Something I was wondering about… in the US, has a “major” sport every more or less died out completely?
Obviously just about every word in that question, including “major”, “sport” and “died out”, would need precise definitions to really get a definitive answer, but I’m curious if anyone has any good answers?
My guess is that the sports that have had the largest decline in popularity in the US, historically, are boxing and horse racing. But both certainly still clearly exist.
Examples from other countries are also certainly welcome.
Horse racing, as a mainstream sporting event, is essentially dead. With the sole exception of the Triple Crown, nobody cares, and even then, it’s more a social event than anything to do with the actual sport of horse racing.
Boxing is a sport that revolves, and lives by the fortunes of, its stars. Who are the current, active superstars of boxing? Do everyday people even remotely recognize any names on the list of current champions? Mayweather and the Klitschko brothers are likely the most recognizable names, and they are all severely lacking in personality. Mayweather is rapidly approaching the end of his run. I’m pretty sure most people genuinely believe the Klitschko brothers to be robots, and I’ve honestly not seen much convincing evidence otherwise.
I suspect boxing will die. It’s not dead yet - no sport where a person can become really rich is “dead” - but I think it is doomed. Its organization is hopelessly blown apart, it’s get a direct competitor eating into it, participation rates are collapsing.
Horse racing is not what it once was but I think it’ll scrape by. People like horses.
Horse racing is wobbly with a weak prognosis in the U.S., but dog racing is what is truly in critical condition. The Triple Crown at least gets some ESPN exposure.
Greyhound racing is indeed in decline, though there are still 13 tracks in Florida (c. 2000? now?). “During the 1990s, the greyhound racing industry’s gross betting handle (total amount wagered) declined by a staggering 45 percent.” Cock fighting is said to be the world’s oldest spectator sport, traceable to Persia 6000 years ago (Wiki). Now illegal in all 50 states, it was once popular in er Oklahoma. It is still practiced in Puerto Rico.
Also bull baiting. From THE PENNSYLVANIA SUNDAY BLUE LAWS OF 1779: A VIEW OF PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY AND POLITICS DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION BY J. THOMAS JABLE
The tavern continued to be the social center for the masses after the Great War for Empire. It not only provided entertainment in the form of plays, dances, gambling, and sports, such as animal baiting and cockfighting but served also as a meeting place for political discussions and intellectual exchanges. Something to do anyway… Also: Without factional controversy, the Assembly in September of 1774 passed a resolution which discouraged “every species of extravagance and dissipation, especially horse racing, and all other kinds of gaming, cockfighting, exhibition of plays and other expensive diversions.”
The Pennsylvania Assembly’s action reflected a widespread attitude. The First Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia from Sep-tember 5 to October 27, 1774, adopted a Plan of Association on October 20. The plan included a provision that discouraged "every species of extravagance and dissipation…'4 I say that if they needed to ban it, it must have been popular.
I think at one time it was pretty big and had tournaments much like golf. They still have tournaments today but I got the impression from older relatives it was much bigger in the 40’s and 50’s.
According to the wiki, as late as the 1850s cricket had more space in the New York press than baseball did. But it was the civil war that pretty much killed it in the US.
Motorbike speedway would be a prominent example from the UK, I would guess you have / had that in the US also. Basically short course motorbike racing round a dirt track - the riders skid through the turns dramatically, I think because the bikes don’t use brakes.
Used to draw huge crowds way back in the day, pre-war, with all major cities having a speedway track. Had a bit of a revival here in the 70s, I can remember seeing it televised when I was a kid. Since then it’s disappeared as a mainstream spectator sport, I have no idea who many tracks are left in the UK or where you might go to watch it.
Two sports that bloomed briefly in the UK are basketball and ice hockey. I think the pro/semi-pro leagues are now non-existent, but both sports were televised in the 1980s.
Greyhound racing has declined considerably, but still hangs on. Horse racing seems to be in decent shape though, but that’s maybe because of Britain’s betting culture.
Baseball is certainly much older than that, dating back to at least the late 18th century in a recognizable form. It certainly took off in the 1850s in a huge, huge way, but it had been around for a long time before that.
I’m not sure cricket counts as a major sport “dying out” though, even if it did lose popularity in the USA, as it was popular before really ANY sport was “major” in the sense of being a professional, organized concern with substantial media coverage, save maybe horse racing.
Maybe in some bastardized form, but the “Knickerbocker Rules” were published in 1845/1846 and the first game took place in 1846. It’s hard to consider any bat and ball game that existed before that as “baseball.”
It seems like open-wheel racing in the US is sort of in the same category as horse racing where there’s interest in the Indy 500 and US F1 race if there is one, but the regular racing season never really recovered from the CART/IRL split back in the 90’s.
I don’t know about that, the wiki suggests that in the north east, at least, there was media coverage of important games, and even international tours, so there was clearly some kind of setup there that the public was interested in. It was as major as any sport was at the time.
My sport is " Archery Flightshooting" This is an ancient sport practiced by Turks, Chinese and other asian countries. Sometimes it seems we are hanging on only by a thread as less than a dozen will show up for the international championships each year. Thier does seem to be somewhat of a resurgence in Europe right now.
If flight shooters were animals they would probably capture the few of us remaining and put us into breeding programs.