It won't outdistance sports, theres just too many people who think that robotics is like unimportant and uses up money that could be used elseware.
Actually I think hands on technology and science will be becoming less and less - I do not think it should be the case, but it costs money for hands on learning...its cheaper to do theory.

Unfortunatly around here many technology departments are being downsized (or even cut

).