So, the comparative ratings? The game between the Sparks and Phoenix Mercury on ABC last Saturday averaged 539,000 viewers and peaked around 3:45-4 p.m. at 617,000 viewers. Congress passed the first antitrust law, the Sherman Act, in 1890 as a “comprehensive charter of economic liberty aimed at preserving free and unfettered competition as the rule of trade.” In 1914, Congress passed two additional antitrust laws: the Federal Trade Commission Act, which created the FTC, and the Clayton Act. I am old and sports was once a spiritual get away from the harsh realties of life and work. Sadly, they have made them part of the games. If I want to opine about social justice, politics, climate issues or anything else I do it after work. In 2017, ESPN averaged 996,000 viewers for all games, up 6% from 940,000 in 2016. FUCK THESE NIGGERS, I can’t speak for anyone else. It would be naïve to assume that all the attention paid to the NBA’s ratings woes versus the relative quiet surrounding the MLB’s has nothing to do with the athletes involved. I know we will not. Kawhi Leonard Hilariously Ignores Pat Beverley, Walks Away, noticeably more outspoken as it pertains to social justice matters, Horny ESPN Host Wants To Run For President. Maybe it is a combination of all those things and other factors. It would be interesting to find out how many Black Lives supporters are baseball fans. The highest-ranked MLB game. The NHL hasn’t been political and has done quite well though so BLM messaging likely has SOME impact. Over the past few weeks there has been a lot of justifiable finger wagging regarding the NBA’s objectively weak TV ratings. Lord help us when it works its way down to college and high school sports. The reason no one cares is because MLB is fundamentally fine. Heck, I can’t even tell who the players are on the court. But with our teams all taking up politics have decided to not renew our season tickets with the Mariners and have not watched a game this season since the circus show they put on opening night. Are you kidding me? While generating a lot of buzz, these short-term variations are not nearly as consequential as the larger, long-term forces at work that provide much more insight into the future of sports viewership. a rising tide lifts all boats and that is what I believe is happening in America. As far as the numbers go, the criticism is mostly fair. MLB is a regional game which wont garnish the same ratings as the NBA which according to any sports analyst on TV has more global power and influence. What makes even this a bit odd, though, is the fact that a case could easily be made that the MLB’s ratings are down due to their players kneeling and becoming increasingly involved in social justice as well. it s coming and I am sad that my county is going this direction. The exact reasons are hard to pin down. They did it to themselves. I've published 6 books including From The Ballfield to the Boardroom (2006)…. I'm Distinguished University Professor of Economics at Gordon Ford College of Business at WKU. FOX was originally supposed to air the Cardinals-White Sox MLB “Field of Dreams” game from Iowa on Thursday, but that was called off. … November is right around the corner and it’s a big moment for us as Americans.” pic.twitter.com/m8G3KQAWsd, — Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) August 6, 2020. Games between the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, as well as the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets, did 1.3 million viewers and 1.7 million viewers, respectively. Baseball and hockey viewership is up. MLB ratings have jumped 4 percent over that period. hate that our wonderful sport leagues have moved in this direction . Not to mention all the new rules or non calls. Poor or no fundamentals, 7 inning DHs, no pitches on an intentional walk, and the worst rule of all is the runner on second in extra innings. Getting lectured by fools supporting Americahating terrorists … and now even the nhl is on board with this BS …… pass. None of this says that the NFL, NBA, or MLB are on the verge of tanking in viewers over the next couple of seasons, but it does indicate that their competitive environment a decade or more in the future could be be rough. The PGA Championship did 5.15 million viewers, NASCAR: MIS did 2.37 million viewers, and a game between the Lakers and Rockets did 1.62 million viewers. I’ve placed U.S. population on the graphic to provide a comparison. Both are down and despite what this article writer is saying, no one I know is saying it’s just the nba. I and the majority of those who watch sports simply am exhausted with the pandering by millionaires, but in whole they have accomplished absolutely nothing. Both the PGA and NASCAR beat it in viewership last week. Related: Horny ESPN Host Wants To Run For President. The NBA has experienced the most ups and downs, going through tough times in the late seventies, hitting its golden era through the eighties and nineties with Magic, Bird, and Jordan, falling off for a decade in the 2000s as scoring slipped, but climbing back up with the a more watchable, higher-scoring product until the current season’s decline. And because those voices tend to amplify issues that align more with liberal than conservative causes, it stands to reason that a vocal non-liberal portion of the population is eager to highlight the NBA’s ratings problems and ignore the MLB’s. The football game, also a blowout, a … Yes, the short-term ups and downs may sometimes accentuate the longer-term trends but they can also mislead. However, do you know what did worse than that NBA game? While it would have been unrealistic to this kind of rapid growth to continue indefinitely, the decline in the percentage of people tuning into the big sports events is a big warning sign for the future. Manfred is awful. Also, to be completely fair, the Cubs St. Louis Cardinals game was almost sold out in London back in January before the epidemic hit and I almost bought tickets. The graphic below displays television viewership in millions for each sport (to 1970 or as close as the data permits) while smoothing out year-to-year volatility in order to highlight long-run trends. That showdown between the Cubs and Royals did 1.49 million viewers. Through Saturday's games, attendance in MLB parks so far this season was down more than 233,000 from the same time frame in 2018 (according to Baseball … Prior to its final game yesterday, MLB on TBS average viewership … It marked the network’s worst-performing MLB game in two years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. Unfortunately for the MLB, from there the ratings nosedived. I have no need for cable and I’m not alone. Additionally, the Los Angeles Dodgers versus San Francisco Giants game, the second half of the Opening Night doubleheader, drew an average audience of 2,764,000 viewers. Lol. However, do you know what did worse than that NBA game? While technology can take away viewers, it can also change the ways fans tune in to games such as using DVRs whether the physical kind or of the newer, cloud variety. Move then. I tried to watch the fourth quarter of the play-in game today, and it was awful. For 40 years, viewership boomed and came to dominate everybody else. To the idiots running these sports leagues, we sit down to watch sports to GET AWAY from all the political bullsh!t and all we see is political bullsh!t. Plus, i would be curious to know when was the lowest-rated baseball game aired on ESPN. NBA is starting to show cracks. The worst-performing outings from 2019 are far exceeding the norm in 2020. Crude viewership numbers may miss these offsets to the more easily measured decline. I am not surprised that there are no surveys about reasons people aren’t watching, because it seems they really don’t want the answers, and probably know why already. I agree 100% , these guys are trying to use this as a platform for politics and very few have any idea or remotely understand politics. In contrast, baseball’s marquee event maxed out in the late 1970s, bled viewers for 30 years but has stabilized over the past decade. I’m interested in digging underneath these sport-specific trends. That is how bad the numbers are. Perhaps the problem is the fact that TV viewership as a whole is down, and has been trending that way for many years. Not exactly a fair comparison of the ratings. The lack of audiences probably matters too because going to games increases fan bonds with the team. I’m there to perform my job period! On the upside, sport viewership as gauged by this composite index has not fallen off a cliff, but it has plateaued and dipped a bit for the past ten years. Major League Baseball started its Covid-19 regular season Thursday night with a record average 4 million viewers, the most-watched regular-season MLB game on … Nobody cares about MLB ratings because nobody under 60 watches baseball. Real Reason Suns’ Devin Booker Is Missing All-Star Game, Suns’ Devin Booker Talks NBA Players Pooping Their Pants, LeBron Stunned By Devin Booker’s Comment Before Ejection, Klay Thompson’s Valentine’s Day Photos Go Viral, Hideous 2021 NBA All-Star Uniforms Leak (Photos). The average TV audience for the tournament charted at 226,000 per game (not counting streaming and Spanish-language viewership), a figure lower than the …