I’ve placed U.S. population on the graphic to provide a comparison. To get just a little over a million or so viewers for playoff basketball is abysmal. In addition the MLB product is awful. In some cases, worse than the NBA. hate that our wonderful sport leagues have moved in this direction . © 2021 Forbes Media LLC. Especially when T-Mobile is giving away MLB Tv for free. The most-viewed game was Game 7 in 1986, when the New York Mets defeated the Boston Red Sox; with a rating of 38.9, its viewership is estimated at 55 to 60 million. Politics vs. sports. Lebron ignores the China suppression but hates our country. Its a topic that I discuss at greater length with some colleagues on our December Subgame Perfect Podcast. 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. This became very evident during the 2002 western conf finals where the reffing made the WWE look credible. Most are sick of this bs and may never watch the racist NBA ever again. Or it could be the crowd-less games that many find off-putting. Politics are awful. Now compare that to the NBA, where games featuring the Los Angeles Lakers, Celtics, Rockets and Brooklyn Nets still draw more than one million viewers regularly. FOX was originally supposed to air the Cardinals-White Sox MLB “Field of Dreams” game from Iowa on Thursday, but that was called off. NBA equals no bounce association! I was a bigtime fan of the baseball cardinals. The worst-performing outings from 2019 are far exceeding the norm in 2020. The more troubling feature for sports leagues is the drop-off of sports viewership relative to the continued steady growth of population. maybe someday the leagues get back in line with average America ; will see. It would be interesting to find out how many Black Lives supporters are baseball fans. this will not end peacefully I am worried. MLB Ratings Are Worse Than NBA’s, But Nobody Seems To Care. It was comparing NBA regular season games to baseball regular season games.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. The first Sunday game of the year on ESPN, a showdown between the Braves and Mets, did 18 percent worse in the ratings than the first Sunday night game of 2019. It’s not fair to compare NBA and MLB. In this light, the downturn from 2015-18 is more of a blip than a crisis. Their season is longer than MLB’s anyway. The exact reasons are hard to pin down. If you want to be more than an entertainer, go get a degree, become educated on the matter and join a news channel. When the baseball season officially restarted in late July, there was a lot of optimism regarding viewership. my country comes before their antics and false propositions of some made up racial problem. I'm Distinguished University Professor of Economics at Gordon Ford College of Business at WKU. a rising tide lifts all boats and that is what I believe is happening in America. They are well paid clowns to entertain the masses and if they stop fulfilling that function people like me stop watching. Twice in this article a Kansas City Royals game was cited to accentuate the writer’s point of view. 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. I know we will not. Most are sick of this bs and may never watch the racist NBA ever again. That would be the same as alleging the nba’s t-wolves as part of their signature product. The Opening Day game between the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals did an average of 4 million viewers. 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. As Paul Bedard writes in the Washington Examiner, it’s not just the American public that seems to have lost interest in the game. Television and football was a match made in heaven. For my family, friends and I, sports is an escape, it is a form of entertainment. Don’t miss it and have utilized my financial resources for more enjoyable measures. My 21 year old son watches it almost daily. Just a note: politics has 2 or even more side. The reality is, politics could be dragging down both the NBA’s ratings and the MLB’s ratings. According to SportMediaWatch, the NBA’s ratings have fallen and MLB is “weak.” The NBA has struggled to average more than 1.5 million viewers, and baseball is in no better shape. If not, then it makes no difference what you choose to watch or not watch, because you have no effect on the numbers either way. Following that initial surge there has been far less interest, as baseball games have been struggling to draw 1 million viewers and the NBA has barely done better, with 1.5 million being the new average. 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. There are probably other reasons too. It is the same as hiring a clown for my kids birthday and that clown starts off by kneeling and saying asinine things about politics and history. NBA’s problem is people may be just exhausted by not only the athletes themselves putting themselves in front of every camera and social media account known to man, but the sports brain trust pushes them too much that its not too far fetched to think people are just tired of political side of the NBA that they just don’t like the game. Maybe it is a combination of all those things and other factors. There’s no atmosphere whatsoever, so there’s none of the tension that should come from a game with such high stakes. In 2017, ESPN averaged 996,000 viewers for all games, up 6% from 940,000 in 2016. That game also had the smallest viewership in World Series history, 8.156 million. How Much Did Conor McGregor Make From Proper 12 Sale? Sadly I am permanently done. When viewed in light of the decline in the composite index, NASCAR’s struggles over the past decade don’t seem out of step. If I want to opine about social justice, politics, climate issues or anything else I do it after work. For all of the talk surrounding the NFL’s decline in viewership, it has bounced back strongly this season. Average viewership had peaked at 17.9 million per game, ad revenue had also peaked at $3.8 billion dollars, and daily fantasy sports games from FanDuel and DraftKings were all the rage. On the MLB Network, game viewership was down by 9% this season. Isn’t the NBA having its playoffs whereas it’s regular season baseball? Not to mention all the new rules or non calls. Over on ESPN, a game between the Mets and Nationals did 298,000 viewers, while one between the Angels and Seattle Mariners did 249,000 viewers. I won’t pay for that. It’s very different from the 3-network and land-line phone world of the 1970s. I watch movies now or play cards with the wife, screw them. but I have grown sour on all sports. just enjoy what God has given us to enjoy and forget professional markeiest sports they made their choice. If they keep up the political crapola, they could easily find themselves working for a living; many of them for the first time in their lives. Anyway, in 2018, after 14 straight seasons averaging more than 30,000 fans a game, attendance fell to 28,830 a game, a 4 percent drop from 2017. They did it to themselves. 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 … Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. it s coming and I am sad that my county is going this direction. There has been widespread discussion about the length of games, particularly in baseball and football. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. Perhaps the problem is the fact that TV viewership as a whole is down, and has been trending that way for many years. I would like to be able to watch a game and get away from the bad news and politics. Are you kidding me? Agree Booker. None do. However, do you know what did worse than that NBA game? Meanwhile, games featuring the New York Mets vs Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers vs Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Angels vs Oakland A’s struggled to even reach one million viewers. What seems to be flying under the radar, however, is that basketball is not alone in its viewership woes. Unfortunately for the MLB, from there the ratings nosedived. For whatever reason, people seem much less concerned about the MLB’s ratings problems. Of baseball’s other top ten markets, the first half viewership is a mixed bag. Move then. 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). 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. The MLB is the second most popular professional sports league after the NFL. Heck, I can’t even tell who the players are on the court. For MLB and the NBA these are per game averages. I agree with all the above; I am not watching any more. when billionaire owners of redskin team are forced by the mob to change its name (fed ex the mob) then the mob has won. But I’m my household 5 people sat down to watch opening day baseball. The telecasts so far have barely exceeded the audiences for a mid-major college football game. 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. Related: Kawhi Leonard Hilariously Ignores Pat Beverley, Walks Away. Sadly, they have made them part of the games. I am old and sports was once a spiritual get away from the harsh realties of life and work. My guess is none. It marked the network’s worst-performing MLB game in two years. Over the past few weeks there has been a lot of justifiable finger wagging regarding the NBA’s objectively weak TV ratings. The other reason you think no one seems to care is, let me know what mainstream sports network actually talks about baseball?