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Lists about sports for sports people who just can't get enough sports.

Popular Opinion

The best spectator sports are the ones that are not only the sports that are fun to play, but the sports that are thrilling to watch. Whether you're seeing the best teams in the league or the worst teams ever to play a game, there's a certain spectacle that goes along with watching live sports that makes the spectator sports experience worth every moment. The top spectator sports include NFL football, MLB baseball, and NBA basketball though those are just a few of the greatest spectator sports. There is an electricity to the crowd at sporting events and being in a team's stadium to watch sports action unfold live isn't the only reason a sport becomes a top spectator sport. In fact, some of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/tags/stadiums">best stadiums</a> are themselves a reason to watch a sport. Some people think the best thing about spectator sports is the concessions. Others think the greatest spectator sports are ones where there's a chance the competitors could get hurt. Sometimes being a part of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-best-sports-franchises-of-all-time">best sports franchises</a> makes a spectator sport the best sport for fans to watch. Whatever What are the greatest spectator sports? What are the best sports to watch live? Which sports are the best to see in person? Are some sports more exciting to watch at the stadium? There are dozens of reasons to watch sports and this list is just a way to approach the question of what's the best sport to watch. If you don't see your favorite spectator sport on the list, be sure to add it and being it to the attention of other sports fans who might vote it to the #1 position as the greatest spectator sport.

poll

The most boring <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-sports-to-play/sports-lists?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">sports to play</a> for one reason or another just do not entertain. These boring sports want to be exciting but come up short in terms of action. From golf to baseball to soccer, these sports are all quite popular but could put even the best insomniac to sleep. Forget the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/the-most-boring-sports-to-watch/the-round-mound">most boring sports to watch</a>, these are the most boring sports to play.Which sport is the most boring to play is often a matter of opinion but due to their slower nature of play, certain sports will come up much more than others. Golf is perhaps one of the most notorious for its speed as players hit a ball then walk several hundred yards and repeat. Baseball is similar. For more than half of each game a player is seated comfortably on the bench watching others play. If exciting sports were judged on the amount of time participants walked or sat, these two would win that battle easily.Other sports are boring simply because they are monotonous. Running, rowing and cycling all fall into that category. Sure participants in these sports travel along courses and tracks but the overall motion of the sport is repeated over and over.Even recreational sports can be insanely boring. Take hunting and fishing for example. Those who hunt and fish must have a ridiculous amount of patience since the sport involves sitting around for hours waiting for an animal or fish to come along.Whether these sports take forever before there is some action, involve a lot of sitting or walking, or simply feature one monotonous motion repeated over and over, each defines a new level of boring. Which sport do you find the most boring to play? Think a sport is much more exciting than we do? Tell us which sports you think are the most boring to play by voting and adding your own sports below! <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/north-by-northwest-movie-quotes/movie-and-tv-quotes"> </a>

Rollerblading

Sometimes you have to make it on your own in this world, and individual sports are perfect for those times. While it is rewarding to be part of a great team, relying on nobody other than yourself can be just as powerful. Discipline, endurance, and perseverance are some of the greatest qualities people can learn from individual sports, whether it be from the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/greatest-mens-tennis-players-of-all-time" target="_blank">greatest tennis players of all time</a> or the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-golfers-of-all-time" target="_blank">best golfers of all time</a>. Which solo sports are the best?That's up to you to decide. This list is votable and rerankable, so feel free to vote up and add all of your favorite <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-sports-to-play/sports-lists?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">sports to do</a> solo.&nbsp;

When you were a kid, did you ever wonder what were the best fun sports to play when you didn't have anything to do? After all, watching sports can be fun, but not nearly as much as actually playing one. Even as an adult, you may sometimes wonder what's the best sport to play on a day off or during a summer weekend. For some it's a pick-up basketball game. For others, it can be joining a local baseball league.So to get a definitive answer on what is the best sport to play, sports fans have voted and ranked their favorite sports activities. So vote for your favorite sports to play and add any you feel are missing. Sure you could watch pros play these sports on TV, but it can be more fun playing them with other people. Even if you're not a kid anymore, a game of Ultimate Frisbee can be exciting and get you off the couch or away from the computer.If the pace of Ultimate Frisbee is too slow for you however, maybe you’d enjoy tennis more. It’s one of the top sports to play according to fan votes below. For those of you that are more rough and tumble, football is a top choice for a sport to play. Whichever one you choose, you’re sure to get a good workout from it, especially if you haven’t played anything other than Call of Duty in a while.The options below are also excellent choices for parents wondering what extracurricular sports to enroll their children into for the school year. Who knows, the kid may grow up to become the next LeBron James and win championships as a professional. At worst, the <a href="”http://www.ranker.com/list/best-kids-sports/dad-of-the-year?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword”">top sports for kids</a> below are great at exposing them to important life lessons such as determination, hard work, sportsmanship, and humility.For those that really don’t want to play sports, then you should check out the <a href="”http:"></a> for some ideas on what’s exciting to watch other people play. You may just find yourself liking them so much, you want to play them yourself. Just be sure to take it slow, as you’ll want to avoid some of these <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/the-most-tragic-career-ruining-sports-injuries/sportsyeah">crazy sports injuries</a>. If you have an injuries-be-damned attitude, then vote for the best sports to play below and then get out there and find several people that share your enthusiasm.

Figure skating

The most boring sports to watch are far from entertaining, exciting or interesting. To put it nicely, the most boring sports to watch are great for lazy afternoons when you need a good excuse to take a nap. These sports, which include professional sports, college sports and even Olympic sports, might be popular but they are also the best at being completely boring. Depending on who you ask, America's pastime baseball is one of the worst offenders in terms of being boring. Plays are separated by several minutes and when there is action it lasts only a few seconds. Golf, while watched by millions around the world, is similar as it's seen as slow and somewhat nonathletic. Other sports are simply boring because they feature a long time of little action, sometimes hours, then just a few minutes of actual action. Soccer games rarely result in more than a few goals which take second each leaving the other time for watching players kick the ball around and run. Horse racing might be the &quot;most exciting two minutes in sports&quot; but the hours and hours of nothingness leading up to those two minutes is like watching paint dry. Be it for their repetitive nature, like auto racing and bowling to the slow action, like curling and canoeing, whatever the reason, these sports are boring to watch but each are still enjoyed by fans around the globe. They might not include buzzer beaters like in basketball or the hard-hitting action like in hockey but each brings something different to the world of sports.

Being a part of a team can be one of the most rewarding things a person can do. The camaraderie, the character building, and of course, the teamwork, are just some of the positives to being a part of a team. In sports, teams have to work together to win the game – there's no single person who can carry the rest of the team themselves. And there's nothing like watching a team come together for a big victory.&nbsp;What are your favorite team sports? Are they classic sports like football and baseball, or something a little more offbeat like rowing or curling? It's up to you to decide. Vote up all of your favorite team sports, and add any that aren't already listed here.

Dallas

The cities with the best sports fans are the locations across the United States that are packed full of loyal sports fans ready to support their teams win or lose. Not all of these cities are home to all four major sports with NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL teams but they appreciate the teams they have.For <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/cities-with-the-best-sports-teams/sportsyeah">cities that are home to perennially successful sports teams</a>, being a sports fan is easy. Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles are just three places that can boast dozens of championships in football, baseball, basketball and hockey. Sports teams in those locations consistently perform well, making it really easy to draw great crowds and attract fans.Other cities however are home to sports teams but those sports teams however are consistently bad. Despite being <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/cities-with-the-worst-sports-teams/sportsyeah">cities with the worst sports teams</a>, the home squads still manage to sell-out games and retain loyal fans. Cleveland, Buffalo, and Oakland fall into that category as home to many of the worst sports teams around that still have strong fan bases.So whether these American cities are home to Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup and NBA champions or just full of loyal sports fans who embrace their teams regardless of their records, each is home to the best sports fans in the country for one reason or another. Think your city has the best sports fans? Vote for your city, add it if it's not listed or leave us a comment telling us why it rules below!

Best Athletes

When it comes to being an all-around best athlete, you're not just talking about&nbsp;the leading scorers of all time, or the best quarterbacks. An all-around great athlete offers the best of both worlds. Whether that's being a league leader on offense and defense, or finishing&nbsp;first in the both the 100 and 1000-meter&nbsp;race, all-around athletes are certainly not one-trick ponies. In more rare cases, all-around athletes even transition from sport to sport, dominating in any. Here on this list, however, is a round up of the best in their sport. So, who are your picks&nbsp;for the best all-around athletes of 2018?From offensive and defensive powerhouse and NBA star Lebron James to the home-run-slugging and play-making Aaron Judge, the sports world has seen some serious all-around talent in 2018. But these big names aren't the only athletes making waves in their sports, as players like Kevin Durant and Nolan Arenado&nbsp;(respectively)&nbsp;are both giving them a run for their money. Of course, we can't forget stars of the NHL, <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-current-soccer-players/ranker-sports?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">top soccer players</a>, tennis players, track-and-field greats, and so on.&nbsp;On that note, take a look at the list of all-around best athletes below, and vote up those you think have performed best throughout 2018. Feel free to add any missing athletes to the list.

Sports Teams

FC Bayern Munich

The best sports franchises in sports history, ranked by sports fans for sports fans. Most teams have a dynasty that only lasts for a few years. But a great sports franchise is consistently successful on and off the playing field, earning loyalty and respect from the team's fans and the sports world as a whole. Anyone can vote for their favorite franchises on this list, or add their own list of the best sports franchises to these rankings. So, whether you're a hardcore sports fan or just a fan of how certain teams play the game, this is the place to release your inner SportsCenter commentator.What are the <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-team-sports/ranker-sports?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">best sports teams</a> of all time? Can a basketball dynasty edge out a classic baseball favorite? The fans get to decide on this list of the best sports teams ever. But remember, the top clubs aren't necessarily the most successful sports franchises. Some may have losing records overall, or have just enjoyed a few short bursts of glory, but no matter their win-lose percentages, these teams have stood the test of time and made history as the some of the favorites of all time.

College

University of Florida

College sports programs are a large source of pride among American universities. What are the colleges with the best sports programs?&nbsp;It&#39;s time for the fans to decide!

Whether it&#39;s basketball, football, or even baseball season, universities and alumni want to be the best athletic program, period. What university has the best sports program?&nbsp;Here are the colleges with the greatest all around sports programs in the country. If you don&#39;t vote for your top athletic college, you are letting down your favorite athletes and your classmates. Don&#39;t be a cause of shame for your alma mater!

Notice your favorite school missing from the ranks?&nbsp;Add a contributing list to give a vote with some heft. You can also use the voting buttons to say whether you think a college should have been included or not.

The best sports for kids are fun, teach children about teamwork, and help keep them in shape. These sports are good for younger children as they contain less contact than sports like football, hockey or wrestling. While there is some risk for injury in all activities, these sports are the safer choices for children.

Aside from being fun things to spend their time on, these sports are all good for teaching children a number of values like working with others, responsibility, and social skills. Plus, kids who play sports are usually healthier and generally have more friends than those who don&#39;t.

For younger kids, simple sports like bicycling, swimming, track and field, and even gymnastics are top choices. When kids get a bit older, around the age of six, they can participate in other <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/the-best-sports-to-play/sports-lists" target="_blank">popular sports to play</a> such as baseball, softball, soccer, tennis, and basketball. The contact sports are suggested for only those eight years and older, though many of the fundamentals, such as learning how to skate early and playing hockey later, can be taught earlier.

While not all kids will have the ability or desire to play sports, introducing these at an early age sets a great tone to making well-rounded children. Which sports do your kids love the most? Vote for your favorite sports for kids or add any not listed, all below!

Unsettling Images

Rowdy - Dallas Cowboys

The creepiest sports mascots represent professional football, basketball, baseball, and hockey teams, as well as college sports teams and international competitions. Designed to excite the crowd and entertain fans, these creepy sports mascots miss the mark as they are bizarre, odd, or simply scary. Some are downright profane while others are so offbeat that they ride the fine line between funny and freaky.

Masklophobia is the official term for a fear of masks or mascots. Clearly that term was coined after these creepy mascots put fear into the hearts of sports fans old and young. These are the types of mascots that haunt dreams, hide under the bed, and creep up on you while you&#39;re minding your own business at a sporting event.

Some mascots, especially those representing college teams, are doomed from the get-go as the team nickname does not exactly translate to something that would make a great mascot. Take the Stanford Cardinal Tree or the Ohio State Buckeyes for example. Both schools worship trees and let&#39;s face it, trees don&#39;t make fierce mascots.

For other mascots, it&#39;s the life-like but beyond creepy expression on the mascot&#39;s face that makes them something out of a bad horror movie. The Providence College Friar, Dallas Cowboys Rowdy, and the King Cake Baby, a strange mascot that pops up around New Orleans, Louisiana, take that level of creepy to the next level.

Whether the mascots are based on crappy things to begin with, like the Xavier University Blue Blob, or are simply a strange combination of a person and a cartoon, like the University of Nebraska Lil&#39; Red, each of these mascots easily qualify as the creepiest out there. Once you see these scary mascots, you&#39;ll never look at one the same ever again.

Influential

Whether they're top stars of their sport or they're changing the way the game's played, these are the most influential current athletes. Keep in mind, simply being the best isn't the only thing that constitutes an influential athlete. While these stars are certainly at the top of their class, they're also recognized for&nbsp;the contributions they make to the world of sports, among many other factors and achievements. All things considered, who do you think are the most influential athletes right now? Could they go down as the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/most-influential-athletes-of-all-time/ranker-sports" target="_blank">most influential athletes of all time</a>?When it comes to iconic athletes, no player may be making headlines and dominating their sport more than Lebron James. He breaks a record almost any time he steps on the court, making him one of the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/top-10-current-nba-players" target="_blank">best current NBA players</a>, as well as of all time. Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and the MLB's Mike Trout&nbsp;are really no different. These star athletes continually prove themselves to be the best out right now—and they continue to contribute to their sport. Of course,&nbsp;there are plenty more names to consider in determining the most influential athletes actively competing.&nbsp;Check out the list of notable athletes below and vote up the sports stars you think are influencing generations and players to come. Also feel free to add others that may be missing from the list.

Being known as one of the worst sports franchises in history is not an easy pill to swallow. Be that as it may, though, the teams below all have a tough history, rife with injuries, an abundance of losing seasons, poor coaching, and so much more. Whether you&#39;re talking the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/cities-with-the-worst-sports-teams/sportsyeah" target="_blank">cities with the worst teams</a>&nbsp;or more specifically&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/worst-teams-to-ever-make-nfl-playoffs/the-round-mound" target="_blank">worst NFL franchise</a>, some sports teams have just never been&nbsp;able to pull it together and remain a worthy adversary for more than a couple seasons&mdash;if any. Though it&#39;s difficult to be such a terrible team, every sport needs its losers to let the winners shine and, unfortunately for these franchises, they&#39;ve long been those losers. So, who do you think are the worst sports teams of all time?&nbsp;

Blame it on the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/worst-team-owners-of-all-time/sportsyeah" target="_blank">bad owners</a>; blame it on the coaches&mdash;there&#39;s a surprising amount of teams that can be considered the worst sports franchises ever. When it comes to bad sports teams, a few quickly come to mind for most: MLB&#39;s San Diego Padres, the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL, and basically any Ohio-based team Lebron James never played for. Then you have those teams who haven&#39;t been completely horrible, but struggle&nbsp;the majority of the time. These are teams like the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, and Cincinnati Bengals. Of course, there are plenty of other teams that fall on the list of worst sports franchises. However, who takes the never-sought-after title of the worst team in sports history? That&#39;s up to the fans to decide.

Take a look at the list of teams below and vote up the franchises you think are the absolute worst.

Athletes all over the world spend hours a day training to get their name engraved on some sort of trophy. If their name isn't engraved on the trophy until eternity (or until another one is designed), then simply holding the trophy suffices as a symbol of achievement during a season or tournament. Some trophies are harder to win than others, which makes them much more desirable than similar trophies in other sports.Most of the North American sports trophies are very difficult to win. After a grueling regular season, only the best teams qualify for the playoffs and from there, the games gradually get more competitive as each round passes. Due to injuries and the sheer luck of a short playoff series, more often than not, sometimes the better team doesn't win the championship. The Vince Lombardi Trophy for winning the Super Bowl and the Stanley Cup are two of the most sought after trophies in North America due to the lasting legacy that goes along with winning that trophy. Unlike its North American counterpart, European soccer league titles are determined by the points accumulation instead of a playoff series. But the European Cup is the most prestigious trophy a soccer club in Europe can possibly stake claim to.Vote for the trophy that is the most difficult to win. A lot of trophies are hard to win, but it's up to you to decide which one should be at the top of this Ultimate List.

Games

During the summer, nothing beats a good racquet sport for killing time and getting a workout. This list contains information on racquet sports, ranked from best to worst by fan votes. It's not just tennis either, as there are many other racquet <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-sports-to-play/sports-lists?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">sports to play</a>. Some are played for speed while other fun racquet games are played for points. Many of the best racquet sports have huge competitive scenes with teams from all over the world competing in the Olympics.What games will you find on this best racquet sports list? Of course, tennis is one of the most popular. Whether playing singles or doubles, on glass or on clay, a good tennis racquet helps players on their path to victory. For those who prefer fun in the sun, beach tennis is a good version of the classic racquet sport that can be played near the ocean. Pickleball is another one of the most popular racquet sports in the country.In badminton, a racquet is used to hit a feather birdie back and forth over the net and racquetball uses a hollow yellow ball to score points. Other great games that are featured on this top racquet sports list include squash, speedball, and platform tennis.Do you have a favorite racquet sport? Give the best racquet sports a thumbs up and please add any others we may have missed.

Current Sports

Philadelphia

The cities with the worst sports teams are those miserable big and small cities across the United States and Canada who just plain suck when it comes to sports. These metro areas have professional sports teams in the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB but can't seem to find any success whatsoever. These cities with the worst sports teams simply fail at sports.Two of the perennial losers are interestingly located in the same state, Ohio. Both Cleveland and Cincinnati are home to a handful of professional football, baseball and basketball teams but haven't seen a championship in more than two decades. Title town, like what sports fans call Boston, Massachusetts, one of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/cities-with-the-best-sports-teams/sportsyeah " target="_blank">cities with the best sports teams</a>, these midwestern cities are not.But it isn't just in the midwest where we see shameful and overall disappointing professional sports teams. From as far west as San Diego and San Francisco to as far east as Buffalo and Philadelphia and even as far south as Miami, being really bad at sports is all too common in these unfortunate cities these days.So whether these teams are stinking it up on the football field in the plains, like the <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-kansas-city-chiefs-kickers-ever/ranker-nfl?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">Kansas City Chiefs</a> or the St. Louis Rams, or home to teams that leave their fans disappointed with mediocrity year after year, like the Maple Leafs and the Blue Jays in Toronto, each of these cities are home to some of the worst sports teams of all time.

Boston

The cities with the best sports teams dominate all others in North America with successful and popular teams in the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB. These basketball, hockey, football, baseball and college sports towns consistently compete among the elite, bring home titles and earn the jealousy of sports fans outside of these metro areas, which are also some of the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/america_s-coolest-cities/places-to-go">coolest cities around</a>. Having dominated the 2000s, it's hard to argue that Boston, Massachusetts, is not the best sports city in the country. Between the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins, Beantown is the only city to earn professional sporting championships in all four major sports within a 10-year span starting with the New England Patriots Super Bowl victory in 2002 and concluding when the Boston Bruins took home the Stanley Cup in 2011. Other cities might not have as many titles in a short amount of time, but their home teams are among the top all-time leaders in championships. Take New York City for example. The Yankees have 27 World Series titles but are only a fraction of the sports action in the Big Apple with no less than nine professional teams between the four major sports in the metro area.But like how Boston and New York are bitter rivals in Major League Baseball, there are plenty of other sports cities that are hungry to become part of the elite. Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Denver, Chicago and Miami are just a handful of the cities right on the bubble with plenty of talented sports teams ready to dominate. Which sports city will rule in the next century? Stay tuned sports fans to find out.Check out more lists like <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/best-european-cities-to-visit/island-hopper-dan">all the must visit cities in Europe</a>, <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/the-8-most-dangerous-restaurants-in-the-world/ivana-wynn">the World's most dangerous restaurants</a> and <a href="http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-roller-coasters">all the best roller coasters across the globe</a>.

Philadelphia Flyers

A crowdranked List of the most fanatical fans that ever rooted for their team. These are the sports teams with the most fanatical fans. We're talking about guys who roll over cop cars when their team wins (or loses), <a href="http://www.collegehumor.com/video/5691374/insane-georgia-body-painter-talks-about-his-craft">maniacs painting their entire body in school colors</a> on frigid days, and other assorted citizens who, when it comes to their favorite teams, completely lose their minds. Vote up the teams with the craziest fans, rank this list of zealous sports maniacs as you see fit, and add any team you think is missing.

Did you play tee-ball as a child? That's nice but honestly who cares at all when fictional sports like Quidditch, Pyramid, and Flonkerton exist (at least in our hearts and minds). You've seen them all in your favorite works of fiction, TV shows, movies, and even video games. You know exactly which position you'd try out for (Seeker, hello). You're ready to go up against the best of the best. Now all we need is for these best fake sports to exist in real life. Surely Tesla will figure out Pod Racers someday, right?The fun&nbsp;fictional games on this list are some of the most creative - and at times ridiculous - competitions&nbsp;ever invented. Movie and TV show sports are crafted by quick-witted writers to add another layer of intrigue to <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/wars-between-fictional-universes/stephanroget" target="_blank">fictional universes</a>.&nbsp;Whether it came to them in a dream (or a <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/common-nightmare-meanings/jane-h-kyle" target="_blank">nightmare</a>) or was thought up by a bunch of nerds around the writers' table, the creators of these&nbsp;games birthed something legendary in our hearts and on the screen.&quot;But wait,&quot; you are shouting. Some passionate fans&nbsp;have brought these sports from fiction&nbsp;into the real world. Yes, okay, there's a whole US Quidditch league playing the magical game around the country (they even have a <a href="https://usquidditch.org/" target="_blank">vision statement</a>!), but the likes of Jiggly Ball and Parisses Squares have not yet reached the mainstream. Perhaps if devoted fans of literature, comedy, science fiction, and all the other genres that have inspired the fun fictional sports below come together, we can make our dreams a reality.Which fictional sports are the best? Which of these are you suiting up for in your mind's eye right this very moment? Vote them up below and maybe one day, if we can get enough votes, the powers that be will take notice and&nbsp;we will all meet up for a friendly game of Death Race. See you then.

Hey There, Sports Fan!

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Sports the deserve more fans are the under-appreciated sports, most obscure sports, and the underrated sports that are action-packed and interesting, but not really mainstream. These sports include Olympic sports, regional sports, and even some really bizarre sports but all share one thing in common: They are all worthy of a much larger fan base than they currently have.Some of these sports have a good following already but the potential of the following of these sports could be much larger. Beach volleyball is moderately popular but could easily be much more popular, especially bikini beach volleyball with male fans. Snowboarding is big in the extreme sport world but, despite being really awesome, does not get the credit it deserves. Others are simply just not well known, and not because they're not deserving of a large fan base. Turkish oil wrestling is a sport like none other, complete with hot, greasy men, but is currently only a regional favorite. Fencing is often written off as an ancient boring sport but attend a match in person and you just might change your mind.All of these sports feature well-trained athletes competing against each other, and sometimes 2,000-pound animals, but none of them get the credit they deserve. The next time you're looking for something new, check out one of these unpopular sports in America, sports that deserve more fans and you may just become their next new number-one supporter. Have a sport you love that you want to share with the world? Tell us by adding that sport below!

Obscure Sports | List of Unpopular Sports That Deserve More Fans

Sports That Deserve More Fans

General

Other

Best Rankings of Random Cool Facts + Stuff

other

The Round Mound

Gender

Women

Gen Zs

Millenials

Gen Xers

Baby Boomers

Region

West Coast US

Mountain US

Midwest US

Southern US

Northeastern US

International

Ice Hockey

Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice, usually a rink, in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponent's net to score points. In Canada, the United States, and some European countries such as Latvia and Sweden, it is known as "hockey"; the name "ice hockey" is used in places where "hockey" more often refers to field hockey, such as South America, Asia, Africa, Australasia, and some European countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. Ice hockey teams usually consist of four lines of three forwards, three pairs of defencemen, and two goaltenders. Normally, each team has five players who skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team. Teams normally have a goaltender as their sixth on-ice player, whose job is to prevent the puck from entering the goal.
A fast-paced physical sport, hockey is most popular in areas of North America and Europe. In North America, the National Hockey League is the highest level for men's hockey and the most popular. The Kontinental Hockey League is the highest league in Russia and much of eastern Europe.

KirkSaw

Rugby

Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, England, on the River Avon. The town has a population of 70,628 making it the second largest town in the county. The enclosing Borough of Rugby has a population of 100,500.
Rugby is 13 miles east of Coventry, on the eastern edge of Warwickshire, near the borders with Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.
The town is credited with being the birthplace of rugby football.

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick. It is always played as a rough contact sport. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh designed to catch and hold the lacrosse ball. Offensively, the objective of the game is to score by shooting the ball into an opponent's goal, using the lacrosse stick to catch, cradle, and pass the ball to do so. Defensively, the objective is to keep the opposing team from scoring and to gain the ball through the use of stick checking and body contact or positioning. The sport has four major types: men's field lacrosse, women's lacrosse, box lacrosse and intercrosse. The sport consists of four positions: midfield, attack, defense, goalie.

Beach Volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summer Olympic Games since 1964.
The complete rules are extensive. But simply, play proceeds as follows: a player on one of the teams begins a 'rally' by serving the ball, from behind the back boundary line of the court, over the net, and into the receiving team's court. The receiving team must not let the ball be grounded within their court. The team may touch the ball up to 3 times but individual players may not touch the ball twice consecutively. Typically, the first two touches are used to set up for an attack, an attempt to direct the ball back over the net in such a way that the serving team is unable to prevent it from being grounded in their court.
The rally continues, with each team allowed as many as three consecutive touches, until either: a team makes a kill, grounding the ball on the opponent's court and winning the rally; or: a team commits a fault and loses the rally. The team that wins the rally is awarded a point, and serves the ball to start the next rally. A few of the most common faults include:

Mixed martial arts

Mixed martial arts is a full-contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, from a variety of other combat sports and martial arts. Various mixed-style contests took place throughout Europe, Japan and the Pacific Rim during the early 1900s. In 1980 CV Productions, Inc. created the first regulated MMA league in the United States named Tough Guy Contest, later renamed Battle of the Superfighters, sanctioning ten tournaments in Pennsylvania. However, in 1983 the Pennsylvania State Senate passed a bill prohibiting the sport. The combat sport of vale tudo that had developed in Brazil from the 1920s was brought to the United States by the Gracie family in 1993 with the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The first documented use of the name mixed martial arts was in a review of UFC 1 by television critic Howard Rosenberg, in 1993. The term gained popularity when the website newfullcontact.com, then one of the largest covering the sport, hosted and reprinted the article. The question of who actually coined the name is still in debate.

Lucas_McCain

Handball

sebbzor

Snowboarding

Snowboarding is a recreational activity that involves descending a slope that is covered with snow while standing on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet. The snowboard is attached using a special boot set into a mounted binding.
The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the United States in the 1960s by Gordon Kosteroski and became a Winter Olympic Sport in 1998. Its popularity peaked in 2007 and has been in a decline since.

Tennis

Tennis is a racquet sport that can be played individually against a single opponent or between two teams of two players each. Each player uses a racquet that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a good return. The opponent who is unable to return the ball will not gain a point, while the opposite opponent will.
Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society and at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racquet, including wheelchair users. The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as "lawn tennis". It had close connections both to various field games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older racquet sport of real tennis. During most of the 19th-century in fact, the term "tennis" referred to real tennis, not lawn tennis: for example, in Disraeli's novel Sybil, Lord Eugene De Vere announces that he will "go down to Hampton Court and play tennis."
The rules of tennis have changed little since the 1890s.

Water polo

Water polo is a team water sport. The game consists of 4 quarters in which the two teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into their opponent's goal, with the team with the most goals at the end of the game winning the match. A team consists of 6 field players and one goalkeeper in the water at any one time. In addition to this, teams may have substitute field players and one substitute goalkeeper who are not in the water. Water polo is typically played in an all-deep pool, and players require stamina and endurance to play the game.
Water polo is a contact sport. Minor fouls occur frequently and exclusion fouls are common.
Special equipment for water polo includes a water polo ball, which floats on the water; numbered and colored caps; and goals, which either float in the water or are attached to the side of the pool.
The game consists of swimming, using a special form of treading water known as the eggbeater kick, throwing, catching, and shooting the ball. All this must be done using a single hand. Each team consists of 6 field players and a goalkeeper. Except for the goalkeeper, players participate in both offensive and defensive roles.

JakeRumschik

Swimming

Human swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water or another liquid, usually for the purpose of recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs, the body, or both. Humans are able to hold their breath underwater and undertake rudimentary locomotive swimming within weeks of birth, as an evolutionary response.
Swimming is consistently found to be among the top recreational activities undertaken by the public, and in some countries, swimming lessons are a compulsory part of the educational curriculum. As a formalized sport, swimming features in a range of local, national, and international competitions, including every modern summer Olympics, which occurs every four years.

Table Tennis

BenNicholson

Climbing

Running

Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walking, where one foot is always in contact with the ground, the legs are kept mostly straight and the center of gravity vaults over the stance leg or legs in an inverted pendulum fashion. A characteristic feature of a running body from the viewpoint of spring-mass mechanics is that changes in kinetic and potential energy within a stride occur simultaneously, with energy storage accomplished by springy tendons and passive muscle elasticity. The term running can refer to any of a variety of speeds ranging from jogging to sprinting.
It is assumed that the ancestors of humankind developed the ability to run for long distances about 2.6 million years ago, probably in order to hunt animals. Competitive running grew out of religious festivals in various areas. Records of competitive racing date back to the Tailteann Games in Ireland between 632 BCE and 1171 BCE, while the first recorded Olympic Games took place in 776 BCE. Running has been described as the world's most accessible sport.

Soccer

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries, making it the world's most popular sport. The game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by getting the ball into the opposing goal.
The goalkeepers are the only players allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms while it is in play and then only in their penalty area. Outfield players mostly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, but may use their head or torso to strike the ball instead. The team that scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is level at the end of the game, either a draw is declared or the game goes into extra time and/or a penalty shootout depending on the format of the competition. The Laws of the Game were originally codified in England by The Football Association in 1863. Association football is governed internationally by the International Federation of Association Football which organises a World Cup every four years.

seelee

Track and Field

Fencing

Contemporary fencing is the modern state of the western art of combat with the small sword. It is also called olympic fencing, and began in Italy in the 18th century. The Italian school modified the original Spanish, "classical fencing", and the French school later refined the Italian system. Modern Spanish fencing also became prominent in the 19th century.
Modern fencing uses three weapons, and is divided respectively into three competitive scenes: foil, sabre and épée. Most competitive fencers choose to specialize in one of these only.
Competitive fencing is one of five activities which have been featured in every one of the modern Olympic Games, the other four being Athletics, Cycling, Swimming, and Gymnastics.

Bicycling

Archery

dmer.the.nerdfighter

Ultimate Frisbee

Nymphrodell

Athletics

Ari Aries

Rugby Union

MatthewGill

Chess

Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on a chessboard, a checkered gameboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide in homes, urban parks, clubs, online, correspondence, and in tournaments. In recent years, chess has become part of some school curricula.
Each player begins the game with 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. Each of the six piece types moves differently. The objective is to 'checkmate' the opponent's king by placing it under an inescapable threat of capture. To this end, a player's pieces are used to attack and capture the opponent's pieces, while supporting their own. In addition to checkmate, the game can be won by voluntary resignation by the opponent, which typically occurs when too much material is lost, or if checkmate appears unavoidable. A game may also result in a draw in several ways, where neither player wins. The course of the game is divided into three phases: opening, middlegame, and endgame.

BaruchLalaev

Australian Rules Football

Taekwondo

UnbreakableNacho

Sports the deserve more fans are the under-appreciated sports, most obscure sports, and the underrated sports that are action-packed and interesting, but not ...