I dont know how many fans each sport actually has, but why not simply look at the amount of money in each sport?
Snowboard (for example X games), golf (masters and ryder cup) or rugby (world cup) attract thousands of people and stars in those sports can earn good money, on the other hand even the best athletes in sports like canoeing or modern pentathlon probably cant even earn their living with it. Shaun White or Tiger Woods have earned millions of dollars in their life already, i am sure that this is impossible in about 3/4 of all other olympic sports.
It's a good post, but I think you're missing the fact that he market isn't homogeneous; those figures you're quoting come mostly from the western market, but there are huge geographical areas in which those sports are not even practiced. Let's take rugby, for example; it isn't played in almost entire Africa and Asia; and if that's the case of rugby, imagine how snowboard or golf stand.
Also we need to consider that not all sports disciplines have a well developed market; I will illustrate this with an example from my country: wrestling is a popular sport in Romania, but there are very few domestic competitions (often with free entrance) so total turnover is small. On the other hand, figure skating is not so popular sport, but when some shows (eg the Evgeny Pluskin exhibition) are organised here, people come (social reasons/snobs etc) and the incomes are pretty significant. Thus, the less popular sport makes more money.
I guess the TV ratings of Olympics are a good tool for our debate; let's wait'em and we will talk some more
I think golf, rugby or snowboard have a much bigger fanbase than sports like modern pentathlon, canoeing or luge ... or did i miss the point?
It depends on your country; in mine, golf or snowboard have almost zero fan base. I did a bit of traveling in my life...never encountered fans of golf, snowboard, synchronized swimming, rapid water canoeing and such "sports" but I'm sure it's my fault, I didn't travel in the open minded, cool, pokemon world.
Gold in weightlifting ?? I don't think so with all those Chinese weightlifters around, medal yes but gold no
even though I would be happy if somebody (beside North Korea) breaks Chinese monopoly in lighter weights here.
When will all of those Chinese scumbags get caught? I don't think anyone doubts the fact that they are heavily doped (and that doping is a state policy)?
Neither! The last 8 years COC's gotten more money and have also gotten way smarter with how to spend it. We've gone from being beaten by Venezuela every year to leaving them behind and actually ending up above Mexico and Argentina in the last PanAms. In the Olympics, from barely taking 60-something and hoping to scratch a couple of bronzes here and there now we actually expect to get above 7 medals. Basically we got our sh*t together and if we don't mess it up this could be the new normal.
Wonderful! at the next Olympics you'll rule the world! BMX forever
Romanian president of the NOC, Alin Petrache, spoke about the zika-hysteria in a humorous statement : "We won't let a mosquito stand in the way of our Olympic dreams"
So, if an athlete wanna blame other things, be our guest, but using the zika virus as an excuse not to come seems like something that belongs to athletes that wouldn't have come to the Olympics anyway (like top golfers).
Simona Halep was very excited by the prospect of winning an Olympic medal; I don't think she's acting, like the golfers do, but I guess she's really confused about all the talk and the hysteria related to zika. Today, another Romanian tennis player, Monica Niculescu, said she has doubts about going to Rio. According to gsp Niculescu also said that some other tennis players (eg: Berdych) are considering to not participate in Rio
I see you're from Brazil; can you please enlighten me what's with this Zika-mania? some other athletes retired or are thinking to retire because of this fukin mosquito
97 athletes - final figure
awful jacket 
Posted
It's a good post, but I think you're missing the fact that he market isn't homogeneous; those figures you're quoting come mostly from the western market, but there are huge geographical areas in which those sports are not even practiced. Let's take rugby, for example; it isn't played in almost entire Africa and Asia; and if that's the case of rugby, imagine how snowboard or golf stand.
Also we need to consider that not all sports disciplines have a well developed market; I will illustrate this with an example from my country: wrestling is a popular sport in Romania, but there are very few domestic competitions (often with free entrance) so total turnover is small. On the other hand, figure skating is not so popular sport, but when some shows (eg the Evgeny Pluskin exhibition) are organised here, people come (social reasons/snobs etc) and the incomes are pretty significant. Thus, the less popular sport makes more money.
I guess the TV ratings of Olympics are a good tool for our debate; let's wait'em and we will talk some more
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