What less popular sports and games do you like?

The Game Room
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1

American Football, Baseball, Soccer, Hockey, Boxing, UFC, Basketball, Tennis, and even Cricket are all very popular.

What not-as-popular sports or competitive games do you enjoy, that you think should be more popular and why?

First for me is Badminton. It is not a good example because it is very popular in East Asia and parts of Europe. However, it is almost non-existent in the Americas. This is a shame because, in my opinion, it is more interesting than tennis.

It is more 3-D than tennis. It requires faster reaction times than tennis. It has more tactics than tennis and has more ways to win a point. It does not rely on the serve to win, like in modern-day tennis. Of course, I like tennis too but if given a choice, I would rather watch badminton.

Australian Rules Football is highly popular in Australia. But ask your American friends about it and you usually only get a shrug or a puzzled look. I love this game. It is so chaotic and all out. The fitness level of the massive athletes is off the charts. I can’t even imagine being able to run that much. I think it is much tougher than American Football. I wish I could watch live games on the internet for free and without cable.

I like watching women’s lacrosse which is mainly only played at certain colleges and private high schools on the East Coast. Why women’s over men’s? The insane aggression in men’s lacrosse turns me off. There is better sportsmanship in the women’s game.

Compared to soccer, lacrosse tends to be fairly high-scoring. Comebacks can happen quite rapidly. The level of player fitness is pretty incredible too. They have added a shot clock in the women’s game, so that makes it more fun. I used to watch it on the lesser ESPN channels but I no longer have Comcast (thank goodness).

Similarly, I like to watch women’s field hockey. This is only mildly popular in certain countries, But like lacrosse, it is a very fast game and the scoring is higher than in soccer. The only bad point, in my opinion, is that like soccer, players are encouraged to draw a penalty shot. They do so by knocking the ball into their opponent’s leg, once inside the striking circle. That is cheesy but not as cheesy as the flopping in soccer. I wish they would change that rule. Unfortunately, I pretty much only watch field hockey during the Olympics. The Dutch and the Argentinians tend to be the best at it.

2 other, not that-popular sports (compared to say: baseball) that I enjoy during the Olympics are archery and high diving. They each have their dramatic moments and require high degrees of skill.

As far as games, I enjoy watching Snooker, which is fairly popular in the UK, China, and parts of Europe but almost unknown elsewhere. It is much harder than pool and has a lot more strategy and tactics. The rules are a bit difficult to comprehend at first but once you get them, you get them. I find it calming to watch but you need an attention span.

Finally, as I have said before, I am in love with Jai-Alai. The traditional long-court -form is still popular in parts of Spain (where it originated), France, the Philippines, and Mexico. It started being played in the US in 1904. Most of the US frontons have shut down now but from the 1930s through the 1970’s it was quite popular here (peaking from the mid-'40s to the mid '50s).

There is a fast, shorter-court version still being played in Magic City, Miami. It is free to watch on YouTube and I encourage you to check it out.

Why do I like it? Well, at first it seems a bit simple. But there are a lot of techniques and tactics that are not immediately apparent to new watchers. Different players have different styles of play. And it is one of, if not the fastest ball sport in the world. Eventually, you find your favorite players and root for them.

The fans that it does have, tend to be fans for life because it is quite exciting to watch, once you grasp what is going on. I have been watching for about 4 years now and have no plan to stop. I am still learning new things about it from watching it closely.

There is also a traditional long-court Fronton in the US at Dania Beach. They too have live streams of games online but not as frequently as the Magic City games. Currently, they are doing their Winter tournament.

So once again, what less popular sports or games do you enjoy watching that you wish were more popular?

2

Since you eliminated cricket from consideration I will put forward hurling. A lot of different skills needed and it’s a fast exciting sport to watch. Plus they’re crazy. Growing up in the 80s, I also fell in love with Aussie Rules football Talk about crazy, I still remember #44 for the Hawthorne Hawks. I was going to go to the championship in Los Angeles but they cancelled due to the Whittier earthquake. :frowning:

3

Say what you like about men’s lacrosse, but I enjoyed watching it. I attended a school that was a perennial competitor for the NCAA div I championship, and they were quite fun to see and root for. I even got to go to the World Lacrosse games back in the 80’s when they were held locally and it was a wonder to observe the precision high speed passing of the lacrosse ball, the fancy stickwork, etc.

I can’t say I really follow it much now, but if I notice a game being broadcast live, I’ll watch it.

4

I watch most forms of alpine ski racing, and I love the Stihl Timbersports series, especially Springboard and Underhand Chop.

5

I wish team handball would be more popular in the US. It’s like soccer except you can use your hands!

6

Back when I was in the US I went to see women’s flat track roller derby every chance I could.

7

I generally don’t enjoy racing events. But for some reason I’m always engrossed by the swimming events during the Olympics.

8

I love Aussie rules football, and Gaelic football. Both are so much more interesting than American football or soccer in my opinion.

9

It’s WAY more popular now than it was ten years ago, but I’ve always liked women’s soccer, especially when it was for love of the game and not for the pittance they were paid. Watching a player like Sophia Smith go from a novice to a superstar was really fun.

10

Australian Rules football here. I’ve been to games when I’ve been in Australia (Go West Coast Eagles!), and I catch what I can on TV, which doesn’t happen as often as I’d like.

11

Cheese rolling.

12

I love watching team handball during the Olympics.

13

I curl.

14

When we first got cable in the early 1980s, and ESPN was a new cable network, they didn’t have contracts to show any of the big US sports (either pro or college), so they wound up showing a lot of more niche (by US standards) sports. Through that, I saw a lot of Canadian football and Australian football, both of which weren’t (and still aren’t) well-known or popular in the U.S.

I’m still a fan of both, particularly the CFL; when we went to Toronto as part of a vacation, a decade ago, we saw an Argonauts game, and had a blast. There are times now when I enjoy CFL games more than NFL games.

In more recent years, I’ve also became a fan of rugby union, through my friends who emigrated here from Ireland. I went with them to see the Irish national team take on the New Zealand All Blacks at Soldier Field in Chicago in 2016, and when Ireland won in a huge upset, the Irish fans in the stadium went absolutely bonkers. :slight_smile:

I’ve been a player of tabletop RPGs for most of my life. Over the last decade, I’ve become rather burned out on the bigger, better-known RPGs (D&D and Pathfinder), and have gravitated to smaller-press games, in particular Fate, Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, and now Household.

15

there is a sport that is very occasionally broadcast on one of the ESPN networks called OmegaBall. It is essentially 3 team soccer on a round field where each team defends a goal and can score on either of the other two goals. It has some interesting tactical differences from soccer and is worth a watch if you don’t have anything better to do. Unfortunately, the teams that are often playing are usually not particularly skilled, more like like beer-league players than professionals. It would be infinitely more cool if they somehow could get players like Messi and other high level professionals to give it a go.

16

That’s ESPN 8, The Ocho.

17

ah, thank you. Yes, that was it of course.

18

Sumo
Great ceremony, amazing athletes, little time invested

19

I play Bridge which USED to be massively popular but it seems it’s literally dying out.

Most of the people I play with are over 75. At 57, I’m usually the youngest in the hall. And I have to drive further and further to find a game in person. Used to be five miles, then 15, now 25 (with most people coming a similar distance or more).

They claim the young people are playing online, but all the chat on the online Bridge rooms clearly indicates that most of the American, Canadian, Australian and British players are older folks.

20

When ESPN was still young and showing less-popular sports, a friend of mine commented that it was great – whenever you needed something to watch, you could always tune in to Bulgarian cheese throwing.