What's the most underserved sport in terms of coverage?

[da man]

Team handball. End of thread.

 

[UPChip]

In terms of audiences, I'd vote for MMA. I probably can't name three MMA fighters and my knowledge of tactics and strategies doesn't go past the knockout, mostly because the culture is not my favorite, but there are tons of young (mostly) men who have little or no connection to anything else in our paper/website and we're ignoring their favorite sport. A lot of this probably also has to do with organization. At the local/regional level, it seems like the strategy to get media attention on these sorts of events through conventional means is haphazard at best.

In terms of straight-up "this is way more fun than you think it is," indoor volleyball. IMHO, it's a way more interesting sport, at both the prep and college levels, than women's basketball (I typically describe the former as much more 'three-dimensional' than basketball). If you've seen or watched men's (or some women's for that matter), I remain shocked they don't pop the damned ball every five points. And in either situation, I think it's a very easy sport to describe.

I liked the 'chicken or egg' characterization regarding women's sports in general is really apt. I've worked with prep and college women's programs that drew and merited coverage equal to their male counterparts, and thought about it a lot. I think a lot of it comes down to 'parasocial interaction.' I think a lot of it comes down to building fanbases that are connected to teams and players and vice versa. A lot of those programs had earned sort of an "our girls" status.

 

[Matt Stephens]

Motorsports isn't exactly growing, but the media cutbacks since 2000 have been so severe that I wonder if a course correction isn't in order.

We grew our NASCAR audience 299% YOY during the pandemic to the point it competed with NFL/preps as our most well-read beat. There is still a large audience there, just a matter of making them know you're there. (And doing the right stories.)

 

[sgreenwell]

In terms of audiences, I'd vote for MMA. I probably can't name three MMA fighters and my knowledge of tactics and strategies doesn't go past the knockout, mostly because the culture is not my favorite, but there are tons of young (mostly) men who have little or no connection to anything else in our paper/website and we're ignoring their favorite sport. A lot of this probably also has to do with organization. At the local/regional level, it seems like the strategy to get media attention on these sorts of events through conventional means is haphazard at best.

It's kind of weird how "national" a sport MMA is, since its not like there are high school or college teams. Most of its recruits seem to be kids who wrestled, played football or boxed when they were younger, but as a result, it doesn't really seem location based at all.

 

[playthrough]

Seems like there's a growing investment in covering women's basketball lately. I see more and more reporters out at WNBA games, there's a new Just Women's Sports site that is really impressive, ESPN is growing its ESPNW page and The Athletic has one of its best writers exclusively covering WNBA and women's college hoops. I'm sure Gannett and others will follow soon because they're always a couple steps behind.

What's the next niche out there that isn't being covered enough right now? Is it women's soccer? Maybe sports betting?

I've always thought HBCU football and basketball probably have way more interest than the coverage suggests.

Same with some of the less popular college sports: baseball, softball, hockey, wrestling.

Sports betting is an interesting niche, if it's covered from a state-by-state legislative basis and on the business side. David Purdum at ESPN has a pretty good hold on that.

 

[SportsGuyBCK]

Professional tiddlywinks ...

 

[Readallover]

Minor League curling. The Kamloops Curlers on local access cable are a powerhouse draw

 

[Jake from State Farm]

One beat that appeared in the 80s and 90s and is all but dead now is Sports TV/radio

 

[TigerVols]

Pickleball, of course.

 

[Batman]

A lot of it is regional, it seems. College wrestling is huge in B1G country, but all but dead in the west. Volleyball and water polo have good following out here, maybe not as much in the east.

Down here in SEC Land, wrestling is literally non-existent except for the couple of times a year when the WWE comes to town. I can't think of a single college that offers it as a varsity sport within a three-state radius, and in my own state I think there are eight or 10 high schools out of about 300 that have any kind of program.
College and high school baseball, though, are huge. Ole Miss, Mississippi State, LSU and South Carolina all have newish ballparks on par with at least many Double-A stadiums and draw 10,000-plus for SEC games. There's tailgating and everything. An SEC baseball series is like a miniature football weekend in some places.

 

[maumann]

There's a ton of regional interest in niche sports, all of which have been mentioned here:

Southeast: College baseball, women's gymnastics
Midwest: Wrestling
Northeast: Lacrosse
West: Volleyball, water polo

What's the next BIG national sport? People keep trying to sell kids on computers playing eSports, but where's the audience? The younger generation wants to do stuff, not watch stuff.

 

[JimmyHoward33]

There's a ton of regional interest in niche sports, all of which have been mentioned here:

Southeast: College baseball, women's gymnastics
Midwest: Wrestling
Northeast: Lacrosse
West: Volleyball, water polo

What's the next BIG national sport? People keep trying to sell kids on computers playing eSports, but where's the audience? The younger generation wants to do stuff, not watch stuff.

In truth there's not one. The death of mono culture plays a huge role here. Just like no sitcom will ever grow as big as Friends or Cheers no sport will be able to grow as big as the NFL because the national attention span is just too fleeting and the audience is too fractured