Popular Team Sports
The most popular team sports in the United States, measured by number of participants in 2009, are below. (Most figures are from the 2009 U.S. Census).
- Basketball (24.4 million)
- Baseball/Softball (23.3 million)
- Soccer (13.6 million)
- Volleyball (10.7 million)
- Football (8.9 million)
- Ice hockey (3.1 million)
- Lacrosse (684,730)
- Rugby (335,001)
The most popular team sports in the United States are basketball, baseball/softball, soccer, football and ice hockey. All five of these team sports are played by millions of Americans, have a fully professional league, and enjoy varsity status at various Division 1 colleges.
Read more about this topic: Sports In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words popular, team and/or sports:
“The press is no substitute for institutions. It is like the beam of a searchlight that moves restlessly about, bringing one episode and then another out of darkness into vision. Men cannot do the work of the world by this light alone. They cannot govern society by episodes, incidents, and eruptions. It is only when they work by a steady light of their own, that the press, when it is turned upon them, reveals a situation intelligible enough for a popular decision.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle,
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.””
—Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863)
“...I didn’t come to this with any particular cachet. I was just a person who grew up in the United States. And when I looked around at the people who were sportscasters, I thought they were just people who grew up in the United States, too. So I thought, Why can’t a woman do it? I just assumed everyone else would think it was a swell idea.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 85 (June 17, 1991)