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    #26
    Football
    Cricket

    Athletics
    Rugby Union
    Rugby League

    Swimming
    Motor Racing
    Motircycling
    Netball
    Boghockey
    Gee gees
    Last edited by Duncan Gardner; 03-04-2019, 15:38.

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      #27
      Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
      One can get really technical, but the more obvious splits would be cars vs motorbikes, rallies vs track races, and oval/tri-oval tracks vs "road circuits".

      Americans tend to distinguish "open wheel" (F1, Indy, etc) from other forms (particularly NASCAR).
      Open wheel should really be road courses vs. ovals. Yeah, Indy is an oval and yes NASCAR races on a couple road courses, and arguably should race on more according to their fans, but that's the cultural split. A lot of good ol' boy types can't stand road courses, and while GT racing is basically sporty stock cars, far more F1/Indycar fans follow sportscar racing than NASCAR fans. And most of Indycar's great names from the 1960s on came through sports car racing - Roger Penske, Dan Gurney, Paul Newman (yes, that Paul Newman), Jim Trueman, Bobby Rahal, etc. CART doesn't exist without the sports car guys.

      So really it's F1/Indy/sports prototypes/GT racing vs NASCAR/dirt track/sprint car racing.

      Comment


        #28
        Football (couple times, no big games though)
        Basketball (Olympiakos - Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 2006 euroleague quarter finals)
        Canadian football (B.C. Lions @ Toronto Argonauts)
        Hockey (three times, including N.Y. Rangers @ Philadelphia Flyers in the 2014 playoffs)
        Lacrosse (rinkside seats for Colorado Mammoth @ Philadelphia Wings)
        Rugby union (Australia - Fiji in the 2015 World Cup, in Cardiff)

        Comment


          #29
          Football
          Rugby league
          Cricket
          Rugby union
          Basketball
          Ice hockey
          Volleyball
          Tennis
          Boxing
          Handball
          Speedway
          Golf
          Gaelic football
          American football

          Comment


            #30
            Flynnie, I agree that that is the major cultural fault line, but I'm not sure that one should adopt a binary taxonomy, particular given the fact that the split (and even the choices) are much different outside the US.

            There is also the whole question of whether Demolition Derby and/or Figure 8 Racing are "sports".

            Comment


              #31
              Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post

              I think we went to a few car rallys as my dad was a former participant (though I doubt they were paid for).
              I'd love to hear more about this, if you weren't too young to remember.

              Comment


                #32
                His rallying days were before we were born but he had a couple of Minis he used to race in local events in South Wales during the sixties. I've got a vague recollection he may have taken us to some events when we were kids as he still had the bug for the sport.

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                  #33
                  Interesting, cheers RdG - probably road rallies at night if we're talking about the 1960s but there were some forest events and blasts around Llandow going on by the end of the decade.


                  My clearly defined top 3:

                  Football - everything from 11th tier non league to a Champions league final - probably close on 1000 games
                  Rallying - well into the hundreds of events
                  Stock car/banger racing - high double figures, probably 15+ different tracks

                  Then in descending order from 40 odd down to low single figures:

                  Horse racing (about a dozen or more different racecourses)
                  Rugby league (inc. a World Cup Final)
                  Motor racing - F3, GTs, Touring cars, Historics, clubman racing
                  Motocross (inc. Supercross)
                  Athletics
                  Speedway
                  Tennis
                  Ice hockey
                  Baseball
                  Track cycling
                  Motorcycle trials (probably free, though I did buy a programme at a World championship round in Merthyr)
                  Motorbike racing (on asphalt circuits)
                  Road cycling

                  Once only:

                  Ski jumping - 4 Hills tournament at Bischofshofen
                  Powerboat racing
                  Jetski racing (didn't pay)
                  Badminton horse trials
                  Motorcycle enduro
                  Hockey - Commonwealth games
                  Diving - Commonwealth games
                  Cricket - 1979 test match at Headingley
                  Golf - B&H international at York in the early 1980s
                  Wrestling - in Crosby town hall

                  Most glaring omissions are probably rugby union and basketball, and F1 I suppose.

                  Comment


                    #34
                    My shockingly short list is as follows:

                    Football - Mostly Division 4 football, but seen Premier League right down to Tier 4 of non-league.

                    Rugby Union - Twice - Saracens v Gloucester at Vicarage Road in 2003 and a few years ago I paid to watch the Gloucestershire Combination Cup Finals at Kingsholm as my brother was playing.

                    Darts - The BDO World Trophy at Lakeside in 2016, and tomorrow I have tickets for the Cheltenham Masters at Cheltenham Racecourse (which is actually just an exhibition).

                    Comment


                      #35
                      Originally posted by Third rate Leszno View Post

                      Wrestling - in Crosby town hall

                      .

                      I used to live in Crosby or to be more accurate in the posher area of Blundellsands. We had a big house but very little furniture. A schoolmate of mine kept asking me to go along to the wrestling (which probably wasn't in Crosby but in Liverpool itself) but I never took him up on the offer. He was a bit of an oddball to be honest with a penchant for firing off air rifles at night not knowing who or what was within range.

                      Comment


                        #36
                        Oh I'd forgotten darts. Will edit

                        Comment


                          #37
                          Football
                          Rugby Union
                          Cricket
                          Baseball
                          Horse Racing
                          Field Hockey
                          Ice Hockey
                          Basketball
                          Athletics
                          Darts
                          Badminton (only in the Olympics)

                          Comment


                            #38
                            Football
                            Cricket
                            Rugby Union
                            Speedway
                            Basketball
                            Volleyball
                            Baseball
                            American Football
                            Canadian Football
                            Athletics
                            Stock Car Racing
                            Banger Racing
                            Horse Racing
                            Greyhound Racing


                            Quite a few notable absences there. No tennis, despite growing up in the Wimbledon area, or golf, despite being surrounded by golf courses.

                            Comment


                              #39
                              Anyone ever paid to watch fistball: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fistball

                              Comment


                                #40
                                Football
                                Cricket
                                Rugby Union
                                Athletics
                                Baseball
                                Canadian Football
                                Weightlifting

                                That's it. Plenty of free stuff but that wasn't asked for.

                                Oh, and 70s town hall wrestling if that counts.
                                Last edited by Capybara; 04-04-2019, 17:22.

                                Comment


                                  #41
                                  Not quite in order:

                                  Baseball - MLB, minors, college. Never paid to see HS

                                  American Football - College, NFL, HS

                                  Ice Hockey - NHL, Minor Pro, College, Junior, HS

                                  Soccer - MLS, College, Minor Pro, League Two at AFC Wimbledon vs Wycombe

                                  Softball - College (just a few times)

                                  Lacrosse - College men’s outdoor,
                                  pro indoor. Don’t think I’ve ever paid to see women’s lacrosse or paid to see HS lacrosse

                                  Wrestling - College (technically this is called folkstyle)

                                  Gymnastics - College

                                  Volleyball - College, men’s and women’s

                                  Basketball - NBA, college men’s and women’s, once paid a few bucks to go with a friend to see his sister’s HS game

                                  NASCAR - at Charlotte, three times

                                  Horse Racing - paid once at Laurel, MD

                                  Track - I watched a few times in college, but I think it was free.

                                  As a kid, I’ve been with my family to see jai alai and horse racing once. We also saw a go kart race at Watkins Glen. I didn’t pay, though.



                                  Comment


                                    #42
                                    Football - Barnsley games, two Euro 96 games, Forest home games because a mate went, Leicester home games at university, Leeds UEFA Cup games, Darlo v Plymouth playoff final 1996

                                    Boxing - my dad actually paid. I was 11 (!). 3 round bouts. Never felt a desire to go since.

                                    Horse racing - Doncaster and York work outings

                                    Dog racing - again I think a relative paid when I was a kid. I though it was shit.

                                    Tennis - Henman v Bjorkman, Nottingham, 2000

                                    Cricket - England v ODI, 1980, and first day of Headingley 1981 (I can say I attended the dullest day of the most famous Test in England history), various Yorkshire games

                                    The sport I regret not seeing is athletics

                                    Comment


                                      #43
                                      Football



                                      Ice hockey - Canucks, Sheffield Steelers
                                      American Football - NFL (Seahawks), CFL (Lions), College (UCLA), Britain (Leeds Cougars and the short lived Barnsley Bears)
                                      Basketball - Grizzlies, Supersonics
                                      Rugby League - Featherstone (3 or 4 times in the 80's)
                                      Stock car racing - once
                                      Horse racing - once
                                      Baseball - Mariners, Vancouver minor league team
                                      Volleyball - Olympics

                                      Comment


                                        #44
                                        Football
                                        Cricket
                                        Cycling - not paid as such, but have been to some right weird places to watch it
                                        Rugby union
                                        Snooker - world championship, UK championship, English Open
                                        Horse racing
                                        Baseball - Cubs
                                        Greyhound racing

                                        Archery - Olympics at Lords
                                        Athletics - Paralympics

                                        Comment


                                          #45
                                          Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                                          first day of Headingley 1981 (I can say I attended the dullest day of the most famous Test in England history)
                                          This sort of reminds me of the time when I went home at the tea interval of a not-very inspiring Essex - Surrey game at Chelmsford in 1983 only to discover the next day that Surrey had been bowled out for the grand total of 14.

                                          Comment


                                            #46
                                            Football (hundreds of matches, at all sorts of levels)
                                            Cricket (Middlesex v. Lancashire 1-day match at Uxbridge, about 20 years ago)
                                            Rugby Union (one match in the German Rugby Bundesliga)
                                            Ice hockey (very sporadic attendance in the past, becoming more regular now that we live in a country where it is such a massive sport)
                                            Horse racing (once, at Iffezheim)
                                            Motor racing (DTM at Hockenhein, and a race day at Brands Hatch where Johnny Herbert drove an F1 car)
                                            Golf (Dunhill Cup at St Andrews in 1998(?), it was only a fiver to get in for the students if I remember right)
                                            Last edited by JVL; 12-04-2019, 19:56. Reason: Forgot golf...

                                            Comment


                                              #47
                                              Football
                                              Two- and four-wheeled motor racing (the British Moto GP when it was at Donnington Park, and various car things at Castle Combe with parents when we were small)
                                              Rugby union (a Pilkington Cup final, I think in 1996, and at least one other match at Twickenham although I can't remember what it was; again when I was small)
                                              Tennis (not paid, in fact, but we went along to a bit of the qualifying for this year's Argentina Open, where the qualys were free entrance but we still made the effort to go, so it feels a bit different from having covered a few Fed/Davis Cup ties as a journalist for the official website)
                                              Polo (because I live in the only city with a polo stadium actually inside the city limits, and it's really easy to get to. As well as far cheaper, far friendlier and a way higher standard than the football in these parts)

                                              The ones I'd most like to add to this list are snooker and various of the American varieties of pocket billiards, or Chinese 8-Ball (actual Chinese 8-Ball, not the bar game known as Chinese 8-ball in some parts of the USA, which is the only version you'll find details of on Wikipedia and is totally different). But I'm very much in the wrong place to do those any time soon. There are a few Brits and other Europeans in the upper reaches of the rankings for the US sports at the moment, though, and events are held there quite often, so if I pay attention maybe I can get to something when I'm next over. Having said that the world no. 1 at Chinese 8-Ball is English, but it's only played professionally in China (although I went in to a pool hall in Bristol last year that had a couple of tables).

                                              Comment


                                                #48
                                                Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
                                                OK, bear with me (and in no particular order) ;

                                                Speedway
                                                Cricket (Test/ODI/T20/County)
                                                Field Hockey
                                                Track Cycling
                                                Road Cycling (not paid as such but ticketed/accredited)
                                                Football
                                                Rugby
                                                Rugby Sevens
                                                Boxing
                                                Golf
                                                Gridiron
                                                Ice Hockey
                                                Netball
                                                Athletics
                                                Para-athletics
                                                Baseball
                                                Basketball
                                                Ice Speedway
                                                Darts
                                                Tennis
                                                Greyhound racing
                                                Horse racing
                                                Gymnastics
                                                Motor Racing
                                                Swimming
                                                Rowing
                                                Taekwondo
                                                Beach Volleyball
                                                Goalball
                                                Wheelchair Rugby
                                                Archery
                                                Shooting
                                                Dressage

                                                I'm racking my brains for anything else I may have seen decades ago but can't think of any more for the moment. Pretty sure I saw Stock Car/Banger Racing as a kid but will need to check
                                                I didn't pay (which I think is an arbitrary condition for the thread) but am adding Water Polo to my list, as per the matchgoing thread.

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