Good lists. But if you look at what I posted more carefully, most of what you listed has a link on it. But good way to look at popularity though. What is watched and what is played. Still, what's popular is popular, in whatever shape it is followed.
Where does Tennis Rank Among the Most Popular Sports in the World
- Thread starter Kirijax
- Start date
Good lists. But if you look at what I posted more carefully, most of what you listed has a link on it. But good way to look at popularity though. What is watched and what is played. Still, what's popular is popular, in whatever shape it is followed.
Yes,good point. Is it how widely it is played or how many people are watching. Here in NZ,I'm sure tennis would be one of the top 4-5 played sports. In terms of coverage though,tennis isn't on the news that much. The Australian Open is really popular here because of similar time zones,and of course the 2 events held here in early January. The other slams are reported on quite a bit as well,but outside that,it's not on the news that much. Of course,everyone knows who people like Federer and Nadal are though. I'm not sure how many people here watch it on tv though,must be enough to keep it on. We get 15-20 tournaments a year shown on pay tv here. The 2 NZ tournaments,the 4 slams,9 masters and they've started throwing in some 500s as well. Could even be more than 20,pretty good...
diggler
Hall of Fame
1 Soccer
2 Basketball
3 Tennis
Cricket and rugby aren't played in many countries.
Olympic sports are played in many countries but very few would be on tv in many countries.
http://www.olympic.org/sports
2 Basketball
3 Tennis
Cricket and rugby aren't played in many countries.
Olympic sports are played in many countries but very few would be on tv in many countries.
http://www.olympic.org/sports
We rented some courts yesterday for out high school team practice, and on the court next to us were about a dozen people in their 70s having a great game of doubles. I thought to myself, Tennis truly is a great sport to watch and enjoy your entire life. Don't see the older folks playing too many other sports like that.
Bobby Jr
G.O.A.T.
Badminton is a good example of a sport which lots of people may play but which is massively under-represented in the amount of people who watch it.
Cricket makes a different case which should be highlighted. Cricket is played by about 8 countries seriously*. But, because it happens to be #1 in the second most populated country on earth it is bumped way up the list of sheer viewer numbers. It is however is basically irrelevant to the majority of the world.
Table tennis has the same thing going on. If 1% of China watch a sport then they're already at 15 million people.
A sports popularity would be better compared by some equation which look at how many countries play it and its average rank in popularity each of them.
(*Australia, South Africa, England, Pakistan, India, West Indies, NZ, Zimbabwe)
beast of mallorca
G.O.A.T.
Cricket ? Really ? Is that even a sport ? :twisted:
Yes,it is. And one of the better ones from someone who watches a lot of sport. I know people who don't watch cricket think a 5 day test match must be boring,but it's about as epic and exciting as sport gets. The same as a Nadal-Djokovic 5 setter. A lot of people will tell you it's boring and too long...
winstonplum
Hall of Fame
Soccer obvioulsy #1 worldwide.
Tennis outside of the US in Europe and South America number 2. In the US, not even in the top ten. Sadly. Hence the rankings situation.
Tennis outside of the US in Europe and South America number 2. In the US, not even in the top ten. Sadly. Hence the rankings situation.
Bobby Jr
G.O.A.T.
And yet more people in India alone follow cricket than American and Europeans combined follow basketball.
kOaMaster
Hall of Fame
Thank you for asking
I can tell you that in fact, skiing is way more popular in Switzerland than tennis. Of course Roger Federer is the most known and greatest person and representive Switzerland ever had (well, let's keep it in recent history and not talk about Euler and folks like that).
But the problem with Federer is that he became way too international, he is somehow "too big" for our country. He is rarely in TV or to see in public, he is present playing for a maximum of 5-7 days per year and he lives everywhere.
this can also be seen in the "sportsman of the year"-votings in switzerland - in 2005 and 2009, journalists voted for federer, once he got beaten the audience via phone calls (2005 tom lüthi/motorcyclist, 2009 didier cuche/skier)
In comparison to that, skiiers like Didier Cuche (who in fact is or was at least as popular as Federer) are well known, present, always shown as down to earth and compete a lot around in Switzerland. Plus - everyone does skiing in the winter (or almost everyone), so there is certainly a connection.
As for most watched sports, the downhill races dominate the TV list .
I just found those lists here:
http://www.suedostschweiz.ch/zeitung/nur-tiki-taka-fussball-vor-feuz-bei-den-tv-quoten
http://www.srf.ch/medien/wp-content...enmitteilung-Jahresmedienkonferenz-2013_2.pdf
http://www.werbewoche.ch/sf-sportsendungen-ski-schlaegt-fussball
in short:
downhill skiing dominates, only the world cup or european cup final are more popular. the best thing was champions league with fc basel
and after that...well, I found roger federer (wimbledon final vs murray) in the 2012 list with 586'000 viewers and 420'000 vs nadal 2011, that is definitely less popular.as for the thread: I think tennis ranks somewhere in the top5, depending whatever method you take to make a list.
Last edited:
Sid_Vicious
G.O.A.T.
Thanks for that awesome post, KOaMaster. I actually always felt that Federer wasn't that widely popular at home like say Djokovic is in Serbia or Murray might be in England.. Didn't some FC Basel fans throw thousands of tennis balls onto a football pitch because they were upset that they were delaying the start of the game for Federer's match?Thank you for asking
I can tell you that in fact, skiing is way more popular in Switzerland than tennis. Of course Roger Federer is the most known and greatest person and representive Switzerland ever had (well, let's keep it in recent history and not talk about Euler and folks like that).
But the problem with Federer is that he became way too international, he is somehow "too big" for our country. He is rarely in TV or to see in public, he is present playing for a maximum of 5-7 days per year and he lives everywhere.
this can also be seen in the "sportsman of the year"-votings in switzerland - in 2005 and 2009, journalists voted for federer, once he got beaten the audience via phone calls (2005 tom lüthi/motorcyclist, 2009 didier cuche/skier)
In comparison to that, skiiers like Didier Cuche (who in fact is or was at least as popular as Federer) are well known, present, always shown as down to earth and compete a lot around in Switzerland. Plus - everyone does skiing in the winter (or almost everyone), so there is certainly a connection.
As for most watched sports, the downhill races dominate the TV list .
I just found those lists here:
http://www.suedostschweiz.ch/zeitung/nur-tiki-taka-fussball-vor-feuz-bei-den-tv-quoten
http://www.srf.ch/medien/wp-content...enmitteilung-Jahresmedienkonferenz-2013_2.pdf
http://www.werbewoche.ch/sf-sportsendungen-ski-schlaegt-fussball
in short:
downhill skiing dominates, only the world cup or european cup final are more popular. the best thing was champions league with fc basel
as for the thread: I think tennis ranks somewhere in the top5, depending whatever method you take to make a list.
Flash O'Groove
Hall of Fame
Thank you for asking
I can tell you that in fact, skiing is way more popular in Switzerland than tennis. Of course Roger Federer is the most known and greatest person and representive Switzerland ever had (well, let's keep it in recent history and not talk about Euler and folks like that).
But the problem with Federer is that he became way too international, he is somehow "too big" for our country. He is rarely in TV or to see in public, he is present playing for a maximum of 5-7 days per year and he lives everywhere.
this can also be seen in the "sportsman of the year"-votings in switzerland - in 2005 and 2009, journalists voted for federer, once he got beaten the audience via phone calls (2005 tom lüthi/motorcyclist, 2009 didier cuche/skier)
In comparison to that, skiiers like Didier Cuche (who in fact is or was at least as popular as Federer) are well known, present, always shown as down to earth and compete a lot around in Switzerland. Plus - everyone does skiing in the winter (or almost everyone), so there is certainly a connection.
As for most watched sports, the downhill races dominate the TV list .
I just found those lists here:
http://www.suedostschweiz.ch/zeitung/nur-tiki-taka-fussball-vor-feuz-bei-den-tv-quoten
http://www.srf.ch/medien/wp-content...enmitteilung-Jahresmedienkonferenz-2013_2.pdf
http://www.werbewoche.ch/sf-sportsendungen-ski-schlaegt-fussball
in short:
downhill skiing dominates, only the world cup or european cup final are more popular. the best thing was champions league with fc basel
as for the thread: I think tennis ranks somewhere in the top5, depending whatever method you take to make a list.
Ah I'm still nostalgic of of FCB deep run at the CL. This match against Liverpool! The Yakin brothers were certainly very popular at that time (unlike Züberbhuler)!
By the way I was in Basel on sunday, it was nice!
PS: Didier Cuche is awesome.
kOaMaster
Hall of Fame
you mean this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2iRzoTbmxQ
yeah, that was because the swiss television did move the football match 1:30h ahead within two days notice so they could show both they football and the tennis match in tv.
we were throwing tennis balls on the pitch after 0:00 and after 10min. the banner said "you are deciding the kickoff-time, we are deciding the time it starts". it wasn't an action against federer, not at all.
actually in basel federer is a lot more popular and more famous than everywhere else.
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