Man Myth: Ours is a Very Big Sports Town -- Walter Sabo

When the topic of sports coverage and sports interest is discussed the local media mavens always say the same things amp8220This is a very big sports townamp8221 or amp8220This is a huge sports townamp8221 or amp8220Even women here are nuts about sportsamp8221 Also amp8220Youamp8217ve got to understand that this is the biggest sports townamp8221How can this be true in every city The evidence presented runs along these linesamp8220When the stadium lets out after a game the traffic jam runs for hoursamp8221amp8220When the team is playing at home during the week attendance at work is way downamp8221amp8220The spike in ratings for the game on TV is hugeamp8221amp8220People leave their season seats in their willsamp8221Those anecdotes are accepted as fact among otherwise hardheaded businessmen even those with MBAs With only that evidence many local brands spend fortunes in advertising attached to their teamsBut the facts donamp8217t match the roar of the crowdWhat are the facts Is there such a thing as a amp8220very bigamp8221 sports town Apparently not According to the data presented from the major league national teams every city is pretty much the sameA majority of NBA MLB and NFL playing arenas hit an average status of 95 sold out Yes the sacred Chicago Bulls home games are always 100 sold out but so are the Mavericks the Heat the Celtics the Clippers and the Thunder Combine home and away games and again the average is approximately 95 for all teams See for yourselfIn Major League Baseball San Francisco has a 99 sell out rate the Yankees 805 and Cleveland 45 But Cleveland thinks it is a very big sports town On average approximately 75 of the seats are sold out in MLB parks The swing from the biggest to the lowest stadium attendance levels is not statistically significant for any sportFootball attendance levels reveal that the top 11 most attended stadiums are all 100 sold out Oakland with the poorest attendance pulled a very respectable 80 sellout for the 2013 seasonThe percentage of sellout levels statistically suggests that all cities serving as the home to big league teams have similar levels of interest from fans Grown up research can be found hereTV news directors know that viewership goes down the moment the sports report goes on the air AllSports radio is a 18 share formatFor Radio stations most if not all play by play deals of noncollege sports lose money Play by play hockey often loses money in Montreal Although an effective cume builder Yankee baseball is not a big money maker for its radio affiliatesIt seems that when some sports fans get near a stadium they get um emotional Their excitement blinds them to the fact that although sports are very big in their mind they may not be as big outside of their mind Most sports advertising is an emotional buy that places the buying executive inside the dugout and on the sidelines Thereamp8217s nothing wrong with that but itamp8217s not necessarily a pragmatic business decisionThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentariesImage at top courtesy of freedigitalphotosnet

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Man Myth: Ours is a Very Big Sports Town -- Walter Sabo

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Walter Sabo

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Man Myth: Ours is a Very Big Sports Town -- Walter Sabo

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