The Fastest Growing Sports in America

America's favorite sport was baseball, and it is still considered "the great American past-time". The game of baseball is slow though, and Americans are moving at a faster pace than ever. The new cultural movement to have faster, harder, stronger, and better, has created a new group of sports that cater to this culture. This article is to provide some insight into these sports and what it is that makes them appealing.

To start off there is MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), which is closely associated with UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). This is a combination of boxing, wrestling, karate, and basically any physical fighting style that the fighter wants to incorporate. This type of fighting is in an octagon cage and takes fighting to a whole new level. There are only a few rules: no hits to the groin, no eye gouging, and do not hang onto the fence. This sport has taken America by storm the last couple years and is regularly shown on Spike TV, Versus Channel, and on many Pay-Per-View channels. Although, I was not able to pull the actual amount of money that MMA made in 2008, it is well into the millions. Between television time, merchandise sales, and ticket sales this is a huge market right now. It is a very aggressive and violent sport, which makes lots of parents hesitate to let their kids see it, but that seems to be the biggest set-back in marketing for this sport. Keep an eye on MMA in the next couple of years because it looks like it will continue to grow in popularity. The information and facts about MMA was found here: www.mmafighting.com/

Lacrosse has become a well-known sport, especially among colleges and students. This sport is getting more TV time and more attention from big media. Some lacrosse highlights have even started making it into the ESPN top ten plays. Why is this sport taking off? It is a full contact sport and it seems like a mix of hockey, soccer, and football. Some games can be very high-scoring which makes it exciting for fans. Colleges are promoting their lacrosse teams more and more, which has really helped put this sport out in the open. College students are soaking this sport up and definitely taking it to the next level. This sport will continue to get more television time and continue to get kids involved lacrosse. The information and facts about lacrosse were found at: www.uslacrosse.org/

These days, red-necks are not the only people who enjoy watching some good bull-riding. Bull-riding is gaining a whole new generation of riders and viewers. You might be thinking, "Wasn't this popular in the past?" Yes, it was, but it died out for awhile. It lost touch with its audience and really struggled for awhile. Bull-riding is coming back with a vengeance though and people are taking notice. Although this sport does not pull in as much revenue as some of the other sports, yet, it is on the rise and getting bigger. ESPN has picked up some bull-riding events and rodeo attendance has been growing lately. The combination of skill, luck, and danger, make this an exciting event for viewers and the biggest adrenaline rush for riders. If you have not given bull-riding a chance before, you might want to consider giving it a chance. For the information and stats about bullriding I used ESPN.com: search.espn.go.com/bullriding/

These are my top three fastest growing sports in America for 2009. The close contenders and runners-up were rugby and Nascar. The three fastest growing sports were chosen for their media coverage, revenue, and fan base increases, Feel free to leave comments with any sports that you think deserved to be in the top three or at least deserved a nod. Thanks for reading and if you have not given these sports a chance, I hope that you will give them a look in the near future.