TABLE 5.3
| Most popular team sports, 2003 | |
| SOURCE: Team Sports—An American Institution, SGMA Interntational, April 13, 2004, http://www.sgma.com/press/2004/press1081888640-15351.html (accessed September 9, 2004) | |
| Team sport | Number of participants Aged 6 and above (in millions) |
| 1. Basketball | 35.4 |
| 2. Soccer (outdoor) | 16.1 |
| 3. Softball (regular) | 14.4 |
| 4. Football (touch/flag) | 14.1 |
| 5. Volleyball (hard surface) | 11 |
| 6. Baseball | 10.9 |
| 7. Volleyball (grass) | 8 |
| 8. Volleyball (beach) | 7.5 |
| 9. Football (tackle) | 5.8 |
| 10. Soccer (indoor) | 4.6 |
| 11. Cheerleading | 3.6 |
| 12. Softball (fast-pitch) | 3.5 |
| 13. Ice hockey | 2.8 |
| 14. Lacrosse | 1.1 |
sports and sports activities for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA). In 2003 the top four activities were recreational swimming, walking, bowling, and bicycling. (See Table 1.6 in Chapter 1.)
When the SGMA ranked those sports that involved team play, it found that the most popular choice was basketball, played by 35.4 million Americans over the age of six. The second most popular sport was outdoor soccer, which was played by fewer than half this number, or 16.1 million. Regular (slow-pitch) softball was played by 14.4 million Americans, followed closely by touch or flag football with 14.1 million participants. (See Table 5.3.)
Organized sports, which required membership in a league or other official body, were also ranked by the SGMA. The results were similar to the team sport results but with several notable differences. Only 8.8 million basketball players were in organized leagues, which showed that close to three-fourths of basketball players participated only in pick-up games. Outdoor soccer had 6.8 million organized participants (just under half the total), slow-pitch softball 5.5 million, and baseball 5.3 million. Other popular organized sports included court volleyball (3.8 million participants), tackle football (2.8 million), touch football (1.8 million), indoor soccer (1.8 million) and fast-pitch softball (1.7 million). (See Table 5.4.)
Other Sports Trends
While some older sports were declining in popularity, newer ones appeared that saw rapid growth. One such example is paintball, where participants stage battles in which they shoot paint markers at each other with air guns. From the time the SGMA began tracking it in 1998, participation in paintball grew by 66%, to 9.8 million participants in 2003. (See Table 1.6 in Chapter 1).
TABLE 5.4
| Most popular organized sports among participants age 6 and older, by participation, 2003 | |
| Sport | Organized participants in 2003 |
| SOURCE: "The Most Popular Organized Sports in the U.S. Based on Participation—Age 6 and Older," in "Organized Sports Attract Millions of Americans," Superstudy of Sports Participation, SGMA International, June 23, 2004, http://www.sgma.com/press/2004/press1088003422-22941.html (accessed September 9, 2004) | |
| 1 Basketball | 8,798,000 |
| 2 Outdoor soccer | 6,755,000 |
| 3 Slow-pitch softball | 5,549,000 |
| 4 Baseball | 5,343,000 |
| 5 Court volleyball | 3,773,000 |
| 6 Tackle football | 2,824,000 |
| 7 Touch football | 1,792,000 |
| 8 Indoor soccer | 1,784,000 |
| 9 Fast-pitch softball | 1,715,000 |
| 10 Sand/beach volleyball | 790,000 |
| 11 Grass volleyball | 408,000 |
Other sports that increased in popularity included snowboarding (up 269.5% from 1993 to 2003), artificial wall climbing (up 83.9% since 1998), and martial arts (up 28.2% since 1998). Interest in various types of sport shooting was also on the rise, with handgun target shooting growing 14.3% since 1998 and sport clay shooting up 31.9% since 1993. (See Table 1.6 in Chapter 1).
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