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Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

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Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#31

Post by JohnFen »

an0malous wrote: post #27

There has been, the esports leagues. The viewership on the LoL championship game had a larger viewership than then Super Bowl. Edit: Got caught not reading the article, sorry. I’ll leave this up as a monument to my shame.

He did mention them.

> The three leagues with even an argument for being not total failures are the NWSL, League of Legends Esports (LoL Esports), and LIV Golf. All have unique advantages over their counterparts, and yet none of them are profitable today or even on a very convincing path toward profitability.

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#32

Post by freedomben »

an0malous wrote: post #27

There has been, the esports leagues. The viewership on the LoL championship game had a larger viewership than then Super Bowl. Edit: Got caught not reading the article, sorry. I’ll leave this up as a monument to my shame.

Tfa directly addresses LoL.

> LoL Esports: loses hundreds of millions of dollars annually, exists solely as a marketing mechanism to get people to play the actual game

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#34

Post by JohnFen »

LocalH wrote: post #9
1970-01-01 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet it's not a "new major sports league" ?

There's a weird perception that's floating out there claiming that video gaming cannot be "a sport", just because it's more mental than physical (although even that varies per game, for example high-level Guitar Hero players require extreme endurance and stamina). I also would wager a non-zero percentage of people with such mindset would also deny that chess is a sport, unless they grandfather it in due to the sheer…

The surprisingly emotional debate of "is it a sport or is it a game" has been around from the moment we invented the category of "sports". I don't think it will ever be definitively settled, because the difference is cultural, not technical, and cultural attitudes change with time and location.

Personally, the technical-ish definition that makes the most sense to me is "if it's a competition and people are gathering to watch it without participating, then it's a sport".

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#36

Post by foxglacier »

LocalH wrote: post #14
morkalork wrote: post #4

The bit about getting the government to invest with a goal that isn't financial ROI reminds me of the Olympics during the cold war. All that investment to "prove" the dominance of one economic system or another.

The scourge of unfettered capitalism. Everything boils down to "how much money does it make" Small-time capitalism is good. But beyond a certain size, it falls apart and can even become quasi-governmental. When is somebody going to blend the best part of all political isms to get closer to the best possible form of society

People tried picking the best bits of capitalism and communism and they ended up with fascism. Maybe it's fine what we have now which is capitalism with piles of restrictions and government spending to fix all the little bugs that've been discovered over time. I'd say society is too complex for some invented -ism to just magically work.

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#37

Post by clarle »

I think F1 got significantly more popular in the past few years with Drive to Survive on Netflix, and then most recently with the F1 movie on Apple TV.

It’s a sports league with history and has been around for a while, but I think significant popular mindshare only happened in the last 5 years.

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#39

Post by freedomben »

munchler wrote: post #12

Can we please stop pretending that WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) is a sport? Clue: It’s got “entertainment” right there in the name.

To be clear, I agree with you that WWE is not a sport.

But the counter argument that I have heard which I find the strongest, is pointing out the extreme physical endurance and strength that they have in order to complete their routines. It does take a pretty high level of athleticism to accomplish what they do.

I think that's a strong argument, but I don't think it's enough to make it a sport. It takes an extreme level of athleticism to do plenty of things that we don't consider sports

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