It might seem that we have explored every kind of sport by this point in history. But people get tired of playing the same old games, so they make new ones. Baseball, football, hockey, and basketball were all new once, and they all took decades to grow from their humble beginnings into national obsessions. Newer sports have already had some success. The 1990s saw the rise of the X Games, and Quidditch—the sport based on the Harry Potter novels—gained a small following on real-world playing fields in the mid-2000s.
Today, playgrounds and vacant lots around the world continue to be home to people creating new sports. Gaining wide acceptance among athletes and spectators, however, is hard to do. One tried and true method is to base a new sport on something familiar. The new sports of Foot Golf, Hungerball, and Yakball are loosely based on soccer, and 360ball has its roots in racquetball.
