10 Sporting Events Man Has Obsessed over Since the Beginning of Time

Last month kicked off one of the most wild tournaments the sports world has to offer. 

Sixty-eight basketball teams from all over the country are selected to compete for the national title over a wild three-week stretch; however, is "March Madness" the most celebrated sporting event in the sports world? 

Here are the 10 sporting events man has obsessed over since the beginning of time...enjoy. 

All “Brand Value” figures taken from statista.com

Daytona 500

2012 Brand Value: $95,000,000

The fusing of hundreds of thousands of race fans and excessive advertising campaigns make up the complexion of what we now know as NASCAR; however the nearly $100 million machine was inadvertently founded during the Prohibition Era when only the fastest bootleg drivers were able to evade oncoming police. 

Once a Mecca for land speed records, Daytona Beach, Fla. now serves as a backseat driver to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah—however, Daytona is now the current home of one of the most popular professional race sights in the world.

Since the golden age of counterculture, competitors, celebrities, spectators and some of the world’s most seasoned tailgaters annually descend upon Daytona International Speedway to witness 200 laps of the most elite automotive racing in the world.

The culture of NASCAR differs from traditional professional American athletics to the near polar level, perhaps because of the natural uniqueness of the sport. This subsequent culture cannot be compared to or emulated in any way but rather experienced in the form of revving engines, excessive beer drinking or a Ghost Face Killah soundtrack. 

The 2013 Daytona 500 featured a five-year record in ratings after Danica Patrick became the sport’s first female pole position winner. Rapper 50 Cent getting an impromptu rejection from famed anchor Erin Andrews was just an added bonus.  

FIFA Copa De Mundial

2012 Brand Value: $147,000,000

The FIFA World Cup creates a positive atmosphere where it is socially acceptable to express your patriotism in literally any way imaginable. Pubs across the world fill for arguably the most popular sporting event in the world.

In America, soccer does not resonate on equal levels of other professional sports like baseball, basketball or football—however, once the United States begins the group stage of the FIFA World Cup, American flag bandanas and face paint flood every sports bar in the country.

World Cup qualifying begins with regional play a little over one year before the tournament starts, with the top 32 countries advancing to compete on the world’s largest stage. The only team that does not have to qualify for the World Cup is the host country.

The 2014 World Cup is set to play in Brazil; however due to the economic responsibility of hosting a World Cup, FIFA has already selected Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups (respectively).    

The FIFA World Cup is not simply a representation of a nation’s farm of soccer talent but rather pride of one’s homeland expressed through 90-plus minutes of singing, chanting, vuvuzela-ing and the special sense of participating in a global phenomenon.

Super Bowl

2012 Brand Value: $470,000,000

The National Football League is set to haul in north of $7 billion in annual revenue through 2022 thanks to selling 98 percent of available tickets and broadcasting 31 of the most-watched television shows during fall of 2012.

Whether the annual celebration of American football is remembered by a heroic performance like “Breesus Christ” in 2009 or a creative breakthrough in advertising like Budweiser’s “frogs” in 1995, Super Bowl Sunday is an unofficial national holiday that will seemingly never dissolve. The mass consumption of food and beverage coupled with the gathering of families and friends creates an unmatched experience surrounding a professional sporting event.  

The only probable changes to the sporting world’s most celebrated event include eliminating the trend of bringing a hangover to work the next day and the Roman numerals used to mark the advancement in the league’s history books. 

March Madness

2012 Brand Value: $127,000,000

There is no better feeling as a sports fan than filling out a bracket for the NCAA basketball tournament and thinking, “Man, I don’t even know what State this school is in…”

The run-of-the-mill hoop fans learned of college campuses like Davidson, VCU, Butler or Xavier thanks to their Cinderella-like wins in recent tournament play.

During the qualitative rise in “madness” during the NCAA basketball tournament, players would stay in school for a three- or four-year career—superstars like Georgetown’s dominant Patrick Ewing, St. John’s sharpshooting Chris Mullin or the talented Tar Heel tandem of James Worthy and Michael Jordan.

Now, the value of a free college education in exchange for remaining at the Division I level is barely enough to keep budding stars in school for their freshman year.

The beauty of “March Madness” is the street fight-esque rhythm of each game—two teams show up where the victor is determined by the team with the most heart, spirit and pride rather than talent.

In the words of the late Jimmy Valvano, “survive and advance, one game at a time”.    

“March Madness” was forever changed when the tradition of filling out a bracket was introduced to hoop fans worldwide. Now, men, women and children of all ages can enter in “bracket challenges” with an equal opportunity of winning simply because it is so hard to actually predict the winners of each game.   

World Series

2012 Brand Value: $130,000,000

Baseball’s biggest stage is the MLB World Series—conveniently played annually in the United States. Major League Baseball is comprised of 30 teams from two different leagues, with the winner of each league advancing to play in the World Series. 

The National League usually offers solid pitching and defense compared to the offensively dominated American League where a manager substitutes a “designated hitter” for their pitcher’s spot in the batting order.

The World Series is a best-of-seven-game series with home-field advantage awarded to the league that wins the All-Star Game earlier that season.

Baseball’s “golden age” will merit a different response from just about anyone you ask. Past generations tell tales of Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, the “Miracle Mets” of 1969 or the once prolific and profoundly funky Pittsburgh Pirates of the 1970s.

Today, baseball fans pass on Luis Gonzalez’s “Texas League” single to win Game 7 of the 2001 World Series or the heroic performance of Pablo Sandoval’s three-home run night against Detroit ace Justin Verlander.  

NBA Finals

The NBA Finals is a showcase of team basketball at the highest level; however unlike NCAA March Madness, the Finals hosts 16 of the NBA’s top teams in a seven-game series bracket.

With the exception of the 2011-12 NBA season (due to a player lockout), the NBA hosts an 82-game regular season to decide the seeding for the playoffs—however unnecessary it may seem given the obvious inequality between the league’s teams. 

For example, it took the reigning champion Miami Heat just 43 days to win 22 games whereas the Charlotte Bobcats needed an astounding 705 days to accomplish the same feat.

Cinderella-like upsets are few and far between in the NBA Playoffs: the most vivid recent memory being the No. 8 seed “We Believe” Warriors of 2007—a Baron Davis-led squad that upset the No. 1 ranked Dallas Mavericks in six games. 

Once the top teams dominate their respective conferences, the East Champion squares off against the West winner in a grueling seven-game series for the NBA crown. 

The NBA saw a massive boost in popularity once Magic Johnson’s “Showtime” Lakers and Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics became a regular meeting in the NBA Finals. Following the Bird- and Magic-dominated era, NBA fans were exposed to championship squads like the “Bad Boy Pistons”, Houston’s Hakeem “The Dream” and of course, Michael Jordan’s six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls. 

The NBA Finals represents the final act of the Broadway-esque play known as the National Basketball Association—a demonstration of talent that is sure to attract stars and celebrities of all walks of life, no matter how bored they might get.  

Stanley Cup Finals

Lord Stanley is the God of hockey, and thanks to his generous son, the “Stanley Cup” trophy has been passed on to the hockey’s most dominant playoff team since the late 1800s. The National Hockey League is the only major professional sports league that passes the same trophy around to each Champion—awarding each member of the championship squad one “day with the Cup.”

Hockey was born of a unique concoction of true grit and sportsmanship, only to be topped off with long-standing tradition unmatched in the world of sport.

Like NASCAR, being a hockey fan is about much more than a love for the game—it is a way of life where the ultimate crown is to have your family name etched on Lord Stanley’s Cup.  

Olympic Games

2012 Brand Value: $348,000,000 (summer); $123,000,000 (winter)

The Olympic games, both winter and summer, are the public display of the most pure athletic competition available. With the summer and winter games alternating every two years, competitors substitute national pride and passion for the usual monetary compensation for their competitive efforts.

The Olympic Games host competition for over 10,000 athletes in nearly 30 different fields of athletic competition.

As expected, the United States of America has purely dominated the Olympic games over the past century—showcasing unmatched talent like Jesse Owens in Nazi Germany, Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ profound medal ceremony in 1968 and the 1992 “Dream Team” that revolutionized the game of basketball. 

Kentucky Derby

2012 Brand Value: $116,000,000

Welcome to Derbytown: home of blistering heat, fancy hats and the most extravagant race of ponies in the world.

The Kentucky Derby is the first installment of the Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing held at Churchill Downs (Louisville, Ky.) with the other two legs being the Preakness Stakes (Baltimore, Md.) and Belmont Stakes (Elmont, N.Y.). 

Once a year dating back to 1875, the Kentucky Derby showcases “the most exciting two minutes in sports,” creating one of the biggest sports betting events on the yearly sports calendar. Over $185 million was wagered (on- and off-site) on the 2012 Kentucky Derby.  

One underrated fact about the Derby is that fans are heavily segregated, with the high-class pampered on Millionaire’s Row while the more “white trash” settle under the sun on the lawn across the racetrack.

For a more thorough explanation of Kentucky Derby week in Louisville, ask the late and always great Hunter S. Thompson who referred to the Derby as “a huge outdoor loony bin.”

UEFA Champions League Final

2012 Brand Value: $113,000,000

The Champions League Final is played by the top two teams that survive an exhausting playoff format filled with elite soccer clubs from 52 different countries throughout Europe.

The Champions League playoff begins with three knockout-qualifying rounds that sets up another playoff round where the 10 teams that survive enter the group stage. Those 10 qualifying teams join the top 22 teams in the group stage to make eight groups of four teams.

Eight teams are crowned group winners and enter the final knockout phase to face the eight group runners up, eliminating teams until there are only two remaining.

For club soccer, the UEFA Champions League Final is not necessarily the end of the road as the Champions League winner qualifies for both the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. 

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