The #5 and #6 sports in america

[Rick Diesel]

1. football
2. baseball
3. basketball
4. golf
5. hockey
6. tennis

i really cant see how anyone would think that nascar is a sport. if it was, it is probably in the #4 spot.

[SL__72]

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NHL >2bil

NASCAR .7bil
PGA .2bil

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that is surprising to me, given the huge difference in TV ratings between NASCAR (huge), PGA (big), and the NHL (holla at Lifetime channel?). tv ratings drive fees, which is a huge reason why the NFL is so big.

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but I realized that the NHL figure probably includes Canada. ,which boosts it a ton. the NHL/OLN deal was worth about $65m annually.

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The NHL figure definitely includes Canada. They also have 1200+ regular season games + playoffs where as there are what, 20 races a year? Also, I think some of the biggest golfing events don't generate any revenue for the PGA, but I could be wrong (British Open, Masters?)

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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NHL >2bil

NASCAR .7bil
PGA .2bil

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that is surprising to me, given the huge difference in TV ratings between NASCAR (huge), PGA (big), and the NHL (holla at Lifetime channel?). tv ratings drive fees, which is a huge reason why the NFL is so big.

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but I realized that the NHL figure probably includes Canada. ,which boosts it a ton. the NHL/OLN deal was worth about $65m annually.

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The NHL figure definitely includes Canada. They also have 1200+ regular season games + playoffs where as there are what, 20 races a year? Also, I think some of the biggest golfing events don't generate any revenue for the PGA, but I could be wrong (British Open, Masters?)

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regarding annual attendance at live events, from wiki

MLB: 76m
NBA: 22m
NHL: 21m (20% in Canada?)
NFL: 17m
Nascar: 7m

I have no idea what total golf attendance is, but it's probably in the low millions

attendance is certainly 1 good data point, but doesn't tell the whole story

[SL__72]

Do they have anything about average ticket price? I don't know what NASCAR tickets cost, but I think for the other sports it goes:

NFL>>NHL>NBA>MLB

Also that PGA data must have been really inaccurate. According to some site I found their current national TV rights are earning them 500mil/year. Here are the "Annual Payments for National TV Sports Rights"

This was published last April so I think the MLB ones have gotten a huge bump since then.

NFL: 3.7bil (Fox/NBC/ESPN/NFL Network/DirectTV)
NBA: 767mil (ABC/ESPN/TNT/NBA ch.)
MLB: 713mil (Fox/ESPN/Turner)
NCAA Tourney 565mil (CBS/DirectTV)
NASCAR: 555mil (Fox/FX/Speed ch./ABC/ESPN)
PGA: 500mil (CBS/NBC/The Golf Channel)
College Football: 185mil (ABC/CBS/NBC/ESPN/CSTV)
BCS: 95mil (ABC)
NHL: 70mil (NBC/OLN)
College Basketball: 70mil (ABC/CBS/ESPN)

Obv. NHL gets a huge boost from Canada which doesn't show up here. ESPN payed 18mil for the rights to the Women's NCAA basketball tourney which kind of surprises me.

Also, those numbers are just for US, national rights, they don't include local broadcasts.

[SBR]

I think it might also be interesting to take a look at participation levels of various sports. I.e. I bet a hell of a lot more people play Basketball than Football.

I'd also be pretty surprised to find that Division 1 College football has more revenue than the NHL. Each team only plays about 11-13 games and the tickets aren't very expensive except for the really major games.

[TomCollins]

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I think it might also be interesting to take a look at participation levels of various sports. I.e. I bet a hell of a lot more people play Basketball than Football.

I'd also be pretty surprised to find that Division 1 College football has more revenue than the NHL. Each team only plays about 11-13 games and the tickets aren't very expensive except for the really major games.

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There are also 116? teams and huge f'in stadiums.

[SL__72]

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I think it might also be interesting to take a look at participation levels of various sports. I.e. I bet a hell of a lot more people play Basketball than Football.

I'd also be pretty surprised to find that Division 1 College football has more revenue than the NHL. Each team only plays about 11-13 games and the tickets aren't very expensive except for the really major games.

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There are also 116? teams and huge f'in stadiums.

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I'm pretty sure they make more then the NHL. If you read a few posts up, there are a lot of D1 football teams generating >50mil in revenue and like Tom said there are 116 teams.

[eamato]

tiger woods is the most recognizable and richest athlete in the world therefore he dwarfs any hocky team and might come close to dwarfing the nhl in the united states.

football
baseball
basketball
nascar
golf
soccer- youth participation is outstanding
hockey
extreme sports are making big push if counted as a whole (skateboarding, bmx, etc...)
swimming and tennis no one really cares about

[dontmesswithme]

I'm pretty sure if they uprooted the EPL and made it the USPL it would be at worst #4, most likely #3.