Rank your city's sports teams by popularity

[JHikka]

Stars have very consistent support. Whether or not they're above the Rangers is up for debate, but surprised to see them ahead.

[Crawford]

Hockey is so freaking expensive. I really hope my kid isn't bigtime into hockey or skiing. Both will bankrupt us.

[jmecklenborg]

I think we're all pretty sick about hearing about how soccer is so magical because it's cheap. So is every other pickup game. I played a ton of pickup football games with a hutch football and you don't need a glove to play pickup baseball if you use a tennis ball (you might, however, need a ladder to get the balls out of gutters, but I always loved that excuse to get on a roof).

Street hockey exists to be played during the summer months...I remember playing pickup games on frozen ponds while wearing gym shoes because most kids didn't have skates.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

I think we're all pretty sick about hearing about how soccer is so magical because it's cheap.

who is "we"?

speak for yourself.

on the spectrum of popular team sports requiring the least to the most specialized equipment/venue to play, soccer is at the bottom and hockey is at the top.

it's strange that it sickens you to hear this very simple and straightforward statement of fact.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by pj3000

it's the dramatic losses and bumbling moves which color the misery. Browns missing out on the Super Bowl to the Broncos 3 times in the late 80s in heartbreaking defeats. And then having one of the sport's most successful and storied franchises up and leave town... leaving the team in a constant rebuilding mode for 20+ years.

I'm a Bengals fan and remember watching the last Bengals-Browns game on TV in 1995. That was a gut punch of epic proportions, and then to watch the Ravens win a Super Bowl five or six seasons later?

There's a reason Art Modell never went back to Cleveland.

Soccer was always huge in suburban Cincinnati where I grew up in the 1990s (Newtown/Anderson Township). Not surprised that FC Cincinnati sold out Nippert regularly when they were in the USL. That popularity bumped them up into MLS but they've had nowhere near the success they had when they were in the USL (bad management?). At least they've got a built-in (albeit one-sided) rivalry with the Columbus Crew (the "Hell is Real" series)

[fern]

Liverpool sports is a monoculture where football (soccer) is king
The city I would say is 50/50 Everton Liverpool
But country wide Liverpool dominate with more fans in London than in the city itself
A large percentage of UK football ( soccer) fans have a pathological hatred of other sports , Rugby Union being public enemy number one

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Hockey is so freaking expensive. I really hope my kid isn't bigtime into hockey or skiing. Both will bankrupt us.

Well, you're the parents... isn't it your job not to spoil your children?

[Shawn]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Hockey is so freaking expensive. I really hope my kid isn't bigtime into hockey or skiing. Both will bankrupt us.

It's the ice time that killed it for my parents. Expenses are there, especially if your kid is good and gets into AAU stuff. But at least in Massachusetts, gear* is provided by the youth league and later the school district.

Getting up at 4:30 AM on a Tuesday in February for 5:30 ice time before middle school is what killed youth hockey in my family.

*skates not included, but because of the high volume of kids in youth hockey there's also a thriving used skate market. I never paid more than $30 for (used) kids' Bauers at a local sports shop.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

who is "we"?

speak for yourself.

on the spectrum of popular team sports requiring the least to the most specialized equipment/venue to play, soccer is at the bottom and hockey is at the top.

it's strange that it sickens you to hear this very simple and straightforward statement of fact.

Youth soccer in the U.S. is overwhelmingly a middle class and upper class activity. Poor kids don't play it, despite its cheapness. Poor Americans don't follow the MLS or even know soccer exists overseas. It's a yuppie hobby.

What's more, today's U.S. yuppie soccer fans like to pretend they're working class English. This started around 2005 when suddenly a soccer field became a pitch. I remember back in the 80s and 90s when there were a handful of wannabe English-style mods and skinheads and punks in every U.S. city who hovered around local all-ages music clubs. They liked to act poor despite being from okay backgrounds. They read books on the English working class and were ready to tell a willing ear all about it, like a vegan.

[38 Geary]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Youth soccer in the U.S. is overwhelmingly a middle class and upper class activity. Poor kids don't play it, despite its cheapness. Poor Americans don't follow the MLS or even know soccer exists overseas. It's a yuppie hobby.

What's more, today's U.S. yuppie soccer fans like to pretend they're working class English. This started around 2005 when suddenly a soccer field became a pitch. I remember back in the 80s and 90s when there were a handful of wannabe English-style mods and skinheads and punks in every U.S. city who hovered around local all-ages music clubs. They liked to act poor despite being from okay backgrounds. They read books on the English working class and were ready to tell a willing ear all about it, like a vegan.

I don't think it's upper class at all. Upper class would be like lacrosse or equestrian/polo or yacht sailing or motorsports.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Youth soccer in the U.S. is overwhelmingly a middle class and upper class activity. Poor kids don't play it, despite its cheapness. Poor Americans don't follow the MLS or even know soccer exists overseas. It's a yuppie hobby.

Absolutely none of that nonsense refutes the fact that on the spectrum of popular team sports requiring the least to the most specialized equipment/venue to play, soccer is at the bottom and hockey is at the top.

What's even more unusual is that pointing out this simple fact seems to really trigger you.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Well, you're the parents... isn't it your job not to spoil your children?

I don't see what youth sports has to do with "spoiling children". It's more an activity/obligation, albeit hopefully an enjoyable one. It's more analogous to learning an instrument or a new language.

I'll support my kid if he has interest/talent, but, yeah, hope it isn't something that will cost hundreds of thousands over the years and involve tons of equipment and weird scheduling. Even youth soccer costs tens of thousands in aggregate.

The youth sports industry is kind of mind-blowing. Personal trainers and nutritionists for 9 year olds. Long distance travel sports for 7 year olds. This stuff didn't exist 20-30 years ago. It's partially a money grab, taking advantage of parental anxiety.

My kid just turned 5 and we're already being solicited by soccer and lacrosse travel teams. He doesn't even know what lacrosse is, and has been playing soccer for maybe a year.

[38 Geary]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I don't see what youth sports has to do with "spoiling children". It's more an activity/obligation, albeit hopefully an enjoyable one.

I'll support my kid if he has interest/talent, but, yeah, hope it isn't something that will cost hundreds of thousands over the years and involve tons of equipment and weird scheduling. Even youth soccer costs tens of thousands in aggregate.

The youth sports industry is kind of mind-blowing. Personal trainers and nutritionists for 9 year olds. Long distance travel sports for 7 year olds. This stuff didn't exist 20-30 years ago. It's partially a money grab, taking advantage of parental anxiety.

Yeah I think if they're not genetically gifted or destined for the pros, high school level athletics are good enough.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Crawford

The youth sports industry is kind of mind-blowing. Personal trainers and nutritionists for 9 year olds. Long distance travel sports for 7 year olds. This stuff didn't exist 20-30 years ago. It's partially a money grab, taking advantage of parental anxiety.

I more or less lost 2 friends to youth travel sports clubs, one whose kid was in soccer and the other in hockey. Their entire worlds slowly devolved into revolving around the clubs. Every weekend was more or less taken away from them for months on end as the clubs and traveling took over their family's lives. And the practice schedules? 4 to 5 days/week for 10 year olds?!? Get the fuck outta here.... pure insanity

No fucking way I'm ever getting involved in that shit. my son is playing In a basketball league this winter, but it's just a local boys & girls club league made up primarily of kids from his school and the one just south of us. $75 sign up for 3 months of play, 1 game/week. All games are at our neighborhood boys & girls club, no traveling whatsoever. That is the non-stupid way to run youth sports.

[Crawford]

You've got the right gameplan. I can already see the danger signs on our end. My kid LOVES sports, any sport, but I don't want to be sucked in. We have him in multiple sports because he has endless energy and cannot f---king sit still for one second. It's the only way he sleeps. But at some point we're gonna have to dial back.

A few days a week, sure. No six days a week and flying to Atlanta for youth tournaments. I don't want to be one of those dads. And he's barely out of diapers; it's absurd.

[SAN Man]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

you don't see how one championship in all pro sports in 50yrs actually makes it worse than anything?

i defer you to find a more tortured city.

you can't.

and not to mention, obviously you don't remember those cleveland force/crunch indoor soccer championships -- now do you see what i mean?

San Diego?

Padres: 0 World Series titles.

Chargers: Moved to LA after playing here for 55 years, haven't won a championship or a Super Bowl since joining the NFL.

Clippers: Also moved to LA in the 1980s.

Rockets: Moved to Houston in the early 1970s.

We do have a minor league hockey team though, the Gulls are fairly popular and play at the old Sports Arena where the Clippers used to play, 0 championships yet.

[38 Geary]

Originally Posted by SAN Man

San Diego?

Padres: 0 World Series titles.

Chargers: Moved to LA after playing here for 55 years, haven't won a championship or a Super Bowl since joining the NFL.

Clippers: Also moved to LA in the 1980s.

Rockets: Moved to Houston in the early 1970s.

We do have a minor league hockey team though, the Gulls are fairly popular and play at the old Sports Arena where the Clippers used to play, 0 championships yet.

Are San Diego fans hardcore enough to feel tortured though? They seem to have a relatively chill fanbase. At least the Padres. Every time they play the Giants, it's like Oracle Park South. Great ballpark though. I've watched a couple games there. Might be why they attract so many of other teams' fans. People are there in SD for leisure and catch a game while they're at it.

[rusted root]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

So did you forget about this?

That series was fixed. Don't be a mark.

[Investing In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

I more or less lost 2 friends to youth travel sports clubs, one whose kid was in soccer and the other in hockey. Their entire worlds slowly devolved into revolving around the clubs. Every weekend was more or less taken away from them for months on end as the clubs and traveling took over their family's lives. And the practice schedules? 4 to 5 days/week for 10 year olds?!? Get the fuck outta here.... pure insanity

No fucking way I'm ever getting involved in that shit. my son is playing In a basketball league this winter, but it's just a local boys & girls club league made up primarily of kids from his school and the one just south of us. $75 sign up for 3 months of play, 1 game/week. All games are at our neighborhood boys & girls club, no traveling whatsoever. That is the non-stupid way to run youth sports.

The thing is, you don't go from playing at the local community center to traveling teams overnight, you build up to that. If you're kid excels at a sport and can play at that level you are doing your kid a disservice by not letting them participate. I traveled for sports when I was a kid, but not your typical Baseball/Soccer - I was very involved in Wrestling/Judo/jiu jitsu (when Jiu Jitsu wasn't very popular in the late '90s). We traveled quite a bit, though for wrestling it was mainly South Jersey (which is ground zero for Wrestling). I ended up being a nationally ranked in U17 Judo, all because my parents committed to it with me.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I don't see what youth sports has to do with "spoiling children". It's more an activity/obligation, albeit hopefully an enjoyable one. It's more analogous to learning an instrument or a new language.

I'll support my kid if he has interest/talent, but, yeah, hope it isn't something that will cost hundreds of thousands over the years and involve tons of equipment and weird scheduling. Even youth soccer costs tens of thousands in aggregate.

The youth sports industry is kind of mind-blowing. Personal trainers and nutritionists for 9 year olds. Long distance travel sports for 7 year olds. This stuff didn't exist 20-30 years ago. It's partially a money grab, taking advantage of parental anxiety.

My kid just turned 5 and we're already being solicited by soccer and lacrosse travel teams. He doesn't even know what lacrosse is, and has been playing soccer for maybe a year.

But ultimately, it's a choice to allow your own kids to do whatever activity it is you allow them to do, no?

"Youth sports industry" is the key phrase; it's an industry.

And I really think parents "having" to wake up early every Saturday morning to take their kids to whatever activity/activities that they themselves chose to enroll their kids into has become a cultural/vanity thing. I feel like kids today are enrolled in all kinds of activities that kids in my generation were not. I have co-workers who "complain" about how they had to take their kids to fill-in-the-blank youth sports thing(s) or whatever, and I wanna say "well you don't HAVE to take them to do these things. You can just sleep in!" Which is why I don't often ask what my coworkers did over the weekend, because I know it'll be boring to me.

Like the expression "trophy wife"? These parents wanna compete against each other and show that they have "trophy kids."