Super-size me: Which is the biggest US sport of them all?

NFL / Alsy / 27 October 2008 / Leave a comment

Alsy looks at number of live spectators, TV audiences, sponsorship and salaries to determine which is the biggest of the different major US sports.

Americans are crazy about sport but you have little choice but to watch their favourites. Despite access to a million cable channels it's currently easier to find a hundred Republicans in Manhattan than a live feed of Formula 1. Also, regardless of what David Beckham's publicist might say, Major League Soccer approval ratings are only marginally higher than that of President Bush.

Sport enjoys almost blanket TV coverage in the US as well as in-depth coverage in print. If you're into baseball, football (naturally the US kind), basketball or ice hockey then you can watch it, read about and listen to ex-players talk about it to your hearts content. The respective seasons of these sports crossover - baseball dominates the summer before gridiron crashes the party from September onwards. The NHL starts at the beginning of October and the NBA tips off at the end ensuring that the back pages are always crammed with some kind of sporting news.

If you're looking for the most popular, in terms of live spectators, then motorsport (NASCAR in the main) wins hands down but to ignore millions of coach potatoes is just plain un-American. Considering a mixture of spectators and TV audiences baseball used to be pre-eminent but in recent years it's been overtaken by football. Gridiron now commands the largest US TV audience but, as Sunday's NFL game at Wembley illustrates, they also posses a rapidly expanding global brand.

In order of most-watched US sports gridiron leads its rivals followed by baseball, basketball, NASCAR and ice hockey. It's pretty much the same when you look at website traffic with one interesting exception. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) attracts more interest than the PGA, MSL, ATP and has almost overtaken the NHL. If you're looking for one sport most likely to grab a larger slice of TV audiences then it's definitely the UFC.

Unfortunately Rampage Jackson and his fellow UFC athletes will have to wait a while for their wage packets to catch up to their more established rivals. Tiger Woods received US$112m in 2007 but few golfers (or any other athlete) can match that figure. Earning almost double than that of nearest rival, boxer Oscar De La Hoya ($55m), Tiger cleared $11.9m in salary illustrating just how much endorsements can be worth but you have to consider the NBA if you want to see where the wealth has been spread. Eight out the top-twenty highest earners in 2007 hail from the NBA with Shaquille O'Neal ($35m), Kobe Bryant ($33.7m), LeBron James ($30.8m) and Kevin Garnett ($29m) leading the charge.

Next in line comes the NBL, especially if you play for the New York Yankees. Six MLB players make the 2007 top-20 and four of them play for the legendary club. Derek Jeter ($29m) and team-mate Alex Rodriguez ($28m) can afford to ignore talk of a recession for the time being at least but their poor showing this season (any year the Yankees don't win a World Series is a disaster) has forced them to watch the Rays and Phillies fight it out. Anyone looking to profit should back the Philadelphia Phillies at [1.22] before the fat lady kicks-off.

The NFL and PGA pretty much make up the rest of the gargantuan wages list but the NBA remains streets ahead. With only five players on court top basketball players can influence events much more than athletes playing other sports. With less player rotation (for key individuals) and a gruelling playing schedule they certainly post plenty of minutes on-court for their cash.

Best of all, NBA players usually represent better betting opportunities. NFL quarterback Payton Manning earned $23m last year but his Indianapolis Colts are an unattractive [19.0] to win the Superbowl. From the four highest NBA players listed above only Shaq's Miami Heat should be discounted now while "King" James and his Cleveland Cavaliers are criminally undervalued at [18.5] to become NBA champs.