The "major" sports.

[Dave Gray]

When I was a kid, there were 4 pro sports that mattered:

football
baseball
basketball
hockey


They would fluctuate in popularity, but they were always the top 4.  Some would say that soccer was going to make a charge at some point, but it never did.

Then, football skyrocketed in popularity and overtook baseball, and hockey pretty much dropped off the map.  It stopped getting coverage in the news, on the radio, kids stopped playing it as much as they did, and it just dwindled.)  Meanwhile, I hear people saying that MMA (UFC, Pride, etc.) is going to be the next big thing.  Of the young people I know, MMA is a big deal.  ...and I must admit, while I don't follow it, I always enjoy watching it.

Do you think that MMA has the ability to surpass hockey and become a legitimate sport in the US?

[Brian Fein]

No.

Here we go again with Dave's "I don't watch hockey so it must not be popular"

I've never once even seen "MMA" nor do I care to.  I can't believe there's eve a poll on this.

Dave, you must live outside your circle - just cause no one you know watches hockey, and they all watch UFC, doesn't mean "no one watches hockey anymore"

I bet a lot of people watch World Series of Poker - that must be one of the four major sports.

I know alot of people that like Extreme Makeover Home Edition, maybe home-building is now one of the 4 major sports!

[Thundergod]

Anything has a potential to pass hockey as a major sport.  For some strange and unknown reason people want to hate hockey. Excuses galore; "I don't understand the rules",  "I can't pronounce the players' names", "I can't follow the puck", etc..
If you don't like it you don't like it, fine.  But I've actually heard those excuses many a time. Lame. Baseball's more boring than hockey, but there's a massive following. So I don't buy that either. When Houshmandzadeh is a household name and everyone can say it, you have no problems... But I digress.

If POKER, yeah POKER and the WNBA are televised and STAY on ESPN or other major networks, anything can pass hockey in popularity. Not to mention the fact that people are bloodthirsty and love watching others beat each other into bloody pulps. Ears hanging and everything... It'll surpass it, if it hasn't already.

My 4 will always be NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB. Everything else, far away...  unless it's MXC.

[Guru-In-Vegas]

LOL MXC!!!

No.

Here we go again with Dave's "I don't watch hockey so it must not be popular"

I've never once even seen "MMA" nor do I care to.  I can't believe there's eve a poll on this.

Dave, you must live outside your circle - just cause no one you know watches hockey, and they all watch UFC, doesn't mean "no one watches hockey anymore"

I bet a lot of people watch World Series of Poker - that must be one of the four major sports.

I know alot of people that like Extreme Makeover Home Edition, maybe home-building is now one of the 4 major sports!

I don't watch hockey.  I would put soccer on that list before hockey.  Boxing, soccer, UFC, tennis, golf, porno all come before hockey.

[StL FinFan]

I could care less about MMA. 

[TonyB0D]

i really don't know anyone that follows MMA, and i live in the most densely populated & media saturated area in the country....i think it's kinda a rednecky or southern thing (no offense, guys).  hockey's still very much popular in the NYC/NJ metro area....MUCH more so than MMA

[bsfins]

I could care less about MMA. 

Word..It took me a few minutes to think WTF is MMA

[Sunstroke]

No hockey...no MMA...

Football and baseball are plenty.

[Phishfan]

I don't follow MMA at all. If there is a good fight on I will watch it though (I would have to take someone's word that it would be a good one because I don't know any of the people). I don't see it as a big 4 sport thought.

[Dave Gray]

Jeez Brian, bite my head off.

Christ, you quoted two things I didn't even say in this thread.

Hockey did better this year than expected, ratings-wise.  I know a couple of people that watch hockey, but most of them are from up north.

But, now that you mention it, hockey has greatly diminished in popularity over the last several years, whether or not I watch it or not.  I don't know why you get so defensive over that fact.

[StL FinFan]

^ Aren't we all "up north" to people in Florida? 

[ethurst2]

If you were born in the North, hockey is a rite of passage. It's a sport that you automatically gravitated to and played as a child from elementary school, to college intramural and so on. In the south, you'll find children with a football in their crib. Up north, it's more likely to be a puck.

The strangest expansion plan that I've ever seen is when the NHL expanded into California, Tennessee, Florida and North Carolina, regions that have been traditionally dominated by football, basketball and baseball.

This means that people in the fore-mentioned regions had to LEARN what hockey was instead of being born into the sport. Most guys my age (and I'm still young) were born in the era in which the Dolphins were the only game in town and you either followed the Knicks, 76ers or the Celtics because before the Heat came to town, that was what CBS beamed in.  So for many people, they would rather fight than switch.

Plus, the NHL didn't have a solid advertising plan and the announcers in the first few seasons  assumed that your average fan in Miami knew what a red line was. The broadcasting was tentative at times.

As a kid, I kept up with names like Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito and of course, Wayne Gretzky because back then, those were premier names that the NHL marketed.

People are funny when it comes to new sports leagues. I'm surprised that Arena Football has been around this long. I thought that NFL Europe was a great idea at the time but they said that no one was watching the games.

As for MMA, the ONE reason why people are going for it is because professional boxing is a joke. Long gone are the rivals like Ali-Frazier, Holmes vs Norton. The Golden Era of Boxing (1900 -1998) died a quiet death, especially in the heavyweight ranks.

I think that MMA is just a flash in the pan sport. There's no artistry to it like boxing and to me, it's just a bunch of boxers, wrestlers and even karate men who couldn't make it on the next level.

[Philly Fin Fan]

I honestly had no idea what MMA stood for until I saw the poll at the top of this thread. I even hear it mentioned from time to time on Howard Stern (like this morning) and never knew what it stood for. I figured it was the acronym for the league, not the sport itself.

As far as hockey goes, once ESPN stopped carrying games, its popularity probably did diminish in areas that are not traditional hockey areas. But in my area (not too far from Tony), its still very major.

[bsmooth]

UFC has been around for almost 15 years so I would not call it a flash in the pan. Also for years it was very limited to where it could be sanctioned and televised from. I live in California and I know more professional and amatuer MMA fighters than I do true blue hockey fans, and the fan base for MMA is growing.
Ethurst a number of top teir fighters are/were former K1, wrestling champions, and have moved over so to call them fighters who could not make it to the next level is off base.

[EDGECRUSHER]

The NBA is suffering from a lack of credibility in the past 10 years or so due to shady deals and ridiculous referee calls, so it is also falling off the map. Even last night, the NBA finally gets a great matchup and it's a complete joke. Even Curt Schilling thought it was an awful game by the refs in favor of Boston.

Hockey screwed itself with the lockout and the NBA screwed itself with the corruption. It's basically just Baseball and Football now.