The U.S. Culture(s) thread

On the money front it's more than stadiums, the amount of educational funding you guys poor into sports (particularly college sports) is simply absurd.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

Football has a stupidly strong culture in the United States. It's also a money maker for some universities but not all of them are as lucky.

The US isn't at all strange in that regard. Sports are huge basically everywhere. The only thing odd about America is that we care about different sports than everyone else. Baseball, (American) football, and basketball are all more-or-less American and Canadian only, though baseball's also fairly popular in Japan. For the rest of the world, it's soccer first, last, and always.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Not necessarily. Basketball has a bigger popularity than football/soccer in Lithuania and the Czech Republic (iirc).

edited 9th Sep '15 1:54:52 PM by Quag15

It's a moneymaker for a select few universities, and a drain on pretty much all of the rest, who are chasing the dragon or simply goaded on by alumni demands.

And most popular American Motorsport is pretty much unique to the US as well.

Keep Rolling On

Nascar is uniquely American, but Formula 1 is pretty international.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

i.e. America insists on being different.

The Hipster Nation of the International Community.

Well, considering they have cities where people think kale is hip...

Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.

Relevant◊.

I'd like to point out that once long ago in the distant past of a very different OTC, I made a thread about an article on how basketball was actually on pace to eclipse soccer/football and become the most popular sport in the world. (American and Canadian only, my butt.) Let me try and find it.

Edit: I misremembered, as the article was about how basketball was cementing itself as #2 in the world. Here it is.

edited 9th Sep '15 2:19:02 PM by TotemicHero

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

Finland is also an exception. For us it's ice hockey first, then probably either basketball or Finnish baseball, and then football. And by football I obviously don't mean the rugby derivative. Fortunately, football's popularity in Finland is growing quite rapidly at the moment, and it'll possibly be on par with ice hockey soon.

EDIT: And of course there are the cricket countries - Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, probably South Africa - and New Zealand with rugby, as well as Australia and their own version of football. (Ireland has their own version, too.)

edited 9th Sep '15 2:28:34 PM by BestOf

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.

or Starcraft in Korea

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes

E-sports are a big thing man, and with the power barrier to entry there's a lot of good talent. I do wonder how long it will be before an E-sport pushes out a "normal" sport in the rankings of popular sports.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

Whatever. It is not a real sport. It is just people sitting on a chair. Cheerleading is an actual sport. Esports is as sporty as watching TV.

Off topic tho.

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes

Cheerleading in the US is not classified as a sport in many K-12 and collegiate organizations, though it should be. Many cheerleading administrators and coaches have been fighting to change that because having it classified as a sport means organizers and sporting events have to account for safety regulations (and injuries) that wouldn't apply without the classification.

edited 9th Sep '15 4:18:20 PM by Aprilla

E-sports is a thing, and BS if it isn't intensive pro Star Craft players have over 300 APM (actions per minute.) that requires an insane amount of dexterity and coordination with the accurate movements required and more effort than say a right fielder in baseball.

On the strategy side it's light years above any other sport too.

Yeah but you're still sorta sittin on your ass not doing any properly serious physical activity.

They're certainly something but I dunno if I'd call them sports.

Like is Chess a sport?

Oh really when?

'Physical activity' umm, while you may not use your legs holy crap it is a serious work out.

Keeping up 300 accurate apm requires insane endurance, As well as accurate micromanagement of units vs other units requires insane reaction times let alone combine those reaction times with continuing to macro and multitask only increasing the amount of actions required, yeah.

Chess has .5 APM due to the fact you only have to actually move once every 5 minutes.

Let me put it another way, you only use one arm for bowling is that a sport?

edited 9th Sep '15 5:21:34 PM by Memers

Yes chess is a sport. The international Olympic committee has recognised it as one.

As for sitting in a chair, what's the seat in a car used for Motorsport if not a chair?

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

In Canada the old cliche about hockey being practically a religion is definitely true: It's definitely Serious Business. I'll admit to getting in on the fun myself.

edited 9th Sep '15 5:24:10 PM by LinkToTheFuture

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison

I also think that if you're in a position to have issues with secret usage of PEDs, you can safely be called a sport.

More on topic, many U.S. colleges have started their own esports teams as part of their athletic programs. (The first one was Robert Morris University in Chicago.) So if you have complaints about the kind of attention sports get in the U.S., in about a decade or two you can start applying those complaints to esports too.

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

I once had a professor who said if you can eat nachoes and drink beer while doing it, then it wasn't a sport.

I don't think I've ever heard of someone drinking a beer while competing in chess.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw