The question of the most popular sport on television has been long answered, but football put an exclamation point on it Sunday when a regular season N.F.L. game was far more watched than Game 4 of the World Series.
Both events had huge audiences, but the game between the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings, featuring the return of Brett Favre to Green Bay, was watched by an average of 29.8 million viewers — considerably more than the 22.3 million viewers who turned up for the Yankees’ win over the Phillies in the World Series.
Football showed its true power in the prime-time portion that ran after 7 p.m. That part of the game drew 39 million viewers, a figure on par with most playoff games.
Dittohead revolt against the NFL = smashing success.
Heh.
I would like to point out again that popularity does not necessarily equal quality.
Wow. A game that has been pimped since the start of the season draws more viewers than a non-deciding game in the World Series. I’m shocked. Now, let’s see the ratings for tonight’s game vs. the NFL Monday night game on ESPN. Want to wager on which game draws more viewers?
Well, tonight’s game is a turkey. But even a highly hyped NFL game shouldn’t beat a championship. You’re just upset because its your evil Yankees playing.
One of the 2 remaining undefeateds against a 4-2 team is “a turkey”?
One game is a blowout early, while one game is tied in the 2nd quarter. The NFL wins the ratings war tonight.
PS: Drew Brees is a BEAST.
Turkey?
A packed house of screaming fans in NOLA? Brees, Colston, Ryan, Turner, Gonzalez?
Turkey? The over under for tonight is greater than the total number of points the pathetic ’skins will score all season.
Turkey indeed.
The over under for tonight is greater than the total number of points the pathetic ’skins will score all season.
Speaking as a diehard Skins fan that isn’t saying much
Bet this past weekend was relatively stress-free for the die-hard ‘Skin fans though.
I feel your pain Oliver. But as long as you’ve got lil Napoleon and Vinny running the show . . .
By this same logic, Two and a Half Men is a much funnier show than 30 Rock or the Office.
Jay, ESPN vs broadcast totally apples-to-oranges, given the roughly 50% penetration of cable TV. But I still might take that bet, given odds or scaling to reflect the available households: a game with the series running 3-1 is less compelling than 2-1, because the conclusion is closer to foregone.
Football may have peaked, though, as the costs of this beautiful and terrifying spectacle that so many of us love (myself included) become more evident.
If you add up all the people who actually play baseball, and watch baseball, from t-ball to the Pros , I’ll bet you that baseball is the National Pastime. TV Audiences aren’t everything.
Actually if you use that metric, soccer *ptui* probably wins based on the amount of little kids who play.
IN other words, bleep the bleeping Yankees. And shame on the Phillies for letting the Bumbers steamroll them.
Favre playing in Green Bay was the highlight of the current NFL season, outside of the Superbowl. Just sayin’, and fwiw I’m more of a football fan myself.
Baseball needs to speed up the game. Batters shouldn’t be able to leave the batters box after every pitch with the OCD adjustment of batting gloves and knocking dirt off their spikes.
If they ever take steroids out of the NFL, as was done in baseball, I bet football’s ratings would suffer a similar downturn.
You think ‘roids are out of baseball? Really?
Yes, I do think roids are mostly out of baseball. The players no longer look like bodybuilders, as they did in the 90’s. I played LB in a BCS conference. I can spot even a casual steroid user from a block away. And believe me, the NFL is overrun with guys on the sauce.
I didn’t say they weren’t. I thought baseball fans were really silly when the steroid stories came out, as I assumed many athletes are – and still are, in all the leagues.
As far as I know baseball kills the NFL when it comes to total revenue as well. Granted, they have ten times as many games.
I was curious if you were right about this or not (I’ve got no dog in this fight I don’t see any of this damn money). Here’s what I found.
Top MLB team in revenue: $375 million (Yankees)
Top NFL team in revenue: $345 million (Redskins)
Top NBA team in revenue: $208 million (Knicks)
Now I’m too lazy right now to crunch all the numbers, but it may not be a true comparison because the Yankees are clearly in an odd universe. If you look at team valuations, the Yanks are the only MLB club worth over a billion, whereas there are 19 NFL teams at 1 billion or higher (and no NBA teams in that bracket). Also, the distance in revenue between the #1 and #2 MLB teams (Yankees and Red Sox) is $106 million. In the NFL, when you go from the Skins to the Patriots at #2, you only go down about $43 million.
So without actually doing the math, the best MLB team in revenue slightly beats the best NFL team but in aggregate the NFL probably crushes the MLB (worst performing MLB team is the Marlins at $139 million, while the worst NFL team is the Lions at $208 Million). And it’s probably slightly more impressive when you consider the regular season for MLB is about 10x the NFL season in amount of games played.
Looking at these numbers, it almost seems affordable to buy an NBA team!
Source:
NBA
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/32/nba08_NBA-Team-Valuations_Revenue.html
NFL
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/30/football-values-09_NFL-Team-Valuations_Revenue.html
MLB
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/33/baseball-values-09_The-Business-Of-Baseball_Revenue.html
Hmm. I’m surprised the NBA is that low.
But the better argument for football being “America’s sport” might be the somewhat politically incorrect one that people don’t play the game elsewhere. Baseball has a wide following internationally, with many pros coming from other countries, and better-than-you’d expect professional leagues in places like Korea.
Football just can’t get a break outside of the US for a variety of reasons. It’s actually a much more complicated game than people who grew up watching it think, it requires a ton of equipment, and the positions are incredibly specialized. (A catcher and a left fielder both have to go up to the plate and hit the same way. A punter and a DE have totally different jobs and expectations at all times.)
Well I always assume the jingoistic superiority of football was a given. *
At the street level, I think football is less complicated than people think. The specialization only comes in when you have a full 11-11 game, which of course is the real achilles. Basketball can be played 1-1 or even shooting hoops by yourself, whereas football you need minimum 4 people.
* Mostly joking, though totally true when compared to cricket, THE WORST SPORT EVER MADE. I’m looking at you, Jamaica. I also do not like soccer, but that’s at least like a real sport.
cricket, THE WORST SPORT EVER MADE
What? How can you not like a sport where there are positions called “Silly Mid Off” and “Short Leg”?
And the wicked googly.
And the wicked googly.
Yes. Quite so, old lad. Another gin?
Also, I think part of the reason the NBA is so low is lack of star power. The league really didn’t set up the post-Jordan league right, and while there are some players known to the non-diehard fan (ie Kobe, Shaq, Lebron), it’s not exactly the Magic/Barkley/Bird/Rodman league anymore. Plus, the movement of so many NBA games to cable didn’t help, whereas MLB and especially the NFL have a strong broadcast presence. And the NFL has tons of well known names, especially QBs (Favre, Brady, Manning and Manning), WRs and RBs.
Just a feeling, but to me football, though it predates the medium, seems ideally tailored for television. Been io a few games in person, and they’re fun, but it just doesn’t compare in my opinion, to a Sunday afternoon at the baseball game.
bingo.
I agree with you too, Frothy.
Football in High-Def is just freaking awesome; especially the instant replays and disputed calls. Great to rewind and see how the key players reacted and just what the announcer was talking about breaking down the play. Great to look directly in the QB’s eyes as he’s yelling out the audibles.
Baseball, not as great on TV or in HD, but a great way to spend an afternoon, at the ballpark.
While I agree football is tailor made for TV, I’ve attended both in person and other than when I went to the game when Mark McGwire was chasing the HR record, the football experiences have been much better. There is too much lag time in baseball games.
Whaa?? I should give you a lecture about how every pitch is critical (which is true), but TV timeouts, dude. Before AND after kickoffs. And elsewhere. It’s an outrage.
Lag time?
If you see lag time, you’re looking at the wrong things.
Remember the master:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om_yq4L3M_I
Better on TV: Football
Better in person: Baseball (day games)
There is no debate; unless you’re one of those America-haters.
Wow, I’m agreeing with Dennis on something…
You’d be surprised. bikelib. Like most of us here, we all like to argue.
No we don’t
Haha: “By this same logic, Two and a Half Men is a much funnier show than 30 Rock or the Office.” – Greg
I really don’t like football, but I like the Phillies and Yankees even less.
The question of the most popular sport on television has been long answered, but football put an exclamation point on it Sunday when a regular season N.F.L. game was far more watched than Game 4 of the World Series.
Not a fair comparison. The World Series was a rerun of “Everybody Hates the Yankees”!
I would have to agree with the above commenters — pretty much everyone around the country hates both teams in the World Series. That makes it a referendum on the two obnoxious teams playing in it, not on the sport.