What U.S. plays: Softball, football, hockey, baseball down over decade, Rugby UP

from USA Today:

In terms of sports Americans play, wrestling, softball, football, hockey and baseball are long-term losers.

The latest authoritative Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association annual report on U.S. sports participation, based on about 15,000 individual surveys and 24,000 households surveys, found that about 2.1 million Americans say they competed in wrestling last year — down 44% from 2000.

Other drops in total participants over the past decade even as the U.S. population steadily expanded: slow-pitch softball (-38%), football (-16%), ice hockey (-12%), fast-pitch softball (-11%) and baseball (-8%).

Basketball held steady as the most-played team sport, ending the decade with about as many participants as it had in 2000 — 26.3 million. (That easily topped soccer, which had a total of about 20 million for its outdoor and indoor games.)

Part of the ongoing declines in traditional sport comes from participant growth in niche sports. Between 2009 and 2010, lacrosse had a 38% gain — albeit to a diminutive 1.6 million total players — while rugby jumped 51% to 1.1 million.