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No. No city in America has even half as many big sporting teams as London.
London is by far the biggest sporting city on earth.
Most British cities have more than one football club, and British clubs are bigger, richer and more popular than American clubs.
British cities also have rugby and cricket clubs who play weekly, and many many more sports too
It's the lack of variety which stands out to me. And while you do have other sports in London, Americans cities do as well. There's the aforementioned Atlanta for example. Are you sure your clubs/leagues are richer? Wasn't there a thread here a while back with some whining about how much American athletes are paid and they are paid insane amounts of money.
What a bunch of amateurs. I am actually playing soccer, American football, cricket (just a pick up game with some Pakistanis and Jamaicans), lacrosse, jai alai, ice dancing, and that weird, indoor 18th-century predecessor to tennis all while drinking my morning coffee and browsing the internet. I am also engaged in a bout of fisticuffs with a misled fan of another team while simultaneously participating in a golden gloves boxing match. I am also drawing up plans for an equivalent to Quidditch with monkeys riding on the backs of Alsatians (the dogs not the Frenchmen).
But in all seriousness, who gives a flying f- which country wastes the most time and money stroking off a bunch of overpaid whiners in short pants?
As others have mentioned, the structure of sports in the US vs. much of Europe is simply different.
Since sports are typically tied to schools in the US, it makes it easier to partake in a number of different sports in a highly organized manner. In another country, a kid who would want to play three different organized sports would probably join different clubs to do so. This takes time and money. High school sports in the US are generally quite cheap to participate in (perhaps $40 participation fee), and the schools can/will supply the equipment for the students to play. In many other countries, unless one is exceptional at a sport, club fees are quite expensive and often participants are required to supply their own equipment (an expensive aspect).
The result, IMO, is that a large number of Americans have participated in organized sports at some level. This, then, gives people the feeling that they can relate to professional athletes, because "they were on the varsity team in high school", when in reality 99.9% are nowhere near that level. Still, this illusion makes spectator sports more interesting for more people. If you play a pick-up soccer game on some field with your friends, it simply is not the same as playing an organized match with referees, coaches, fans, and official scorekeepers. For instance, in Minnesota, the state high school hockey tournament draws 100,000+ fans over a weekend, which high school football in Texas can often draw 10,000 fans at one game. These are high school sports, and there are many other examples within the US.
Obviously, I'm generalizing, but that's my view on the matter, having seen how club sports are run in other countries.
So nobody in Europe is getting paid big money to play for a given team?
in the good leauges - premier leauge, la liga, serie a, bundesliga and ligue 1 - they are. otherwise, no.
what i'm talking about is the passion for sports among the supporters. if the OP would be right - the BMI should be higher in europe than in the US - but it's not. far from it. europeans are way more active, both as participants in sports and as suporters. that's a universal fact. no need to argue about that. and it's not just about football. if we're being honest, the US sucks in most sports (if you take into account their population figures).
In Britain football fans are fanatics. Many fans are in groups of other fans and form hooligan groups. they follow their team wherever they go in the world, and start fights and attack the opposing fans, who are also with their own hooligan groups.
America doesn't have anything as extreme as British sports fans.
Sport is a way of life in Britain, more so than any American could understand
We get EPL games on ESPN2 sometimes and the atmosphere at the games kind of remind me of a homecoming football game
in the good leauges - premier leauge, la liga, serie a, bundesliga and ligue 1 - they are. otherwise, no.
what i'm talking about is the passion for sports among the supporters. if the OP would be right - the BMI should be higher in europe than in the US - but it's not. far from it. europeans are way more active, both as participants in sports and as suporters. that's a universal fact. no need to argue about that. and it's not just about football. if we're being honest, the US sucks in most sports (if you take into account their population figures).
And I'm sure your country is a real powerhouse in most sports right?
Full disclosure: I am not a big fan of the (North) American pro sports system. I much prefer the relegation-type systems and also the national cups which let many many teams from across the country including smaller cities compete once a year. I wish my country (Canada) was not part of the US-based pro sports system, which I do not think has (overall) been very beneficial to us.
That said, I will agree with Americans that their system does provide a greater diversity of high-level, exciting sports to follow. Most of the larger cities in the US have gridiron football, baseball, basketball and hockey played at a very high level. For the first three there is almost always a high level of interest in them and in quite a few hockey generates a decent level of excitement as well. And of course soccer is growing in the US as well and the number of cities where going to an MLS game is a big deal for people grows every year.
The city that has generally been cited here has been London but that's only one city. What about the rest of Europe? Even in many of the larger cities there is a big drop-off in the quality of spectator experience once you get away from the city's soccer (association football) club or clubs. In the vast majority of places there is soccer (football) and then there is everything else.
By comparison look at the offerings in places like Dallas, Denver, Philadelphia or Boston, and how many sports are up there with top billing locally.
in the good leauges - premier leauge, la liga, serie a, bundesliga and ligue 1 - they are. otherwise, no.
what i'm talking about is the passion for sports among the supporters. if the OP would be right - the BMI should be higher in europe than in the US - but it's not. far from it. europeans are way more active, both as participants in sports and as suporters. that's a universal fact. no need to argue about that. and it's not just about football. if we're being honest, the US sucks in most sports (if you take into account their population figures).
Idk, European posters are always talking about how sports aren't popular in their schools and its meant to be a place for education and now you guys are saying the opposite.... reminds me of another thread lol.
in the good leauges - premier leauge, la liga, serie a, bundesliga and ligue 1 - they are. otherwise, no.
what i'm talking about is the passion for sports among the supporters. if the OP would be right - the BMI should be higher in europe than in the US - but it's not. far from it. europeans are way more active, both as participants in sports and as suporters. that's a universal fact. no need to argue about that. and it's not just about football. if we're being honest, the US sucks in most sports (if you take into account their population figures).
That's something I actually wondered about and questioned in the original post.
It seems that American sports culture is really strong (and Americans will often brag about how tough and sporty they are, and think of American sports such football as super "masculine" and more jockish than soccer), but how does one square or reconcile with the fact that Americans are stereotyped as couch potatoes and have a high obesity rate. There must be a lot of spectators relative to players (but then again, if the American education system has lots of sports, this can't be, unless many adults stop playing sports after growing up).
It seems contradictory that one the one hand, Americans think of themselves as tougher, more sporty and also think of Europeans as more dainty and effete, but many European countries (like Scandinavia) on average have taller, fitter people.
That's something I actually wondered about and questioned in the original post.
It seems that American sports culture is really strong (and Americans will often brag about how tough and sporty they are, and think of American sports such football as super "masculine" and more jockish than soccer), but how does one square or reconcile with the fact that Americans are stereotyped as couch potatoes and have a high obesity rate. There must be a lot of spectators relative to players (but then again, if the American education system has lots of sports, this can't be, unless many adults stop playing sports after growing up).
It seems contradictory that one the one hand, Americans think of themselves as tougher, more sporty and also think of Europeans as more dainty and effete, but many European countries (like Scandinavia) on average have taller, fitter people.
Spectator sports are not the same thing as participatory sports, and don't have as positive an impact on BMI and obesity.
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an impact on BMI and obesity.
