered major in the United States, although it has gained an increasing following in recent years, and is extremely popular as a children's sport, but has not yet reached the international popularity of the sport. The United States men's and women's senior national teams, as well as a number of age-grade teams for both sexes, represent the United States in international soccer competitions and are controlled by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer).
Major League Soccer is the premier soccer league in the United States. As of 2012, MLS fields 19 clubs (16 from the US, 3 from Canada), with plans to add at least one more in late 2012 or early 2013. The teams play on a balanced schedule, meaning each team plays every team in the league twice; home and away, totaling to 34 games. The 34-game schedule runs from mid-March to late October, with the playoffs and championship in November. Other professional soccer leagues in the U.S. include a new incarnation of the North American Soccer League; the United Soccer Leagues' new USL Pro and already-existing Premier Development League; WPS (Women's Professional Soccer); and an indoor soccer league, MISL (Major Indoor Soccer League).
Many notable international soccer players have played in American leagues, including past greats Pelé, Hristo Stoichkov, Roberto Donadoni, George Best, Carlos Valderrama, Johan Cruyff, Lothar Matthäus, and Franz Beckenbauer and current stars David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Robbie Keane and Freddie Ljungberg. Notable American players of the past and the present include Clint Dempsey, Bert Patenaude, Eric Wynalda, Brad Friedel, Brian McBride, Cobi Jones, Kasey Keller, Landon Donovan, Jay DeMerit, Claudio Reyna, Tim Howard, and Alexi Lalas.
Lacrosse
Main article: History of lacrosse, College Lacrosse, National Lacrosse League, Major League Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin. Although it is not a very popular sport nationwide, it is quite popular in mid-Atlantic and New England and the box version of the game has exploded in the Upper Midwest states. All forms of lacrosse are increasing in national popularity. NLL and MLL are the national box and outdoor lacrosse leagues, respectively, and have increased their following in recent years. Also, many of the top Division I college lacrosse teams draw upwards of 7–10,000 for a game, especially in the Mid-Atlantic and New England areas.
Rugby Union
Rugby union, common in other English-speaking nations, is not as well known in the United States. Rugby is played recreationally, professionally and in colleges, though it is not governed by the NCAA (see College rugby). There are an estimated 63,000 registered players,[5] with more than a quarter being women. The semi-professional Rugby Super League is the premier domestic competition. The sport's worldwide governing body, the International Rugby Board (IRB), has created two international competitions as part of an attempt to grow the sport in North America. The first, the North America 4, included two American teams. It was superseded in 2009 by the Americas Rugby Championship, in which a "USA Select XV", effectively the second-level national side, competes. More recently the national side has been competing at the Rugby World Cup, and the country's national team in the sevens variation of the sport has been elevated to one of the 12 "core teams" in the annual IRB Sevens World Series.
Primitive forms of rugby, then all covered by the name "football", were being played in the USA as far back as the 1840s, at Harvard, Yale and Princeton, stemming partly from Americans who had been educated in English schools.[6] However, in 1862, Yale dealt it a major blow by banning it for being too violent and dangerous, about seven years later, in 1869, the first game of American football was played between Princeton and Rutgers.[6] However, rugby was taking a firm grip of the Ivy League and other East Coast Universities, where it would have an influence on the nascent gridiron, which would later become its major competitor.[6] American football's growth came at exactly the point at which rugby was beginning to establish itself in the States.[6]
Two recent American presidents have been rugby players. Bill Clinton developed an interest in rugby in England, playing at Oxford University.[7] George W. Bush was a keen player, during high school and University, and was on Yale's 1st XV, and in 1968, he was part of their dramatic win over Harvard.[7][8]
Rugby League
Rugby league in the United States is represented by two competitions, the USA Rugby League and the American National Rugby League. The national team are the United States national rugby league team they failed to make the 2008 Rugby League World Cup losing to Samoa 42-10 in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup qualifying tournament.[9] The USA will take part in the 2013 Rugby League World Cup qualifying against Jamaica and South Africa.[10] The United States national rugby league team qualified for their first cup by defeating Jamaica and South Africa and will now take part in the 2013 Rugby League World Cup.[11]
Rugby league in the USA is one of the only countries where rugby league is played nation wide.[12] A professional competition, the National Rugby League USA was planned to begin in 2010[13][14] but had failed to begin in the said time date.[15]
Volleyball
Volleyball is also a notable sport in the United States, especially at the college and university levels. Unlike most Olympic sports which are sponsored widely at the collegiate level for both sexes, the support for college volleyball is dramatically skewed in favor of the women's game. Over 300 schools in NCAA Division I alone (the highest of three NCAA tiers) sponsor women's volleyball at the varsity level,[16] while only 82 schools in all three NCAA divisions combined sponsor varsity men's volleyball, with only 22 of them in Division I.[17][18][19]
Cricket
Cricket, another common sport in Commonwealth countries, is not a popular sport in the U.S. Many amateur cricket leagues have been formed by Indian, Pakistani, Australian, South African, English and Caribbean (more specifically West Indian (Jamaican)) immigrants, and as a result, the sport has made limited inroads into the mainstream sports community because of a large influx of migrants from cricketing countries who make up almost 16 million of the American population. Cricket used to be the most popular sport in America during the 18th century, 19th century and early 20th century, when it suffered a rapid decline. In fact the first intercollegiate tournament in America was a cricket tournament. The first annual Canada vs. USA cricket match, played since the 1840s, was attended by 10,000 spectators at Bloomingdale Park in New York. The USA vs. Canada cricket match is the oldest international sporting event in the modern world, predating even today's Olympic Games by nearly 50 years. USA participated in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy where they were comprehensively beaten in matches against Australia and New Zealand. United States of America Cricket Association governs the professional Cricket in the country and are an associate member of International Cricket Council. United States Cricket team currently plays in World Cricket League Division IV to work their way up to 2013 Cricket World Cup Qualifier in order to enter 2015 Cricket World Cup. In 2011, they played Americas Region Twenty20 Division One tournament and qualified for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. United States Cricket team also plays in the ICC Americas Championship and were qualified for ICC Intercontinental Cup in the past. United States Youth Cricket Association formed in 2010 to develop the interest in sport among the young kids. Women's cricket is one of the plans of USACA but it is a long road to build the infra-structure. Cricket is one of the most watched pay per view sports in the USA and multiple channels are provided by DirecTv, Dish Network and Comcast TV services. Starting 2012, ESPN will broadcast Cricket on ESPN3 and on it's regular channels.[20] The only professional Cricket Stadium in the USA is Central Broward Regional Park located in Lauderhill, Florida. The Leo Magnus Cricket Complex in Los Angeles and Philadelphia Cricket Club in Philadelphia are few other established Cricket Grounds in the country that could qualify to play professional Cricket. There were plans to build a brand new stadium in Indianapolis by the city's mayor Greg Ballard in 2009 but it was not materialized lack of sponsors.[21]Compton Cricket Club is a private club in Los Angeles that uses Cricket to promote Peace and good will among the troubled neighborhood of Compton.
Curling
Curling is popular in northern states, possibly because of climate, proximity to Canada, or Scandinavian heritage. The national popularity of curling is growing after significant media coverage of the sport in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics.
Gaelic games
Gaelic football and hurling are governed by North American GAA and New York GAA. Like Australian rules football, they do not have a high profile but are developing sports, with New York fielding a representative team in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
Inline Hockey
Inline hockey was invented by Americans as a way to play the sport in all climates. The PIHA is the league with the largest number of professional teams in the nation. Street hockey is a non-standard version of inline hockey played by amateurs in informal games.
Water Polo
Water Polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores the most goals by getting the ball past the opposing team's goalkeeper into the net. Gameplay involves swimming, players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a net defended by a goalie. Water polo, therefore, has strong similarities to the land-based game of team handball. The frequency of 'man-up' (or 'power play') situations also draws comparisons with Ice hockey.
Ultimate (Frisbee)
Ultimate (originally Ultimate Frisbee) was initially popular with high school and college students, and many now continue to play in adult recreational leagues. Two teams of seven try to toss the Frisbee to their teammates in their endzones.
Handball
Team handball, a common sport in European countries, is not a popular sport in the U.S. The sport is mostly played in the country on the amateur level. Handball is not a NCAA sport, but is played in the Summer Olympics. The sport's governing body is USA Team Handball.
Roller derby
Roller derby is a fast-growing contact sport played on roller skates. As of September 2009, there were 350 women's, men's, and junior leagues in the U.S.A.[22] The sport is also played in Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. The sport's national governing body is USA Roller Sports, with the Women's Flat Track Derby Association being the largest association of U.S./Canadian leagues. There are roller derby leagues in most metropolitan areas in the U.S. The vast majority of these are flat track roller derby leagues, with a handful of banked track derby leagues as well. Women's leagues make up the lion's share of them, there were 28 men's and co-ed leagues and 16 junior leagues as of September 2009. It was portrayed in the 2009 film Whip It.
Dodgeball
Dodgeball is played traditionally by children in school, though adult leagues in urban areas have formed within the past 10 years. A caricatured version was portrayed in the 2004 film comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.
Kickball
Kickball is also played recreationally by adults and children, especially at the elementary school level. Its rules are largely identical to baseball, except that no bat is used and instead a large rubber ball is rolled along the ground for the "batter" to kick.
Individual sports
Motor sports
Motor sports are also widely popular in the United States, but Americans generally ignore major international series, such as Formula One and MotoGP, in favor of home-grown racing series. Americans, like the rest of the world, initially began using public streets as a host of automobile races. As time progressed it was soon discovered that these venues were often unsafe to the public as they offered relatively little crowd control. Promoters and drivers in the United States discovered that horse racing tracks could provide better conditions for drivers and spectators than public streets. The result has been long standing popularity for oval track racing while road racing has waned; however, an extensive illegal street racing culture persists.[23]
Historically, open wheel racing was the most popular nationwide, with the Indianapolis 500 being the most widely followed race. However, an acrimonious split in 1994 between the primary series, CART (later known as Champ Car), and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (the site of the Indy 500) led to the formation of the Indy Racing League, which launched the rival IndyCar Series in 1996. From that point, the popularity of open wheel racing in the U.S. declined dramatically.[24] The feud was settled in 2008 with an agreement to merge the two series under the IndyCar banner, but enormous damage had already been done to the sport.[25]
The CART-IRL feud coincided with an enormous expansion of stock car racing, governed by NASCAR, from its past as a mostly regional circuit mainly followed in the Southern U.S. to a truly national sport. NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series generally harnesses an 8 million person audience on television, as well as sold-out crowds at many tracks.
Another one of the most popular forms of motorsports in the United States is the indigenous sport of drag racing. The largest drag racing organization, the National Hot Rod Association, boasts 80,000 members, more than 35,000 licensed competitors and nationwide television coverage.[26]
And still another one of the most popular forms of motorsports in the United States is the indigenous sport of monster truck racing.
Although international street motorcycle racing does not enjoy the mainstream popularity of its all terrain cousin, motocross in the USA, American riders have been very successful. Currently, Ben Spies, Colin Edwards, and Nicky Hayden represent the United States in MotoGp. John Hopkins participates in the Superbike World Championship. Seven different Americans have won a combined fifteen championships in MotoGp. Eddie Lawson has won four championships (more than any other American). Five American riders have won eight Superbike World Championships (more than any other nationality). There are two MotoGP events held in the U.S. These include the United States motorcycle Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. World Superbike holds one race in the U.S. at Miller Motorsports Park.
Although the world's most popular form of motorsport, Formula One, is not as popular in the U.S. as it is in the rest of the world, the U.S. will host a F1 race in Austin, Texas in November of 2012. It is to be held at a new venue (which will later host MotoGP) named Circuit of the Americas Also Grand Prix of America at the Port Imperial Street Circuit near New York City from 2013. It will be the first United States Grand Prix held since 2007. The United States also has two former Driver's World Champions; Phil Hill (1961) & Mario Andretti (1978). The last American to compete in F1 is Scott Speed in 2007.
The Australia-based V8 Supercars series, which uses cars roughly similar in appearance to NASCAR stock cars but runs exclusively on road courses and street circuits, will expand to the U.S. in 2013 with a race at the Circuit of the Americas.
Outdoor sports
Hunting and fishing are very popular in the U.S., especially in rural areas. Other popular outdoors activities in the country include hiking, mountain climbing, paintball and kayaking. In winter, many Americans head to mountainous areas for skiing and snowboarding. Cycling and road bicycle racing have increased in popularity, fueled by the success of cyclists Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong.
Other popular individual sports
- Tennis
- Golf
- Disc Golf
- Track and field
- Boxing
- Mixed martial arts – Originally developed in the 1990s, the sport gained considerable mainstream popularity in the first decade of the 21st century. Many companies promote MMA cards, with UFC being by far the largest and most important.
- Beach Volleyball
- Equestrian competition – Despite lacking the national popularity seen in Europe, America usually performs extremely well in international equestrian competition.
- Wrestling – Though not a popular sport on a national level (except perhaps during the Olympics), high school wrestling is frequently one of the most popular participatory sports for young men in the United States.
- Shooting sports
- Racquetball
- Rodeo
- Skateboarding – Skateboarding culture was born in the United States, which continues to hold many of the top tournaments and produce the majority of professional skateboarders.
- Surfing
- Horse racing
- Fencing
- Swimming – Swimming is a major competitive sport at high school and college level, but receives little mainstream media attentions outside of the Olympics.
- Mountain biking
- Cyclo-cross
- Bowling – Bowling is the most popular participation "game" sport in the United States with more than 43 million people going bowling at least once a year.[27]
- Figure skating
- X Games
- Dance
Organization of American sports
Amateur sports
The extent in the United States to which sports are associated with secondary and tertiary education is rare among nations. Millions of students participate in athletics programs operated by high schools and colleges. Student-athletes often receive scholarships to colleges in recognition of their athletic potential. Currently, the largest governing body of collegiate sports is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
High school and college sports fill the developmental role that in many other countries would be the place of youth teams associated with clubs. The major professional sports leagues operate drafts once a year, in which each league's teams selected eligible prospects. Eligibility differs from league to league. Baseball and ice hockey operate minor league systems for players who have finished education but are not ready or good enough for the major leagues. The NBA also has a developmental league for players who are not ready to play at the top level. Its the NBA D-League.
Especially in basketball and football, high school and particularly college sports are followed with a fervor equaling or exceeding that felt for professional sports; college football games can draw six-digit crowds and, for upper-tier schools, sports are a significant source of revenue.
Professional sports
For the most part, there is no system of promotion and relegation in American professional sports. Major sports leagues operate as associations of franchises. The same 30–32 teams play in the league each year unless they move to another city or the league chooses to expand with new franchises.
All American sports leagues use the same type of schedule. After the regular season, the 8–16 teams with the best records enter a playoff tournament leading to a championship series or game. American sports, except for soccer, have no equivalent to the cup competitions that run concurrently with leagues in European sports. Even in the case of soccer, the cup competition, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, draws considerably less attention than the regular season. Also, the only top-level U.S. professional teams that play teams from other organizations in meaningful games are those in MLS. As of the upcoming 2012 season, all U.S.-based MLS teams qualify for the U.S. Open Cup, in which they compete against teams from lower-level U.S. leagues. In addition, four of these teams qualify to play clubs from countries outside the U.S. and Canada in the CONCACAF Champions League. NBA teams have played European teams in preseason exhibitions on a semi-regular basis, and recent MLS All-Star Games have pitted top players from the league against major European soccer teams, such as members of the Premier League.
International competition is not as important in American sports as it is in the sporting culture of most other countries, although Olympic ice-hockey and basketball tournaments do generate attention. The first international baseball tournament with top-level players, the World Baseball Classic, also generated some positive reviews after its inaugural tournament in 2006.
Government regulation
No American government agency is charged with overseeing sports. However, the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports advises the President through the Secretary of Health and Human Services about physical activity, fitness, and sports, and recommends programs to promote regular physical activity for the health of all Americans. The U.S. Congress has chartered the United States Olympic Committee to govern American participation in the Olympic Movement and promote amateur sports. Congress has also involved itself in several aspects of sports, notably gender equity in college athletics, illegal drugs in pro sports, sports broadcasting and the application of antitrust law to sports leagues.
Sports media in the United States
Sports have been a major part of American broadcasting since the early days of radio. Today, television networks pay millions of dollars for the rights to broadcast sporting events. Contracts between leagues and broadcasters stipulate how often games must be interrupted for commercials. Because of all of the advertisements, broadcasting contracts are very lucrative and account for the biggest chunk of pro teams' revenues. Broadcasters also covet the television contracts for the major sports leagues (especially in the case of the NFL) in order to amplify their ability to promote their programming to the audience, especially young and middle-aged adult males.
The advent of cable and satellite television has greatly expanded sports offerings on American TV. ESPN, the first all-sports cable network in the U.S., went on the air in 1979. It has been followed by several sister networks and competitors.
Many of the professional sports teams run their own cable networks. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner started the YES Network which broadcasts primarily Yankees games and television shows. His starting of his own network led to almost all teams having a station for their franchises.
Despite the size of the sports market in the U.S., the country does not have a national daily sports newspaper. This is because the contiguous 48 states spread across four time zones, and games on the West Coast may not end until early morning in the East. This makes it difficult to distribute a national newspaper with the scores of late games in time for morning delivery. However, there are many American sports magazines, the best-known being Sports Illustrated.
Most popular sports in the United States
Baseball vs. football
Though baseball has historically been called the "national pastime," American football has grown in popularity with the advent of television over the last several decades. Most debates about America's most popular sport tend to center on the degree of Americans' identification either of these two games; the question may never be resolved,[28] though many believe football has overtaken baseball.
Advocates of baseball point to the overwhelming number of baseball tickets sold annually in the United States and Canada, compared to NFL football. It is likely the average individual American will attend many times more baseball games in their lives than NFL football games, due to baseball's longer schedule and football's (generally) higher ticket prices. Advocates of football, in turn, point to football's large television audience, including the Super Bowl, typically the most-watched television event of the year. Football also enjoys more organized youth participation, though the sport has recently[when?] endured negative publicity in the world of youth sports due to media coverage of documented health and injury risks posed to players[29][30] Certain teams of both sports, such as the Boston Red Sox,[31] New York Yankees, Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers,[32] have cultivated famously loyal fan bases across the country. In many cases, identification with a certain football or baseball team is a matter of family inheritance and local identity.
In truth, the popularity of each, as well as of hockey, soccer and basketball, vary depending on region, ethnicity and age. It could be claimed that baseball is more popular in the northeast,[33] where it developed over 150 years ago, than in other regions. While passion for the NFL can be found in many regions and metropolitan areas, it could be said that college football (i.e. NCAA) enjoys unparalleled popularity in the southeastern states. Hockey competes for 'Most Popular Sport' status in areas of northern and western New York State, the northern Great Lakes states and in parts of New England.
Participation among the general population
In the broadest sense of the definition of sports—physical recreation of all sorts—the four most popular sports among the general population of the United States are exercise walking (90 million), exercising with equipment (53 million), swimming (52 million) and camping (47 million). The most popular competitive sport (and fifth most popular recreational sport) is bowling (43 million). Other most popular sports are fishing (35 million), bicycling (37 million), weightlifting (33 million), aerobics (30 million), and hiking (28 million).[27]
Organized college and high school sports
Among organized sports, football is the clear leader in number of participants at both the high school and college level, despite being almost entirely male.
According to NCAA reporting on varsity team participation[34] after football (64 thousand), the most popular participatory college sports are baseball/softball (47 thousand), track and field (46 thousand),[35] soccer (43 thousand), basketball (32 thousand), cross-country running (25 thousand), and swimming/diving (20 thousand). The most popular sport among female athletes is soccer, followed closely by track and field.[2]
For both sexes, football has the most participants among organized high school sports, followed by basketball, track & field, baseball/softball, soccer, and cross-country. Wrestling is the sixth most popular sport for boys, while volleyball is the third most popular sport for girls.[36]
List of Sports Leagues in the United States
The Five Major Sports Leagues[37]
- National Football League (NFL)
- Major League Baseball (MLB)
- National Basketball Association (NBA)
- National Hockey League (NHL)
- Major League Soccer (MLS)
Other Sports Leagues
- American National Rugby League (AMNRL)
- Arena Football League (AFL)
- Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP)
- Champions Tour, for men's golfers 50 and over; operated by the PGA Tour
- LPGA Tour
- Major League Soccer (MLS)
- Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL)
- Major League Lacrosse (MLL)
- National Association of Stock Car Automobile Racing (NASCAR)
- National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
- National Lacrosse League (NLL)
- PBA Tour
- Professional Bull Riders (PBR)
- PGA Tour
- Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA)
- Professional Inline Hockey Association (PIHA)
- Rugby Super League (RSL)
- Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
- United Football League (2009) (UFL)
- United States of America Cricket Association (USACA)
- United States Australian Football League (USAFL)
- United States Tennis Association (USTA)
- USA Rugby League (USARL)
- USA Swimming (USA-S)
- Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA)
- Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
- Women's Professional Soccer (WPS)
- World Juggling Federation (WJF)
- Xtreme Soccer League (XSL)
See also
- United States at the team sports international competitions
- Category:Sports in American dependencies
- Sports Museum of America
Notes and references
- ^ http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2010/tables/10s1211.pdf
- ^ a b http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2010/tables/10s1210.pdf
- ^ "Harris Poll of top sports: 2006". http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PollYear=2007.
- ^ http://indianahsbasketball.homestead.com/files/gyms.htm
- ^ "USA country profile". International Rugby Board. http://www.irb.com/unions/union=11000012/index.html. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
- ^ a b c d Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1 86200 013 3), P77
- ^ a b Cain, Nick & Growden, Greg "Chapter 21: Ten Peculiar Facts about Rugby" in Rugby Union for Dummies (2nd Edition), p297 (pub: John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, England) ISBN 978-0-470-03537-5
- ^ Clarke, Wes Famous Ruggers, retrieved August 24, 2009
- ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyleague/2325401/Samoa-stay-on-course-with-win-over-USA.html
- ^ http://www.loverugbyleague.com/news_4647-2013-world-cup-format-revealed.html
- ^ http://www.rlwc2013.com/rugby-league-world-news/article/630/usa-make-it-to-world
- ^ http://denver.yourhub.com/Denver/Stories/Sports/Pro/Story~945029.aspx
- ^ http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/uncle-sam-wants-our-stars/story-e6frf3yc-1225699556794
- ^ http://www.rugbyleague.com/rugby-league-news/974
- ^ "Big USA money chasing Stacey Jones". Sunday News. February 7, 2010. http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/rugby-league/3301130/Big-USA-money-chasing-Stacey-Jones. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "NCAA Sports Sponsorship: Division I Women's Volleyball". NCAA. http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec/sponsorship?sortOrder=0&division=1&sport=WVB. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
- ^ "NCAA Sports Sponsorship: Division I Men's Volleyball". NCAA. http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec/sponsorship?sortOrder=0&division=1&sport=MVB. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
- ^ "NCAA Sports Sponsorship: Division II Men's Volleyball". NCAA. http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec/sponsorship?sortOrder=0&division=2&sport=MVB. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
- ^ "NCAA Sports Sponsorship: Division III Men's Volleyball". NCAA. http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec/sponsorship?sortOrder=0&division=3&sport=MVB. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
- ^ http://www.espncricinfo.com/usa/content/story/507588.html
- ^ http://www.espncricinfo.com/usa/content/story/428000.html
- ^ Roller Derby Worldwide
- ^ SpeedTV.com My Take on Open Wheel Racing In America Accessed 2008-07-22
- ^ Oreovicz, John (2008-01-06). "American open-wheel racing held hostage: Year 13". ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/columns/story?seriesId=1&columnist=oreovicz_john&id=3180918. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
- ^ Associated Press (2008-02-22). "After 12 years of conflict, IRL and Champ Car merge". ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=1&id=3259364. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
- ^ Inside the NHRA: NHRA: World's largest auto racing organization
- ^ a b http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2010/tables/10s1212.pdf
- ^ Wrestlezone Forums online debate, http://forums.wrestlezone.com/archive/index.php/t-109378.html
- ^ NYTimes article:N.F.L. Acknowledges Long-Term Concussion Effects, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/sports/football/21concussions.html.
- ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-zirin/the-nfls-concussion-conun_b_368982.html
- ^ Red Sox Nation
- ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/preview08/columns/story?id=3530077
- ^ Sports_in_New_York_City#Baseball
- ^ The NCAA defines a participant as someone who "as of the day of the varsity team’s first scheduled contest: (a) is listed as a team member; (b) practices with the varsity team and receives coaching from one or more varsity coaches; or (c)received athletically-related student aid."
- ^ The NCAA does not give a number for total track and field, but breaks the figures into outdoor and indoor. The number given is for outdoor track and field. The total is likely to be somewhat higher.
- ^ National Federation of State High School Associations, Indianapolis, IN, The 2007–2008 High School Athletics Participation Survey, http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2010/tables/10s1211.pdf
- ^ http://www.docsports.com/labor-and-pro-sports.html
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