Sports in the United States

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sports in the United States, as in other countries, are an important part of the national culture. However, the sporting culture of the U.S. is different from that of many other countries, especially those in Europe. For one, Americans prefer a different set of sports. Soccer is a minor sport in the U.S. compared to baseball, American football, basketball and ice hockey. Secondly, sports are organized differently in the U.S. than in many other countries, with schools and colleges and universities playing an important role.

Contents 1 Popular sports in the U.S. 1.1 Baseball 1.2 American football 1.3 Basketball 1.4 Ice Hockey 1.5 Soccer 1.6 Motor sports 1.7 Individual sports 1.8 Outdoors sports 1.9 Other popular sports 1.10 Cricket, rugby union and other "international" sports 2 The organization of American sports 2.1 Amateur sports 2.2 Professional sports 2.3 Government regulation 3 Sports media in the United States 4 References 5 External link 6 See also 6.1 US related topics

[edit] Popular sports in the U.S.

[edit] Baseball

Main article: History of baseball in the United States

Baseball has a huge following and is referred to as the "national pastime"; Major League Baseball teams play almost every day from April to October. Professional baseball began in the United States around 1865, and the National League was founded in 1876 as the first true major league. The World Series is the championship series of Major League Baseball, the culmination of the sport's postseason each October. It is played between the pennant winner of the American League and the pennant winner of the National League. The Series winner is determined through a best-of-seven playoff. Notable baseball players include Shoeless Joe Jackson, Babe Ruth, Sandy Koufax, Hank Aaron, and Barry Bonds. Baseball and its cousin, softball, are also popular participatory sports in the U.S.

[edit] American football

Main article: History of American football

American football (known simply as "football" in the U.S. and sometimes as gridiron outside of the U.S.) attracts more television viewers than baseball; however, National Football League teams play only 16 regular-season games each year, so baseball, with its 162-game schedule, is the runaway leader in ticket sales. The 32-team National Football League (NFL) is the most popular and only major professional American football league. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, is watched by nearly half of US television households. Additional millions also watch college football throughout the autumn months, and some communities, particularly in rural areas, place great emphasis on their local high school football team. Among the sport's all time greatest players are Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, John Elway, Barry Sanders, Walter Payton, Brett Favre, and Emmitt Smith. Arena football, a form of American football played in indoor arenas, has its own professional league, the Arena Football League, which attracts comparatively little attention, and is often considered a niche sport. Nonetheless, it is sometimes televised and several of its players have gone on to play in the NFL.

[edit] Basketball

Main articles: National Basketball Association and College basketball

Basketball, invented in Springfield, Massachusetts, by Canadian physical education teacher James Naismith, is another popular sport. 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. In late April, the NBA Playoffs begin. Eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs. The Dream Team was the unofficial nickname of the United States men's basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Notable players include Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Pete Maravich, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy,Vince Carter, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and Oscar Robertson. Like football, basketball at both the college and high school levels is quite popular throughout the country. Every March, a 64-team, six-round, single-elimination tournament determines the national champions of college basketball. Most U.S. states also crown state champions among their high schools. More Americans play basketball than any other team sport, not including bowling, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

[edit] Ice Hockey

Main article: National Hockey League

Less popular, but still considered a major spectator sport, is ice hockey, universally referred to as simply hockey in those areas of the country where it is most popular. The National Hockey League is the major professional league in North America, and 24 of its 30 teams are based in the United States; the other six are located in Canada. Always a cultural mainstay in some northern areas, hockey has gained tenuous footholds in regions like the Carolinas, Tampa Bay, Florida and Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas in recent years, as the National Hockey League pursued a policy of expansion. It was speculated that the cancellation of the 2004-2005 NHL season could slow, or even reverse, the spread of hockey into new regions of the United States, but ticket sales in 2005-06 in non-traditional markets have generally equaled or exceeded pre-lockout numbers. Recreational ice hockey on a wide scale, as well as hockey at the high school and college levels, is generally confined to hockey country, specifically New England and the Great Lakes region, but recreational leagues do exist in large- and medium-sized metropolitan areas throughout the United States. Hockey legends include Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe (all of whom are Canadians, but Gretzky played a large part of his career for U.S.-based teams, and the others played solely for U.S.-based teams).

[edit] Soccer

Main article: Soccer in the United States

Unlike in Europe, South America, and recently, Asia and Africa, soccer has historically had a small following in the United States, and was mostly popular in the more international cities of New York and Los Angeles, where there is a large immigrant population. Several attempts have been made to bring top-level competition to the United States, most recently Major League Soccer (MLS), which is expanding steadily and achieving success. Since the 1980s, soccer participation at the recreational and scholastic levels has grown significantly and has fueled enhanced interest in the men's and women's national teams, as well as MLS. Unlike most other team sports in the U.S., soccer is widely played by both men and women in the U.S., one factor in the pioneering success of the United States women's national soccer team.

[edit] 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. Historically, open wheel racing was the most popular nationwide, with the Indianapolis 500 being unquestionably the most widely followed race. However, an acrimonious split in the mid-1990s between the primary league, CART, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (the site of the Indy 500) led to the creation of a rival series, the Indy Racing League, and a dramatic decline in the popularity of open wheel racing in the U.S. The CART-IRL split coincided with an enormous expansion of the NASCAR stock car series from its past as a mostly regional circuit mainly followed in the southeastern U.S. to a truly national circuit with a rapidly expanding nationwide fan base, generally harnessing a 10 million person audience on television, as well as sold-out crowds at many tracks that can hold as much as 500,000 spectators. 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 ^[1].

[edit] Individual sports

Outside of team events, U.S. athletes compete in sports such as boxing, golf, tennis, and track and field events. Golf is very popular in the U.S. as a recreational activity, especially among business people. Tiger Woods is one of the best-known American golfers. Track and field gets little mainstream attention from Americans apart from competition in the Olympic Games, while professional boxing has decreased in popularity over the past several decades.

[edit] Outdoors sports

Hunting and fishing are very popular in the U.S., especially in rural areas. Other popular outdoors activities in the country include cycling, hiking, mountain climbing and kayaking. In winter, many Americans head to mountainous areas for skiing and snowboarding.

[edit] Other popular sports

• Cheerleading — Cheerleading is a dynamic athletic activity in which young girls and boys cheer and pep up their football, basketball, and volleyball teams. Cheerleading involves coordinated routines containing jumps, tosses, dance moves and intricate, sometimes complicated cheers. There are an estimated 3.5 million cheerleaders at various levels in the United States.
• Equestrian competition - despite lacking the national popularity seen in Europe, America usually performs extremely well in international equestrian competition. In recent years, they have become favorites for a medal in show jumping, eventing, and dressage both at the Olympics and the Equestrian World Championships, and many times the United States finishes near the top of the medal count.
• Lacrosse — A team sport of Iroquois Indian origin, quite popular in mid-Atlantic states but increasing in popularity nationwide.
• Wrestling - Though not a popular sport on a national level (except perhaps during the Olympics), high school/collegiate wrestling is frequently one of the most popular participatory sports for young men in the United States. Wrestling is commonly referred to as "amateur wrestling" in America to distinguish it from professional wrestling, a scripted form of athletic entertainment with a considerable following. See WWE.
• Martial arts competitions
• Shooting sports
• Surfing
• Volleyball
• Fencing

[edit] Cricket, rugby union and other "international" sports

See also: Rugby union in the United States

Sports such as rugby union, common in other English-speaking nations, are not as well known in the United States. Many amateur cricket leagues have been formed by Indian, Pakistani, and Caribbean immigrants, and as a result, the sport has made limited inroads into the mainstream sports community. Rugby is played recreationally, professionally and in colleges, though it is not governed by the NCAA (see College rugby). There are an estimated 60,000 registered players,[2], almost a quarter of whom are women. More recently the national side has been competing at the Rugby World Cup. Australian rules football, governed by the USAFL is also a developing sport with regular international competition against Canada.

[edit] The organization of American sports

[edit] Amateur sports

The extent in America to which sports are associated with secondary and tertiary education is unique among nations. Millions of students participate in athletics programs operated by high schools and colleges. So-called student-athletes often receive scholarships to colleges in recognition of their athletic potential. Though student athletes may be held to significantly lower academic requirements than non-athletes at some universities, a minimum standard does exist.

High school and college sports fill the developmental role that in many other countries would be the place of youth teams associated with clubs. Professional teams draft top student athletes when they finish their education. 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.

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.

[edit] Professional sports

See also: Major professional sports league

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, most casual soccer fans are unaware of the existence of a cup competition. Also, major-league professional teams in the U.S. never play teams from other organizations in meaningful games, although NBA teams have played European teams in preseason exhibitions on a semi-regular basis.

International competition is not as important in American sports as it is in the sporting culture of most other countries. Olympic ice-hockey and basketball tournaments do generate attention. The first international baseball tournament with top-level players, the World Baseball Classic, generated positive reviews after its inaugural tournament in 2006.

[edit] Government regulation

No American government agency is charged with overseeing sports. 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.

[edit] 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. Teams do not cover their fields and uniforms with sponsors' logos as European teams often do.

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.

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.

[edit] References

[edit] External link

• "Arts, Entertainment and Recreation," Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2006 ed., U.S. Census Bureau (PDF file).

[edit] See also

• Major U.S. Professional Sports League
• United States at the Olympics
• Harris Poll of Most Popular American Sports
• Major League Baseball
• National Football League
• National Basketball Association
• National Collegiate Athletic Association
• National Hockey League
• Major League Soccer
• United States of America Cricket Association
• Australian Football Association of North America
• USA Rugby (union)
• NASCAR

[edit] US related topics