These Changing Landscape of American Sports
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There is a changing landscape in the world of American sports. The sports that were popular at the start of the 20th century are not at the top of the heap of the 21st century. But it doesn't take a century to change the most popular sports and the ones that our society as a whole has an interest in. Decades and even just a few years can be enough to change the sporting landscape, sometimes due to luck, great timing or just a few shining and captivating moments.
If you think about the sports that were most popular in the early 1900s you would see that baseball, boxing and horseracing were the three most popular in the country. Today, baseball is still popular but doesn't have the status it once did. It has been overshadowed by other games, games that have a faster pace and translate more excitably into television viewing.
Boxing has enjoyed spurts of popularity. Muhammad Ali led the charge for a boxing renaissance in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler led another resurgence through the early and mid 80s. However, the sport has been undone once again by its own corruption and an image problem that has banished it from the major networks and from the top of most of America's list of interests.
Few sports have seen their fortunes decline more so than horseracing. Once one of the most popular sports, it is now only something people notice during the Triple Crown Races. After these races, the sport is off the radar of most fans until the following season.
Other sports that have fallen off the cliff include tennis, golf and hockey. Hockey had a great expansion led in part by Wayne Gretzky. However, the sport now reaches a very regional grouping of fans. There are diehard fans in pockets of the country close to established franchise, but the sport is not popular throughout the country as a whole. Tennis fails to reach today's youth whatsoever, and the only time golf captures the focus of the public is when Tiger Woods is playing at his best.
The examples in boxing, hockey and golf show how much that one player or one person can change the entire course of a sport, for better or for worse. Another example of this is one of the new popular sports in America, mixed martial arts.
MMA was at first thought to be entirely too violent to ever win over fans. However, the very popular UFC reality show managed to change the minds of many with its series-ending fight. This single match struck a chord with many viewers and sent the popularity of the sport soaring.
What does the future have in store for the landscape of American sports? If the past has taught us anything, it's that trying to predict the future trends in the sports world is a losing bet. The NFL may seem as if nothing could dislodge it from its place of preeminence on the sports scene, many would have the same about hockey just a few decades ago - there's no predicting the future of American sports, but we can all enjoy the changes sure to come.
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
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