"Poll shows baseball is losing fans (from SI/Yahoo)"
h0mi
Caught this article on Yahoo today:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news/cnnsi/20010410/pollshowsbaseba.html
Poll shows baseball is losing fans
by Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated
Here's something for owners and players to think about if they believe they
can shut down the game next season without a lasting, catastrophic effect
on the sport's popularity. According to the Gallup Poll News Service, at
the time of the 1994 strike 21 percent of adults said baseball was their
favorite sport to watch. That percentage was down to 12 last month (with a
margin of error of three percent). That's worse than it was in April 1995
right after the strike (16 percent). And you thought Cal Ripken, Mark
McGwire and Sammy Sosa "saved" baseball.
In March more people said basketball was their favorite sport than said
baseball. From 1994-2001, roundball has picked up the most loyal fans,
going from 11 percent to 16 percent.
While baseball may be losing the real passionate fans -- those who say
baseball is their favorite sport -- it is picking up more casual fans. When
people were asked in March whether they were baseball fans, 46 percent said
yes. That's up from August 1994 (39 percent) and April 1995 (32) and just
off the high over the past eight years (47), recorded in October 1998, soon
after McGwire set the home run record.
The poll reflects the broadening of baseball's appeal as an entertainment
option and the lessening of it as a sport to which fans develop an
emotional attachment. A day at the ballpark now is the equivalent of a trip
to the mall or the movies. Should baseball shut down next year, it would
further erode the uniqueness of the sport.
Here are some other highlights from the Gallup poll. The answers are those
of people who identified themselves as baseball fans. The results indicate
fans strongly favor a salary cap, can't make up their minds about the DH,
but love interleague play and the wild-card system.
Do you think baseball should have a salary cap?
Yes: 79 percent
No: 17
Would you rate the following changes in baseball as a change for the better
or worse or as making no difference?
Expansion
Better: 57
Worse: 18
No difference: 21
Increased salaries
Better: 22
Worse: 58
No difference: 16
The DH
Better: 42
Worse: 24
No difference: 21
Wild card
Better: 58
Worse: 15
No difference: 19
Interleague play
Better: 60
Worse: 6
No difference: 23
I also read another article which claimed that attendance is down opening
week from last year ~1.7%. If anyone can show the actual stats on this, I'd
be interested to see whether this is accurate or not.
Michael Bodell
> Caught this article on Yahoo today:
> http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news/cnnsi/20010410/pollshowsbaseba.html
> Poll shows baseball is losing fans
> by Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated
> Here's something for owners and players to think about if they believe they
> can shut down the game next season without a lasting, catastrophic effect
> on the sport's popularity. According to the Gallup Poll News Service, at
> the time of the 1994 strike 21 percent of adults said baseball was their
> favorite sport to watch. That percentage was down to 12 last month (with a
> margin of error of three percent). That's worse than it was in April 1995
> right after the strike (16 percent). And you thought Cal Ripken, Mark
> McGwire and Sammy Sosa "saved" baseball.
> In March more people said basketball was their favorite sport than said
> baseball. From 1994-2001, roundball has picked up the most loyal fans,
> going from 11 percent to 16 percent.
Comapring March 2001 (March Madness, NBA playing, Baseball hasn't started yet)
to
August 1994 (Mid Baseball, NBA is over) seems silly.
--
/**********************************************************************\
| mbo...@hcs.harvard.edu * This is my sig until I have a sig for real |
\**********************************************************************/
David Marc Nieporent
> > Caught this article on Yahoo today:
> > http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news/cnnsi/20010410/pollshowsbaseba.html
> > Poll shows baseball is losing fans
> > by Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated
> > Here's something for owners and players to think about if they believe they
> > can shut down the game next season without a lasting, catastrophic effect
> > on the sport's popularity. According to the Gallup Poll News Service, at
> > the time of the 1994 strike 21 percent of adults said baseball was their
> > favorite sport to watch. That percentage was down to 12 last month (with a
> > margin of error of three percent). That's worse than it was in April 1995
> > right after the strike (16 percent). And you thought Cal Ripken, Mark
> > McGwire and Sammy Sosa "saved" baseball.
> > In March more people said basketball was their favorite sport than said
> > baseball. From 1994-2001, roundball has picked up the most loyal fans,
> > going from 11 percent to 16 percent.
> Comapring March 2001 (March Madness, NBA playing, Baseball hasn't started yet)
> to August 1994 (Mid Baseball, NBA is over) seems silly.
Well, asking the question at all is stupid. What the hell does it even
*mean* to be someone's "favorite sport?" I like baseball better than any
other sport; I spend a lot of money and time on it. Attending games and
watching them on television and buying the merchandise. My wife likes
football better than any other sport; she spends a lot more money and time
on baseball, though.
IOW, so what if people don't say that baseball is their favorite sport?
What if they really do like basketball or football better than baseball?
Why not ask more meaningful questions, like how much money people spend on
the various sports? Or how many hours people spend watching the various
sports on television? Is it, perhaps, because that would be *real*
information, and the media feeds off innuendo rather than fact?
---------------------------------------------
David M. Nieporent niep...@alumni.princeton.edu
Johne159
>
>Poll shows baseball is losing fans
>by Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated
Yep. The sooner the commish re-instates Pete, the sooner baseball will be
saved.
Doug Pappas
(Johne159) writes:
>Poll shows baseball is losing fans
>>by Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated
>
>Yep. The sooner the commish re-instates Pete, the sooner baseball will be
>saved.
I think a ritual sacrifice to the baseball gods would be more appropriate.
Let's strap Pete down on the mound at Wrigley Field and torch him.
I'll bring the lighter fluid.
Don't worry, Johne -- you can collect the ashes and sell them on QVC,
just like Pete would have wanted.
Doug Pappas
Ima Pseudonym
Yeah, a whole new generation of gamblers will follow the game.
KennyP
news:20010411173101...@ng-fs1.aol.com...
You must really be in love with Pete Rose. I wonder how many guys have
crushes on Rose. I'm sure there aren't many women out there who want him
that badly.
I feel bad for Rose. He would be in the Hall of Fame right now if he wasn't
such an idiot.
Kenny
Deckard
"Doug Pappas" <doug...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010411174016...@nso-fo.aol.com...
h0mi
Doug Pappas wrote:
>
> In article <20010411173101...@ng-fs1.aol.com>, john...@aol.com
> (Johne159) writes:
>
> >Poll shows baseball is losing fans
> >>by Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated
> >
> >Yep. The sooner the commish re-instates Pete, the sooner baseball will be
> >saved.
>
> I think a ritual sacrifice to the baseball gods would be more appropriate.
> Let's strap Pete down on the mound at Wrigley Field and torch him.
> I'll bring the lighter fluid.
No way! Then we won't have anymore Pete Rose appearances at Wrestlemania :(
h0mi
I don't think the Pete Rose situation has any bearing on the problems (real
or imagined) that baseball has. I doubt people are boycotting the sport
because he's banned and I doubt people would start to boycott because his
ban was lifted.
Doug Pappas
>>Yep. The sooner the commish re-instates Pete, the sooner baseball will be
>> >saved.
>>
>> I think a ritual sacrifice to the baseball gods would be more appropriate.
>> Let's strap Pete down on the mound at Wrigley Field and torch him.
>> I'll bring the lighter fluid.
>
>No way! Then we won't have anymore Pete Rose appearances at Wrestlemania :(
Pete just needed something to do the day after his mother died...
Doug Pappas
Deckard
Thomas. And not because of their hitting...
They can no longer relate to assholes who bitch about their $10,000,000
paychecks.
"h0mi" <h0...@yahooo.com> wrote in message
news:3AD66CB6...@yahooo.com...
TJNawrocki
: Baseball is losing fans because of players like Sheffield, Belle, and
: Thomas. And not because of their hitting...
: They can no longer relate to assholes who bitch about their $10,000,000
: paychecks.
When did Albert Belle ever complain about how much he was getting paid? Talk
about a lightning rod for fans' complaints.
If somebody like Chris Truby was accused of satanic dismemberment, it would
take about a week before people started saying, "I'm so sick of all these
ballplayers like Chris Truby and Albert Belle with all their satanic rituals
and the dismemberment and everything."
Tom Nawrocki
David Greenstone
TJNawrocki wrote:
LOL. I also don't remember Belle ever complaining about how much he made but he
is the posterboy of everything that is wrong with baseball.
I'm also curious how many fans baseball lost this spring training because of
Sheffield and Thomas. I bet that you could count the number of fans that were
lost on your hands.
>
> Tom Nawrocki
Ira Blum
"TJNawrocki" <tjnaw...@aol.compost> wrote in message
news:20010413101211...@ng-fc1.aol.com...
I'm sick of all these ballplayers like Bobby Chouinard and Albert Belle and
Wil Cordero beating up their wives.
:)
Ira
David Andrew Leonardo Marasco
>
>"TJNawrocki" <tjnaw...@aol.compost> wrote in message
>news:20010413101211...@ng-fc1.aol.com...
>> When did Albert Belle ever complain about how much he was getting paid?
>Talk
>> about a lightning rod for fans' complaints.
>>
>> If somebody like Chris Truby was accused of satanic dismemberment, it
>would
>> take about a week before people started saying, "I'm so sick of all these
>> ballplayers like Chris Truby and Albert Belle with all their satanic
>rituals
>> and the dismemberment and everything."
>>
>
>I'm sick of all these ballplayers like Bobby Chouinard and Albert Belle and
>Wil Cordero beating up their wives.
>
>:)
>
Actually, when Albert was with the ChiSox he was involved in some
domestic violence incident. I think he may have hit his girlfriend with
a phone (or hit her and broke her phone?) or something like that. It's
a fuzzy memory, can anybody back me up on this?
And for that matter, what's Sammy's history with this? I seem to remember
he had at least one major incident, but people sweep it under the rug.
David Marasco mar...@nwu.edu
The Diamond Angle Online returns! http://www.thediamondangle.com
Not related to www.baseballpr_thediamondangle.com
Terry May
..dmar...@merle.acns.nwu.edu (David Andrew Leonardo Marasco) pitched the following:
> Actually, when Albert was with the ChiSox he was involved in some
> domestic violence incident. I think he may have hit his girlfriend with
> a phone (or hit her and broke her phone?) or something like that. It's
> a fuzzy memory, can anybody back me up on this?
I think he phoned her after getting a hit.
--
"I was asked about payroll disparity in 1988, and the people asking it
were writers from Atlanta, Seattle, Texas, Baltimore and Cleveland.
All of a sudden the have-nots are the haves. The franchises that were
in the bottom seven or eight in this game are now in the top seven or
eight." - Scott Boras
David Marc Nieporent
"Deckard" <B26...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Baseball is losing fans because of players like Sheffield, Belle, and
> Thomas. And not because of their hitting...
Baseball is not losing fans.
David Marc Nieporent
David Greenstone <dy...@removethisus.ibm.com> wrote:
> TJNawrocki wrote:
> > B26...@hotmail.com wrote:
> > When did Albert Belle ever complain about how much he was getting paid?
> > Talk about a lightning rod for fans' complaints.
> > If somebody like Chris Truby was accused of satanic dismemberment, it would
> > take about a week before people started saying, "I'm so sick of all these
> > ballplayers like Chris Truby and Albert Belle with all their satanic
> > rituals and the dismemberment and everything."
> LOL. I also don't remember Belle ever complaining about how much he made but
> he is the posterboy of everything that is wrong with baseball.
How?
Ima Pseudonym
wrote:
>Baseball is losing fans because of players like Sheffield, Belle, and
>Thomas. And not because of their hitting...
Attendance is up, there is a huge new TV contract. What makes you
think baseball is losing fans? A poll taken during the NBA season and
the NCAA tournament (and not baseball season)? Let them take a poll
in the middle of the pennant races, and see what people say.
Oh, btw, if basketball is the most popular sport, why is NBA
attendance down?
Marty
(snip)
> And for that matter, what's Sammy's history with this? I seem to remember
> he had at least one major incident, but people sweep it under the rug.
Don't forget Al Martin. He had multiple wives (at the same
time, mind you). Don't know if he beat them at the same
time, but there has been some issues there...
Marty
Deckard
baseball off the field. The other two, along with others, are the paycheck
whiners.
"TJNawrocki" <tjnaw...@aol.compost> wrote in message
news:20010413101211...@ng-fc1.aol.com...
David Marc Nieporent
tjnaw...@aol.compost (TJNawrocki) wrote:
> When did Albert Belle ever complain about how much he was getting paid? Talk
> about a lightning rod for fans' complaints.
> If somebody like Chris Truby was accused of satanic dismemberment, it would
> take about a week before people started saying, "I'm so sick of all these
> ballplayers like Chris Truby and Albert Belle with all their satanic rituals
> and the dismemberment and everything."
Oh, come on, Tom. You're just fishing to be in a .sig.
---------------------------------------------
David M. Nieporent niep...@alumni.princeton.edu
If somebody like Chris Truby was accused of satanic dismemberment, it would
take about a week before people started saying, "I'm so sick of all these
ballplayers like Chris Truby and Albert Belle with all their satanic rituals
and the dismemberment and everything." -- Tom Nawrocki, 4/13/01
spam]@world.std.com Blair P. Houghton
He needed something fixed to bet on.
--Blair
"Happy 60th, Pete."
John R. Mayne
David Marc Nieporent wrote:
>
> In article <20010413101211...@ng-fc1.aol.com>,
> tjnaw...@aol.compost (TJNawrocki) wrote:
>
> > When did Albert Belle ever complain about how much he was getting paid? Talk
> > about a lightning rod for fans' complaints.
>
> > If somebody like Chris Truby was accused of satanic dismemberment, it would
> > take about a week before people started saying, "I'm so sick of all these
> > ballplayers like Chris Truby and Albert Belle with all their satanic rituals
> > and the dismemberment and everything."
>
> Oh, come on, Tom. You're just fishing to be in a .sig.
I'm so *damn* sick of people like Tom Nawrocki and Albert Belle -- both
of whom should know better -- failing to use the subjunctive.
--JRM
"Pedantry is the last refuge of a person with no ideas."
Patrick Rock
h0mi wrote:
>
> Poll shows baseball is losing fans
> by Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated
>
> Here's something for owners and players to think about if they believe they
> can shut down the game next season without a lasting, catastrophic effect
> on the sport's popularity. According to the Gallup Poll News Service, at
> the time of the 1994 strike 21 percent of adults said baseball was their
> favorite sport to watch. That percentage was down to 12 last month (with a
> margin of error of three percent). That's worse than it was in April 1995
> right after the strike (16 percent). And you thought Cal Ripken, Mark
> McGwire and Sammy Sosa "saved" baseball.
> Here are some other highlights from the Gallup poll. The answers are those
> of people who identified themselves as baseball fans. The results indicate
> fans strongly favor a salary cap, can't make up their minds about the DH,
> but love interleague play and the wild-card system.
A recent Gallup poll indicates that 75% of all Americans think that polls are a
waste of their time.
The truth is that no poll can be taken seriously unless it identifies how it
specifically asked its questions, what sample of the public it made, how many
of that sample completely refused to answer, and how it weighted its polling.
I was called about six months ago in Kansas City about my feelings toward
public tax money going into paying for improvements (mainly luxury boxes) for
the football and baseball stadia here. One question was whether I would favor
a sales tax increase now to pay for $150M in improvements to the existing
parks, or whether I'd want to see a tax increase to EVENTUALLY pay even more
than that to build two entirely new stadia in the city. Nowhere was I given
the option of saying "None of the above", so my answer ("Hell no to both
ideas") was marked down as no opinion. I was then given some 40 or more
scenarios in which a tax increase would go partially toward the arts or
education (things I stated that I considered important to a community), with
another portion going to help the ballclub owners make more money. The
portions, number of years involved, and amount of the tax increase varied with
each question, and even though I informed the poll taker that my answer would
be "no public funding for private profit", she had to ask each question.
I tell this because a few weeks after that phone call, the Kansas City fishwrap
(known locally as the Star) announced that the poll (commissioned by the
Chamber of Commerce) found that 2/3 of all people polled supported a sales tax
"extension" to fund "stadium renovations". I believe that this is what Mark
Twain had in mind when he described the three levels of lies: Lies, damned
lies, and statistics. I'm sure that there were quite a few of that "majority"
that answered yes to ONE of those 40 possibilities, and that's what they ran
with. I'd really like to see the raw data from that one.
As was pointed out, this SI/Yahoo poll was done during March Madness and before
Baseball had started their regular season. Where the respondents were found
(college or NBA playoff team towns as opposed to cities where baseball holds
more sway) would also matter. Polls mean almost nothing except to those who
want them to mean something.
Tom MacIntyre
wrote:
>
>
>h0mi wrote:
>
>>
>> Poll shows baseball is losing fans
>> by Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated
>>
>> Here's something for owners and players to think about if they believe they
>> can shut down the game next season without a lasting, catastrophic effect
>> on the sport's popularity. According to the Gallup Poll News Service, at
>> the time of the 1994 strike 21 percent of adults said baseball was their
>> favorite sport to watch. That percentage was down to 12 last month (with a
>> margin of error of three percent). That's worse than it was in April 1995
>> right after the strike (16 percent). And you thought Cal Ripken, Mark
>> McGwire and Sammy Sosa "saved" baseball.
>
>> Here are some other highlights from the Gallup poll. The answers are those
>> of people who identified themselves as baseball fans. The results indicate
>> fans strongly favor a salary cap, can't make up their minds about the DH,
>> but love interleague play and the wild-card system.
>
>A recent Gallup poll indicates that 75% of all Americans think that polls are a
>waste of their time.
>
A more-recent Gallup poll indicates that posting Gallup poll results
on Usenet is a waste of time...
Just kidding, but I just HAD to take it somewhere... :-)
Tom