(02-04-2019 10:56 AM)Indytarheel Wrote:  

(01-31-2018 02:52 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  Boxing and UFC do not rely on youth sports and public schools to work up a pipeline to get recruited at 16-18 years old.

In NY right now some of the smaller school districts are combining teams or playing 8 man football.

http://www.syracuse.com/hssports-special...of_it.html

I think Football will still be popular but I see it losing some market share to other sports in youth leagues and secondary schools.

Sorry, but where do you think the golden gloves tourney, etc get there participants. There are martial art tourneys, etc and they are all made up of various ages. Boxing, mix martial arts, etc all start at a young age as well.

Boxing and MMA is irrelevant. It's an individual sport with only a tiny number of kids involved. You need very large numbers of kids playing football to field teams and you need them advancing to HS, college and professional football in large numbers for the game to survive as a spectator sport. That's not happening if football is widely perceived as too dangerous to participate in.

(02-04-2019 01:43 PM)Hallcity Wrote:  

(02-04-2019 10:56 AM)Indytarheel Wrote:  

(01-31-2018 02:52 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  Boxing and UFC do not rely on youth sports and public schools to work up a pipeline to get recruited at 16-18 years old.

In NY right now some of the smaller school districts are combining teams or playing 8 man football.

http://www.syracuse.com/hssports-special...of_it.html

I think Football will still be popular but I see it losing some market share to other sports in youth leagues and secondary schools.

Sorry, but where do you think the golden gloves tourney, etc get there participants. There are martial art tourneys, etc and they are all made up of various ages. Boxing, mix martial arts, etc all start at a young age as well.

Boxing and MMA is irrelevant. It's an individual sport with only a tiny number of kids involved. You need very large numbers of kids playing football to field teams and you need them advancing to HS, college and professional football in large numbers for the game to survive as a spectator sport. That's not happening if football is widely perceived as too dangerous to participate in.

A large percentage of MMA guys wrestled as youth, in high school and even collegiately. You are always going to have a class of people who participate in dangerous activity if it provides an opportunity for them to better themselves economically.

(01-31-2018 02:52 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  ... In NY right now some of the smaller school districts are combining teams or playing 8 man football...

This may be part of the solution. Smaller/private schools in NC are playing 8 man football as well. They typically cut 2 offensive and 2 defensive linemen, the prime area for CTE concerns. 8-man is a fun game. It's faster paced and not as much 1-yard runs up the middle.

I think they also need to look at overall player health. Packing 280-300 pounds on a 6'2" kid is bad any way you look at it. Having those kids at or near a healthy weight would mean they are not running into a 300 pound wall every 30 seconds.