Basketball, gridiron football, baseball, hockey, soccer, what sport lasts longer in culture?

[Fishplatter]

Which sport do you see lasting for eternity overall? I don't see American gridiron football lasting in a few years (CTE, concussions, the new/changing rules, changing American demographics (young Latinos and millennials not interested like white Americans in the South), etc.

 

What do you think?

[The_Admiral]

Man, I just don't want the ocean to swallow us all.

[_DietDrPepper_]

6 hours ago, the admiral said:

Man, I just don't want the ocean to swallow us all.

This should have more likes. Much more

[johnnysama]

In all seriousness, though, I think baseball has had a lot of staying power historically.

[MJWalker45]

They'll all stay around, the form they take is what we don't know for now.

 

Football is attempting to improve itself in regards to tackling.  Will it eliminate certain plays and formations? That could happen. I'd love to know what the AAF's elimination of kickoffs did to decrease injuries. 

 

For soccer,  the better question will be how will it look in the US? Will MLS finally allow free spending? How will it implement it? Will owners allow relegation and promotion? Which teams will be prepared to open their pocketbooks and who will become second division and first division regulars? 

 

Baseball and basketball will have to answer, "How much is too much money  for it's players"? 

 

Another question is,  what sports could move up in popularity? Lacrosse and rugby are still fairly exclusive sports since they aren't played at a majority of secondary schools or colleges. Would they be able to grow in areas that decide to move away from football?

[BBTV]

The only two answers to this question - and I really don't think it's even arguable - are soccer and basketball.

 

Soccer is so ingrained in almost every nation's culture, is the most played game in the world even today, isn't going to die due to safety reasons, and produces the biggest stars in the world.  I honestly cannot see a time where it's not the #1 sport in the world, no matter how much traction some of the others are getting.

 

Basketball will always be played by kids during recess, on playgrounds, pretty much everywhere.  It's the most accessible and the easiest sport for anyone to play, since you only need two players, a ball, and a hoop.  It's a huge sport in the Balkans, pretty big in western Europe, getting there in Australia, and probably in lots of other places I don't know.  It's possible that interest in the NBA might fluctuate up and down depending on the stars of the era, but basketball as a sport simply cannot vanish or even decrease its role in American culture, and the same in many parts of the world.

 

Baseball is primarily American (with all due respect to the Japanese and Korean leagues) and it seems to me like it's losing popularity at a pretty dramatic pace among younger players, and especially in urban areas.  There's myriad reasons for this - it's not action packed, it's simply not accessible to many people (you need a pretty large field and a lot of people to play it), it's stars are simply not as visible and charismatic as stars from other sports, kids can't watch the biggest games, and the games take 4 hours.  At least it seems like the commissioner is aware of this, which is good, but I can totally see baseball losing it's spot in American culture over the next 20 years.

 

Hockey is, and always will be, huge in Canada, and very big in the US, Eastern Europe, some parts of the Balkans, and Scandinavia, but on a world level, it's simply not going to get there - which is totally fine - it is what it is, and people should just enjoy it for that.  I have zero citations here, or statistics, but simply gut feelings - it's decreasing rapidly in popularity among kids in non-hockey markets, mostly due to the inaccessibility of games.  ESPN made hockey an event - the "fastest game in the world" (or however they marketed it.) In 1993, it looked like hockey could become what basketball did... which frankly baffled me since it's the single hardest sport for someone to get into because you pretty much have to be from an affluent family and have access to rinks, equipment, coaching, and know how to skate.

 

 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Basketball is growing in Europe, Africa and Asia. Soccer is growing in North America (specifically the US and Canada). Are any other sports seeing similar growth?

 

I agree with BBTV that there aren't any other answers. Simple is almost always better, and the low barriers to entry for soccer and basketball mean they have the greatest global potential.

 

For American sports, I would imagine baseball and football have peaked.

[The_Admiral]

Basketball: more people around the world are playing the game than ever, the future has never been brighter

 

Also basketball: the fourth overall pick in the NBA draft?!? why don't I just crawl in a hole and die

[BBTV]

2 hours ago, the admiral said:

Also basketball: the fourth overall pick in the NBA draft?!? why don't I just crawl in a hole and die

 

Funny how that works, right?  It's clear why it's like that for the US-born talent, but I don't get it for the international pool, unless the draft rules are different - I don't know all the rules, other than teams draft foreign guys with late picks knowing that they won't sign for years... if at all.  Hell, the Sixers traded for Dario Saric knowing that he wouldn't play, so they could keep The Process going and have him come over when they were good.

 

You're telling me there aren't any 8-foot-tall guys with pituitary-gland issues hooping it up in rural China or India that could be drafted?