3rd biggest sporting event in the world

[dimitri]

this is a statement that has been used for the RUWC

however there is no way it is true (obviously olympics and soccer world cup are 1 and 2)

so why is it always used

surely the following events would be more worldly in terms of support

WINTER OLYMPICS
PARALYMPIC GAMES
HANDBALL WORLD CUP
CRICKET WORLD CUP (especially considering population of india and other nations)
UEFA champions league and other soccer tournaments



can anybody else add any sporting events to this list

 

[dimitri]

of course the world basketball championships would have to be bigger as well


with a much more difficult qualifying system

showing just how many competitive nations there are compared to yawnion

 

[weasel]

I don't think the World Basketball Championships are anyway near as big as the RUWC. The USA don't even take the event seriously (although they did get quite irked when they flopped at the last one) and it hardly gets any media coverage or exposure.

 

[weasel]

Futhermore of the others listed I would only agree with the Cricket World Cup and the Winter Olympics, Champions League is big, but it's spaced out across a whole season and as the name suggests is a league and not an event. You could add the European Cup Soccer to the list though. I realise Handball is a huge sport in much of Europe and also other countries but you seem to be basing your claim on countries involved and the competition level, whereas I feel the whole notion of "Biggest Sporting event" is really down to exposure and the money it generates. I don't imagine the Handball World Cup would attract anywhere near the amount of corporate sponsorship or worldwide television exposure that the Rugby World Cup will get. Of course I am not entirely certain and if you could provide figures to prove me wrong I will happily agree with you.

 

[Anonymous]

I disagree.

When you look at the amount of nations which have established Rugby federations it is clearly 3rd.

Even cup minnows Georgia, Namibia and Uraguay have heaps of clubs and tens of thousands of registered players, as do places such as Russia and Spain who didn't even qualify.

 

[Victor Trumper]

When you look at the amount of nations which have established Rugby federations it is clearly 3rd.

If thats what you are basing it on, the amount of established national bodies, then there is a myriad of sports in front of it;
* athletics world championship
* swimming worlds
* baseball worlds (even though the top players don't play in it)
* basketball
* cricket (there is a lot of countries that play it, not very well albeit)
* and so on

IMHO the list is as follows
1- Olympics
2- Soccer World Cup
3- Winter Olympics
4- Euro Soccer
5- Athletics World Championship
6- Cricket World cup
7- toss up between Union WC, Swimming WC or even the Sth American Soccer championship which I can't remeber what is called.

 

[dimitri]

i agree victor trumper

no matter what yoy base it on

the RUWC is nowhere near 3rd

 

[Mint Condition]

The only one of them that may be bigger is the European Cup.

But then again, statistics can be manipulated to suit anyone.

Americans say the superbowl is the biggest single day sporting event in the world. Their loophole is that they say that the final of the soccer world cup is part of a longer event and therefore cannot be considered a single day event.

Rugby World Cup gets a bigger aggregate crowd number than the European Cup and any of those other examples that Dimitri used so they can manipulate that stat, as well as the fact that it has teams from all civilised continents. On the other hand the European Cup is shown on tv in more countries and gets higher tv ratings and those are the figures the European Cup committee people would manipulate to claim them as the 3rd biggest sporting event in the world.

Then you have the world athletics championships. They can just say they have athletes from more countries and therefore that event is the 3rd biggest sporting event.

Stats can prove anything and they do. In some ways the RWC is the 3rd biggest sporting event in the world. In others, it's not. But the only real one that on an overall level that may edge it for 3rd is the European Cup. The Cricket World Cup doesn't come close in any aspect but overall tv figures and that's only because of India really.

Lies, damn lies and statistics!!!

 

[Stevo_G]

i would say it is a close 4th or 5th

 

[dimitri]

Stats can prove anything and they do. In some ways the RWC is the 3rd biggest sporting event in the world. In others, it's not. But the only real one that on an overall level that may edge it for 3rd is the European Cup. The Cricket World Cup doesn't come close in any aspect but overall tv figures and that's only because of India really.

therefore youd have to say the cricket world cup is bigger


surely an event which sells tickets for as low as $5 to some matches isnt the 3rd biggest sporting event

:roll: :roll: :roll:




and what about the paralympic games

there are athletes there from over 100 countries


RUGBY YAWNION continues to be a sham

 

[Dean Moriarty]

surely an event which sells tickets for as low as $5 to some matches isnt the 3rd biggest sporting event

:roll: :roll: :roll:

The Olympics had some very cheap tickets last time round, surely the world's biggest sporting event wouldn't need to do that? :shock: 8)

 

[weasel]

Whether there's people from 100 nations competing in the Paralympics or not has no real influence on the Rugby World Cup's claims on being the third biggest event. Heck, the tiddly winks world championships could have 100 competitive nations, does that make it a bigger event than the RWC? Of course not. :roll: At the end of the day, perhaps sadly, it's all about money. Have you noticed how many companies have Rugby World Cup themed ads running on tv now? I imagine there'd be hundreds of millions of dollars invested in this tournament, through sponsorship, tv rights, and other commercial interests, even Dubya, who played Union in his college days, is visiting while the Cup is on. Coincidence? I think not. Rest assured there's a lot of corporate interest in this tournament and it's going to be broadcast to much of the world whether the interest of the people is there or not.

 

[bazza]

This world championship competition would have to be in the top 3 for sure...

http://www.rpschamps.com/

 

[Mint Condition]

Dimitri, you proved my point thankyou.

You can pull any sort of stat to 'prove' anything. In some ways (most ways really) the Rugby World Cup is bigger than the Cricket World cup. In others, it's not.

In some ways, the rugby world cup is bigger than the European Cup soccer, in other ways it's not.

But who decides which stats are more important? Whoever wants to prove something.

That's all there is to it.

 

[Victor Trumper]

This world championship competition would have to be in the top 3 for sure...

http://www.rpschamps.com/

:lol:

You could probably justify it somehow, most people would have played it some time so there would be high participation numbers. The argument might falter a bit when you talk of TV ratings.

to bazza

 

[Auckland4ever]

Dimitri, you proved my point thankyou.

You can pull any sort of stat to 'prove' anything. In some ways (most ways really) the Rugby World Cup is bigger than the Cricket World cup. In others, it's not.

In some ways, the rugby world cup is bigger than the European Cup soccer, in other ways it's not.

But who decides which stats are more important? Whoever wants to prove something.

That's all there is to it.

Absolutely true.
People react to hype in different ways, some get sucked in by it, some react strongly against it, some see it for what it is & give it the time it deserves, i.e none.

 

[roopy]

The Grand Prix motor racing circuit is way bigger than the RU WC by any measure other than number of people participating, as would be the motorbike circuit as well.
Most of the exclusively American sports such as gridiron and baseball have more money and bigger TV audiences than the RU WC.

Someone said this is an example of how you can prove anything with statistics, and I think the RU people are taking the piss bigtime with their 'liberal' use of the truth in this.

The Australian Surf Life Saving Championships is the sporting event with the single largest number of participants in the world. Does that make it the biggest event?

 

[Mint Condition]

The Formula 1 is split up into multiple 'events.'

I don't think it's a fair comparison. It's like saying the USPGA gold tour is an event that is bigger than the RWC.

Again Roopy, different stats can prove anything. It depends what context they're put in and the decision of which stats are the more important.

 

[roopy]

The Formula 1 is split up into multiple 'events.'

I don't think it's a fair comparison. It's like saying the USPGA gold tour is an event that is bigger than the RWC.

Again Roopy, different stats can prove anything. It depends what context they're put in and the decision of which stats are the more important.

Exactly

Saying the Union WC is the third biggest 'event' is meaningless, because there could be a thousand different definitions of what constitutes an 'event' and how it should be measured.

The Melbourne cup is a bigger event than the RU WC if you want to judge it on how much cash people are prepared to gamble on it.
The Australian Surf Life Saving championship is a bigger event if you want to count participants.
The running of the bulls in Spain would be seen by more people on TV, so it is a bigger 'event' by that measure.
I'm sure nearly everyone on earth would have played some form of marbles, so the marbles world championship would be bigger if your criteria was number of lifetime players world wide.

Declaring the RU WC the third biggest event is probably a true statement using some criteria developed by the RU authorities, but it is really just a meaningless advertiseing ploy unless you could get some independant body to rate all events on set criteria, which i'm sure hasn't been done.

 

[Mango]

Downplay the RWC all you like. You will get those of like mind that agree and those that disagree. Ask yourself this...if you applied the same negative analysis to the Cricket world cup,...how many Ozzies would agree with you.