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Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

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    Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

    Boxing is the obvious one. Darts for a similar reason that there was only one governing body.

    Possibly rugby union was more entertaining in that it allowed a flair team like Wales to be dominant without having a professional structure, whereas now a nation of that size can't be No. 1 for a long period.

    Cricket - at county level definitely, because Test stars were more committed. Tests I dunno: there a great series and crap ones in both decades.

    Football - hard to say. Very subjective.

    #2
    Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

    Horse Racing

    Formula One

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      #3
      Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

      Satchmo Distel wrote: Possibly rugby union was more entertaining in that it allowed a flair team like Wales to be dominant without having a professional structure, whereas now a nation of that size can't be No. 1 for a long period.
      To be fair, New Zealand is a nation of that size – well, about 4m population to Wales' 3m, which compared with opponents of 50 or 60m+ (England, South Africa, Italy or France), or even 23m in Australia's case, is only splitting hairs. It's a tenth the size of Argentina, for example.

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        #4
        Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

        Wales have won as many Grand Slams in the last decade as they won in the 1970s.

        And had there been a World Cup in those days, they wouldn't have won it. They never beat either New Zealand or South Africa in the day.

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          #5
          Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

          Darts is much better now, the standard is immeasurably higher. There wasn't even a world championships until the late 70s and even that was held at first in the Wheel Tappers & Shunters or something. Up to then it was largely a pub game with local rules.

          Cricket is an interesting one, you're right about the Test players appearing in county games. What we also had then was the concept of the tourists who would stay all summer and play around the country. To take the 1976 West Indians as an example, they stayed in England for four months, played five Tests, first class matches against all the counties plus MCC, Combined Universities and the Minor Counties, three ODIs v England and six other matches at country houses and the like. Compare that with the 2015 Australians, who had first class matches with Kent, Essex and Derbyshire, and everything else was an international match.

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            #6
            Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

            The standard of golf is obviously much higher than it used to be when everyone was using wooden-shafted clubs, but by heavens, it's nowhere near as much fun.

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              #7
              Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

              Also, up until the Millennium, rugby essentially revolved around the Five Nations and was effectively forgotten for the rest of the year, whereupon the European Cup and the various club leagues grew massively in profile and media attention.

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                #8
                Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                Rogin le fan du fauteuil wrote: The standard of golf is obviously much higher than it used to be when everyone was using wooden-shafted clubs, but by heavens, it's nowhere near as much fun.
                That's going to be a recurring theme on this thread, I'd guess - standards and professionalism have moved on substantially in most sports but things tend to be less fun and more predictable.

                A similar example to the cricket tour point above - Rugby League lost something when Super League introduced summer rugby, the old lengthy tours by Australia/NZ here and GB down there were out of the window, as was the option of individual players going to play for clubs in the other hemisphere in their off-season.

                But we got decent pitches, mostly (and eventually) decent stadia, and full-time, more athletic players in exchange so shouldn't grumble.

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                  #9
                  Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                  Rugby union in England didn't even have a league structure until about 1988. Before that the season comprised of club matches, the county championship and John Player Cup.

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                    #10
                    Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                    Nor Wales, prior to the advent of professionalism. The 'league' standings, such as they were, were compiled from week to week in what was known as the Merit Table, which invariably had teams on all different numbers of matches played so tended to look a bit all over the shop.
                    But by gum it was more interesting than now, where Llanelli, Neath, Pontypridd, Cardiff and Swansea would find themselves mixing with the likes of Abertillery, Dunvant, Llanharan, Tredegar, Ebbw Vale and Glamorgan Wanderers, whereas nowadays the 'regional' franchises – Ospreys, Blues, Dragons and Scarlets – have trampled and obscured the great old names and rivalries, at first-class level at least.

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                      #11
                      Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                      I remember in the 1970s, the "Hospitals Cup" was one of the most keenly-followed contests in English Club Rugby, at least by the Telegraph.

                      And the Army side were regular contenders for, if not winners of, the Middlesex Sevens.

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                        #12
                        Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                        In the US:

                        Better
                        American football - Way better. Not nearly such a big overstuffed hype show. More characters. The crappy fields added to the experience. Crowds were a true cross-section of the cities they represented. College football was more accessible too.

                        The downsides were that there wasn't as much parity in college football back then - the big schools could always beat the smaller programs just based on numbers of scholarships and raw talent advantage. And not many games were on tv, which was worse for keen fans, but TV is largely what has fucked everything up, so it is what it is.

                        Baseball - Some may disagree, but I think it was definitely worse then, even though it was the Reds' heyday. Lots of great players and great series, yes, but the overall fan experience was worse, I think. It was the dawn of AstroTurf and concrete doughnut parks. And the parks that did have grass were often in terrible shape because of sharing with the NFL/poor drainage. Unsightly tight-fitting polyester knit uniforms. The minor league and college game were played in terrible fields, often with little fan or financial support because, since the dawn of TV, nobody had figured out a way to make non-major league baseball financially viable. Not much fan merch available. Terrible beer.

                        I think the best eras for baseball were the 20s, the 60s, the late-80s/early 90s before the strike, and the last five years through now.

                        Basketball - I'm not 100% sure, but I think it was way worse. I don't find basketball compelling now, but I have no idea how it was watchable at all before the shot clock, three-point line, and dunks. The big Afros, and ball-hugger shorts have nostalgia value, but it must have been dull.

                        Hockey - WAYYYY Worse. More violence. Few teeth. Less skill. Few European or US players. Rarely on TV. College hockey was mostly shit. Not much fan merch available. Goalies just sort of stood there. The WHA had some cool uniforms, to be sure, and it was good that some needed expansion happened, but that probably would have happened anyway.

                        Soccer in the US - IMP wrote a book on this, don't you know. Better than we usually remember, but not many decent US players and a lot of astroturf.

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                          #13
                          Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                          Satchmo Distel wrote: Boxing is the obvious one.
                          Better than today maybe, but not better than the 1980s: Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, Duran, Tyson.

                          The heavyweight division has been a one-man scene since the days of Ali, Smokin' Joe, and Foreman. But I'd take the excitement surrounding Tyson's reign over Holmes' dominance or Klitchko's dominance for sure. And although I cringe saying this, Tyson is my all time favorite fighter.

                          As for football, this is a tough one. I have friends who only watch DVDs of old games and swear that football died after the 1986 WC. I think the game is as good now as ever. The problem is that there's just too many games. The expanded Euros and Copa America are symbolic of this problem.

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                            #14
                            Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                            Superstars. That rocked.

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                              #15
                              Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                              Australian Rules Football was more watchable in the seventies. Today it resembles rugby with far more players around the ball.

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                                #16
                                Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                                ursus arctos wrote: Horse Racing

                                Formula One
                                Both safer now. But certainly, the flat racing in the 70's was outrageously good. But my interest sort of waned when I left the bookies. And the 80's was my favourite period. See You Then, Dawn Run, Triptych, Pebbles and Desert Orchid winning the Gold Cup. My favourite race ever. (I know only two of these were flat horses.)

                                I vaguely remember James Hunt winning F1 (I was 10), and it's not really my thing anyway.

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                                  #17
                                  Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                                  gérontophile wrote:
                                  Originally posted by ursus arctos
                                  Horse Racing

                                  Formula One
                                  Both safer now. But certainly, the flat racing in the 70's was outrageously good. But my interest sort of waned when I left the bookies. And the 80's was my favourite period. See You Then, Dawn Run, Triptych, Pebbles and Desert Orchid winning the Gold Cup. My favourite race ever. (I know only two of these were flat horses.)

                                  I vaguely remember James Hunt winning F1 (I was 10), and it's not really my thing anyway.
                                  Somebody died every year in F1 in those days. That can't be better.

                                  But I believe they were still running F1 at Watkins Glen back then. That would have been cool.

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                                    #18
                                    Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                                    Eight drivers were killed at F1 meetings in the 1970s. Thanks to improvements in car manufacture, circuit design and general operational practice there have only been five deaths in the entire time since, and two of those were back in 1982. Watkins Glen basically got cut for safety reasons.

                                    The racing may or may not have been better, more gimmickry now but there were and are thrillers and processional rubbish.

                                    The sport certainly had more character then, the circuits were more unique and the drivers showed more of their personality. These days there are loads of races at Tilkedromes won by a bland man driving to a bloodless win in a grey car.

                                    The cars generally looked ace in the 1970s.







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                                      #19
                                      Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                                      Watkins Glen hosted F1 from 1961 through 1980.

                                      The improvement in safety is an obvious plus, but I was referring to the elements that longeared notes above (though I think it is clear that the racing was more interesting, too).

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                                        #20
                                        Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                                        I think Watkins Glen would be cool because its relatively close to me. I understand that they'd have to spend a lot of money to bring it up to current F1 standard. Also, apparently the drunken shenanigans of the fans were annoying either F1 people or the locals or both, and there were some other financial problems. But now they have NASCAR and IndyCar there and enormous music festivals including Phish, so if the locals tolerate that, I'm sure they could handle F1.

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                                          #21
                                          Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                                          Quite, it was a mess at the end

                                          As long as Ecclestone is able to continue to extort tens of millions from oligarchs, there's no way that F1 will come back to the Glen

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                                            #22
                                            Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                                            I don't think they really want it. It would sell out, probably, but it would cost so much.

                                            They've got NASCAR and now IndyCar - both of which are much more popular in the US - and a ton of sports car races (I'm not sure who follows that, but somebody does).

                                            It seems Ecclestone is never satisfied. They couldn't come to mutually agreeable terms with Indianapolis and now Austin may be in jeopardy too because the Texas government has cut its contribution (to its credit, I suppose). And apparently the addition of the Mexican GP has pulled some fans away who would otherwise go to Texas.

                                            Whatever happened to that crazy plan to run F1 through the streets of Weehauken?

                                            American race fans - sports fans in general - are used to having most of a series races in their own time zone and being able to travel to a few events a year, maybe. They also like passing and to be able to see most of the track from their seats. F1 cars are cool and the drivers are outstanding, but it's just hard to relate to.

                                            And the budgets of F1 teams are outrageous compared to even NASCAR or Indy.

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                                              #23
                                              Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                                              ursus arctos wrote: As long as Ecclestone is able to continue to extort tens of millions from oligarchs
                                              When all the good people die, this bastard keeps on fucking going...

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                                                #24
                                                Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                                                There's a good argument to be made that the Nineties was the peak decade for F1 - Schumacher, Hill, Prost, Mansell and Senna all active, Jordan capturing RTE's imagination as the little team that could, and there were four to five genuinely competitive constructors, in comparison with today's Mercedes v Red Bull boreathon.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Sports that were better in the 1970s than now

                                                  Though the shadow of Senna's senseless death will always weigh heavily on that era (see also, Dale Earnhardt)

                                                  Reed, the Weehawken Grand Prix is slightly more likely to actually happen than the Governors Island Cricket Stadium, but if it does, it will almost certainly be a Formula E race.

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