Virtually all major sports have peaked years or perhaps decades ago - True or False?

Virtually all major sports have peaked years or perhaps decades ago - True or False?

  • Total voters
    119
If nothing else, they have all headed 100% down the we-are-going-to-force-gambling-on-everyone-all-the-time, and I can't think that's moving in the right direction. Seems, like everything else, that the sport is there to sell products rather than entertain
 
I have a feeling professional sports have become too commercial, too fancy for their own good. Everything is live all the time, everything is very expensive and artificial. It used to be working class people and ultras in the first rows. Now it’s “celebrities” because everything costs 100+ euros. Competitors are measured by the size of online followings. Mainstream sports generate so much money so it is not surprising, but it is getting out of hand. Maybe it is a phase, but I’m not holding my breath. Supply and demand will do their thing.
 
I don't watch soccer or baseball or hockey so can't comment on those 3.

The rest I do watch and yes it was so much more fun decades ago. MMA had a Gold period from 2003-2015... there were so many great MMA orgs, UFC, Pride, Strikeforce, WEC and even King of the Cage I enjoyed watching back then. There was a huge buzz and excitement around every event, and the bars and restaurants were packed with people watching it there, now there is virtually no buzz and no bars and restaurants in this area even show it anymore

I remember going to a bar and watching UFC 73 and it was unbelievable, the placed was packed but there were so many people wanting to watch the UFC that there were hundreds of people outside the door, there was so much buzz in the air. Now that same bar in 2025 doesn't air UFC anymore, they don't even show any UFC PPV since like 2017. The custom is just not there for it anymore.
 
Emphatically yes. The NBA went downhill after MJ retired (the second time) and is now pretty much a niche sport. MLB has become almost completely irrelevant. The NFL has degenerated into a bunch of betas whining about wanting more money when they're already under contracts that overpay them as it is. All sports are now openly corrupt and don't care who knows it. Any pretense of actual competition is nearly gone, and the pretense that every team has a chance to win a title if they're smart about it vanished long ago. I only follow this and the NFL out of habit, and I stopped watching NFL games live around a decade ago.
 
Once you exclude nostalgia, clearly no. The only people who miss pitchers batting, run-centered NFL offenses, professional athletes who trained like amateurs, players playing with concussions, etc. are full-blown morons.

Except for the NBA. That shit is completely unwatchable; the players have simply gotten too big and strong for the court, and on top of that there's no room to push back the three point line 8-10 feet like needs to happen. Of course making the court bigger would cut into seating at existing arenas and the players' union obviously would never go for three-on-three, so nothing is ever going to be done about that.
 
HI SCOTT NEWMAN said:
I don't watch soccer or baseball or hockey so can't comment on those 3.

The rest I do watch and yes it was so much more fun decades ago. MMA had a Gold period from 2003-2015... there were so many great MMA orgs, UFC, Pride, Strikeforce, WEC and even King of the Cage I enjoyed watching back then. There was a huge buzz and excitement around every event, and the bars and restaurants were packed with people watching it there, now there is virtually no buzz and no bars and restaurants in this area even show it anymore

I remember going to a bar and watching UFC 73 and it was unbelievable, the placed was packed but there were so many people wanting to watch the UFC that there were hundreds of people outside the door, there was so much buzz in the air. Now that same bar in 2025 doesn't air UFC anymore, they don't even show any UFC PPV since like 2017. The custom is just not there for it anymore.
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Bars and clubs in general have been declining for years especially since covid.
 
Takes Two To Tango said:
I'm talking about sports like:

Soccer
American Football
Basketball
Hockey
Baseball
MMA
Boxing

All these sports have reached their pinnacle and it will never reach it again.
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Sports have fully developed into accepted societal masturbation -- it's not going away.

Just a repeat habit of mental stimulation and physical behavior to achieve pleasure and satisfaction.

Group interaction seems to intensify the experience and create the need for more drama to enhance the climax -- from sold out venues where the fan is physically present with others -to- online real-time viewing and interaction of solo participants joined together by a screen and keyboard.

Others want to chase the high of their youth by reliving their past sports experiences thru watching sporting events.

Live High Level Sports Porn like the Olympics, Superbowl, World Cup, etc. make the sports porn world more mainstream, accessible globally, and create broad spectrum economic opportunity from governments to business to the individual -- whilst hooking the masses into a seemingly endless cycle of sports fapping.

The Sports Porn industry grows even more powerful with Gambling/Gaming emphasis and 24/7 coverage that pushes highlights, pundit wars, reality tv, etc. deeper into the willing minds of the affected.

You are being controlled by the Pushers of sports porn who seek to monetize your dependency on it -- as the consumer chases content to seek pleasurable distraction in order to enhance their everyday lives.
 
Younger generations aren’t really into sports

+ there are so many options for entertainment now (for everyone)

+ digital means going to see stuff live isn’t as much a thing anymore

+ professional sports have pipelines of 2-year old genetic freaks so it’s unachievable for most and it’s its own bubble

+ corporatization and political correctness took the personalities out to some extent

+ etc…

= today’s sports
 
A "Sport" is an event where your opponent tries to hurt you, and is allowed to do so, and as such there are only two current "sports", MMA and PBR. The rest of the the leagues mentioned are merely games. Grown men and women dressed up in costumes identifying as mythical imaginary creatures, or wild animals of the jungle and forest, "lions and tigers and bears oh my". Grown people who bounce toy balls and throw them in toy baskets, or kick toy balls into toy nets or thru toy goalposts, catching toy balls in toy gloves, hitting toy balls with toy bats, running around toy bases, and counting toy points, runs, and scores, on large toy scoreboards, with flashing lights, fireworks and videos, oh my !
 
Players used to play for the name on the front instead of the name on the back.

NFL and NBA that used to be king have turned into niche sports. The three point barrages of the nba killed off most of the excitement. Dual threat qbs in the nfl and flag football style rules sucked the life out of football. Just like the ufc it’s a prime example of sports that have piggybacked off of a prior generation of far more exciting players/fighters
 
HI SCOTT NEWMAN said:
I don't watch soccer or baseball or hockey so can't comment on those 3.

The rest I do watch and yes it was so much more fun decades ago. MMA had a Gold period from 2003-2015... there were so many great MMA orgs, UFC, Pride, Strikeforce, WEC and even King of the Cage I enjoyed watching back then. There was a huge buzz and excitement around every event, and the bars and restaurants were packed with people watching it there, now there is virtually no buzz and no bars and restaurants in this area even show it anymore

I remember going to a bar and watching UFC 73 and it was unbelievable, the placed was packed but there were so many people wanting to watch the UFC that there were hundreds of people outside the door, there was so much buzz in the air. Now that same bar in 2025 doesn't air UFC anymore, they don't even show any UFC PPV since like 2017. The custom is just not there for it anymore.
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Complete BS. How does your “Golden era” ends right before the real mainstream explosion of MMA happened? 2016 is when Conor went through the roof with both Diaz fights and the champ champ moment at MSG. Conor vs Khabib was definitely the most anticipated and buzzed about MMA fight ever and that was in 2018. I would argue that 2014- 2020 were probably the most entertaining years in UFC history. Although last year was incredible too with the UFC 300, the Sphere event and Islam/Volk fights. I’ll admit that this year feels slower than usual though.

Also in 2003 UFC only had 5 events, so maybe they were a bit more anticipated because there was so few of them. Doesn’t mean they were bigger or better back then
 
GOATtalks said:
Complete BS. How does your “Golden era” ends right before the real mainstream explosion of MMA happened? 2016 is when Conor went through the roof with both Diaz fights and the champ champ moment at MSG. Conor vs Khabib was definitely the most anticipated and buzzed about MMA fight ever and that was in 2018. I would argue that 2014- 2020 were probably the most entertaining years in UFC history. Although last year was incredible too with the UFC 300, the Sphere event and Islam/Volk fights. I’ll admit that this year feels slower than usual though.

Also in 2003 UFC only had 5 events, so maybe they were a bit more anticipated because there was so few of them. Doesn’t mean they were bigger or better back then
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Conor was the biggest single star in MMA history, but the UFC as a whole felt tangibly more popular in like 2008-2011, at least in its core market ie the US. By 2015 it didnt have that cool new thing cultural zeitgeist vibe that it had in the 00s, the novelty appeal of MMA as a sport had gone by then.
 
MMA is definitely shit nowadays, yeah. Especially above 155. It's become borderline unwatchable.
 
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