Which is bigger The World Cup or Olympics?

shakeitoff · 22-06-2018 03:26PM

Red_Wake wrote: »

I would say the World Cup, Olympics, Euros, Copa America, Asian equivalent of Euros, Cricket[from India alone it prob gets the guts of 100M viewers], Wimbledon, Ping Pong[iirc the most popular sport in China].

A dozen or more spaces down is prob where the RWC is.

The media wouldn't admit, but rugger is a niche sport in nearly every country in the world. Ryle Nugent would have pissed away the entire licence fee on a chance to suck off an All Black, and that's why it always got so much prominence on RTE. Hopefully that will change with the prick gone.

Yeah, it's laughably small. There's nothing wrong with that btw, the sport itself is decent to watch at times but it has built up a somewhat fake reputation in Ireland among certain circles. In Ireland it's more how corporate rugby is. It definitely has a smugness to it that's hard to get over. When I see the likes of Joe Schmidt and Bod giving speeches at Big 4 corporate events, that tells you all you need to know.

I actually like rugby, I like the Ireland team but it's just a cringeworthy sport in Ireland(if you listen to the wrong people)

Franz Von Peppercorn · 22-06-2018 03:29PM

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

The Rugby World Cup is a non event outside a handful of countries.

50th post on that.

Hande hoche! · 22-06-2018 03:36PM

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

More than the football WC too.

India and Pakistan accounting for a good chunk presumably?

Your Face · 22-06-2018 03:40PM

Wrestlemania

salmocab · 22-06-2018 03:44PM

Loving the people that seem to think they are making an edgy point about how popular rugby is, supporters are well aware and don’t care. Cricket is huge some places and non existent in lots but I doubt the Indians are too insecure about their love of it.
Comparing the WC and olympics is a bit hard as they are completely different types of events. The WC is the pinnacle of one sport but the olympics is the pinnacle of many albeit they massive cross of games, think the olympics is a bit devalued by having things like tennis and golf, if a gold isn’t the zenith of the sport it shouldn’t be in the olympics.

meeeeh · 22-06-2018 03:58PM

salmocab wrote: »

Loving the people that seem to think they are making an edgy point about how popular rugby is, supporters are well aware and don’t care.

It's not that. I'm from Central Europe and I know how little attention it gets there and countries outside Europe that play it are not huge population countries. The numbers in comparison to CL final (considering huge amounts that turnover in top European football clubs) just don't make any sense to me. Rugby would have bigger commercial clout if it was as watched as they claim.

gimli2112 · 22-06-2018 04:04PM

World Cup
I couldn't tell you who won the football Olympics, ever.

salmocab · 22-06-2018 04:05PM

meeeeh wrote: »

It's not that. I'm from Central Europe and I know how little attention it gets there and countries outside Europe that play it are not huge population countries. The numbers in comparison to CL final (considering huge amounts that turnover in top European football clubs) just don't make any sense to me. Rugby would have bigger commercial clout if it was as watched as they claim.

As who claims? It’s popular where it’s popular, people who want to watch it do and people who don’t won’t.
Lots of sports don’t get huge viewership it’s the way things are

Franz Von Peppercorn · 22-06-2018 04:12PM

salmocab wrote: »

As who claims? It’s popular where it’s popular, people who want to watch it do and people who don’t won’t.
Lots of sports don’t get huge viewership it’s the way things are

I think he’s doubting the 120M but 20 teams compete in the RWC, so it could be true.

facehugger99 · 22-06-2018 04:18PM

I was working in Barcelona when the Rugby WC was on in France in 2007.

It was amazing how little coverage it got even through you could travel a couple of hours up the road to some of the matches. The local news channels would have their sports round up discussing the Barcelona B team's training session without a mention of the WC games.

I actually traveled up to France for some of the (awful) Irish group matches. The whole of France seemed to have gone mad for the world cup. Always found the juxtaposition between the two neighboring countries strange in terms of their interest of rugby.

meeeeh · 22-06-2018 04:23PM

facehugger99 wrote: »

I was working in Barcelona when the Rugby WC was on in France in 2007.

It was amazing how little coverage it got even through you could travel a couple of hours up the road to some of the matches. The local news channels would have their sports round up discussing the Barcelona B team's training session without a mention of the WC games.

I remember an article when some journalist travelled to Spain for some sort of a basketball final. He asked taxi driver what is second most popular sport after football and answer was football.

Ragnar Lothbrok · 22-06-2018 04:39PM

When the World Cup is on, many people who usually have very little interest in football get involved in talking about it, putting their names into busters etc.

When Ireland have been involved, virtually the whole country joins together in enjoying the World Cup finals (except for those who love to be edgy or different or whatever).

When the Olympics are on, there may be a certain amount of interest in the cool events, or if an Irish athlete has a chance of doing well, but it never brings the country to a standstill. This is definitely the case in the UK too and I'd guess it's similar the whole world round.

So for me, the World Cup is a far bigger event than the Olympics.

It's pointless even mentioning other sporting events like the Cricket or Rugby games in this thread - in general these are only interesting to a very few nations. No other sporting events capture the imagination of the whole planet like the World Cup or the Olympics.

Mousewar · 22-06-2018 05:03PM

Putinbot wrote: »

Olympics by a mile. Every country in the world will have at least one athlete representing them in some sport or other with a chance of winning a medal. In the world cup you only have 32 nations with an interest and realistically only about 4-6 of them with a genuine chance of winning the thing. Ditto for rugby. 20 teams with only 3-4 with a chance of winning.

Don't be silly, Ireland aren't in this world cup and I've watched every single match bar one (Uruguay v Saudis - looked gack and was). Participation matters little, it's simply the most popular sport in the world. Miles bigger than the Olympics in popularity and viewership.

Pauliedragon · 22-06-2018 07:58PM

Saw an interesting message this morning on newstalk. when Ireland play India next week in cricket it will be the most watched game in Irish sporting history. (I think we did play them in a world cup game a few years ago so maybe those figures might be higher)

War ensemble · 22-06-2018 08:31PM

I'm surprised there is so much debate on this. The WC is by far the most watched event that has global interest. Most of the olympics is actually quite boring and unless there is an Irish athlete involved or had a passion for a specific sport, you'd only watch the 100m final. As for rugby that wouldn't make the top 20 I'd say.

Dr. Bre · 22-06-2018 08:34PM

The all Ireland

hatrickpatrick · 22-06-2018 08:36PM

shakeitoff wrote: »

But if FIFA have their way we'll get there eventually.

Can you elaborate on this? I wasn't aware of any campaigns or anything to increase football's popularity in regions where it's under-represented - although if Ireland is anything to go by it wouldn't actually be all that difficult, considering Rugby only went truly mainstream in the last couple of decades and I'd argue the last several years in particular. There was a time when a post about a big rugby event on /r/Ireland or a non-rugby board here on Boards would have had an element of ridiculous "Pfft, only posh f*ckers watch that sh!te" snarkiness, none of that anymore.

Are there any case studies on introducing and/or trying to increase interest of a certain sport in a particular geographical region, and the success/failure thereof?

Which is bigger The World Cup or Olympics?

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