Whats the sporting situation like in your country?

just wanted to know what the sporting situation in ur country is in terms of what sports and national leagues are most watched on tv or have high crowds. I'd also love to see which ones are failing. I'll start by giving an overview of my country australia.

firstly all of those olympic sports like swimming and track and field usually pull good crowds and tv viewers which is expected as does any sport where our national teams compete.
our other sports are as follows

CRICKET is australias most popular sport without a doubt. it is the only one that gets all the nation watching. its similar to baseball but played on an oval field. there is a 6 team national league and several international games and test matches each year

BASEBALL: we once had a baseball league and there are plans for another one but in australia popularity has gone the way of the dodo bird despite the MLB injecting money into the league and endorsing it. the popularity of a similar sport CRICKET took over baseballs popularity and it couldn't compete.

BASKETBALL: australia has an NBL and a womens NBL but even with 11 teams the league sucks in the public's mind. crowds average less than 4,000 even in towns where a basketball team is the only national team there. also there is no longer any TV coverage and even NBA afilliations haven't helped for example my team the sydney kings won 3 straight titles and still crowds suck.

NETBALL: its situation is like basketbal as they get similar crowds but at least netball has free 2 air TV coverage. having a new CEO should help australian netballs popularity

Most countries in the world have one major football code. Usually it is soccer with rugby union running a distant second. In Australia, there are four major codes: Aussie rules, rugby league, rugby union and soccer.

But although Australia has four codes as nation, within individual cities the global template of a dominant football code rang true until the 1980s.

The existence of four codes was a direct consequence of Australia's tyranny of distance preventing the formation of a national football competition until commercial flight became economically viable.

Now that all four codes are competing in the one market, it is only a matter of time before the same pattern that is replicated in every other country around the world, and within individual Australian cities, is replicated across the nation.

There simply aren't enough sports fans to support four games of football being shown on television on a Friday night. The strongest code will always take prime time, thereby strengthening its position.

Only one code can fill the back page on a newspaper. This position will always go to the strongest code, and so further strengthen its dominant position.

Aside from benefiting from media promotion, the dominant code also benefits from being the code of choice for people who want to have a conversation. Football can't serve its role as a conversation starter if every individual follows a different code. To be involved in the conversation, individuals will have to take an interest in the dominant code, thereby strengthening it again. Nor can a football code act as a social glue to bring a community together if everyone in the community follows a different code.

The combatants in the war are not only Australians, they also include FIFA and the International Rugby Board who view Australia as a key battleground in their fight to attain global supremacy.

Soccer is the undisputed global sport. However in recent years, rugby union has experienced tremendous growth. Although yet to challenge soccer's claim of being the "world game", in developing markets like Japan, union's growth is interfering with attempts to promote soccer as a rival to baseball.

Australia has been the driving force behinds union's rise in popularity. In 1987, Australia and New Zealand hosted the first rugby World Cup. It was due to Australia that union became professional in 1996. In 2003, Australia hosted the most profitable World Cup in history. Australia is the financial hub of Southern Hemisphere rugby, arguably the strongest rugby region in the world.

If soccer was able to destroy union in Australia, it would seriously undermine the code's ability to ever challenge soccer for global supremacy.

To help local soccer, FIFA has virtually guaranteed Australia a place in the Confederations Cup and there is a strong push to virtually guarantee Australia a place in the World Cup. Australia will host the soccer World Cup in the near future.

Unlike its interest in America, FIFA's interest in Australian soccer is not commerical. Australia's population is just too small. The real interest is that it is an area of strategic importance.

Caught in the cross fire are Aussie rules and rugby league - Australia's two most popular winter sports. Although both codes lack a meaningful international presence, they both have strong domestic leagues.

Wars are often won with minor battles, and for Australia, the key battleground is Sydney. The strategic importance of Sydney first came to attention in the mid 90s when New Ltd tried to take over rugby league. The media giant signed up all the international boards and all the one-city clubs across Australia. This gave it a far larger target market and broader media appeal than the rival ARL. But despite its financial advantage and media clout, News Ltd lost the war.

The chief reason for the loss was that News Ltd failed to win the hearts and minds of Sydneysiders. Because it lacked the symbolic image that Australia's first city could provide, News Ltd's league flopped Australia wide once it became obvious that it had flopped in Sydney.

In Sydney itself, the key battle is for the working-classes. It is no coincidence that Manchester United, the most popular soccer club on earth, is built upon a working-class image.

Although the working-classes may not appeal to the marketing executives who make sponsorship decisions, their image attracts people to football. The working-classes are the die hard fans that make the club seem like it has a passionate following.

Although yuppies may have a brief infatuation with a club, and have money to spend on expensive tickets, they desert the club when something else comes along. Stadiums that are full one day but empty the next are terrible promotions for any sport. In Sydney, Aussie rules learnt this lesson the hard way with the Sydney Swans while soccer learnt the hard way with the Northern Spirit.

Running 1st) Australia rules

In Melbourne in 1853 Aussie rules became the world's first formally codified game of football. It was said to be a hybrid of the Aboriginal game marngrook and the folk games that later evolved into rugby and gaelic football.

The new code quickly spread to Adelaide and Hobart. However by the time it reached Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, English immigrants had already established rugby union.

In 1890, Perth fell to Aussie rules and with 300 teams, Brisbane appeared to be heading the same way.

In NSW, the mining communities of Maitland and Newcastle were dominated by the Australian game. However Australia's first city, Sydney, proved a more difficult challenge.

As an English game, rugby union held influence in the corridors of power. It wielded this power to have Aussie rules banned from Sydney's enclosed grounds.

It wasn't until 1909 that Aussie rules was finally allowed to rent an enclosed oval. Unfortunately for the code, this was a year after the establishment of rugby league.

Professional-minded footballers went across to rugby league. With few players to choose from, the NSW Aussie rules team was frequently humiliated at colonial carnivals. Fans soon moved across to rugby league as well. With Queensland being economically tied to NSW, it followed suit.

Although every Australian city continued to have a competition, it was only Adelaide (SANFL), Perth (WAFL) and Melbourne (VFL) that had large crowds.

By the 70s, Melbourne's league, the VFL, started poaching the best players from the SANFL and the WAFL. As the highest standard competition in Australia, the VFL became the first choice for television stations and was broadcast nationally on the ABC. This further strengthened its financial advantage over the other leagues.

When commercial flight becoming economically viable, football fans around Australia suggested a national league. However the VFL closed ranks and said that the national league would be the VFL, and other states must enter a team and pay a licence fee. The SANFL and WAFL refused.

With South and West Australia refusing to play ball, the VFL was forced to expand to the virgin market of NSW. In 1982, the VFL relocated the failing South Melbourne Swans to Sydney. In 1987 they established a team in Brisbane and another in Perth.

Adelaide remained steadfast in its refusal. However in 1991, the Port Adelaide Magpies defected from the SANFL by making a submission to join the VFL. This ultimately lead to the establishment of the Adelaide Crows.

In name the AFL is a national league, but in substances the history of the VFL still shackles its ability to grow. Much like soccer has been weighed down by its ethnic-centric administration, football has been weighed down by its Melbourne-centric administration.

With such strong associations with Melbourne, it has been difficult to promote the AFL grand final as a day for all Australians as the Super Bowl is promoted as a day for all Americans.

The AFL has signed contracts to ensure a minimum amount of finals matches must be played in Melbourne, irrespective of whether the playing teams are from Melbourne or not. As a consequence, every year interstate fans are complaining they have to play in Melbourne, when they should be talking about how excited they are about the finals.

State of Origin football is another area whether a Melbourne-centric administration has alienated considerable fans. State of Origin used to be seen as the pinnacle of the code and was tremendously popular. This popularity fell away once the AFL gained control over it. Now it doesn't even exist.

For Victorians, State of Origin was never important. For every other AFL state it was. Not having Sate of Origin prevents the AFL from promoting its star players, and signing them to endorsements, the way star players are promoted by rugby league's origin series.

*Affect of globalisation:

There are many people who believe that globalisation will result in the deconstruction of traditional cultures and replace them with homogenised global culture. If such a theory is to be believed, then it is inevitable that Soccer and Rugby will conquer Australia, while Aussie rules will be destroyed.

However, the theory is somewhat deficient as it fails to take into account the fact that encounters with diversity may increase appreciation for those attributes that define people as unique. When Australians travel overseas, their accents often get stronger. Likewise, world rejection of vegemite seems to heighten its appeal for Aussies.

A similar pattern of encounters with diversity increasing ingroup values can be seen in the evolution of European cultures. Despite evolving in close proximity to each other, and knowing a great deal about each other's existence, different European countries evolved along very different lines.

This same pattern now appears to be occurring on the global stage. All over the world, the homogenising affects of globalisation seem to have been fuelling an increase in nationalism, religious fundamentalism and other forms of social identification that define people as unique in the gllobal community. .

If globalisation does indeed inspire Australians to become more proud of their culture, then it may actually work in the interests of Aussie rules.

Strengths:

150 years of tradition;
Inclusive game for all body shapes;
The first code promoted by the media in Tasmania, Victoria; South Australia and Western Australia.
Free-to-air television across Australia;
In Brisbane, Australian rules has proved it can grow in a rugby league dominated environment;
The AFL Grand Final is consistency the highest rating sporting event in Australia.
Weakness:

Poor image in Sydney
Ethnocentric administration biased to Melbourne;
Brisbane Lions must compete against three Queensland NRL clubs and three State of Origins.
No representative teams at either state or national level.


Running 2nd) Rugby league

Rugby league in Australia was established in 1908 by former test cricketer Victor Trumper. It quickly attracted the professional-minded players of both rugby union and Aussie rules and took little time becoming Sydney's dominant code.

In the 1980s, the NSWRL followed the lead of the VFL by expanding their market with a team in Wollongong. In 1982, the Canberra Raiders were established. In 1987, the Brisbane Broncos were established. In 1988 the Newcastle Knights were established. In 1994, the Auckland Warriors, the Nth Queensland Cowboys and the Western Reds were established.

Rugby league was taking the fight for national supremacy directly up to the VFL, and winning.

But the potential of rugby league caught the eye of News Ltd, a media giant that saw rugby league as an inefficient business that could be streamlined. New Ltd believed that rugby league was the best placed to become Australia's national code.

News Ltd made a raid upon rugby league ranks. They signed up the best players, all the international boards, all of Australia's expansion teams and three teams in Sydney- Penrith, Cronulla and Canterbury. A new competition was launched, Super League, and News Ltd's global media might went into overdrive to sell the vision.

But Super League flopped - largely because it was unable to attain critical mass in Sydney. Fans of the Sydney's Super League teams were unable to engage in discussions with fans of the ARL teams.

The ARL's victory in Sydney ultimately won it the war. Much like the VFL defeated the SANFL and WAFL because it had the symbolic image of Melbourne to back it up, the ARL won the national battle because it had the symbolic image of Sydney to back it up. The size of the potential fan base didn't seem to make much difference.

As Sydney fell, a domino effect hit the other Super League clubs around Australia and all suffered massive downturns in crowds. A sporting competition, backed by one of the most powerful men in the world, was on its knees in its first year.

With rugby league looking like it would soon become extinct, the AFL made plans for a second Sydney AFL team. So confident were they that they even sigined a contract with Stadium Australia to play 11 games a year at the venue from 2000.

But rugby league did not become extinct. Super League and the ARL merged to form the NRL and quickly reclaimed ground lost to the AFL and rugby union.

In less than a decade, rugby league has reasserted that it is Sydney's favourite code. Although rugby union is still growing, AFL in Sydney is now really struggling. First it abandoned its plans for a second Sydney team and so broke its contract with Stadium Australia. Now it has SBS outrating the Swans blockbuster games against Collingwood.

In Brisbane, league also seems set to regain the upper hand. From 2007 it will have three teams competing with the AFL's Brisbane Lions. If the Lions have a bad year, all Queensland AFL suffers. On the other hand, the NRL only needs one of the three teams to do well to ensure positive exposure year-in year-out. Furthermore, the NRL has three State of Origin games a year. Collectively, these games amount to same promotional exposure that could be attained by the Brisbane Lions playing in three Grand Finals a year.

Strengths:

Strong loyalty from the working-class market of Sydney;
Free-to-air exposure in NSW, ACT and Queensland;
The first code that promoted by media in NSW and Queensland;
The NRL Grand Final and the three State of Origins games are consistently in the top 10 highest rating sporting contests across Australia;
Sydney is the most important market in Australia and rugby league has almost got control of it.
Weakness:

Has failed in all attempts to expand into Australian rules territory;
Weak outside of NSW and Queensland;
Meaningless international competition;
Close competitor in rugby union;
Losing ground to rugby union in Canberra.
Running 3rd) Rugby union

Rugby union was established in Australia in 1874. Sadly, rather than concentrate on improving the quality of the sport, its administrators concentrated on destroying Aussie rules and then rugby league.

The end result was that rugby remained an extremely boring game, played only by private schoolboys, and thoroughly disliked Australia wide.

Despite losing the fight against both Aussie rules and rugby league, as an amateur sport, rugby union was immune from destruction.

Union players were lawyers, doctors and accountants who could make more money in their professions than they ever could if the defected to league. For them, the joy of union was to be able to travel the world and represent their country.

For union, it didn't matter that it didn't have crowds because they didn't have huge overheads to maintain.

However when Super League was launched in 1995, things began to change. With rugby league paying a fortune to anyone who could pass or tackle, union players realised they could earn more money playing league than they could in their professions. If union didn't offer its players monetary incentives to stay, the entire Wallaby and All Black teams would have defected.

To provide a professional league, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia hastily organised the Super 12 and Tri Nations. A new force in the Australian professional sports market had emerged.

Without the shackles of a popular club competition to weigh them down, all of rugby union's resources were directed towards the success of the Wallabies. Thus Australia, where union runs a distant last in terms of playing numbers, became a powerhouse of world rugby.

In its first decade of professionalism, rugby union has made tremendous leaps in popularity, however it seems to be unable to land the knockout blow on rugby league. Ultimately, only one of these codes can survive.

It is hard to imagine union having a better decade than it has just had and rugby league having a worst. The fact that rugby league still reins supreme calls into question whether union can ever defeat it.

Union may also encounter more difficulties of its own as Northern Hemisphere clubs start poaching Australian players, and other their national teams reclaim lost ground on the Wallabies.

Strengths:

Strong loyalty in the private schools;
In the Wallabies, union has the strongest national brand of all the codes;
Meaningful international competition;
Has taken over from rugby league as Canberra's number one code.
Weakness:

Out of all the codes, union has the least number of registered players. This is a significant concern for a code that relies on the success of its national team for media exposure;
Emergence of soccer as may reduce the lustre of the Wallaby brand;
Close competitor in rugby league.
Doesn't have a national league;
Super 12 is not on free to air television;
Fans tend to support an event rather than express their tribal loyalty.
Running last) Soccer

Soccer is often labelled the sleeping giant of Australian sport, but year after year, the giant continues to snooze.

Perhaps, the problems of soccer have a great deal to do with the ethnocentrism that has hindered its ability to convert its massive playing numbers and global appeal, into any kind of spectator popularity.

In 1977, soccer became the first code to establish a national league. However the teams didn't represent cities, they represented the various ethnic communities that migrated to Australia after World War II.

On the positive side, the ethnic associations gave the teams a culture that people could identify with. On the downside, it was a culture that only migrants from the respective foreign country could identify with.

Administrators were made aware of the problem, however because they were ethnic themselves, they just couldn't see how the ethnic associations could be a problem. Rather than change, they just complained about racism.

In many respects, they suffered the same ethnocentrism as the VFL administrators who sent the South Melbourne Swans to Sydney. For Melbournians, the Swans' Melbourne history seems like an asset. For people in Sydney, it remains a liability.

In 2004 the failed national soccer league was disbanded and in 2005 a new league, without ethnic associations, is to be established.

If soccer does eventually wake up, the most likely loser is rugby union. At present, union's greatest strengths are its international appeal and its ability to inspire patriotism. A successful Australian soccer team in the World Cup, Confederations Cup and Olympics would make union seem like small fry.

In terms of player numbers, more Australians play soccer than any other football code.

Strengths:

Almost as many registered players as Australian rules, rugby league and rugby union combined;
Massive global appeal;
In Perth, soccer has proved that it can make headway in a Football (Australian) dominated market. Neither rugby league nor union has been able to achieve this.
Weakness:

Ethnocentric administration has proved to be out of touch with the wants of the average Australian sport's watcher;
No free to air television coverage;
National league will not contain Australia's elite players;
No tradition.