RL I live outside Philly and the precence of Michael Vick on the field with the Eagles (BOOOO!) has certainly stirred up things here on blood sports but it as made me think.

Usually in SR when we talk about blood sports we are talking about gladiatorial battles but this made me wonder, with the fall of the USA would there be places where things like cock fighting and dog fighting, rat pits, 'local cultural events' might become legal again? Maybe even politically/legally correct media events the way horse racing is now? If so what and where?

The thought was all sorts of runs. Not just the usual of any gambling event or sporting event but since you do have animal rights groups runs for and against the social protests.

I could easily see Aztech lands legalizing and probably capitalizing on awakened cock fighting, as well as other forms of blood sports. Awakened bullfights, complete with an Adept/mundane toreros.

There's been some coverage on blood sports in Shadowbeat.
Aztlan has got a couple of prime time trideo shows in that field and Arsenal mentions a lot of pit fighting going on in Tenochtitlan, which have even led to the creation of a martial art of their own (sangre i acero).
Gladiatorial pit fighting is, according to Shadowbeat, also quite popular in "several Southeast Asian warlord states".

SR4 fluff has frequent mention of "devil rat fights" as well.

Then there's the usual stuff like Desert Wars, Urban Brawl, Combat Biker and -in the Northern AGS- Hoverball (think Combat Biker on Jetskies).

As well, one can easily imagine gladiatorial combat in the more anarchic parts of the sprawls.
There's occassional mention of this in various sourcebooks, IIRC.
It's not out in the open, but it certainly happens a lot.

In general, most western nations will attempt to disguise any "official" blood sports as a slightly rougher form of traditional sports, whereas two -or more- metahumans, critters and so on who outright try to kill each other will be confined to the shadier parts of the plex in North America and Western Europe.
In places such as Aztlan, practically anything goes.

The Coliseum in Snohomish is Canon, and is a warehouse where people hold regular animal fights (mainly paranormals, according to Seattle 2070, though I recall previously it had mainly mundane critters and the some cybercritters). It's described as "underground" so it's presumably not fully legal. However, animal rights groups have been trying to get it shut down so presumably Lone Star / Knight Errant (depending on when your game is set) don't care greatly about the issue if a simple phone call wont do it.

I'd guess, given the general state of things in 2070, what with gangs taking over much of the city by night, that the situation is illegal but not heavily enforced.

I know that it's not a blood sport per se, but is there any mention of Drone fighting (ala Battlebots, etc...) in the fluff? Where one might find it, who competes, that sort of thing?

Seems like it'd be a considerably more legal alternative to blood sports, possibly to the point of having event coverage and a following, but could also get pretty messy if you had riggers going hot sim in full destruction matches...

Well, the fluff about Atzlan doesn't give away that blood sport is leagal there (apart from their religion-linked games) and "shadier parts of the plex" is not legal too.

Which would be considered illegal and possibly ban you from the tournament since hot sim is forbidden. Of course, this could happen now and then with PR people making statements of the 'danger' that modified simrigs can bring to their users.

Something to consider is that legal or not, human bloodsports are popular and easy enough to get access to that they are top sellers on the Trid, so I imagine that at worst animal fights are overlooked as not being important enough to hassle outside of taking a cut of the profits.

I'm not talking about depraived para/meta sentient killing stuff, but rather like thosae areas in the RL American South west were ock fighting is illegal but popular, would it, freed form USA law beciome legal, popular and media marketable? Dog fights without the para's but just pit bulls tortured to the point of madness. Bear baiting?stuff like that inand not in some war lord's private preserrve but in a 'reasonable' place the way, beforethe current explosion, you'd go to Vegas for casino gambling. "Hey chummer where'd you go on you're vaca?"
"Down to Santa Fe for the cock fights."
"I seen those on trid. Is it as good in the flash?"

Sure thing, but this thread is about the question if bloodsport can be or is legal outside the UCAS. We all agree that it is highly profitable and appealing to a large customer/ viewer base, but that's a bit OT.

Well, considering the nature of "legal turf" in the Sixth World I don't see why not, I mean even in UCAS terrority, it is perfectly legal to wander down to the corp branch of Big A and watch a couple of trogs beating eaach other to death.

Remember, even where it is illegal, human bloodsports aren't "illegal enough" to prevent them from being top pay-per-view sellers on the Trid, and the Sixth World doesn't strike me as being very "animal friendly", so outside of a few legacy laws still on the books that aren't ever enforced I doubt cock fights, ect are even frowned upon, provided that the same wheel geasing that any vender has to do to keep the cops from putting them out of biz gets done anyways.

Grinder I disagree, given the nature of the Sixth World I believe that the fact that bloodsports are highly profitable will force the law makers to at the very least decriminalize them. And I consider the pay-per-view comments to be proof of that they are legal somewhere since unless my memory is failing me the pay-per-views weren't supposed to be on pirate stations but acutal channels.

Try Shadowbeat. It's old but it gives the most info on bloodsports.

Aztlan has this television show called Suerte y Morete in which ordinary citizens voluntarily fight each other to the death for the right to face the show's in house professional gladiator. If the winner is able to beat the house's gladiator he gets 100,000 nuyen.

Golden Glory and Hero Glory are also Aztlan game shows in Shadowbeat. In Golden Glory 20 contestants are dropped into a "hostile zone" full of deathtraps. Those who get out of the zone alive within 24 hours split 25,000 nuyen. Hero Glory is the Golden Glory tournamt of champions type event. Only Golden Glory winners are given the chance to compete in it. The sole survivor of Hero Glory gets 1,000,000 nuyen. It isn't over until there is only one contestant left alive.

These have nothing to do with religion. They are for-profit television gameshows, and are quite popular both within Aztlan and abroad.

Bloodsports that involve non-sapient participants are a bit trickier. There are moral issues involved. Most people wouldn't have much problem with a show that kills people who want to risk their lives for money. Killing animals who don't understand the concept of money is a bit different.

On the other hand, if you consider them to just be chattal then it is perfectly alright.

My book-fu is weak, it seems. Thanks for the summary!