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sports in order of popularity?

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  • 30-12-2009 2:32am
    #1
    yousername
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14 ✭


    I know it's hard to judge because of different categorys(attendence,number of players etc) but what would be irelands most popular sports? my guess is as follows..

    1- gaelic football

    2-hurling

    3-soccer

    4-rugby


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    #2
    mink_man
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,454 ✭✭✭mink_man


    playing wise

    1. gaelic
    2. soccer
    3. rugby
    4. hurling

    supporting wise

    1. soccer.
    2. rugby
    3. gaelic
    4. hurling


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    #3
    mikemac
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,986 ✭✭✭✭mikemac


    I would not be surprised if angling topped all of these

    Anyway:
    3-soccer
    1- gaelic football
    2-hurling
    4-rugby

    That order


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    #4
    MoyVilla9
    Registered Users Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭MoyVilla9


    1. Soccer
    2. Gaelic
    3. Rugby
    4. Hurling


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    #5
    CitizenKeane
    Closed Accounts Posts: 74 ✭✭CitizenKeane


    1 - Gaelic Football
    2 - Rugby
    3 - Hurling
    4 - Soccer


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    #6
    Conor
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,479 ✭✭✭Conor


    Based on posts in the Sports category on this site over the last 90 days:

    Forum|Posts
    Soccer | 85546 |
    Cycling | 23555 |
    Airsoft | 21498 |
    Athletics / Running / Triathlon | 20517 |
    Rugby | 15846 |
    Shooting | 13528 |
    Pro Wrestling | 11696 |
    Golf | 6732 |
    Mixed Martial Arts [MMA] | 5132 |
    American Football | 4129 |
    Boxing | 3623 |
    GAA | 3560 |
    Darts | 3371 |
    Self Defence & Martial Arts | 2412 |
    Motorsport | 2298 |
    Winter Sports | 1829 |
    Horse Racing | 1476 |
    Equestrian | 953 |
    Outdoor Pursuits | 702 |
    Surfing | 623 |
    Basketball | 502 |
    Angling | 471 |
    Rugby League | 454 |
    Snooker & Pool | 395 |
    Cricket | 302 |
    Sports | 290 |
    Scuba Diving | 260 |
    Swimming | 215 |
    Sailing & Boating | 196 |
    Baseball | 180 |
    Archery | 151 |
    Extreme Sports | 131 |
    Racquet Sports | 77 |
    Sports Trivia | 75 |
    Hockey | 73 |
    Bowling | 61 |
    Greyhound Racing | 36 |
    Paintball | 25 |
    Aussie Rules Football | 19 |
    Parkour & Free Running | 17 |
    Frisbee | 13 |


    It's probably not representative of Ireland as a whole, but it's an interesting view on the question.

    When determining a sport's popularity there's often a massive difference depending on whether you define it as "biggest by spectators" or "biggest by participation". Running, cycling, hunting/shooting/fishing, etc tend to have surprisingly large participation but little or no media coverage so they appear to be a lot more "niche" than they really are. Conversely, soccer, rugby, GAA and the like are huge when measured by spectator count but merely large when measured by participation.

    It really depends on what you want to do with the resulting "popularity" numbers. If you're designing a schedule for a sports TV channel, then you'd look for numbers based on spectators and wouldn't care much for participation numbers (horse racing for example has a very large number of spectators per participant). On the other hand, if you were trying to fund sports you should allocate the funding based on participation. Neither way of measuring popularity is wrong per se but the numbers can be misused fairly easily.


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    #7
    COYW
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,930 ✭✭✭COYW


    Soccer has the most players and is the best supported by some distance now. GAA games are next and next of all would be rugby.


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    #8
    grenache
    Registered Users Posts: 6,477 ✭✭✭grenache


    COYW wrote: »
    Soccer has the most players and is the best supported by some distance now. GAA games are next and next of all would be rugby.
    Soccer the best supported sport? :eek: We're talking sports in Ireland here, supporting Manchester United doesn't really count in this debate. At this stage its a given that GAA has by far and away the most players and spectators. Soccer would be next but its well adrift of hurling and football. There is a GAA club in every parish in Ireland, regardless of size. There are soccer clubs in most parishes but certainly not all. My local soccer team only sends out 3 teams - junior, youths and u-14. My local GAA club puts out teams from u-8s all the way up to u-21 and juniors. If i go down the road to a local soccer match, there will probably be 20 people at most watching it. If i go to a local GAA match, there could be 200 people attending. The average attendance in the LOI is in around 1700. Midsummer GAA matches will attract on average around 17,000. When's the last time there was 82,000 at an FAI Cup final?

    I've also noticed some posters above claiming that rugby is better supported and has more participants than hurling. :D I sometimes wonder what planet some people are on! There are more than 40 hurling clubs in Limerick, there are less than 10 rugby clubs. Go figure.


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    #9
    COYW
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,930 ✭✭✭COYW


    grenache wrote: »
    Soccer the best supported sport? :eek: We're talking sports in Ireland here, supporting Manchester United doesn't really count in this debate. There is a GAA club in every parish in Ireland, regardless of size. There are soccer clubs in most parishes but certainly not all.

    If i go to a local GAA match, there could be 200 people attending. The average attendance in the LOI is in around 1700. Midsummer GAA matches will attract on average around 17,000. When's the last time there was 82,000 at an FAI Cup final?

    I've also noticed some posters above claiming that rugby is better supported and has more participants than hurling. :D I sometimes wonder what planet some people are on! There are more than 40 hurling clubs in Limerick, there are less than 10 rugby clubs. Go figure.

    I was actually referring to participation in my original post and it is true that "soccer" is the most widely played game in Ireland. I used to live in Cork myself and understand where you are coming from with your thoughts but in the east, where most of the population on this island reside, soccer is far more widely played by young kids and adults. There are a small handful of GAA clubs in Dublin and hurling for example is barely played. Every weekend, the soccer pitches are packed. Indoor football and football on astro pitches is massively popular on week nights.

    In relation to your attendances, irish people are event junkies. The love their big day out. The LOI is so badly marketed that irish people jump ship and support english clubs instead. Go into Dublin airport tomorrow morning or Dublin port and you will see thousands, and im not joking, of Liverpool etc fans travelling to games. I have little doubt that more people travel to watch english clubs from here than go to EL games.

    I dont follow rugby at all but it is constantly growing in popularity.


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    #10
    high heels
    Registered Users Posts: 306 ✭✭high heels


    Rallying is Irelands 5th Id say... Over 250,000 showed up to watch rally Ireland. About 100,000 show up to watch the big Irish rallys.. 5,000 rally drivers last year..


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    #11
    eagle eye
    Registered Users Posts: 37,955 ✭✭✭✭eagle eye


    high heels wrote: »
    Rallying is Irelands 5th Id say... Over 250,000 showed up to watch rally Ireland. About 100,000 show up to watch the big Irish rallys.. 5,000 rally drivers last year..
    How many of them 250,000 just had to step outside their front door? How many were less than 2 miles from the action at some stage?


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    #12
    sock puppet
    Registered Users Posts: 4,586 ✭✭✭sock puppet


    high heels wrote: »
    Rallying is Irelands 5th Id say... Over 250,000 showed up to watch rally Ireland. About 100,000 show up to watch the big Irish rallys.. 5,000 rally drivers last year..

    That's a very small number of participants. I doubt it qualifies it as being in the top 20 sports let alone the top 5.


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    #13
    Pisco Sour
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,029 ✭✭✭Pisco Sour


    grenache wrote: »

    I've also noticed some posters above claiming that rugby is better supported and has more participants than hurling. :D I sometimes wonder what planet some people are on! There are more than 40 hurling clubs in Limerick, there are less than 10 rugby clubs. Go figure.

    Disagree with this. Hurling sells out Croke Park once a year. In many cases games dont even fill half of croke park. Rugby on the other hand sold out 3 games in Croke Park last year. Munster would have no problem filling croke park for a big Heineken Cup game, and Leinster wouldnt be too far off. They would certainly draw a bigger crowd than the measily numbers that Kilkenny V Wexford games get!


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    #14
    baalthor
    Registered Users Posts: 1,241 ✭✭✭baalthor


    In terms of participation, there are huge areas of the country where hurling and rugby barely exist.


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    #15
    robinph
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,092 Mod ✭✭✭✭robinph


    For participation I'd have thought running would beat soccer in numbers.


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    #16
    comeraghs
    Registered Users Posts: 957 ✭✭✭comeraghs


    player wise, is Hurling ahead of Rugby in participation?

    it certainly is in Waterford county & City, The City has 8 hurling clubs & 2 rugby clubs. but natioanlly?


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    #17
    ascanbe
    Registered Users Posts: 3,089 ✭✭✭ascanbe


    Conor wrote: »
    Based on posts in the Sports category on this site over the last 90 days:

    Forum|Posts
    Soccer | 85546 |
    Cycling | 23555 |
    Airsoft | 21498 |
    Athletics / Running / Triathlon | 20517 |
    Rugby | 15846 |
    Shooting | 13528 |
    Pro Wrestling | 11696 |
    Golf | 6732 |
    Mixed Martial Arts [MMA] | 5132 |
    American Football | 4129 |
    Boxing | 3623 |
    GAA | 3560 |
    Darts | 3371 |
    Self Defence & Martial Arts | 2412 |
    Motorsport | 2298 |
    Winter Sports | 1829 |
    Horse Racing | 1476 |
    Equestrian | 953 |
    Outdoor Pursuits | 702 |
    Surfing | 623 |
    Basketball | 502 |
    Angling | 471 |
    Rugby League | 454 |
    Snooker & Pool | 395 |
    Cricket | 302 |
    Sports | 290 |
    Scuba Diving | 260 |
    Swimming | 215 |
    Sailing & Boating | 196 |
    Baseball | 180 |
    Archery | 151 |
    Extreme Sports | 131 |
    Racquet Sports | 77 |
    Sports Trivia | 75 |
    Hockey | 73 |
    Bowling | 61 |
    Greyhound Racing | 36 |
    Paintball | 25 |
    Aussie Rules Football | 19 |
    Parkour & Free Running | 17 |
    Frisbee | 13 |


    It's probably not representative of Ireland as a whole, but it's an interesting view on the question.

    When determining a sport's popularity there's often a massive difference depending on whether you define it as "biggest by spectators" or "biggest by participation". Running, cycling, hunting/shooting/fishing, etc tend to have surprisingly large participation but little or no media coverage so they appear to be a lot more "niche" than they really are. Conversely, soccer, rugby, GAA and the like are huge when measured by spectator count but merely large when measured by participation.

    It really depends on what you want to do with the resulting "popularity" numbers. If you're designing a schedule for a sports TV channel, then you'd look for numbers based on spectators and wouldn't care much for participation numbers (horse racing for example has a very large number of spectators per participant). On the other hand, if you were trying to fund sports you should allocate the funding based on participation. Neither way of measuring popularity is wrong per se but the numbers can be misused fairly easily.

    No harm in throwing this into the mix but, in reality, it does little to reflect the popularity of each of these sports in Ireland.
    Soccer is obviously one of the most popular sports in the country as is reflected by it's place atop this list; though the huge discrepenacy between the numbers who frequent the soccer forum on here, compared to the forums representing the other very obviously popular sports, confirms the popularity of that particular forum rather than an overwhelming popularity of the sport.
    All the other members of the top ten here are in the top ten precisely because they are of minority interest; they provide a forum frequented by like-minded zealots whose preferred sport, in this country, isn't catered for elsewhere.


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    #18
    ascanbe
    Registered Users Posts: 3,089 ✭✭✭ascanbe


    robinph wrote: »
    For participation I'd have thought running would beat soccer in numbers.

    I presume you're referring to running as a form of excercise or even as a means of simply making haste.
    In terms of peoples interest in running/athletics as a genuine participation/spectator event, it wouldn't be all that high.


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    #19
    postalservice
    Registered Users Posts: 362 ✭✭postalservice


    Golf would have pretty huge numbers. Massive age range


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    #20
    robinph
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,092 Mod ✭✭✭✭robinph


    ascanbe wrote: »
    I presume you're referring to running as a form of excercise or even as a means of simply making haste.
    In terms of peoples interest in running/athletics as a genuine participation/spectator event, it wouldn't be all that high.

    We'll ignore people running for the bus, but once anyone is going out for a run reguarly that s participating in the sport just as much as a bunch of lads meeting in the park for a kick about of a weekend and I guess your including them in your guestimates of team sport participation.

    There are a lot of competitive races around the country every week with 100,s to 1000's paying money in order to take part. I wouldn't be surprised if just those numbers on their own were more than the numbers taking part in organised amatuer soccer/ rugby or gaa leagues weekly. There were something like 13,000 in the Dublin Marathon last year, and I think there may be more taking part in the 10k Great Ireland race in the Pheonix Park. That 10k race is a national championship event, how many people take part in the championship matches in the lead up to the likes of the GAA championship each year, or the league of Ireland soccer games?


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    #21
    sock puppet
    Registered Users Posts: 4,586 ✭✭✭sock puppet


    robinph wrote: »
    We'll ignore people running for the bus, but once anyone is going out for a run reguarly that s participating in the sport just as much as a bunch of lads meeting in the park for a kick about of a weekend and I guess your including them in your guestimates of team sport participation.

    There are a lot of competitive races around the country every week with 100,s to 1000's paying money in order to take part. I wouldn't be surprised if just those numbers on their own were more than the numbers taking part in organised amatuer soccer/ rugby or gaa leagues weekly. There were something like 13,000 in the Dublin Marathon last year, and I think there may be more taking part in the 10k Great Ireland race in the Pheonix Park. That 10k race is a national championship event, how many people take part in the championship matches in the lead up to the likes of the GAA championship each year, or the league of Ireland soccer games?

    I suppose one way to measure it would be to compare the number of athletes that are registered with each governing body. It'd take anyone who just goes for the regular run or kick about out of the equation. But then you'd be ignoring a large part of the population.


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    #22
    PhosphoricAcid
    Registered Users Posts: 90 ✭✭PhosphoricAcid


    I would say it would be(parcipitation)
    1.Gaelic Football(All Munster bar Waterford and Clare,Huge In Connaught,Leinster There is also huge number,Ulster very popular withing the Catholic areas)
    2.Soccer-Dublin,Limerick,Cork,Galway all popular there but I believe it is talked about more than played-many people play soccer as a 2nd sport IMO
    3.Rugby(Southside of Dublin,Posh parts of Leinster,Limerick,other parts of Munster,and its popular in Galway and up north) Not that many clubs..many people attend the games for the atmosphere and there's not too many people in Croke Park on Six Nations days that know too much about rugby,the glamour element of the sport is very enticing for some.
    4.Hurling-Kilkenny,Cork,Waterford,Tipp,Clare,Antrim,Galway. However it is virtually non existent throughtout the other counties apart from maybe Dublin,Laois,Carlow,Westmeath(I know,not even worth mentioning)
    5.Golf-Very trick to know where golf ranks but you have to only look at the stardom of Padraig Harrington to know that there is major interest.The amount of golf clubs is frightening..however its for the man with the big pocket!

    Other increasing sports in terms of popularity:Cricket,Rugby League,Handball,Running,Horse Racing,The Dogs etc etc


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