As long as there is a market to support it why not? Although I think the population would have to grow to a certain level in order for that to happen. I've always been too nerdy to like professional sports in my own case, so I'd probably go 'eventing' with WilliamShipley. At least that is what I hope he is talking about, maiming and killing each other for real with swords doesn't sound very fun :)

I was so engulfed in sports as a kid. I really loved it and it kept me out of jail, I'm sure. I was recruited by several schools for college football, even as a junior. But, I have come to think that much of pro sports is just a key component of "breads and circuses". A neighbor of mine just retired from the Raiders and we have really nice chats about football. I still love watching college ball but will dial in the Niners, Raiders or Seahawks if I'm done with my chores. I grew tired of the pink shoes and anti-gun rhetoric in the NFL the past few years.

I took up formal boxing training in my adult life (as opposed to just getting hit in my youth) and have grown to really love the sport. Amateur boxing is really special to me. And, my firsthand involvement has played a role in keeping myself somewhat fit. Amateur boxing is rife with kids who have nothing, but often possess good character and bravery. You can't B.S. your way through rounds in the ring. You're on your own and you've got to face your fears and fight.

We put on armor and fight with swords and shields.

How about competitive target practice with a variety of weapons that are stored about the Gulch?
After I as a drafted Marine with Parris Island behind me in 1969, I received advance training so anyone with the MOS of a clerk, cook or anyone in the rear with the gear could pick up about any weapon and efficiently use it in case of an emergency. (This is the most fun I had in the USMC).
Who knows? Even what the USA is becoming may some day want to rub out the perceived effrontery of a shrugging Gulch.

Why should there be any restriction on having sports teams in the Gulch, professional or otherwise? AS LONG AS they (teams and fans) generate their own revenue stream to pay for their hobby/vocation. That is, don't be sending government bullies to my door to force me to pay for equipment, fields, and stadiums in the name of "community" or the "greater good" so you and a handful of others can play, entertain, or get rich.

The Gulch cannot be against business activity by its residents. Accordingly, there would be no problem with professional sports, in that professional sports teams and leagues are businesses. Amateur sports would also be welcome, as voluntary activities of the residents. I don't have much time to watch sports, but I follow major league baseball, college and professional football, professional soccer, and (occasionally) basketball. I tent not to get much involved until close to the end of the season.

I hunt elk, which is about a masochistic an avocation as one can have.

F1 racing is my passion, anything with a motor in it second, that whole man vs. machine thing. But one night at Daytona Carroll Shelby asked me about sports and I answered baseball, foot ball etc. He stopped me mid sentence to say, "Kid there's only 3 sports, mountain climbing, sky diving and motor racing, the rest are all games!"

I read these threads. What most call sports I call my way of life after leaving the city. I hunt, I fish, I'm from the sticks. Yesterday morning I rode my 4 - wheeler to check cows went and picked mushrooms worked in the garden spent the rest of the day working on my farm.

I was a competive swimmer all through high school. I also played softball. Love it. Now, I do still swim ,I watch college softball on the tube most nights.
Professional sports leave me cold...the salaries are disgusting and the attitudes of the players are
Pretty reprehensible.
I walk my dog a lot!

What Abaco and iroseland and blarmar and Wm and I all seem to have in common is what Abaco said, "You can't BS your way through rounds in the ring." In everyday society, we are surrounded by people who can 'talk the talk'...but amazingly few of them have ever tried 'the walk'. What martial sports brings to me is the unpolished contact with reality - what a relief. I can achieve.

I am not a good watcher, but I agree that if there are enough people who support pro sports - then there 'should' be pro sports. Within the Gulch, whose prerogative would it be to say Nay?

Jan (aka Eichling)

I will not be a patron, but I see no reason to restrict such a business from the Gulch. Ditto for gambling and drug manufacture and sales.

While I can understand why people are entertained by watching sports. I usually have found myself a bit let down. I get a lot more satisfaction out of the doing part. It gives me yet another set of skills the build. So, I spend time at the gym its my goto for daily workout.. I actually enjoy the lifting of heavy things.. An activity which bores my wife to tears.. SO, she attends a structured class and I go find a way to challenge myself.. I started going to the gym because I also spend no shortage of time at the range. Shooting accuracy really does require a strong core and as much strength and control as possible from your feet all the way to your hands. Granted, I pretty much always take a range moment to put a couple of .50AE rounds down range with the Eagle. That thing actually will send you to the gym.. When I have time for some long distance out door shooting nothing beats the level of Zen required to get tight 600 yard groups with a ancient Mosin Nagat.. A rifle that will also send you to the gym. All of that got me into IDPA shooting which is target shooting plus movement, so kind of like an obstacle l course with a gun. I pretty much suck at it yet.. But, I occasionally have moments of clarity on the range.. That only leaves the last thing.. Sometimes I just need some time with some people who I know working as a team.. For that I stick to the Il2 series and have been flying with the same squadron for about a decade now. WW2 Flight simming has come a long ways.. But it is amazingly competitive and you spend the first year or two really just acting as cannon fodder to the actual aces out there. But then one day you get it, you start being able to really think as a predator and have developed amazing control over your plane of choice, and you start to casually remember the flight characteristics of your prey's ride. Then you dive in and de-wing them before they know what is happening and simply vanish back into thin air. For a while me and a buddy were trading places at the top of the boards with our trust b-239's as we had discovered that with a little coordination we could shoot down mig3s' pretty much all day..

I have always been very pro sports, fitness and health. While the dollars involved in US pro sports looks excessive-it is the free market-for the most part. I guess if one wants to complain about $50 parking and $10 hotdogs at a stadium-don't go. What DOES gripe me is when the owners prey on the taxpayer for these behemoth stadiums. But I believe it's a testament to a free, mostly capitalist society that we have the luxury of rewarding superior talent with the big bucks-rather than waiting in line for a potato or stale bread.. We don't always feel the personal nature of it but we all get to vote with our wallet many times a day.
What I have realized about myself is I have slowly evolved from team sports (maybe because I'm 59) to a love for golf, scuba and biking. All three very personal and very.... very quiet.

While I personally care nothing for sports, if there's a market for it, it shall be.

The only sports I enjoy watching are tennis and boxing. In both cases, the participants have to be in top shape or they don't stand a chance. I used to play racquetball or squash, but now all I can do ir sit in my power chair and tap my feet.

Professional sports should be banned. It is all about money, not sports, and creates more couch potatoes instead of encouraging people to get up and do something themselves.

college and professional sports are nothing more than entertainment. just like actors

I like college sports, football, basketball, baseball, etc. but am a little put off by professional sports. When I first moved to Pittsburgh in 1964 the Pirates were fun to watch at Forbes field. When I was in graduate school I would go to the library in Oakland and drop by after the 7th inning for free to catch the end of games. The Steelers were a laughing stock then and only diehards went to their games. They would have father-son days and you could get endzone seats, $4 for dads and $1 for sons but usually the ushers would ask that you move to sideline seats because it looked better on TV to show fans in the seats. Professional football players had to have off season jobs then to be able to support a family. They played mostly because they loved the game, were good at it in college and weren't ready to give it up. I liked it better then.

I think I like the college game mostly because it reminds me of my college years and since all four of our kids went to the same undergraduate school, games often become a family gathering.

I like pro baseball and football, but I don't go to the stadium. I watch from a nice bar-and-grill here in town.

As for games played myself, I'm a Life Master in the ACBL, and I'm into various card and board games. I also moderate the 18xx (train games) list on Yahoo.

I have friends who like pro and college football, on our
tv/sound system. . we also watch nascar races. . I watch
with them sometimes. . but, usually, I'm fussing
around with some gizmo or other trying to invent
Galt's motor. -- j

There are virtually no amateur sports anymore. Even the Olympics went to professional athletes. Junior golf still has amateurs but that's about it. I quit watching sports on TV. Frankly, college athletes should unionize and share the money they make for universities. As much as I dislike unions, that's about the only way athletes will ever be treated fairly by money grubbing universities who use them to make billions. Some athletes even actually graduate, but their scholarship runs year to year and you're on your own if you get hurt. What part of indentured servant don't you understand? Get rid of professional sports, period. I played professional baseball years ago and now, I won't even watch a game.

While I would never say there should not be sports whether amateur or professional I do not follow or watch any sports. I place all of it right up there with watching grass grow or paint dry.

To me, professional sports is sort like the Roman Circuses. A small potion of the population enjoys the spectacle in person (spectators), while the a another portion, a little larger, watch it on the idiot tube. But it is a paid entertainment with the most athletic competitors the most popular. That is one of the reasons for PED's, everyone, including me, loved to see Sosa or McGwire or Canseco or whoever, bash one of the those lovable little baseballs over the left field wall up into the upper deck. As for college, it is close to the same thing but the participants are not paid in dollars, some are paid in free tuition (Scholarships for athletes) or in other ways by the university or boosters. They try to parlay that into the professional realm. As for me, I played in high school and college, I parlayed that into a minor league (rookie ball) contract for 2 years, I tore up my shoulder the 2nd season and that was the end of that dream. Now I stick to non-harmful sports, an occasional softball game or golf or something like that. I occasionally watch sports on TV, nothing like I used to, but it still dwells within my soul to be part of my old school run for the NCAA championship (basketball) or bowl game (football). If you haven't guessed, I went to the University of Wisconsin (Go Badgers!!).

tennis and hockey