Yesterday, NBC Sports’ Darren Rovell tweeted that a Fox UFC package scored a 1.7 on the ratings, while the Champions League Final did a 1.5. Now Rovell tweeted the obvious caveat that the UFC event aired on a Saturday night, while the soccer game was in the afternoon, and that drawing a true comparison was difficult. Why would Rovell tweet it, then? Well, you can offer the pretense that it’s because he is a business reporter, but I think a better idea might be that he works for NBC, which airs MMA events on NBC Sports, but not International soccer. Those that will parrot what Rovell said will certainly do so because they want to continue to assert that, in fact, soccer still isn’t possible in America.
But then the question becomes why do so many people, bloggers, for example, tout television statistics? Of course, for example, the NBA is going to do better ratings than the NHL, because it is on a network that is in more homes. Of course the NFL will do better than MLB, because the NFL, first off, is on only 16 times a year, on weekends and on broad cast television. And baseball is easier to follow without watching and is very good on the radio. There are mitigating factors.
The only plausible reason I can think that people post these rankings as part of their own narcissism. I like the NFL a lot, so I am going to show you that my opinion matches the rest of the world! I am of the opinion that baseball is in trouble, look at the ratings! Nobody watches the NHL, see?! Basically, they can be molded to any opinion that you want, but the fact still remains, fans of sports are going to remain fans of sports. Ratings information won’t change anything, anywhere. Certainly not the game itself.
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