America has the biggest professional sports market in the world, worth an estimated $69 billion. That’s much bigger than Europe, the Middle East and Africa combined. In Jammu and Kashmir, the most popular sports are cricket and football, along with golf and adventure sports, which the geography of the region inspire. There are local and international cricket matches, as well as those run by businesses.
In America, sports are built into the high school and university systems. Most of the educational establishments have their own college football and college basketball team. Sports are used to bridge social and racial boundaries and teach positive values like teamwork and fair play. The most popular sports in America are varied. They are:
American Football
This is a very different sport to the international ‘football’, which in America is known as ‘soccer’. American football has different rules. Players use an oval-shaped ball and can use their hands and run with the ball. In the USA, this is the most popular sport to watch, and in a recent survey by Gallup, 37% of Americans said it was their favourite sport.
The National Football League (NFL) is the largest sports league in the world, with revenue of $13 billion, despite most of its popularity coming from the US. NFL players, especially quarterbacks, are big celebrities, such as Joe Montana, Dan Marino, and Tom Brady.
The Super Bowl is the most highly anticipated event on the American sports calendar, and also the most watched event of the year with over 100 million viewers. Though its popularity has dropped slightly from its all-time peak of 4% favourite in 1972, American Football still remains the undisputed sport of the nation.
Basketball
Second up is basketball. Here again, the action starts with college basketball, with the top professional league being the National Basketball League (NBA), home to stars such as Michael Jordan, and more recently LeBron James, now worth over $440 million. The Golden State Warriors are one of the greatest teams in the division and are usually firm leaders when it comes to NBA predictions for this season.
Basketball is the favourite sport of 11% of Americans in the same Gallup survey. Attendance records are at an all-time high, and though the NBA grosses much less revenue than the respective baseball league at $4.9 billion, recent years have seen basketball take over as second place in terms of popularity. The sport is also popular internationally.
Baseball
Baseball is a defining sport for American culture. It was the first team sport officially approved in the country and was the most popular in previous surveys from 1937 until 1960-70. It wasn’t until the 1972 Gallup survey that American football overtook baseball for the first time. Now, baseball sits third in popularity, the lowest it has ever been.
Only 9% said that they find baseball to be their favourite sport. The key is in the breakdown in demographics, with the younger generations preferring other sports. Still, baseball is very popular to both watch and play, and the Major League Baseball is the second highest grossing league in the world at $9.5 billion.
Other Popular Sports
Other popular sports in the USA include soccer (known elsewhere as football), which is now the fourth most popular with a vote of 7% saying it was their favourite. There’s also huge followings for ice hockey, with the NHL grossing huge revenues and pulling in significant viewership. Tennis, golf, auto racing, and wrestling are loved by fewer, but still known as national sports.
The popularity of different sports varies across cultures, generations and over time. At the moment, American Football is the most popular in the USA, despite lacking an international following. Basketball and baseball are pretty close to each other in second and third. Soccer is gaining traction, especially since the USA’s run in the 2014 World Cup, with Major League Soccer becoming a serious competition.
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