Who's more famous , GSP or Gretzky ?

Gretsky by a mile. The fact that this thread has reached 4 pages shows we have ******s in the building

But who the **** was that ****** trying to compare Gretskys fame to Pele's?!

I dont do this often but this really deserves it.....


atsch

 

I was wondering who gave GSP the award, but honestly Rogers sportnet award, is a made up award issued by a cable company, it has no weight whatsoever, compared to the Lou Marsh or the Lionel Conacher awards.


[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Marsh_Trophy[/ame]


[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Conacher_Award[/ame]


Honestly, at least in Canada, there's a good chance that Wayne Gretzky's dad, Walter, is more famous than GSP. It might sound strange but it's very possible.

 

Touche, sir. I wasn't aware of the difference. More then one Canadian Athlete of the Year award. Interesting. I stand corrected.

 

Football is obviously the world's most popular sport (assuming you don't mean NFL). Baseball is a joke on the world stage, the fact they call it a "world series" shows how self centred American's can be. Part of the reason it's been dropped from the olympics in 2012 is that it is simply not a popular sport globally.

Can't argue with baskball.

Hockey has a huge number of registered player's in the US and Canada (roughly 500000 each) but it drops of significantly to the third highest participating nation the Czech Republic at around 100000 (though that is still an impressive number considering per capita) but interestingly the country with the fourth highest participation rate, Russia is only at 85000, about 0.6% of the population compared too Canda's 1.50% of the population. And it spiral's down from here.

Ice hockey barely registers on the world stage, the most popular sports are easily soccer, cricket, basketball, even field hockey probably has a bigger following than it's ice counterpart.

 

GSP will never be half the legend Gretzky is. I like GSP a lot but you gotta be real here.

 

all possibly true, but if compared to MMA all are bigger.

And it really doesn't matter whether or not you you play the game, so much as it matters that you are prepared to pay to watch the game.

 

No problem. To be honest with you I didn't konw all what I know now either, so to some degree I was learning on the fly. I guess anyone can offer an athete of the year award. In the US it could be Sports Illustrated (SI) it could be a UFC or an MMA magazine, or it could be ESPN. Each could have their own, and hence the confusion.

 

I agree, I guess you'd have to be Canadian to know how absolutely ridiculous the comparison is, at least to us.

That said, we're all rooting for GSP this weekend that's for damn sure.

And to be honest with you I think Dana too hopes the hell GSP wins because one of the biggest event in UFC history is likely to take place in Toronto this April and all things considered I'm sure Dana would love to have GSP headline the card.

GSP is basically Dana's meal ticket into Canada and on a per capita basis, I think Canada supports the UFC more than any other country in the world.

 

The olympics generate a ton of interest when it comes to hockey. Sweden, Russia, USA, Canada just to name a few are countries that are huge into hockey. Of course the numbers in Canada are larger. I don't see 6 year olds waking up at 4am to hit the MMA mats on their weekends between school. You don't have to play hockey to be a big fan and I've never seen fans of field hockey and pretty sure it's not bigger than ice hockey

 

This is true, but I think participation rates are a good indicator on a sports popularity.

 

That's very true, but comparison's as far as numbers go have been all about UFC in this thread where as MMA runs alot deeper than one promotion. What about the countless differant martial arts styles and the vasts amounts of MA schools around the world.

GSP in actual fact is probably not as popular as the greatest hockey player that ever lived but I'd say he's more famous worldwide than any other hockey player ever.

 

I got into MMA about 2 years ago. Before that time, I had never heard of GSP. On the other hand, I definitely heard of Gretzky.

On a global scale, MMA is not as big as Ice Hockey. Therefore, worldwide, I think you can say that GSP is not as famous as Gretzky.

However, I think you can make a case that GSP is more popular than Gretzky at this moment. MMA's popularity seems to be rising so GSP is more relevant and popular than a retired athlete.

 

If framed in this manner I don't have a problem agreeing with you, especially in an under 25 year old age group. Over 25 and certainly over 40 I'd say Gretzky still wins, especially amoung woman who tend not to watch MMA as much as men. And at least in Canada, they do watch hockey.

 

When in my post did I say the sports I listed are the most popular the in world?

You could pile all the MMA orginzations in the World and it doesn't even come close to Hockey's popularity. Baseball is a world sport, it's played by a large number of countries and the players in the MLB are from all over the world, it's not any Olympic sport because MLB doesn't allow their players to participate that's the reason it's not an Olympic sport, nobody wants to watch a bunch of Minor League players. Yes I know Soccer is the most popular, I used to play Soccer but it's boring to watch, it's in every School in America.

 

You didn't, you said they were leaps and bounds in front of any combat sport, and in the cases of baseball and hockey I disagree strongly. Boxing is a much more popular sport than both those, it's a true world sport in that it is practiced throughtout Europe, North and South America, and throught Asia and Oceania. People don't want to watch baseball....fullstop. Boxing will always be an olympic sport despite the biggest name pro's being prohibited to take part.