Would you say that the NBA and MLB are less popular now than they were 10 or 15 years ago?

[Zeze]

Football seems to be always strong. Damn, US loves football.

I was lucky enough to be a bandwagon fan during the golden era of Boston Sox/Pats/Celtics (Bruins, but I never watched hockey) growing up in New England.

 

[pete6032]

I have game 1 on in the background. Still can't believe the Rangers made it this far after their late season collapse. I know nothing of the DBacks since they aren't ever on national TV.

 

[spacejamz]

That was a helluva game 1....

 

[pete6032]

Aroldis Chapman throws a hell of a ball. Is there anyone else in the league who has thrown that fast for that long?

 

[manly]

Aroldis Chapman throws a hell of a ball. Is there anyone else in the league who has thrown that fast for that long?

Maybe not for that long, but there are plenty of flamethrowers in MLB now. Just as batters have ferociously focused on launch angle and optimizing for home runs, pitchers have been systematically juicing their fastball velocity. Speaking of sluggers, I was very baffled to see the Phillies bat Kyle Schwarber lead off in the NLCS. Although he nearly led MLB in homers, he batted .200 for the season, which is not what you want from your table setter. He did bat well enough to justify the decision, but it's still crazy.

I've watched about 1 inning out of the first 3 games. Maybe I'll be interested if the Dbacks tie the series, but I doubt it.

 

[MrSquished]

I pretty much only watch football when I do watch pro sports. I'll watch some NBA playoffs but not much. No ice hockey anymore and certainly no baseball.

I do like watching tennis and the olympics.

I would watch soccer except our league here is like watching pee wee soccer compared to the rest of the world most of the time. America needs more focus on soccer development starting from younger ages and having a framework in place through the college level into the pros. Otherwise it will continue to suck.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

I would watch soccer except our league here is like watching pee wee soccer compared to the rest of the world most of the time. America needs more focus on soccer development starting from younger ages and having a framework in place through the college level into the pros. Otherwise it will continue to suck.

All those things already exist. And there a couple developmental leagues even lower than MLS with teams across the country. The problem isn't the framework, it's that our top athletes prefer playing other sports.


About baseball, popularity is already hyper local. It's why national ratings are so bad. The only people watching are from the team's city or transplants. The TV contracts are becoming a noose around the networks neck. Just look at Diamond/Ballys.

 

[RPD]

NBA may get more eyeballs on it now, but I think a smaller % of the population watches it than in years past. For me it was all the rule changes, flopping and it being more of an individual driven league vs. a team.

 

[pete6032]

I think both NBA and MLB would benefit significantly from a hard salary cap. Luxury tax means nothing to large market teams. Look at the parity in the NFL. Really makes things interesting.

 

[IronWing]

I guess I was wrong about Arizona being in the World Series.

 

[manly]

I think both NBA and MLB would benefit significantly from a hard salary cap. Luxury tax means nothing to large market teams. Look at the parity in the NFL. Really makes things interesting.

The NBA luxury tax is extremely punitive; in theory it should already be effective at creating better competitive balance across the league. However, NBA players have some strong preferences about what city they want to live in. And because players like to collude into forming strong teams, you don't enjoy NFL style parity.

A hard cap might be helpful for the NBA; but keep in mind the economic and competitive models of the NFL, NBA and MLB are vastly different. MLB has far worse economic balance but the game itself affords better competitive balance anyway.

 

[pete6032]

How in the world did Arizona make it to the World Series?

What a disappointing affair.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I think both NBA and MLB would benefit significantly from a hard salary cap. Luxury tax means nothing to large market teams. Look at the parity in the NFL. Really makes things interesting.

Luxury tax is pretty punitive in the NBA starting this season. It's probably going to break Golden State up this summer for instance. I think Balmer will keep the Clippers together because he is stupidly rich and richly stupid, but repeaters luxury tax not only blows your salary payout to hell for revenue sharing but will also cause the offending team's draft picks to drop to last pick in the round. The NBA actually has really good parity in the West this year between the Nuggets, Warriors, Suns, Thunder, Kings, and Clippers, plus Dallas who is 4-0 and always a threat with a franchise player like Doncic plus a really solid offseason. Then the Lakers who finally have some depth and made the WCF last season. Minnesota might make some noise with Ant looking to have a big season. And even 0-5 Memphis can't be slept on if they can survive until Morant's suspension is up. Only teams in the West that aren't threats are San Antonio, Portland, Houston, and Utah. East is basically just Milwaukee and Boston though. But this year's West is probably the most talented conference I have ever seen in the NBA. Spurs are probably the third worst team in the conference and even they're going to be a bastard to deal with some nights when Wembanyama goes nuclear.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

NBA may get more eyeballs on it now, but I think a smaller % of the population watches it than in years past. For me it was all the rule changes, flopping and it being more of an individual driven league vs. a team.

The league pushing stars ahead of teams started with Jordan, and that was when it was at its most popular. Though Jordan would have been way less popular if his prime was today without the fawning media coverage he got. Even before the rape charges the press used to drag Kobe for the same kind of things Jordan was known for to anyone who followed the sport closely. E.g. the ridiculously high work ethic and pissing off teammates who didn't hit that standard. Don't think Kobe ever beat his teammates asses the way Jordan did however.

 

[pete6032]

I had no idea this was happening.

NBA Cup - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[spacejamz]

Globe Life Field (home of the Texas Rangers) hosted a watching party last night and I am glad we decided to go watch there instead of watching from the coach...the electricity in the air, especially in the 8th and 9th innings, was incredible...

Congrats Texas Rangers on your first World Series title!!!!

Was probably around 15K people there...

 

[MrSquished]

I had no idea the world series was happening until the last few posts lol

 

[sdifox]

I had no idea the world series was happening until the last few posts lol

Ended, not happening.

 

[jpiniero]

I had no idea this was happening.

NBA Cup - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The NBA regular season is so boring that they had to do something to mix it up.

 

[purbeast0]

I listen to sports radio all day while working and I hadn't heard a peep about the World Series until this morning when they said it was over.

I've been watching quite a bit of NBA regular season this year because I'm betting a bit on it, and there have been some fantastic games. I used to love watching basketball when I was a kid and it kind of dwindled away, but ever since sports betting became legal here last year I have been watching a lot more and I am really enjoying it.

The end of the Suns/Spurs game on Halloween was incredible.

Unless the Nats or Orioles were in the World Series, I'd watch a regular season NBA game over a WS game 10 out of 10 times.

 

[dainthomas]

The NBA regular season is so boring that they had to do something to mix it up.

The NHL is like that. The regular season is sooo long. Plus so many teams make the playoffs the regular season becomes almost meaningless.

 

[RPD]

The NHL is like that. The regular season is sooo long. Plus so many teams make the playoffs the regular season becomes almost meaningless.

MLB that's a huge problem, like I get it's a game of fractions of fractions so you just have to have all these attempts to pan out, but every time they say oh such and such team is behind, I'm like what only 134 games left in the season, OH NOOOO.

NBA is similar but they are under 100 games, but they are now trying to fix the "resting starters" nonsense finally, but that was always another knock.

I think that is another reason, besides just the violent nature of the NFL that fans love, short of one team DOMINATING the entire season, every game matters for teams trying to make the playoffs. No team is ever going to sit a healthy starter short of having their seeding locked up.

 

[jpiniero]

2022 TV Recap: It’s the NFL’s World; the Rest of Us Just Live in It

Pro and college football games accounted for 87 of the 100 most-watched TV broadcasts of 2022.

www.sportico.com

Last year, the NFL had 82 of the top 100 TV programs. The remaining 18:

- 5 college football games
- 4 "Political Programming"
- 3 games from the World Cup
- 2 NCAA Tournament games
- The Kentucky Derby, One from the Winter Olympics and the Thanksgiving Parade.
... and the Academy Awards. (Probally from people watching The Slap afterwards)

No Linear TV, no NBA (Game 6 of the Finals was 108), no MLB (highest was 128).

 

[pete6032]

This WS had lowest TV ratings ever recorded.

Rangers-Diamondbacks World Series Ratings Are Lowest Ever

The five games averaged 9.1 million viewers, down from the previous low of 9.8 million in 2020.

www.nytimes.com

 

[pete6032]

I think the NBA would be more interesting if they went back to a division focused standings model like you see with the other leagues. Create two divisions in each conference and focus on geographic proximity. Have those teams in each conference play each other more often, and have them play a 2-3 game series rather than one at a time. Conference winner seeded like MLB or NFL. That would make it more interesting. Right now being in a specific division in the NBA really has no meaning.