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Beyond the Ratings a New Poll Shows Professional Sports Are in Real Trouble With Americans
Posted at 11:30 am on September 10, 2020 by Brad Slager


(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)


Gallup shows an alarming decline in support of sports in general, and it is across the spectrum.

It has been with sharp interest that we have followed the return of professional sports over the past month. Within a week, MLB, NBA, and the NHL all came back with scheduled games, leading to unexpected results. League officials and media experts all anticipated pent-up fan interest and the lack of live attendance at games would lead to higher-than-average ratings — except the opposite has proven out.

The NFL, which opens its season tonight, should be paying close attention.



It is becoming a concern, as the NBA alone has had sharply lower ratings, including a -20% drop for the start of their playoffs. Expectantly, the insistence of the leagues has been that this is all a result of the pandemic — despite their early promise of rabid fan interest. The truth is the overt anti-American activism from the athletes, coaches, and even the broadcasters has been the main deterrent. The NBA was experiencing this decline already in February, before the COVID shutdowns. As I covered yesterday, force-feeding Colin Kaepernick into video games is the opposite of a solution.

Ethan Strauss at The Atlantic has been upfront about the issue of activism driving the fans off. In an interview, he noted that the insulated environment within the league prevents them from seeing the results. ‘’I think that when you talk to a lot of people who aren’t within media, people maybe where their politics don’t line up 100 percent with what’s being evinced, yeah, a lot of people are turned off by it.’’ Now it can be shown that Strauss was more than correct. A recent Gallup poll has shown that in the past year, Americans have taken a largely negative view of professional sports.

Each year Gallup surveys Americans on their favorability in regards to 25 major industries in the country. In its latest, released this week, we see some precipitous declines that should shake the constitutions of the fist-shaking pro athletes. Of all the sectors measured in the survey, professional sports suffered the biggest drop in support, falling all the way to 23rd on the list and settling barely above The Federal Government. The negative impressions by Americans now see sports underwater by double digits, with a 30%-40% favorable/unfavorable ratio.

Things are only more bleak in the metrics. This decline was not a number moved by one sector rebelling against the actions in athletics. In all categories measured — gender, race, age, and politics — pro sports saw sharp declines of support. Among all adults, favorability plunged -30%, and of particular alarm should be that wage earners in the 35-45 age group dropped -44%. Non-white Americans fell a sharp -35%. Even the most supportive sector — Democrats — fell, a lower -5%, but among those declaring to be Independent there was a -36% drop in approval; where that category harbored a positive impression last year at +26% they now sit with a -10% approval.

What needs to be highlighted is that this was not a poll driven by leading questions. People were not asked specifically if the activism was driving them off, nor given ”Have the protests changed your impression of sports’’ queries. This was a general impression poll asked of numerous industries. These are sobering returns, and they show there is a real visceral feeling that fans are being repelled by the antics in stadiums and arenas. This cannot be dismissed as one particular group of cranks moving the needle.

Until the leagues are willing to admit this is having a direct and recognizable negative impact it will only continue. Lebron James is in the news far more often over social politics than for the game he plays. Coaches like Steve Kerr and Stan Van Gundy are vocal about their distaste for segments of this country, all while they have praised and defended the human rights violations in China.

These offenses resonate with fans, and at a time when they should be desperate for all the attention they can draw, the leagues and the players feel it is more important to deliver lectures than to deliver a diversion. And it is becoming more obvious that more fans are not interested in accepting that delivery.

 

They wanted to politicize American sports, and this is what they got.

Just fucking play ball.

 

Also, people are looking for some outlet other than the news! That make lots and lots money so I say shut the fuck up and play ball!

 

Good, they should all take a pay cut until they stand up and appreciate where they had the opportunity to earn millions of dollars and keep they're political/social justice opinions to themselves and off the field

 

And that knealing is only making matters worse, sports kneeling at the anthem is only dividing Americans further, its a tantrum not accomplishing anything further

 

Good fuck all those racist pricks

 

Cut their salary by half each time they kneel.

 

I thrilled football is back! My favorite sport!

 

My favorite baseball team decided to make a political statement. I understand the team not really having any control over the individual players but the team decided to do it. The next day I put much of the memorabilia that I had collected over the years (including logo changes). I even scraped off the bumper stickers on my truck and stuck them to the envelope that contained my reason for never supporting them again. Went to the post office, paid the postage and the box should have arrived within two days. I'm sure the news didn't make it out of the mail room, but that's ok. They won't miss my money. I only went to 5 or 6 games a year. One less viewer on tv won't hurt them all that much. And one less person buying a couple shirts and hats won't hurt them much. But I refuse to spend time or money on an organization that wants to interject their political beliefs on me. I used to be a huge NFL fan until about 10 years ago. I woke up one morning and decided I didn't like the things that were happening in the sport. I have yet to watch a single game since then.

 

Watched the start of the houston KC game, right up to the start of the black anthem and Houston leaving the field.

Turns out the black anthem will be played before each game week one.
As Shooter promised, he will boycott NFL football so long as presentation of the colors and playing of the national anthem is dissrespected.

 

I was brought up with having and showing respect for my country. Standing and covering my heart during the national anthem is something I'm proud to do. I'm not saying everything here is perfect. It's not just honoring or showing respect for our flag and country standing during the national anthem. It's showing our men and women of our armed forces that we're thankful for their service, showing respect and our thanks to veterans we lost defending our country

 

I don't like bringing the protest into the game, but I'll live with it. Different with Joan Baez, we stopped going to see her cause she spent more time politicizing than singing. Didn't matter if we agreed or not but we paid to hear her sing.
In this case, we still get the full ball game.

Back to a time when the Brooklyn Dodger players took the subway to Ebbets field to play ball, I remember a few people quit following the sport over Jackie Robinson, (protesting, said they would quit? ) I was 13, Many were angry about allowing black players to play pro ball.

 

So are all of them slaves or just the black ones?

Just fucking hilarious you deluded non-fucker. Your Chosen One is trying to start a fucking civil war. He's putting his armed militia white supremacists and secret police in the streets. And unarmed black people continue to die at the hands of police.

And you would regurgitate this blind brainwashed parrot racist and white privilege runny shit.

 

Yeah well, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say these two guys probably aren't under contract or being paid millions of dollars to do a job (play a sport) and act professional.

When I go to work, I leave the politics at home. I don't feel the need to preach my politics to people I work with or for. Same way with religion.

As for your picture, I think most people when they are at home watching something on TV tend to be relaxed and laid back.

 

If they had trump 2020 written in the end zone you idiots would be all for it.

 

The political aspect of racism in sport is annoying. Pick the best players, give them the ball and let them do their thing.
I recently saw a statement that most of the world sporting bodies have been asked to sanction SA for their selection criteria.

 

With the social media pressure (basically social extortion), it's like prehistoric times, when everybody's gonna cave, man.

 

When Ricky Gervais gave that speech earlier this year, every enterteinment sector should have paid attention. We dont want to hear of your política views on anything, we have expertos for that. I have known for man y years now that professional sports only care about one thing, money. And now many more people are realizing how rigged every game is. Remember, they only care about the money

 

Overpaid knuckleheads