55 replies to this topic

[Formula-1]

Formula 1 is the most popular sport in the world between the years of Summer Olympics and Soccer World Cup. Am I right or wrong?

[Mrv]

I think soccer (Football) is the most popular global sport and F1 is second.

[baddog]

soccer would have to be compared to motorsport on the whole I guess.. f1 is a series, soccer is a thousand series'

Shaun

[TAB666]

But then soccer isnt a sport, its a game.

[palmas]

Originally posted by Mrv
I think soccer (Football) is the most popular global sport and F1 is second.

Just in Brasil there are over 9 million professional football players! how can you match that? Football is the most played, seen and loved sport of all. In europe there is no town or village without at least one football team.

I prefer F1 anyway

[Flying Panda]

Originally posted by Formula-1
Formula 1 is the most popular sport in the world between the years of Summer Olympics and Soccer World Cup. Am I right or wrong?

Formula One has the most TV viewers, apart from the Olymicps and thw World Cup.
As far as popularity goes, you'll have to ask every single person in the world...

And Fomula One ist a sport, Motorsports is a sport.
Formula One is like a football 'league', only for motorsport.

[lustigson]

Football is so immensely popular, because every dumb... ehm, donkey understands it.

[BRG]

Originally posted by TAB666
But then soccer isnt a sport, its a game.

as opposed to F1 which IS a sport? Not since Bernie and the boys got their hands on it.

[ace]

Formula one is only a sport on 17 Sundays, the rest of the year it's business - Frank Williams.

[Gemini]

Originally posted by palmas


Just in Brasil there are over 9 million professional football players! how can you match that?

What you mean by professional? Does it mean that those 9 million people get paid for pleaying...;) Or do they just registered as all types of teams, like for example local village firemen team that plays in regional firemen legaue...? Going this logic... How many millions of people have driving licence in Brasil. Sure it's more that 9 million ;) So..... more drivers than football players

Anyway, 9 millions is huge figure even for soccer giant like Brasil ;) What is it? 5% of the general population...?

[Vunz]

Originally posted by lustigson
Football is so immensely popular, because every dumb... ehm, donkey understands it.

Right on

But in the end it's only the difference between 2 x 11 and 11 x 2.

[LeDiableRouge]

I think it will be safe to mention that F1 is the most popular sporting series bar the world cup perhaps?

One f1 race definitely has more viewers than any one world cup match. Not too sure about the world cup final match though.

I don't have the numbers but definitely more people play football than drive F1 cars. They tend to be a bit more expensive than the odd adidas ball.

[Alapan]

I think there needs to be a definition of popularity here.

I can confidently say that many more people know and follow soccer that they follow F1.

But the other way of looking at it is that more people watch a F1 race every weekend that people watch a soccer match (unless it is the World Cup etc.)

[PraetorAAV]

Originally posted by TAB666
But then soccer isnt a sport, its a game.

That's a misconception. Of course it's a sport. And it's called footbal .

In terms of audience, I'd also throw in tennis as one of the more popular sports. I guess football's first, F1 and tennis second and third but close to each other, so I wouldn't know which is more popular.

But if you considered the number of people actually involved in a given sport as popularity index, you'd have to sit down for a second: go to this site ( http://www.johann-sa...opularindex.htm ) (I don't know how credible it is) and you'll have a surprise. (btw - I'll have to read a bit more, to actually decide whether or not the information was reliable)

Cheers,

[PraetorAAV]

Originally posted by Vunz


But in the end it's only the difference between 2 x 11 and 11 x 2.

[Gemini]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Alapan


But the other way of looking at it is that more people watch a F1 race every weekend that people watch a soccer match (unless it is the World Cup etc.) [/QUOTE

This is beacuse there is only one race and hundreds of broadcasted soccer matches over the weekend. Their combined audience would be much lalrger that F1 race audience. The World Cup finals are an example. At WC finals those are the only serious soccer competitions that is being held at the time, so you get the real contrentration of audience...

[PraetorAAV]

Originally posted by PraetorAAV


go to this site ( http://www.johann-sa...opularindex.htm )

And in the fine print (sorry I forgot to read past the table) : F1 has the largest TV audience with an estimated 40 million a year. So I guess it flatters all out egos enough to consider the numbers in the table reasonably reliable.

Cheers,

[dai_ferrari]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gemini
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Alapan


But the other way of looking at it is that more people watch a F1 race every weekend that people watch a soccer match (unless it is the World Cup etc.) [/QUOTE

This is beacuse there is only one race and hundreds of broadcasted soccer matches over the weekend. Their combined audience would be much lalrger that F1 race audience. The World Cup finals are an example. At WC finals those are the only serious soccer competitions that is being held at the time, so you get the real contrentration of audience... [/QUOTE]

Thank you very much Gemini, exactly what I was going to say, but you beat me to it. There is only 1 Formula One race every two weeks or so, and then only 17 times a year, while almost every week around the year there are literally hundreds of soccer games going on in almost every single country in the world. Soccer is hands down the world's most popular sport. People playing wise, watching on t.v. wise, attendance wise, etc. etc.

[Ross Stonefeld]

As a specific championship, I think you could argue that F1 is the biggest because its one of the most international. Same thing could be said about NASCAR in the US. Its the second highest rated sport, but Id bet Jeff Gordon is seen by more people in a year in 35 races than Player X on one team for 17(?) NFL games.

[vtpachyderm]

Originally posted by dai_ferrari


Soccer is hands down the world's most popular sport. People playing wise, watching on t.v. wise, attendance wise, etc. etc.

Yup...Has to be football (soccer). You can't judge a sports popularity only by TV viewing audiences since not everyone has a TV. Growing up in Zambia, football was second only to religion when it came to people's passion, and everyone knew about the game, but didn't necessarily watch it on TV, and I'm guessing the same can be said for just about all the other soccer crazed continents.

[Ross Stonefeld]

F1 is not a sport. Motorracing is. You cant really compare F1 to soccer/football or cricket or anything else, only to specific championships. so is F1 bigger than The champions league, premier league, etc?

[Don Capps]

I would be very surprised to see F1 even remotely in the "ballpark" (so to speak) with soccer/ football/ fussball/ futbol/ whatever in popularity. F1 is not universally popular whereas soccer/ football is found everywhere -- even in the USA where only basketball comes close to the numbers who participate from youth to the adult and the professional levels.

Also, the way the FIA "measures" F1 viewers is quite loose and grossly inflates the real or "true" numbers of those actually "watching" F1. Of course, the same can be said for the way most other sports measure their viewers as well, so it is not a problem unique to F1.

Mulling it over, I would think it safe to say that F1 is not the most popular sport in the world. However, it has to be -- using the metrics, flawed as they are -- among those at the top of the heap. Or at least motorsports in general has to be there, if not F1 in particular.


PS: I used to be a USSF referee and watched the growth of soccer in the USA, but also saw the enormous crowds at matches in my travels about the world (I started playing at age 7 in Germany).

[Vagabond]

Originally posted by Formula-1
Formula 1 is the most popular sport in the world between the years of Summer Olympics and Soccer World Cup. Am I right or wrong?

Summer Olympics is not a sport and I'm afraid there is no such a thing as 'Soccer' World Cup. Those parts of the world used to play it they call it Football World Cup. Sorry for being a nag ;)

Seriously, I remember reading statistic figures on TV audiencies worldwide a few years ago. Every 4 years football is taking the top spot, otherwise Formula 1 has an upper hand.

[Vagabond]

Originally posted by palmas


Just in Brasil there are over 9 million professional football players!

Wow! How can a country manage to feed that army

[DOHC]

Football is so immensely popular, because every dumb... ehm, donkey understands it.

Right on But in the end it's only the difference between 2 x 11 and 11 x 2.

Uh...you mean even Lauda can tell the difference?

[The First MH]

I agree with Ross. The comparison between soccer (or football) and F1 is misleading. You cannot say football is more popular than F1, or vice versa, because it like comparing apples to oranges. A better, more apt comparison would be motorsports in general vs football in general. There are how many football games a week? And how many motorsport races? But if you were still intent onto comparing F1 to football, then you would have to choose one football series and compare that with F1. But that would still be unfair. And who would you choose? Premier League? Spanish? Italian? French? If you are going to make this comparison, and I wouldn't, I would suggest that F1 be compared to the World Cup (Fifa) as the amount of games and the level of skill is probably better suited to comparison. Further, they are both international (well almost) in that they both draw their participants (men only thanks) and locations (mostly, but not necesarily, Western) from international locations (They are at least both consistent at ignoring the same places and people). Anyway, my thoughts on the issue are that we shouldn't make this comparison, as nothing is really gained by by saying one is more popular than the other.

Ace : Formula one is only a sport on 17 Sundays, the rest of the year it's business - Frank Williams.

Your point is well taken, and it's a great quote. But you forget to mention, of course, that football is a huge industry and busness in its own right. How much do players make now? Figo is worth how much exactly? or more importantly, how much does a cub like Man U make a year? In this respect they are both a mix of sport and business. I still don't know whether this is really to the demise or benefit of both sports, but we will leave that for another day.

[MFOT_Froza_Ferrari]

Here's the difinitive answer: F1 is watched on TV more than ANY other ANNUAL sport in the world, INCLUDING Soccer. The only time F1 has less viewers is for the World Cup and Summer Olympics.

[Amadeus]

The most popular participation sport in the world is actually angling (tragic but true).

I agree with the posters above who pointed out that if you add up all the people around the globe who attend or watch a football match on a given weekend and compare it to those who attend or watch F1 then football dwarves F1. If there is a full football program in England there will be on average 300,000 watching just the Premiership matches (20 teams, 10 fixtures, average attendance 30,000. That ignores the 110,000 who could be watching Rangers and Celtic play home matches in Glasgow (wouldn't happen for security reasons, but is technically possible). Add in the other 92 professional or semi pro clubs in the UK, lets say 46 other matches. Average attendence? Lets say just 5,000 (ignoring Man City, Wolves and one or two others that pull 30,000+ crowds even in the lower leagues) and you add 230,000 attendees. So, the Premiership, 2 games in the Scottish Premier League and the rest of the Football League and you have 640,000 paying live spectators in the UK alone.

That happens 36 times a season in the league. You also have a multitude of cup matches. Liverpool payed over 50 games last year. If we presume they were watched by an average crowd of 25,000 (and Anfield, the home stadium holds almost twice that and sells out for every game) then they were seen live by over 1 and a quarter million people over the course of a season. Thats one club!

That's also before we start on the TV viewers, the other leagues, the news clips (yes, Bernie counts those for F1 figures). Any claim that F1 is in the same ballpark as football on the whole is ridiculous.

F1 scores so heavily on vierership because it the only regular global series - football is massive but fragmented and only delivers it's whole audience once every 4 years. Likewise the Olympics. Rally lacks the same global appeal. The only way you could compete would be to have a football 'World League', with Barca playing River Plate and Liverpool taking on whoever the best team in Asia are - that would swamp F1 in popularity. As an aside anyone have the figs for the global viewership of the European Champions League Final?

[The First MH]

Originally posted by Amadeus
The most popular participation sport in the world is actually angling (tragic but true).

I would disagree. How do you get accurate figure for that all around the world. And if I had to make an eduacated guess, I would think the most popular participation sport is running... :

[Gemini]

Originally posted by MFOT_Froza_Ferrari
Here's the difinitive answer: F1 is watched on TV more than ANY other ANNUAL sport in the world, INCLUDING Soccer. The only time F1 has less viewers is for the World Cup and Summer Olympics.

your answer is far from definite... I bet every year more people watch football (combined all broadcasted games) than combined 17 F1 races

[Ross Stonefeld]

again, you guys are comparing an entire sport (football/soccer) to one championship (F1) which is just a small part of another sport (auto racing)

[Gemini]

Originally posted by The First MH

I would think the most popular participation sport is running... :

I can beat... The most popular participations sport is walking

[Gemini]

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
again, you guys are comparing an entire sport (football/soccer) to one championship (F1) which is just a small part of another sport (auto racing)

you are right Ross, the comparison is useless... but that's how this thread asks its question: asks about formula 1 not about auto racing or motor sport in general...

[Ross Stonefeld]

Well yeah, calling F1 a sport to begin with was the first mistake. Its not a sport. Its a championship within a sport. I want to beat people up when NASCAR announcers refer to "our sport is so great"

[TazioN]

Yeah people all over the world watch F1, but not that many follow it closely. Most people only see the cars going around the track and are happy with that.

And I think the audience figures for F1 are wildly exagerated outside of Europe.

[dai_ferrari]

I think we all know that F1 is not a "sport" in the true sense. F1 is a category of "auto racing" , the pinnacle if you will, in the sport of "auto racing".

Then let's compare the two sports of auto racing, and soccer/football/futbol/calcio.

Of all the numerous categories of auto racing played out in all the corners of the world, and shown on television sets worldwide, it still cannot be compared to soccer's range of games played, matches shown on television sets, and attendance at the games themselves.

We all love F1, and probably a good portion of you like myself also love soccer. I do know for instance I watch many more soccer games than F1, but only because there are that many more soccer games to watch. Now if there were 32 F1 races in a year, then we might have an argument on our hands as to who wins then, but it aint gonna happen.

[MFOT_Froza_Ferrari]

Originally posted by Gemini
your answer is far from definite... I bet every year more people watch football (combined all broadcasted games) than combined 17 F1 races

You would lose that bet. More people watch F1 on TV than any other sport annually, and the only time F1 isn't the most watched on TV in a year is in years where the World Cup and Summer Olympics are contested.

[Ricardo F1]

Originally posted by MFOT_Froza_Ferrari


You would lose that bet. More people watch F1 on TV than any other sport annually, and the only time F1 isn't the most watched on TV in a year is in years where the World Cup and Summer Olympics are contested.

I'd love to see where you got that statistic. It cannot be true, it's just not feasible. Besides Motor Sports figures are the biggest load of crap I've ever seen, usually they include people watching the news who see highlights for 5 seconds (believe me this was included in figures we were given for GP500).

[Ali_G]

As far as I know, the Champions League Final draws more viewers than any GP.

just thought I'd throw that in.

Niall

[Ross Stonefeld]

erm, really? Isnt champions league just a european racing series? Are any Malaysians, Canadians, or Americans going to watch it en masse?

[dai_ferrari]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
erm, really? Isnt champions league just a european racing series? Are any Malaysians, Canadians, or Americans going to watch it en masse? [/QUOT

:rolleyes: Errr.....Ross...

Champions League is the final between the two best soccer/football clubs in Europe. (Well, the two teams left standing after all the rounds are played out, whether they are the best or not, can be debated from time to time) And despite the fact that they are European teams, since there are foreign players on the teams, usually some of the best in the world, there is a worldwide audience for the final, and for a lot of the games that lead up to the final.

[Ross Stonefeld]

I think they might show that live here. Who was in last year's game? I remember watching something. At any rate its on at like 2pm weekdays on one of our Sports networks. Its coverage isnt much better than that of CART/IRL

[Ali_G]

Ross: Bayern Muncha dn Valencia.

i guess that in any year W/O World Cup or olympics, it is the most viewed sporting event in the world.


Niall

[dai_ferrari]

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
I think they might show that live here. Who was in last year's game? I remember watching something. At any rate its on at like 2pm weekdays on one of our Sports networks. Its coverage isnt much better than that of CART/IRL

Yeah, unfortunately, America still hasn't quite got the soccer fever yet, despite the fact that they have gotten better. But here in America we do have millions that think it's fascinating to watch guys go around in circles over and over again for roughly 200-300 miles.

Whether or not Ali_G is correct or not about the figures for the tv audience in the Champions League, can be debated, I"m not sure.

[LB]

Funnily enough Ross they do. Soccer is quite big in asia and the US has a large immegrant population that follows the sport so many people would watch the champions league final in those countries.

[dick]

How can some people dismiss football as not being a sport? And F1 is? What kind of sport is it where the equipment is more important than the athlete? Take away the car and then you have a sport. My dictionary has sport defined as a "competition in athletic games". So don't dismiss Baseball, Basketball, Soccer, etc. as just games. They are way more of a sport than auto racing. Unless of course you adhere to some drunken novelists' definition.

[Ricardo F1]

Champions League football is on ESPN 2 - most matches are about 12pm due to the time difference.

[SeanValen]

Originally posted by Flying Panda


Formula One has the most TV viewers, apart from the Olymicps and thw World Cup.
As far as popularity goes, you'll have to ask every single person in the world...

And Fomula One ist a sport, Motorsports is a sport.
Formula One is like a football 'league', only for motorsport.

Agreed:up:

Motorsport and Formula One get confused sometimes, F1 is big, so easy to see why, whats the real sport etc.

[philhitchings]

I think that the confusion here lies between Footy per se and F1 as opposed to F1 and the grand sporting occasion e.g. the World Cup or the Olympics.

F1 is indeed 17 weekends (culminating in the Race on Sunday) The other occasions are for 2-3 weeks every 4 years. In terms of popularity when this view is taken F1 wins hands down. However, look at football over all week to week and f1 does not beat football as the most popular sport/game/boring way to spend an afternoon anyway (delete as you see fit )

[SeanValen]

Originally posted by philhitchings
I think that the confusion here lies between Footy per se and F1 as opposed to F1 and the grand sporting occasion e.g. the World Cup or the Olympics.

F1 is indeed 17 weekends (culminating in the Race on Sunday) The other occasions are for 2-3 weeks every 4 years. In terms of popularity when this view is taken F1 wins hands down. However, look at football over all week to week and f1 does not beat football as the most popular sport/game/boring way to spend an afternoon anyway (delete as you see fit )

Agreed:up:

Football is always strong with home championships, then Euro championships and World Cup this year boost the popularity up.