The Mainstream Audience

Hi,

 Watching NBA Basketball has recently become a regular tv sport.  I like constant action, games last less than 2 hrs. 

I guess if i ever returned to USA for a holiday, catching an NBA GAME would be third on the list after MX & SX.

However at 65, I have lost interest  in the local (Australia) V8 supercars and F1, the vehicle technology is just too space age and dosent relate to me, or my perception of a racecar.

I watch F1 and UFC every now and again all because of the "hype" either through coworkers/friends or social media. 

F1/UFC are very good at social advertising. 

Edit, also boxing every now and again as well (and not the fake Paul shit). 

I’ve watched F1 for 50 odd years so not really “started” following it I just always have . Since I moved to the US I’ve started following our baseball team for a few reasons .

1. It’s a chill day out ( I just do day games ) .

2. We’ve got a nice stadium with good beer.

3. The vibe reminds me of cricket - minimal showboating or bullshit, to me it’s still about the game ( my gripe with modern day F1 since DTS is the extraneous bullshit and clueless hangers on now associated with it ) 

4. As I’ve followed baseball I’ve got to know the players and for me that’s a huge part of it, I’ve now got my favorites I like to keep an eye on.

I’ll be honest most sports bore me to death but there’s something about baseball that keeps me interested. 

I watch every NASCAR Cup race and listen to Dale Jr every week. I got into the sport two years ago with a couple friends who used to ride moto, just another thing for us to keep in contact about. 

Only been to one race and it was at Kansas. I had an absolute blast. The offseason drama, the Denny heartbreak, the closeness of racing, how much Goodyear affected the racing, plus an encyclopedia Brittanica amount of old racing classics to go back and watch. 

There is no lack of accessibility to the sport (I live in the modern world/not a boomer complaining about Prime) and that makes it even more fun to be a fan. 

Crossing my fingers that Dodge and Honda both get into the sport with the new horsepower package. Big dodge guy. Mopar or no car!!!

I end up watching the NFL or college football by default. Most people in my wheel house have favorite teams and whatnot.  I played in HS so I know what’s going on and I can follow the game. Being that I don’t have a “team” watching a game can be quite enjoyable. No one else close to me follows MX/SX except maybe my wife, by default. She has to listen to me bitch about my fantasy teams. 

I grew up with MX and doing martial arts and that's the two main things I also watch/follow since I've been a kid.

So other than MX I watch UFC, PFL, Oktagon, One, Glory, BKFC etc and I also try to watch MotoGP when I have the time, but the interest went away a bit since it's just ducati domination.

I do watch the world cup soccer games of my country team aswell, but not really into soccer after all.

So yeah, I still follow and like what I've grown up with and what I enjoyed doing myself, never really got hooked with other sports. 😅

I remember falling in love with the UCI Downhill MTB series during the pandemic, out of nothing. RedBullTV did a heeeeeeell of a job presenting the riders and I got instantly hooked cuz they all looked so cool, such characters. DIfferent characters, u'know? You instantly love some of them, instantly hate others....Monster energy riders are always more badass and assholes, RedBull athletes are always the "best of the sport", so I  always kinda cheer against them, somehow. And the "race" itself is INSANE, always. RACERS PRESENTATIONS and a fun commentator (ROB WARNER, the legend) did the job for me.

I used to watch a lot of NBA games here in South America but during the Pandemic I discovered the NBL (Aussie league) had all games live and on demand on youtube for international audience. I fell in love with the League. Theres just 10 teams, its so easy to know everybody from every team, the games are reaally good (I like Fiba Rules better now). I completely quitted watching NBA since 2022 or so in favor of the Aussie League. 
The Same happened for sprintcar and motocross championships. The aussie series looks like the american but more roots, somehow. Kinda "less business - more sport". I love it.. Thank god for youtube! hehe

I don't really "follow" these, but here are some that have been interesting to me in recent years:

Horse Racing: A friend invited my wife and me down to Del Mar to watch the horse races. It was actually far more entertaining than I thought it would be. Cool to root for your horse when he's coming down the stretch. 

UCI/RedBull Downhill MTB (and/or enduro): I also ride MTB and it's fun to watch what good riders can do on bicycles. I'm talented on a motorcycle, but I have a long, long way to go on a pedal bike, apparently.

NFL: I've been unfortunate enough to live near San Diego my whole life and have thus been a Chargers fan since the late '70s or early '80s. It's nice to see them finally filling in some of the obvious weak spots and being a respectable team (even though nobody respects them). 

The amount of archived Nascar races on YouTube is insane. You can watch just about every race since '92, and pretty much any race that got aired before that.

I will never understand why MXGP or AMA decided to never upload full races on youtube. It doesn't have to be right after the race, but weeks later or even after the season. The same people as before would still buy subscriptions to watch the races live but they would get so much more new people and views. Remember when we had some full moto GoPros at least? Now we don't even get GoPro footage from AMA racing. So sad.

Even the UFC who charged like 80€ per ppv uploaded full fights most of the time on their youtube channels.

Medieval MMA on yt 😉

Baseball, played most my child and teenage life, it’s the anticipation and suspense for me 

Back during the pandemic lockdown, wifey and I watched the Netflix series “Mumbai Indians” and became hooked on the Indian Premier League cricket series. However, we have since stopped following it…

Nothing but moto anymore. Even to sit down and watch that sometimes becomes a chore later in the season. Football is a joke anymore, I grew up loving, watching, and playing the sport up until 18. It’s turned soft, coupled with the fact the powers that be decided I needed to be educated about social issues during the broadcast. Did follow nascar a bit back when it was a bit less polished. Once they did the “car of tomorrow” and started the playoff system I lost interest. I come off sounding like a grump ha

I really do not like sitting and watching someone else engage in sport while I do nothing. It's hard to sit through an entire SX/MX telecast even. I used to enjoy motorcycle road racing to a degree but even that has got processional for mel. NBA and college basketball is fun in person, high school/college wrestling is pretty cool in person, but in all I am just to antsy to sit still enough to enjoy watching anything for any length of time.

My family & I watch Team USA Soccer, women’s and mens teams…been to several games..My daughter played from 5 years old into collegiate level club for Colorado at Boulder……took me a while to understand the rules …still watch some baseball and football during playoffs…..never wanted Mx/Sx to go mainstream…its a niche sport because it blends motorsports with physicality …ImO…

Baseball is such a beautiful game. The lack of penalties or fouls, no clock to he worried about, it’s really decided by the players on the field. (Sure there are some missed ball and strike calls, Angel Hernandez you are not missed). But there is something about it that so perfect. It’s timeless. 

BATTLEBOTS !

I've been roped into the NHL the last few years. A few years ago the FLA  Panthers were the 8th seed going into the playoffs and catching fire to make it to the Cup as an underdog was really exciting, even if they did lose in the end. Also made it sweeter to win back to back cups. 

I'm amazed so much by there athleticism and toughness. And you very rarely see someone trying to draw a foul or faking getting hurt. Its amazing how NBA players can be such amazing athletes but completely lose there balance when someone touches there hand. Its embarrassing. I would be embarrassed as a player. 

I watch Moto GP. Non motorsports, NFL, NHL and Tennis. Also Golf here & there. NHL is the best live team sport by far. I play tennis so to watch the pro's do it is mind blowing. Also watching top pro golfers is incredible, hardest sport I have ever tried

Sumo. With all the ritual, it’s like sport from another planet. Love it

British Superbikes. Started road racing so got into it.

240bhp superbikes with minimal electronics, old school tracks like Thruxton, Cadwell and Oulton park mixed with world calibre tracks like Donington park and the unpredictable weather means the racing is usually pretty unpredictable and very close as no bike or rider will suit every track.

The best motorsport I have ever watched.

Almost forgot about Lacrosse! My son plays on his high school team. It's like soccer, but even less mainstream. I really enjoy his games.

100% agree, especially since almost every other motorsport outside F1 and MotoGP upload the full races at some point. If SX/MX would upload the races to YouTube, would make it accessible to new fans, especially younger audiences (which is the primary demographic of SX) that may not have parents willing to subscribe to Peacock.

Case and point; there's a guy who uploaded all the WSX races, and each one was getting 100,000+ views, so clearly there's a market for it.

The behind the scenes series have changed my viewing habits.

I never followed F1 until the Netflix Drive to Survive series started, and for NFL had only ever watched the Cardinals (as much as that often sucked).

But the Netflix series that followed the QB's and wide receivers, spotlighting individuals behind the scenes (like DTS for F1). 

For me, when you learn more about the people involved, such as where they came from, what they have been through, see the family dynamic, just makes it more interesting to watch them in action. 

So MX/SX is my constant, but I do follow F1 and watch numerous NFL games each week. 

Other than the playoffs and World series, where the games actually mean something, baseball is just too boring and too many games each season (same for NBA). 

My wife and I met at Florida State. We are both diehard FSU fans, watch every game, and try to travel to Tallahassee once a year for a game. Luckily, she loves moto too so we have nonstop stuff to follow throughout the year between supercross (winter through spring), motocross (spring through summer), and college football (fall through winter).

I played basketball all through high school, but honestly, the game has changed so much that it’s not as much of an interest to me anymore. I was a huge Vince Carter fan, and is why my racing number has always been 15, but it’s turned soft with all of the flopping and the traveling/carrying is ridiculous. From a points perspective it’s great, but playing competitively for many years, it’s just too different for me these days.

The mainstream audience is now on YT, fb, insta, prime and netflix... mx/sx locked behind a paywall in peacock hell... lol... just puts a good hard screwing on the riders, manufacturers,  and consumers.... the only winners ? 3 people that already have literally billions in their bank account.... fnnnn yayyy..... 

I Buy the international SMX subscription 

other sports, the only one i pay for is Sky SPOrt NZ over winter and spring to watch Rugby (International, Super Rigby and NZ NPC)  and Rugby League (NRL) , Aussie V8 supercars although im not as interested now Scotty MAc and SVG are gone,   ItS  lucky that both Aussie SX and World SX was on that platform,  (Aussie MX/SX have been on there since covid era times, when MNZ and MA did a deal sharing each others broadcast rights) 

Watch Nascar when i can,  Sunday afternoon US time is not good for us, its monday morning, so usually just follow online,  will follow the indy 500 the same way,  with SVG coming on tA NZ  TV channel picked up live broadcasts through its online platform for free,  

i follow a few other sports, but rarely watch games,  English Football,  F1,  , i dont really follow the big 4 american sports, 

For me its been baseball. Not gonna lie I always thought I would be watching my son rail berms or send giant hits. Hes taken to baseball pretty heavily. I would never not support my kids and for that it means we watch alot of baseball now.