Sports in the
United
States
are an important part of the United
States' culture. However, the sporting culture of the U.S.
is different from that of many other countries. Compared to any
other nation, Americans prefer a unique set of sports. For example,
soccer, the most popular sport in the
world, is not as popular in the U.S. compared to the four most
popular
team sports — namely
baseball,
American
football,
basketball, and
ice hockey. The
major leagues of each of these sports enjoy massive media
exposure and are considered the preeminent competitions in their
respective sports in the world. The preeminence of the major
leagues is partially attributed to their strong financial power and
huge domestic market.
In addition to the difference of popular sports, sports are also
organized differently in the United States. There is no system of
promotion and relegation
like sports in Europe and major sports leagues operate as
associations of
franchises.
Moreover, all major sports leagues use the same type of schedule
with a
playoff tournament after the regular
season. Also, unlike many other countries, schools and
colleges and universities sports
competitions play an important role in the American sporting
culture. Competition between national teams is far less important
than in the sporting culture of the rest of the world.
Baseball is the oldest of the major
American teamsports. Professional baseball dates from 1869 and had
no close rivals in popularity until the 1960s; though baseball is
no longer the most popular sport it is still referred to as the
"national pastime." Also unlike the professional levels of the
other popular spectator sports in the U.S.,
Major League Baseball teams play
almost every day from April to October. Football now attracts more
television viewers than baseball; however,
National Football League teams play
only 16 regular-season games each year, so baseball is the runaway
leader in ticket sales.
Basketball, invented in Massachusetts
by the Canadian-born James Naismith, is another popular sport,
represented professionally by the National Basketball
Association. Most Americans recognize a fourth major
sport—ice hockey.
Always a mainstay of Great Lakes
, Mid-Atlantic
and New
England
-area culture, the sport gained tenuous footholds in
regions like the American South in recent years, as the National Hockey League pursued a
policy of expansion.
The top tier of
stock car auto racing,
NASCAR, has
grown from a
Southern sport
to one with a following nationwide. It has largely outgrown a
previously provincial image; it is now avidly followed by fans in
all socioeconomic groups and NASCAR sponsorships in the premier
Sprint Cup division are highly sought
after by hundreds of the U.S.'s largest corporations.
Soccer is another popular team sport played in the United States.
Soccer is the number one youth participation sport in the U.S.
today, more popular even than football, baseball, basketball, or
hockey, up to about the age of 13. Dramatic growth in youth
participation has fueled the
men's national
team's steady rise in caliber of play since 1990, with the US
participating in every
World Cup
since that time. Almost as many girls as boys play youth soccer in
the U.S., contributing to the
women's national
team becoming one of the world's premier women's sides. MLS
(
Major League Soccer) and the
USL (
United Soccer Leagues)
are the men's first and second tier professional leagues in the
U.S., respectively, and WPS (
Women's Professional Soccer) is
the top tier of American women's soccer.
The designation of
"tier" is mandated by FIFA
in each
case.
The extent in America to which sports are associated with secondary
and tertiary education is unique among nations. In basketball and
football, high school and particularly college sports are followed
with a fervor equaling or exceeding that felt for professional
sports; college football games can draw six-digit crowds, many
prominent high school football teams have stadiums that seat tens
of thousands of spectators, and the college basketball championship
tournament played in March, known as
March Madness,
draws enormous attention. Sports are a significant source of
revenue for schools competing in
Division
I (D-I), the highest level of collegiate athletics. This has
created controversy as collegiate athletes are considered amateurs
and thus may not receive a salary, although many athletes are
granted
scholarships to attend
a school and compete in a sport. Further, among the most popular
sports such as basketball and football, coaching success is revered
to the point that D-I schools may extend multi-million dollar
contracts to the most proven coaches; several coaches of D-I
football programs and a few D-I basketball coaches are claimed as
the highest-paid public employees in their respective states.
Team sports
American football
Football, also known as
gridiron
or
American football outside the
U.S. and Canada, attracts more television viewers than baseball,
and is considered the most popular sport in the United
States.
The
National Football
League (NFL) is the preeminent professional league in the
United States. Through expansion teams and the landmark merger with
the
American Football
League in 1970, the NFL has reached its current mark of 32
franchises divided into two conferences. After a 16-game regular
season, each conference sends six teams to the
playoffs, which eventually culminate in the
league's championship game, the
Super
Bowl. Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest annual sporting event
held in the United States. The Super Bowl itself is always among
the highest-rated programs annually in the
Nielsen ratings and worldwide. Some notable
names in NFL history include
Jim Brown,
Roger Staubach,
Dick Butkus,
Terry
Bradshaw,
Otto Graham,
Emmitt Smith,
John
Elway,
Jerry Rice,
Joe Montana,
Johnny
Unitas and
Lawrence
Taylor.
Additional millions also watch
college
football throughout the autumn months, and some communities,
particularly in rural areas, place great emphasis on their local
high school team.
The popularity of
college and high school football in areas such as the Southern United States and the
Great
Plains
stems largely from the fact that these areas
generally do not possess markets large enough for a professional
team. Nonetheless, college football has a rich history in
the United States, predating even the NFL, and fans and alumni are
generally very passionate about their teams.
Arena football, a form of football
played in indoor arenas, had its own professional league, the
Arena Football League, which
operated from 1987 to 2008 and has indefinitely suspended
operations.
Baseball
The most popular baseball league in the U.S. is
Major League Baseball. Due to its
162-game schedule, it attracts more ticket sales than any other
sport in the United States, and is considered the second most
popular professional sport.
Major League Baseball teams
play almost every day from April to October. The
World Series is the championship series of
Major League Baseball, the culmination of the sport's postseason
each October. It is played between the winner of each of the two
leagues, the
American League and the
National League and the winner is
determined through a best-of-seven playoff. Notable American
baseball players in history include
Ted
Williams,
Babe Ruth,
Sandy Koufax,
Willie
Mays,
Joe DiMaggio,
Stan Musial,
Lou
Gehrig,
Nolan Ryan,
Hank Aaron,
Mike
Schmidt and
Jackie Robinson, who
was instrumental in dissolving the
color line and allowing
African-Americans and
Latin Americans into the white major leagues.
Today, some of the notable American players include
Derek Jeter,
Ken
Griffey, Jr.,
Chipper Jones,
Chase Utley,
Alex Rodriguez,
Joe
Mauer and
Randy Johnson.
Baseball and the variant,
softball, are
also popular participatory sports in the U.S.
However, unlike
American football, baseball is also popular in many other
countries, notably Japan, South Korea
and Latin American countries such as the Dominican
Republic
, Cuba
, Mexico
, and
Venezuela
. These countries are represented well in
Major League Baseball today by players such as
Ichiro Suzuki,
Albert
Pujols,
David Ortiz and
Johan Santana.
Basketball
Basketball, invented in Springfield,
Massachusetts
1891, by Canadian-born physical education teacher
James Naismith, is the second most
popular sport behind football. However, in regards to
professional sports, basketball, or the NBA, is ranked third in
popularity behind the NFL and MLB. The
National Basketball
Association, more popularly known as the NBA, is the world's
premier men's professional basketball league and one of the major
professional sports leagues of North America. In late April, the
NBA Playoffs begin. Eight teams in each
conference qualify for the playoffs and compete for the
Larry O'Brien Championship
Trophy. Notable NBA players in history include
Wilt Chamberlain,
Michael Jordan,
Pete
Maravich,
John Stockton,
Magic Johnson,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
Larry Bird, and
Jerry
West, whose silhouette is featured on the NBA's logo. Notable
players in the NBA today include
Kobe
Bryant,
LeBron James,
Dwyane Wade,
Shaquille O'Neal,
Tim
Duncan,
Chris Paul,
Carmelo Anthony and
Dwight Howard.
In the past decade, an increasing number of players born outside
the United States have signed with NBA teams, sparking league
interest in different parts of the world.
Among the notable
foreign-born players in the NBA today are two-time MVP Steve Nash (Canada
), Peja Stojakovic (Serbia
), Andrei Kirilenko (Russia
), Andrea Bargnani (Italy
), Žydrūnas Ilgauskas (Lithuania
), Yao Ming (China
), 2007 Finals MVP
Tony Parker (France
), Gasol
brothers Pau and Marc (Spain
), Manu Ginóbili (Argentina
), and Dirk Nowitzki
(Germany
), who was
the first European player to win the NBA Most Valuable Player
Award. Notable retired foreign-born players include
Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria
), who has
won an MVP award, two
Defensive Player
of the Year awards, and two Finals
MVP awards, and Dikembe Mutumbo
(Democratic
Republic of Congo
), who has won four Defensive Player of the
Year awards.
Since the
1992 Summer Olympics,
NBA players have represented the United States in international
competition and won several important tournaments. The
Dream Team was the unofficial nickname of the United States
men's basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1992
Olympics.
Like American football, basketball at both the college and high
school levels is quite popular throughout the country. Every March,
a 65-team, six-round, single-elimination tournament determines the
national champions of college basketball. Most U.S. states also
crown state champions among their high schools. More Americans play
basketball than any other team sport, according to the National
Sporting Goods Association. Unlike American football and baseball,
basketball is extremely popular in Europe and is often played in
schools. The NBA is very popular in places like Italy, France, and
Spain—far more so than MLB or the NFL. More people would have heard
of Michael Jordan, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, and
Dwight Howard than any players from the other
major leagues.
Netball, a derivative of basketball invented
in the United States and usually played by women, is popular in
Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the West
Indies.
Ice hockey
Ice hockey is another popular sport in
the United States. Exported to the U.S. from Canada, the sport is
commonly referred to simply as "hockey."
In the U.S. the game
is most popular in regions of the country with a cold winter
climate, namely New
England
and the Midwest, including
the states of Alaska
, Illinois
, Minnesota
, Michigan
, New
York
, Ohio
, Pennsylvania
, Wisconsin
, and North
Dakota
. However, in recent years hockey has become
increasingly popular in the Sun Belt
due in large part to the expansion of the National Hockey League to cities like
Tampa,
Florida
; Dallas,
Texas
; and Phoenix, Arizona
.
The
NHL is the major
professional hockey league in North America, with 24 U.S.-based
teams and six Canadian-based teams competing for the
Stanley Cup. Other professional leagues in the
U.S. include the
American Hockey
League and the
ECHL. Additionally, nine
U.S.-based teams compete in the three member leagues of the
Canadian Hockey League.
USA Hockey is the official governing body
for amateur hockey in the U.S.
The United States Hockey Hall of
Fame is located in Eveleth, Minnesota
.
Although hockey does not enjoy the same popularity as football,
baseball and basketball in the U.S., one of the nation's greatest
ever sporting moments came during the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics
when the U.S. hockey team beat the Soviet Union 4-3 in the first
game of the medal round before going on to beat Finland to claim
the gold medal. The game has since been called the "
Miracle on Ice".
Historically, the vast majority of NHL players had come from
Canada, and almost all of the non-Canadians in the league were
Americans.
This began to change in the 1970s with an
increase in the number of American-trained players and an influx of
players from Europe, mostly from Sweden
and
Finland
with a number of defectors from the then-Communist
states of Eastern Europe. After the fall of communism in Europe, many
players from the former Soviet bloc flocked to the NHL, primarily
from the Czech
Republic
, Russia
, and
Slovakia
. Today, a slight majority of NHL players are
Canadian, slightly more than 20% are Americans, and almost all of
the remainder are European-trained. (For a more complete
discussion, see
Origin of NHL
players.) Notable NHL players in history include
Wayne Gretzky,
Eddie
Shore,
Stan Mikita,
Guy Lafleur,
Mario
Lemieux,
Gordie Howe, and
Bobby Orr. Famous NHL players today include
Alexander Ovechkin,
Sidney Crosby,
Martin Brodeur,
Jarome Iginla,
Joe
Thornton,
Chris Pronger, and
Patrick Kane.
Soccer
Soccer, known outside the U.S.
as football, is another popular sport in the United States, where
it has a popularity today that is at an all-time high, and is
growing every year. The
United States men's
national soccer team and the
United States women's
national soccer team represents the United States of America in
international association football (soccer) competition and is
controlled by
United
States Soccer Federation.
Major League Soccer is the
premier soccer league in the United States. MLS fields 15 clubs
(with expansion clubs joining nearly every year), in a 30 game
schedule that runs from April to October, with playoffs and the
championship in November. Other professional soccer leagues in the
U.S. include the USL (
United
Soccer Leagues), WPS (
Women's Professional Soccer),
and two indoor soccer leagues XSL (
Xtreme Soccer League) and NISL
(
National Indoor Soccer
League).
In 1994, when the U.S. hosted the
FIFA World Cup, it had the highest
attendance of any single-sport event in U.S. history.
Many notable international soccer players have played in American
leagues, including past greats
Pelé,
Hristo Stoichkov,
George Best,
Carlos
Valderrama,
Johann Cruyff,
Lothar Matthäus, and
Franz Beckenbauer and current stars
David Beckham,
Guillermo Barros Schelotto,
Cuauhtémoc Blanco, and
Freddie Ljungberg. Notable
American players of the past and the present include
Clint Dempsey,
Bert
Patenaude,
Eric Wynalda,
Brad Friedel,
Brian
McBride,
Cobi Jones,
Kasey Keller,
Landon
Donovan,
Claudio Reyna,
Tim Howard, and
Alexi
Lalas.
Other team sports
- Rugby union, common in other
English-speaking nations, is not as well known in the United
States. Rugby is played recreationally, professionally and in
colleges, though it is not governed by the NCAA
(see College rugby). There are an
estimated 63,000 registered players, with more than a quarter being
women. The semi-professional Rugby
Super League is the premier domestic competition. The sport's
worldwide governing body, the International Rugby Board (IRB),
has created two international competitions as part of an attempt to
grow the sport in North America. The first, the North America 4, included two American
teams. It was superseded in 2009 by the Americas Rugby Championship, in
which a "USA Select XV", effectively the second-level national
side, competes. More recently the national side has
been competing at the Rugby World
Cup, and the country's national
team in the sevens variation of the
sport has been elevated to one of the 12 "core teams" in the annual
IRB Sevens World
Series.
- Australian rules
football is governed by US Footy in the
U.S. and, though little-known in the country, it is also a
developing sport with regular international competition against
Canada.
- Curling is popular in northern states,
possibly because of climate, proximity to Canada, or Scandinavian
heritage.
- Volleyball is also a notable sport in
the United States, especially at the college and university levels.
There is a dramatic difference in the support of university
athletic programs for men's and women's volleyball. Over 300
schools in NCAA Division I alone (the highest of three NCAA tiers)
sponsor women's volleyball at the varsity level, while only 82
schools in all three NCAA divisions combined sponsor
varsity men's volleyball, with only 22 of them in Division I.
- Inline hockey was invented by
Americans as a way to play the sport in all climates. The PIHA is the league
with the largest number of professional teams in the
nation. Street hockey is a
non-standard version of inline hockey played by amateurs in
informal games.
- Ultimate (aka Ultimate Frisbee)
was initially popular with high school and college students, and
many now continue to play in adult recreational leagues.
- Cricket, another common sport in
Commonwealth countries, is
not a popular sport in the U.S. Many amateur cricket leagues have
been formed by Indian, Pakistani, Australian, South African,
English and Caribbean (more specifically - West Indian) immigrants,
and as a result, the sport has made limited inroads into the
mainstream sports community because of a large influx of migrants
from cricketing countries who make up almost 16 million of the
American population. Cricket used to be the most popular sport in
America during the 1700s, 1800s and early 1900s till it suffered a
rapid decline. In fact the first intercollegiate tournament in
America was a cricket tournament. The first annual Canada vs. USA
cricket match, played since the 1840s, was attended by 10,000
spectators at Bloomingdale Park in New York. The USA vs. Canada
cricket match is the oldest international sporting event in the
modern world, predating even today's Olympic Games by nearly 50
years. USA participated in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy where
they were comprehensively beaten in matches against Australia and
New Zealand.
- Team handball, a common sport in
European countries, is not a popular sport in
the U.S. The sport is mosly played in the country amateurly.
Handball is not a NCAA sport, but is played in
the Summer Olympics. The sport's
governing body is USA Team Handball.
- Roller derby is a fast-growing
contact sport played on roller skates.
As of September 2009, there were 350 women's, men's, and junior
leagues in the U.S.A. The sport is also played in Canada, United
Kingdom, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. The sport's national
governing body is USA Roller
Sports, with the Women's Flat Track Derby
Association being the largest association of U.S./Canadian
leagues. There are roller derby leagues in most metropolitan areas
in the U.S. The vast majority of these are flat track roller derby
leagues, with a handful of banked track derby leagues as well.
Women's leagues make up the lion's share of them, there were 28
men's and co-ed leagues and 16 junior leagues as of September 2009.
Popularized by the 2009 film Whip
It.
Individual sports
Motor sports
Motor sports are also widely popular in the United States, but
Americans generally ignore major international series, such as
Formula One and
MotoGP, in favor of home-grown
racing series. Americans, like the rest of the world, initially
began using public streets as a host of automobile races. As time
progressed it was soon discovered that these venues were often
unsafe to the public as they offered relatively little crowd
control. Promoters and drivers in the United States discovered that
horse racing tracks could provide
better conditions for drivers and spectators than public streets.
The result has been long standing popularity for
oval track racing while
road racing has waned.
Historically, open wheel racing was the
most popular nationwide, with the Indianapolis 500
being unquestionably the most widely followed
race. However, an acrimonious split in 1994
between the primary league, CART (later known as Champ Car), and the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway
(the site of the Indy 500) led to the formation of
the Indy Racing League, which
launched the rival IndyCar Series in
1996. From that point, the popularity of open wheel racing
in the U.S. declined dramatically. The feud was settled in 2008
with an agreement to merge the two series under the IRL banner, but
not until enormous damage had been done to the sport.
The CART-IRL feud coincided with an enormous expansion of
stock car racing, governed by
NASCAR, from its past as a mostly regional circuit
mainly followed in the southeastern U.S. to a truly national sport.
NASCAR's
Sprint Cup Series
generally harnesses an 8 million person audience on television, as
well as sold-out crowds at many tracks that can hold up to 170,000
spectators.
Another one of the most popular forms of motorsports in the United
States is the indigenous sport of
drag
racing. The largest drag racing organization, the
National Hot Rod Association,
boasts 80,000 members, more than 35,000 licensed competitors and
nationwide television coverage.
There are Americans participating in international
motorcycle racing. Currently,
Colin Edwards and
Nicky Hayden represent the United States in
MotoGp.
Ben Spies and
John Hopkins participate in
the
Superbike World
Championship. Seven different Americans have won a combined
fifteen championships in MotoGp.
Eddie
Lawson has won four championships (more than any other
American). Five American riders have won eight Superbike World
Championships (more than any other nationality). There are two
MotoGp events held in the U.S.
These include the United States motorcycle
Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
and the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand
Prix and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. World Superbike holds
one race in the U.S. at Miller Motorsports Park
.
Golf, tennis, boxing, and track and field
Outside of team events, U.S. athletes compete in sports such as
boxing,
golf,
tennis, and
track and
field events. Golf is very popular in the U.S. as a
recreational activity, especially among business people. The United
States is home to the world's richest men's professional tour, the
PGA Tour, and three of the four
major championships in men's
golf, and also to the richest women's professional tour, the
LPGA Tour. America has consistently been
the most successful nation in men's professional golf since World
War I. The U.S. was also the dominant nation in women's
professional golf until around the turn of the 21st century, when
Asian and other international golfers began to dominate the LPGA
Tour. Many of the all-time greats of the sport are American, such
as
Jack Nicklaus,
Tiger Woods,
Walter
Hagen,
Ben Hogan,
Arnold Palmer and
Bobby
Jones.
Tennis is
played nationally at high school and college levels, and the
country hosts one of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments, the US
Open
, at the USTA National Tennis Center
, Queens
, New York
City. Many of the all-time greats of the sport are American,
such as
Bill Tilden,
Jimmy Connors,
John
McEnroe,
Pete Sampras,
Andre Agassi,
Jim
Courier,
Billie Jean King,
Chris Evert,
Venus and
Serena
Williams. The early 21st century has seen a sharp falling off
in the number of top ranked American players, as Andy Roddick,
Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and the Bryan brothers are the
only Americans in the top 10 in their respective divisions.
Professional boxing was one of
the major sports in the U.S. from the late 19th century up to the
middle decades of the 20th century. U.S. boxers such as
Muhammad Ali,
Harry
Greb,
Jake La Motta,
Mike Tyson,
Rocky
Marciano,
Oscar De La Hoya,
Willie Pep and
Sugar Ray Robinson rank among the all
time greats of the sport. However, boxing has decreased in
popularity over the past several decades while the sport of
mixed martial arts has recently
enjoyed mainstream success, largely due to the increase in
popularity of the
Ultimate Fighting
Championship. Americans have had a constant presence among the
top of the pack in mixed martial arts, producing historic fighters
such as,
Dan Henderson,
Chuck Liddell,
Randy
Couture,
Rampage Jackson,
Ken Shamrock,
Brock Lesnar, and
Tito
Ortiz.
Track and field gets little mainstream attention from Americans
apart from competition in the
Olympic
Games, although it is always a mainstay of high school and
college athletic departments.
Outdoor sports
Hunting and
fishing
are very popular in the U.S., especially in rural areas. Other
popular outdoors activities in the country include
hiking,
mountain
climbing,
paintball and
kayaking. In winter, many Americans head to
mountainous areas for
skiing and
snowboarding.
Cycling
and
road bicycle racing have
increased in popularity, fueled by the success of Texan cyclist
Lance Armstrong.
Other popular individual sports
- American Handball
- Equestrian competition – Despite
lacking the national popularity seen in Europe, America usually
performs extremely well in international equestrian
competition.
- Wrestling – Though not a
popular sport on a national level (except perhaps during the
Olympics), high school
wrestling is frequently one of the most popular participatory
sports for young men in the United States.
- Martial arts competitions
- Shooting sports
- Skateboarding – Skateboarding
culture largely developed in the United States, which continues to
hold many of the top tournaments and produce leading
skateboarders
- Surfing
- Fencing
- Swimming – swimming is a major
competitive sport at high school and college level, but receives
little mainstream media attentions outside of the Olympics
- Mountain biking
- Bowling – Bowling is the most
popular participation sport in the United States with more than 100
million people going bowling each year.
- Figure skating
- Various extreme sports
Organization of American sports
Amateur sports

Pre-game activities at University of
Tennessee football game
The extent in the United States to which sports are associated with
secondary and tertiary education is rare among nations. Millions of
students participate in athletics programs operated by high schools
and colleges. Student-athletes often receive
scholarships to colleges in recognition
of their athletic potential. Currently, the largest governing body
of collegiate sports is the
National Collegiate
Athletic Association (NCAA).
High school and college sports fill the developmental role that in
many other countries would be the place of youth teams associated
with clubs. The major professional sports leagues operate
drafts once a year, in which each league's
teams selected eligible prospects. Eligibility differs from league
to league. Baseball and ice hockey operate
minor league systems for players who have
finished education but are not ready or good enough for the major
leagues.
Especially in basketball and football, high school and particularly
college sports are followed with a fervor equaling or exceeding
that felt for professional sports;
college football games can draw six-digit
crowds and, for upper-tier schools, sports are a significant source
of revenue.
Professional sports
There is no system of
promotion
and relegation in American professional sports. Major sports
leagues operate as associations of
franchises. The same
30-32 teams play in the league each year unless they move to
another city or the league chooses to expand with new
franchises.
All American sports leagues use the same type of schedule. After
the regular season, the 8-16 teams with the best records enter a
playoff tournament leading to a championship
series or game. American sports, except for soccer, have no
equivalent to the cup competitions that run concurrently with
leagues in European sports. Even in the case of soccer, the
cup competition draws
considerably less attention than the regular season. Also,
major-league professional teams in the U.S. never play teams from
other organizations in meaningful games, although NBA teams have
played
European teams in preseason
exhibitions on a semi-regular basis, and recent
MLS All-Star Game have
pitted top players from the league against major European soccer
teams, such as members of the
Premier
League.
International competition is not as important in American sports as
it is in the sporting culture of most other countries, although
Olympic ice-hockey and basketball
tournaments do generate attention. The first international baseball
tournament with top-level players, the
World Baseball Classic, also
generated some positive reviews after its inaugural tournament in
2006.
Government regulation
No American government agency is charged with overseeing sports.
However, the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
(http://www.fitness.gov/about_overview.htm) advises the President
through the Secretary of Health and Human Services about physical
activity, fitness, and sports, and recommends programs to promote
regular physical activity for the health of all Americans.
The U.S. Congress has chartered the
United States Olympic
Committee to govern American participation in the
Olympic Movement and promote amateur sports.
Congress has also involved itself in several aspects of sports,
notably
gender equity in college athletics,
illegal drugs in pro sports,
sports broadcasting and the application
of
antitrust law to sports leagues.
Sports media in the United States
Sports have been a major part of American broadcasting since the
early days of radio. Today,
television networks pay millions of
dollars for the rights to broadcast sporting events. Contracts
between leagues and broadcasters stipulate how often games must be
interrupted for
commercials.
Because of all of the advertisements, broadcasting contracts are
very lucrative and account for the biggest chunk of pro teams'
revenues. Broadcasters also covet the television contracts for the
major sports leagues (especially in the case of the
NFL) in order to amplify their
ability to promote their programming to the audience, especially
young and middle-aged adult males.
The advent of
cable and
satellite television has greatly expanded
sports offerings on American TV.
ESPN, the
first all-sports cable network in the U.S., went on the air in
1979. It has been followed by several sister networks and
competitors.
Despite the size of the sports market in the U.S., the country does
not have a national daily sports newspaper. This is because the
contiguous 48 states spread across four
time
zones, and games on the
West Coast may not end until
early morning in the East. This makes it difficult to distribute a
national newspaper with the scores of late games in time for
morning delivery. However, there are many American sports
magazines, the best-known being
Sports Illustrated.
List of Major Sports Leagues in the United States
See also
References
- Roller
Derby Worldwide
- SpeedTV.com My Take on Open Wheel Racing In
America Accessed 2008-07-22
- Inside the NHRA: NHRA: World's largest auto racing
organization
External links