It's all about the Socceroos

[Dan26]

Originally posted by Satay Mat
but not the biggest sporting competiton

Satay Mat

The Olympics is basically dozens of sporting competitons (not just one) all rolled into a two-week period. The Olympics itself is not a sporting competition. It is MANY sporting competitions, hence the size of the Olympics as an event is massive. There is no challenger and there never will be.

 

[The Starchild]

Well, I've read all the posts on this thread, and I couldn't be bothered splitting hairs about definitions ie.event or competition.

I can only go on what I've experienced, and I've been overseas travelling the last two times that the Olympics has been on. Once I was in Thailand/Japan&Turkey, and last year I was in England/France&Spain. My perspective on the importance to people around the globe of these respective sporting events comes from first hand experience off shore, not speculation or possibly biased articles researched from the internet. My opinions are drawn from actually being in these places we are trying to speculate on, the key word there "speculate".

The World Cup is infinitely so far and away the most important sporting event in people's lives the world over that it isn't even remotely funny. I'd say it's 500% more important to most of the world's citizens than anything else, especially the Olympics.

In France people didn't even know what was going on, who was involved, they wouldn't have a flying clue who Cathy Freeman was in the slightest. I'd go to say the only thing they were interested in at the olympics was the football. No-one was watching it or cared. The same can be said about Spain even moreso. England not quite as bad but the soccer matches commanded front stage when they were on, even first division matches would be more important!

I'm not going to go into this too much more but if you want the opinion of someone who's been there and experienced it first hand, the ground zero atmosphere and passion that is, and not just researched books docco's or websites for stats, then I must say I agree with just about every point Danny Chook has made and unfortunately Dan25 nothing that you have.

Dan25 I think you are once again commenting about something you know absolutely nothing about.

If people in 2nd & 3rd world had TV's, the ratings for the World Cup would be 2 times that of the olympics worldwide. Of that I have no doubt, not even a sliver.

You're a funny guy Dan. Like I said to you once, you should stick to stuff you actually know something about ie.Essendon,crowds & hankeys(Mr.) not stuff like this. You're out of your depth and you look stupid.

 

[Dan26]

Piss off Starchild you tosser. I think you may have even said yourself that the French were quite indifferent to the soccer itself so using Cathy Freeman as an example is very selective.

And Rohan....shut up, dude. You dont know what you are talking about You ahve no idea what I have a "feel" for. Stop licking Starchild's arse.

 

[Dan26]

I might add that no is disputing that soccer is the number one "sport", but as an event, the Olympics is the biggest. Easily. And Starchild, so being so bloody self-important. You are not as good as you think you are. Stop thinking you are the only one who has a right to comment on issues. It is very annoying and wrong of you to feel that way.

 

[Macca19]

Originally posted by Dan25


Last time I checked, Sunderland averaged 15,000 People per game. They don't sell-out their stadium. If their stadium held 400,000 people, I don't see how this could increase their crowd average.

Shows how extremly little you know Dan. Sunderland would be one of the bigger supported teams in the EPL. They currently average 47,228 per game this year. There stadium holds 48,000. So i dunno where the hell you got your "15,000" from. When was the last time you checked?? 10 years ago

No team in the EPL this season has averaged 15,000. The lowest is 17,048 which is Fulham.

Get your facts right Dan.

 

[Dan26]

I think I might have been referring to Southampton, Macca. My apologies. That may have been from last season or the season before, but it was correct. (unless the web-site I got it from was wrong)

You shouldn't sell the AFL short either. For a country of only 19 million to be the second most attended league in the world (behind the NFL) is something you should be crowing about rather than ridiculing. I'm proud of that actually. For some reason you don't seem to be.

 

[Macca19]

Originally posted by Dan25
I think I might have been referring to Southampton, Macca. My apologies. That may have been from last season or the season before, but it was correct. (unless the web-site I got it from was wrong)

You shouldn't sell the AFL short either. For a country of only 19 million to be the second most attended league in the world (behind the NFL) is something you should be crowing about rather than ridiculing. I'm proud of that actually. For some reason you don't seem to be.

im proud of the afl, and the crowds we get. Im just saying...the EPL crowds would be bigger if there were bigger stadiums.

 

[Dan26]

BTW, I'm off to work again. I'll be back at 9am to continue this....

 

[Rocco Jones]

POP QUIZ: Who started this thread?
ANSWER: Rocco Jones

When I started this thread it was meant to be a Socceroos' appreciation thread, now look what has happened. Everyones bitching about which is more pop, EPL or AFL. Blah, blah, blah, I'm Dan25 look at the size of my calculator.

I WANT MY THREAD BACK!

 

[QT]

Originally posted by Dan25



Last time I checked, Sunderland averaged 15,000 People per game. They don't sell-out their stadium. If their stadium held 400,000 people, I don't see how this could increase their crowd average.

Stadium of Light gets around 40,000 people a game. Sunderland get 15 000???

Dan, u are a jerk

 

[QT]

P.S Dan25, southhampton have moved into there new stadium this season...and their crowds have jumped + 10000

Onya mate...keep at it...

 

[Dan26]

Originally posted by QT
P.S Dan25, southhampton have moved into there new stadium this season...and their crowds have jumped + 10000

Onya mate...keep at it...

Better facilities, no doubt. The Bulldogs crowds increased when they moved to Colonial from Optus too. Building a bigger stadium doesn't gurantee bigger crowds necessarily. It has to be a better facility - the capacity is not the issue. It is the quality of the amenities that will detemine if the crowds come to the stadium.

Besides, the whole point intitially was to state that the AFL is the second most attended league in the world behind the NFL. It outstrips all soccer leagues around the world, with the English league being the closest. There are issues such as ticket prices (different for each of the EPL clubs) and capacity (which is only an issue for the few clubs which always sell out their stadiums), but the public have to make the effort to get out of their houses, drive to the ground and sit in the stands. And more people do that for AFL games than any other league in the world, bar the NFL.

This is something we all should be proud of. We WANT to draw more people to our AFL games than the various soccer leagues do to theirs. I do anyway. I'm sure most of you do (well you should anyway.) We have the best spectataor sport in the world which is reflected in an average crowd of 33,000 in a country of 19 million. When one considers that Austraain Rules is only the major sport in the southern states (i.e not in NSW and QLD), that crowd average in our small country is all the more remarkable and a credit to our sport.

Anyway, this thread was initially about the Soceroos, so we should get back to that. It is only the idiocy of a few people who dare state that the World Cup is bigger than the Olympics (still laughing my ass off over that) that started this insanity.

 

[Blues2001]

Originally posted by Dan25


The Rugby World Cup is the third-biggest sporting event in the world.

The Soccer World cup is the second-biggest sporting event in the world.

The Olympics is, and has always been (and always will be) the undisputed number one sporting event on the planet. Not just an event but a cultural phenomenan too.

You might have noticed that Australia's MCG appearance at the Olympics in 2000 in Soccer drew 93,000. The Olympics has soccer (although only under 23's) as well as dozens of other sports. I is a celebration of sport in gerneral.

The Soccer World Cup celebrates ONE sport. One. The Olympics is the Olympics. The World stops for the Olympics. When the Olympics take place every four years, the TV network covering it donates their ENTIRE SCHEDULE to the Olympics - 24 hours a day. There are also 170 countries involved - not 32 as there are at the World Cup.

Now, the World Cup is obviously huge but any mention of it even rivalling the Olympics as the biggest sporting event on the planet is foolish in the extreme. The Olympics is baiscially the World championshipos of every major sport in the one two week period. Nothing comes close to it.

Dan, your whole post is just your opinion - YOU believe that the Olympics is bigger and YOU believe that it is "foolish in the extreme" to mention it rivals the Olympics.

BUT WHERE ARE YOUR STATS?

The FACT is that considerably more people watch the World Cup than the Olympics. End of story. (And there are more nations that enter the WC than the Olympics.

 

[Dan26]

Originally posted by Blues2001


Dan, your whole post is just your opinion - YOU believe that the Olympics is bigger and YOU believe that it is "foolish in the extreme" to mention it rivals the Olympics.

BUT WHERE ARE YOUR STATS?

The FACT is that considerably more people watch the World Cup than the Olympics. End of story. (And there are more nations that enter the WC than the Olympics.

Blues 2001, Found this.

http://www.didyouknow.cd/fastfacts/sports.htm

Sports command the biggest television audiences, led by the SUMMER OLYMPICS, World Cup soccer and Formula One racing.

(The following is cut and pasted from earlier in the thread):

I might add, that television audience is not the sole decisive factor in defining a sporting events global size.

Take Australian for instance. The AFL Grand Final is the biggest event each year, but this year the NRL Grand Final outrated it. Does this make the NRL GF the bigger event? Only if you're delusional. The mens Wimbledon final rated the same as the AFL Grand Final too, but most Australians would rate the AFL GF as the far bigger event (In this country of course) despite the similarity of TV ratings.

Comparing the World Cup to the Olympics is not about comparing TV ratings. It is about comparing one sport to the biggest sporting and cultural phenomenan the World has ever known.

I keep on hearing people say how they don't care about Volleyball, or Hockey, or whatever sports happen to be represented in the Olympics. That doens't matter. You are missing the point. I don't care about swimming, but come the Olympics every man and his dog becomes an expert. Most of us don't care about the Olympic sports on a day-to-day basis, but during the 16 days of the Olympics, our total attention is focussed on them. That's the issue whihc you all miss. The ability of the Olympics to bring us all together. The sadness we feel when it ends. No other sporting event can generate the same sadness at its conclusion.

What event do you think Sydney would have been happier to win? The Olympics or the World Cup? Obviously they would have wanted the Olympics. It is by far the most sought after event to host. By far. The bids to host the Olympics make the bids to host the World Cup seem like chicken feed. The country that earns the right to host the Olympics generates fronot page news worldwide.

The Olympics is the definition of a sporting event. The World Cup is one sport. One. What makes the Olympics the worlds biggest event is the fact that 200 countries come together to celebrate sport and culture. It is not just a sporting event. It is much more than that. Pointedly, the focus is on the grandest of all sports - Atletics. The oldest, simplest, and most well-known sporting discipline. Faster, higher, stronger. It is not just one sporting contest (liek the World cup)...it is 30 or 40 sporting contest. 30 or 40 compared to 1.

I'm sorry, but comparing anything to the Olympics is futile silly and pointless. Nothing comes close. Nothing. I've got respect for the size of the World cup..... but it ain't the Olympics.

Frankly I'm amazed at the tone of the posters here at bigfooty in regards to this. I'm flabbergasted actually. The fact that anyone would even hint that another sporting event could possibly be bigger than the might of the Olympics is staggering.

 

[Blues2001]

Originally posted by Dan25


Look at the attention the Olympics gets. The world stops.

But Dan MORE people are interested in the world cup than the Olympics. You keep forgetting this. How do you justify the olympics being bigger?

 

[Blues2001]

Originally posted by Dan25


So lets re-cap:


The Olympics has 30-40 sports, the Soccer World Cup has one.

The commonwealth games has a similar amount of sports. Does that make it more popular than the WC?

 

[Dan26]

Originally posted by Blues2001


But Dan MORE people are interested in the world cup than the Olympics. You keep forgetting this. How do you justify the olympics being bigger?

I don't know if you can actually measure that "interest" Blues 2001.

The World Cup is one sporting competitoon. The Olympics is 30 or 40.

The World Cup is one sport. The Olympics is 30 or 40. The size, grandeur, fame and history of the Olympics makes it the greatest sporting event on the planet. 200 countries (not 32), thousands of athelets, and 30-40 sports (not just one sport).

I've mentioend quite a few times that most of us don't care for a lot of the sports that take place at the Olympics. But during the 16 days of competiton, we all become experts. We'd watch a fly crawl up a wall if it meant winning a gold medal. The mott of "faster, higher stronger", the 5 Olympic rings (easily the most well-known and recognizeable symbol in sport), the cultural phenomenan (it is MORE than just a sporting event)

It is futile to even put any other event near the Olympics. Maybe (and I stress that word) the World Cup is half a big...maybe. But no event is even near the Olympic games. As I said, it isn't just one sporting competiton (which is the main point), it's 30 or 40 sporting competitions.

 

[Dan26]

Originally posted by Blues2001


The commonwealth games has a similar amount of sports. Does that make it more popular than the WC?

Don't be ridiculous. Australia dominate the Commonwelath games. That should give you some sort of idea of the countries that are not a part of the Commonwealth.

 

[Blues2001]

Originally posted by Dan25


Don't be ridiculous. Australia dominate the Commonwelath games. That should give you some sort of idea of the countries that are not a part of the Commonwealth.

I wasn't serious Dan, I was just saying that you can't measure the interest in a competition by looking at how many sports are involved.

 

[Dan26]

Originally posted by Blues2001


I wasn't serious Dan, I was just saying that you can't measure the interest in a competition by looking at how many sports are involved.

Look at the Athletics Wolrd Championships as a single event (not the Olympics). It's big isn't it?

Now imagine the Swimming World championships which were just held recently (not the Olympics.) They are big too.

Now imagine the World championships for basketball. etc etc

Now put all the world championshosp together and you have the Olympics. You can even include the under 23 soccer in that. Cycling (which is MASSIVE in Europe) and dozens of other sports too plentiful to mention.

Whether those sports captivate our attention on a day-to-day basis is irrelevant. It is how they all captivate us over the 16 days of competiton (yes all 40-odd sports - not just one sport like the Wolrd Cup) which make the Olympics by far the biggest sporting event on the planet.

The money involved, the benefits to the host city, the planning, is all on a larger scale than the World Cup, which is obviosuly huge in it's own right.

 

[Danny Chook Fan Club]

Blues2001, I think you're wasting your time. I quoted the Encyclopaedia Britannica saying that the World Cup is the most watched sporting event in the world, but apparently the authority of the world's most respected research tool has been usurped by a Canadian website that no-one has ever heard of.

I know I'm convinced. I tried to use facts and quotes from reputable sources to back up my claims, but it was to no avail.

 

[Dan26]

In case you missed it Danny Chook.

Originally posted by Danny Chook Fan Club
IOC: 199 member nations - http://www.olympic.org/ioc/e/org/noc/noc_list_e.html

FIFA: 204 member nations - http://www.fifa2.com/scripts/runisa.dll?m2:gp::67173+fgg/wwstructure

http://www.journalfrancais.com/FT/features/food_wine/food_6.html - "According to FIFA, the combined total of audiences watching all 64 games on TV over the course of the Cup will come to 37 billion viewers worldwide. FIFA estimates that over one-fourth of the world’s population (1.7 billion) will tune in to watch the final match, making it a grander forum than the Olympics."

Encyclopaedia Britannica quote: "The true world championship, however, is known as the World Cup. It is played every four years and is the most-watched sporting event in the world." - http://search.ebi.eb.com/ebi/article/0,6101,37309,00.html

Very poor form Danny Chook. Exposed yet again!

Firstly, what has the FIFA-IOC exmaple got to do with anything? We are not talking about the sport of soccer in general. We are talking about the actual Wolrd Cup event. Duh! How many times do I have to tell you?

Secondly, your web-site from "France today" lists the World Cup as a grander forum than the Olympics. According To FIFA of course. What do you expect FIFA to do Chooky? Put their own event down as second best? The IOC says the Olympics is the biggest. Strange that!

Besides, i've already shown that TV audiences are not the decisive measure of an events size - and even if it is, I posted my own "facts and figures" post which lists the Olympics as the most watched event.

Thirdly, your last web-site quote is totally irrelevant to the discussion. It starts talking about Soccer in the Olympics, and then it mentions that the World Cup is the true world Championship (of soccer.) Ummmm, so what? All that says is that the World Cup soccer is bigger than the Olympics soccer. Congratulations chooky. You've just proven that the World Cup soccer is bigger than Olympics soccer. As if we already didn't know.

 

[Danny Chook Fan Club]

Argh!!!!!

Not the world championships in:

Baseball
Boxing
Cricket
Football of any kind
Golf
Horse Racing
Motor Racing of any kind
Tennis

Just ten or so of the most popular sports in the world, either not involved in the Olympics, or a secondary product (soccer, tennis, baseball, boxing).

 

[Dan26]

BTW it is impossible to accurately guage how many people, watch the Olympics or the World Cup. It's hard enough to get an accurate measure here in Australia via OzTam, so I don't know how someone is going to get the figures from 200 countries and compile them.

The fact that anyone would even bother arguing that any event is bigger than the Olympics is amazing.

I'm off to bed again. I just got home from work. Good night-morning!

 

[Danny Chook Fan Club]

Originally posted by Dan25
Firstly, what has the FIFA-IOC exmaple got to do with anything? We are not talking about the sport of soccer in general. We are talking about the actual Wolrd Cup event. Duh! How many times do I have to tell you?

What is an "exmaple"? What is a "Wolrd"? Can you spell? The point is that I have proven that there are more countries involved in the World Cup (FIFA's premier event) than the Olympics (the IOC's premier event). This does not need explaining to anyone that isn't a complete fool. But I'm happy to explain it to you.

Originally posted by Dan25
Secondly, your web-site from "France today" lists the World Cup as a grander forum than the Olympics. According To FIFA of course. What do you expect FIFA to do Chooky? Put their own event down as second best? The IOC says the Olympics is the biggest. Strange that!

Besides, i've already shown that TV audiences are not the decisive measure of an events size - and even if it is, I posted my own "facts and figures" post which lists the Olympics as the most watched event.

"France Today", not "France today". "I've", not "i've". Where is the IOC statement. Show me or retract.

It's called a quote Daniel - I've quoted FIFA on their call on the biggest television event. Perhaps it is an opinion, but at least FIFA would have had access to the figures, which is more than can be said for you when you claimed that the Olympics is the most watched sporting event.

Originally posted by Dan25
Thirdly, your last web-site quote is totally irrelevant to the discussion. It starts talking about Soccer in the Olympics, and then it mentions that the World Cup is the true world Championship (of soccer.) Ummmm, so what? All that says is that the World Cup soccer is bigger than the Olympics soccer. Congratulations chooky. You've just proven that the World Cup soccer is bigger than Olympics soccer. As if we already didn't know.

Small s for soccer, not a capital. The full stop goes outside the brackets, not inside. Also, the "Championship" should have a small "c" or the "world" should have a capital "W". Your use of the title "chooky" is inconsistent, you have it capitalised elsewhere, but in lower case here.

Here, ladies and gentlemen, Daniel sets a new standard for mind-numbing stupidity. According to the above paragraph:

- the Encyclopaedia Britannica is "irrelevant"; and
- the fact that the Encyclopaedia Britannica says, without equivocation, that "the World Cup ... is the most-watched sporting event in the world" is irrelevant. Yet, a Canadian website is worthy of quoting because it espouses an alternative viewpoint.

It's called credibility Daniel. I wouldn't expect you to understand what that means (let alone spell it) because you don't have any.

I will add in closing that your written expression is appalling. If you do want to have a discussion with me, at least do me the courtesy of expressing yourself somewhere within the confines of the English language, and attain a basic level of spelling.