Jane
Years ago
With Rugby Sevens becoming an Olympic sport in 2016, and more people watching the Rugby World Cup than the FIBA World Championships, does this mean that Rugby would overtake Basketball?
Phil
Years ago
There are lots of different types of rugby but I don't think too many women play. Lots may watch on TV but basketball is played by millions around the world. I can't see any form of rugby overtaking basketball any time soon.
More people in China alone watched the basketball worlds than watched the rugby all around the world.
Skud
Years ago
Anon's once again show they know shit all. The Rugby world cup is one of the highest watched sporting events in the world.
Rugby sadly only ever gets precedent when it comes to the world cup. Most other games are at 1-2am in the morning here in SA, however on the east coast most games are live, rugby league is already bigger than Basketball in Aus, union isnt to far behind.
Basketball has to be the worst promoted sport in Australia, but FIBA is half the reason for this. Ask anyone who the major basketball tournaments are and 9 times out of 10 youll get the olympics. Noone knows about basketball, they suck ass at promoting their own sport.
Phil
Years ago
Surely it is not all about how many people watch the sport on TV. If you are talking about the 'bigger' sport, hundreds of thousands more play basketball.
Phil, it is about how many watch if you want an audience,sponsors and to grow the sport. Basketball is great at junior level and the club scene and rivalry suits Aussies. But at NBL level clubs are that in name only in that anyone can buy one if they have the cash, they exist only while the owner is cashed up and they come and go faster than is healthy.
NBL teams, not clubs are put together players who change teams almost seasonly. NBL teams don't all have followings because of that and because of the bad publicity of poor owners.
When the sixes were a club owned by BASA it attracted that club feel. Nowadays who owns them and what do they stand for?
Not a lot of people watch basketball although lots play and forty minutes is not good value for money live.
Phil
Years ago
If TV ratings determine how good a sport is then yes, basketball is pretty low on the totum, behind AFL , Rugby whatever, horse racing (in november at least, V8 supercars and probably WWE. But if you are judging a sport by participation surely basketball is right up there in global terms. Yep we want the NBL to be a success and to have all the hype of the heavily marketed comps, but do not lose sight of the fact that at almost every other level basketball is one of the 'biggest' sports on the planet. It is the media that want you to think that if you are not on the front page (or back page) you do not exist.
Compare the number of people who PLAY Rugby 7s v the number of people who PLAY basketball.
If you add up the highest rating games in England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and France it is about half the ratings of China's average game rating at the basketball worlds.
Dont be fooled by the IRB saying this is going out to 4 billion, it is a fanciful figure, like most global audience figures spruiked by sports bodies.
Doesn't really matter how big basketball is anywhere else because when all is said and done NOBODY watches it here. 40 minute games don't appeal.
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An Australian basketball forum covering NBL, WNBL, ABL, Juniors plus NBA, WNBA, NZ, Europe, etc | Forum time is: 12:46 am, Sun 21 Apr 2024 | Posts: 968,026 | Last 7 days: 754
