Is Canada A "Sports" Country?

[Hanni]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

How many true international sports leagues are there? True stand alone leagues?

It's not a matter of international leagues but worldwide participation numbers and popularity.

[polak]

Originally Posted by evman150

In the three international major sports (NHL, MLB, NBA), Canada ranks 1st, 4th, and 4th in players.

Outside of the US, this is by far the best of any of the participating countries.

Cherry-picked info perhaps, but still indicative that Canada does pretty well in major sports, soccer notwithstanding.

Baseball is less popular then Ice Hockey.

And that's saying something. It is far from a Major International sport. People forget how popular sports like Cricket, Handball and Field Hockey are.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by polak

Baseball is less popular then Ice Hockey.

Source?

[frinkprof]

Now we're getting into the "Canada can't field a good team/set of athletes in so and so sport, which is more popular worldwide than so and so sport that Canada does well in" arguments. That's not what was asked in the OP.

Canada has high participation rates in sports. Period.

[Hanni]

Originally Posted by polak

Baseball is less popular then Ice Hockey.

And that's saying something. It is far from a Major International sport. People forget how popular sports like Cricket, Handball and Field Hockey are.

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Source?

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...all_Federation Baseball has 35 million participants worldwide

According to http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-ii...f-players.html Hockey only has a little over 1.5 million.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Hanni

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...all_Federation Baseball has 35 million participants worldwide

According to http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-ii...f-players.html Hockey only has a little over 1.5 million.

I still think hockey struggles to break the top ten.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by arsenal

Cricket and Rugby.

Sports played at the highest level by a grand total of 10 nations? That's an odd choice.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Hanni

It's not a matter of international leagues but worldwide participation numbers and popularity.

When 90% of those people are on the sub-continent the 'international' aspect of it is pretty diminished. Basically any sport that is big in India jumps to the top of the list based on that criteria.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by valo403

Sports played at the highest level by a grand total of 10 nations? That's an odd choice.

How many nations play basketball at "the highest level"

[arsenal]

Originally Posted by valo403

Outside of soccer find me a more global sport than basketball

Originally Posted by valo403

Sports played at the highest level by a grand total of 10 nations? That's an odd choice.

You asked for sports outside of soccer which are more global than basketball. I gave you two.

[polak]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Source?

I tried to find #'s for this but the US skews everything.
The USABasball claims they have 12 million registered players while the IBAF says there is only 4 million registered world wide.

Both numbers are more then Ice Hockey but again, The US probably makes up >80% of those numbers.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by polak

I tried to find #'s for this but the US skews everything.
The USABasball claims they have 12 million registered players while the IBAF says there is only 4 million registered world wide.

Both numbers are more then Ice Hockey but again, The US probably makes up >80% of those numbers.

Ok do you mind not calling it "Ice Hockey" please. I reckon everyone on here knows what you mean when you say "hockey"

But you said:

Baseball is less popular then Ice Hockey.

Confused.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by arsenal

You asked for sports outside of soccer which are more global than basketball. I gave you two.

Except those sports aren't more global than basketball.

Cricket is one of the least global sports I can think of. There are literally 10 countries that play test cricket.

Rugby isn't much better, you have the Tri-Nations powers and the Six nations teams plus Argentina, and then you have a big drop off to the next tier of teams. The IRB itself would tell you it would love to be as global as basketball, they've spent millions of dollars trying to make rugby into a more global game over the past few years.

There are at least 15 countries where basketball is a legitimately big sport and a bunch more where it has a pretty solid presence. I guarantee you that you can find people playing basketball in most countries in the world, there's not a chance that's true with rugby or cricket.

[polak]

I wish the IBAF reported their demographics like the IIHF.

If one or two countries make up the vast majority of players, is it really a "global" sport?

I think a better measure would be how many countries are either baseball or Ice Hockey within the top 3 or 4 or 5 biggest sports.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by valo403

Except those sports aren't more global than basketball.

Cricket is one of the least global sports I can think of. There are literally 10 countries that play test cricket.

Rugby isn't much better, you have the Tri-Nations powers and the Six nations teams plus Argentina, and then you have a big drop off to the next tier of teams. The IRB itself would tell you it would love to be as global as basketball, they've spent millions of dollars trying to make rugby into a more global game over the past few years.

There are at least 15 countries where basketball is a legitimately big sport and a bunch more where it has a pretty solid presence. I guarantee you that you can find people playing basketball in most countries in the world, there's not a chance that's true with rugby or cricket.

1(1)NEW ZEALAND93.352
(2)AUSTRALIA85.923
(3)SOUTH AFRICA84.694
(4)ENGLAND83.095
(5)FRANCE83.036
(6)WALES82.267
(7)IRELAND79.858
(8)ARGENTINA78.639
(9)SCOTLAND77.9710(
10)SAMOA76.2311
(11)ITALY76.0312
(12)TONGA74.7913
(13)CANADA72.3014
(14)FIJI70.6015
(15)GEORGIA67.9516
(16)JAPAN67.9317
(17)USA66.6118
(18)ROMANIA64.5419
(19)RUSSIA62.0520
(20)SPAIN61.63

Seems pretty international to me.

When is the last time the US lost a game in basketball. After the AB's it opens up.

[frinkprof]

Again, where does the relative "globality" of particular sports matter in discussing how popular sporting is in a particular country? Hockey is undoubtedly a sport, as is soccer, sepak takraw, judo, skiing, wakeboarding, mountain biking, wheelchair basketball, and hundreds of others. I'm sure the "is it really a sport?" types of activities such as billiards and darts are probably balanced between countries and don't factor in significantly.

Canada has high participation in sports like hockey, skiing, gridiron football, baseball, curling, rock climbing, etc. They don't have a relatively high participation in soccer and cricket, but high participation in sports nonetheless.

What we have here is soccer fans saying that because Canada doesn't do well in international soccer events that this means it is not a sporting country. Again, what this means is that Canada is not a strong soccer nation, relatively. It is a strong sporting nation.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Seems pretty international to me.

When is the last time the US lost a game in basketball. After the AB's it opens up.

That proves my point, you have an elite tier and a bunch of developing national programs. This isn't really a topic I've ever had to debate, anybody who knows rugby pretty much accepts that as fact. The developing programs are getting better and the gap is closing, but they are still fringe sports in their countries.

Btw, the US has been far from dominant in basketball for a long time. They are not guaranteed gold medals, or any medal, anymore.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by valo403

That proves my point, you have an elite tier and a bunch of developing national programs. This isn't really a topic I've ever had to debate, anybody who knows rugby pretty much accepts that as fact. The developing programs are getting better and the gap is closing, but they are still fringe sports in their countries.

Btw, the US has been far from dominant in basketball for a long time. They are not guaranteed gold medals, or any medal, anymore.

I have a bit of a passing interest in the sport.......

Show me how basketball is any different/more competative. The US wipes the floor with anyone they play in international play. Other than the US it is a crap shoot.

I would suggest the are extremely similair games.

[polak]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

What we have here is soccer fans saying that because Canada doesn't do well in international soccer events that this means it is not a sporting country. Again, what this means is that Canada is not a strong soccer nation, relatively. It is a strong sporting nation.

My biggest argument with that is that we may play a lot of sports, but we do not support very many as fans with any sort of passion. Really, the only sports that have any sort of fan support outside of the olympics are Hockey and Football. If Canada is playing an important Hockey game or if international football existed, those would be the only sports where the country would "stop" to watch.

I can't speak for very many countries but Canada doesn't get behind their athletes like other countries do.

Soccer has more participation then Hockey in Canada fyi.

[Northendzone]

i would say that as long as the average 30 yr old male is at least as fit as the average 50 yr swede then yes we are a sports country.

however, if honduras continues to whip us on the pitch as they did yesterday, then we need to man up - or send over Christine Sinclair and her friends to play.