Golf, rugby added for the 2016 Olympics

Softball is played in 126 countries, according to the International Softball Federation.

Rugby is played in 116 countries, according to the International Rugby Board.

More popular, you say?

And I don't hate Rugby. I just don't know why softball had to be eliminated in the first place.

 

I don't think "total countries played in" should be the measure.

 

As I understand it, Rio will have to build a complete new golf course for the Games, since maybe 12 people play golf in all Brazil. For you devotees of Olympic-related scandals-watch that one. A new golf course, which of course will also have to be a real estate development to ever have a chance of recouping the investment. I foresee many opportunities for chicanery.
Ironic, as the secondary reason softball got dumped (U.S. dominance being the number one, but unstated reason) was that it required the construction of a sports facility that then might go unused in the host country.

 

Softball's Workd Cup championship game drew 4,737 people to the stadium in Oklahoma City. Would you take over or under for the 7s World Cup?

Softball isn't even that popular here. People only care because they think it's a conspiracy against the USA to remove it from the Olympics.

 

Rugby sevens = six-man football.

 

Baseball and softball were poorly attended (and the facilities were pathetic ... part of which was even were blown over in a gust of wind) at the Rio Pan Am Games.

Golfing in Rio during the 2016 could be like watching the British Open, if the same weather exists as it was during the Pan Am Games.

 

The nice thing about 7s is that it gives countries that would never have a chance in full Rugby Union a chance to compete.

I would guess that more people play rugby or a derivation of it (League, 7s) than many other Olympic sports.

 

As far as fan interest goes, what kind of crowds do some of the top international sevens events, like the Hong Kong Sevens, daw?

 

The USA stop on the 7s tournament schedule drew more than 40,000 over two days in 2008.

This year, it reportedly topped 100,000. http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/132851

 

Olympic golf = Olympic tennis. No one cares, but at least the host city doesn't have to provide extra beds in the Athlete Village because multi-millionaires don't do bunkbeds.

 

Why is that funny, the guy keeps himself in great shape. he'll still be the best in the world at 40

 

That year's John Deere Classic will have a better field than what gathers in Rio. Unless the organizers change the eligibility criteria, it will be an embarrassment.