Just watched ESPN this afternoon with my dad and it talked about a 7’5″ basketball player from Paris possibly getting picked by the San Antonio Spurs. I didn’t know basketball was actually a thing in Europe. I do know that a few American Football games have been hosted in the UK and Germany, but I just curious to see if anyone over there actually watched USA Football? If so, which teams do you typically watch?
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Here in Spain only NBA is relatively popular. It has a loyal group on followers and it is on TV. The two TV commentators of NBA matches are well beloved because they have been casting NBA matches for a long time.
But nobody follow baseball, ice hockey or American football.
I think the super bowl is the only American football match that once per year some people watches. But it is very niche and most people don’t even know the match is broadcasted.
Other than the NBA?
No, not really. Only the NBA has any kind of longstanding cultural cache in most of Europe.
Regarding Switzerland I’d say none of the American sports are really popular. Our basketball, baseball and american football leagues don’t really get media coverage at all and the average person probably doesn’t even know that those leagues exist (although basketball is a bit more popular in western Switzerland, so maybe local media covers it). But I think at least everybody knows someone who follows the NBA or NFL to some degree. Especially the NFL has gotten pushed by the media a lot (!) despite not a lot of people seem to care. So calling it popular would still be a lie.
When it comes to team sports it’s all hockey and football here. And a bit of handball as well.
Betting on sports is very popular here, so many people keep an eye on NHL and NBA. Ofc NHL is most popular due to many of our players actually playing there and ice hockey is the most popular sport here(yes even more popular than football). My classmates(high school) were really into NBA.
I know few people who are into NFL as well.
Baseball is generally considered weird, confusing and especially boring sport.
Basketball enjoys a certain popularity, several people follow both the NBA and the Italian league, and at public gardens, you will almost always find someone playing on the basketball court. Of course, football (or soccer) remains the most popular sport. Volleyball I knew at least until a few years ago was very popular but I think it has waned a bit. Baseball and American football, finally, remain very niche sports.
Basketball – quite popular
American Football & baseball – total niche
Hockey – something between.
Time difference.. much of american sport will go in the middle of night when people sleep in europe..
You have a few european basketball players in the NBA…
NBA – Pretty popular and loved, also broadcasted with good commentators.
Baseball – none
American football – niche but also broadcasted with danish commentators
“I didn’t know basketball was actually a thing in Europe.”
I guess you missed Lauri Markkanen and Luka Doncic being in the NBA all star roster this year.
Basketball is considered a fairly normal sport to play in Germany. Soccer trumps all here but basketball is something that’s played in gym class alongside hand ball and volley ball for example.
There are plenty of local basket ball teams and there’s been a professional league since the sixties.
I don’t think the NBA is particularly popular though.
In contrast, American football is played by almost no one and very few people watch the American league though the NFL has been trying to push it and shove it down people’s throats for years with media campaigns.
Baseball is practically unknown in comparison I would say.
Basketball is pretty well-known in Belgium.
American football and baseball *exists*, yes, but it’s extremely small compared with the US.
Belgium has an (ice) hockey league, but it’s really still quite small compared to the NHL. I’ve been to a few Leuven Chiefs games, it might as well be some minor league or something.
American sports????? what do you mean..?
that may be only for the eggball and baseball….the rest are played throughout the world.
if you mean leagues…than yeah people watch NBA, central and northern Europe watches mostly NHL…never heard of anybody watching MLB and NFL (we dont consider them interesting)…as for MLS, well it is a joke level compared to EU leagues.
American sports (baseball, football, basket) are pretty rare…
There are people who play it, but you will never/rarely see a baseball, football, or basket match on regular TV.
I know that Channel 6 once broadcasted Superbowl at around 2 AM (i.e. after their daily rerun of Scrubs, HIMYM, and Cheers). Other than that, you have to go to a specialised sports channels for these sports.
* Basketball might be the most popular of the three, as we played it often during PE in school, and basketball courts can be found here and there.
* We did also play some Lacrosse in PE.
* We do not have baseball, but its cousin [brännboll](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%A4nnboll) is a common PE sport. It also commonly played recreational by students and around midsummer.
* I once saw an American Football field in Malmö. It was one of many various exotic sports fields in a recreation park. I also once saw a news broadcast about some youths that started a team.
For comparison; none of these sports are as big as [floorball](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floorball) or [padel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padel). Not to speak about the giants soccer and hockey.
American football and basketball have a following, but are still niche. My Brother is a fan. Baseball may as well not exist. NY Yankees merch used to be everywhere, but I would wager that most people that wore it didn’t even know it was a Baseball team. None of them are even close to football, rugby, cricket or even darts and snooker in popularity.
NHL was relatively popular in Russia when many Russians played there.
honestly i don’t know if baseball is even a thing here, but we do have the superior sport of rounders. i saw someone from the uk in another comment say american baseball is niche, but in my experience it’s even smaller than baseball, none of my friends/family actually knows what it is and i’ve never met anyone that follows/plays it whilst baseball is atleast actually known. basketball is kinda popular though i’d say, obviously not as big as rugby and football.
Hockey is popular. Basketball is something most people are aware of because it’s common in school sports. The rest… I’d have to google to even find the nearest playing field.
Do you mean the leagues or the sports?
NBA – Basketball: NBA is not very popular here and basketball is a pretty niche sport in Norway overall. You’ll see some hoops around, and its played a bit during PE in school but thats about it. Few people have any interest in it.
NFL – American football: Not popular. Super bowl seems to be growing a little bit, to the point where I see some talk about it whenever it happens but no one really watches the NFL regularly, and no one plays the sport.
MLB – Baseball: No one cares
NHL – Hockey: Hockey is the biggest out of the 4 sports. As we actually do have a professional hockey league of our own, with a few thousand people turning up to watching the games. Still not a huge sport in Norway like it is in Sweden and Finland but its a sport that everyone knows what is atleast. NHL is still not very popular but its probably the most followed out of the 4 leagues I’d say, and its the only out of the 4 leagues where we’ve had a few successful athletes.
Traditionally baseball is/was the most popular American sport in the Netherlands (even Johan Cruijff combined playing football with playing baseball when he was young), although its popularity is in decline for years. Basketball is also played and watched. American football has a small group of devoted followers and Ice Hockey is probably the least popular (although has probably more active players than American football).
Football: A game that should be 1h -> drained as much ap.
Football as you call it, is gaining rn… But only for the “happening” part of it.
For a lot of ppl, a game in which nothing happens – or where you have to be really interested in to get anything out of it,esp if nothing is actually happening – it’ll be difficult.