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Original post by Oluseyi To address the original question, I don't think the nature of the culture is reflected to any significant degree. Soccer is popular because it's cheap, and I suspect the same goes for basketball and American football.

That doesn't hold - American football is not really cheap due to the abundance of protective gear required. The helmets alone cost a fortune. It's only buildup of kit by clubs that allows it to thrive at lower levels, and it's not really a game you can play with your mates in the park unless you reduce to a crumb of what it really is.

Soccer is popular because it's really cheap. Something approaching soccer can be played with a ball and something for goalposts: I think every bag I've ever owned has been part of a goalpost at some point. That can't be the prime requisite for a successful sport because wrestling would be the world's pastime, and nobody would go motor racing.

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Original post by Oluseyi Nearly everyone can play a sport after a fashion, but we would rather watch professionals do it, much like we can all dance and/or sing and/or act - perhaps not very well - but would rather watch professionals do it. Spectacle and presentation interpellate, call us to respond (emotionally) to that which lies before our eyes, usually in a participatory fashion such that we imagine ourselves to be the actor, be the dancer, be the singer, be the athlete... Is it coincidental that many people kick the air as a striker shoots the ball into the goal, or that they almost feel the recoil of the rim as the basketball player slams home the monster dunk? I think not.

I think that last comment, of how people mimic what they find worth aspiring to as they watch it or hear it (it certainly happens with singing too) shows the relationship to be the other way round. People would not rather be watching someone do something well: they would rather be doing that thing well. Almost by definition, aspirant behaviour shows that we would rather be doing something else, something better. I wish I could make tackles like Sol Campbell, but I can't - I must settle for watching him.

I suppose that leads onto whether we'd rather watch someone excellent, or do something ourselves with mediocre results. I feel they serve different needs that overlap. My urge to play soccer is very different from my urge to watch soccer (and my urge to play Pro Evo) but they inform each other. I learned football tactics to get better at Championship Manager, which altered my appraisal of players and affected the way I play - all parts of a whole in which no piece is dominant.