that's too bad, i enjoyed it. got to see young pitching talent showcased, with the big names still playing.

i will say this though, the HR derby probably did nothing for the casual fan, to make them want to watch the A/S Game. it definitely lacked in name recognition guys.

 

IMO baseball has fallen to third among the major sports. Football is undoubtedly #1 and the NBA has more viewers for it's finals than baseball has for the WS. I think that the next decade will make the NBA's lead even more pronounced.

 

The NBA finals viewership had a lot to do with the Boston/LA thing, if it was the Lakers/Celtics against a different team I highly doubt the NBA draws as well as it did. Do regular season NBA games even draw? It's a serious question but I haven't paid real attention to the NBA since in late 90s. Because I know baseball does very well viewing wise for the most part.

 

Here's a link to a year old comparison between NBA and MLB:

http://www.sportsmediawatch.net/2009/11/tale-of-tape-nba-vs-mlb.html

They concluded that MLB had the advantage b/c of the WS. They felt the regular season and early post-season were a push. They were comparing Yankees/Phi to Lakers/Magic though not the Lakers/Celtics since that hadn't happened yet. IMO the closer market size makes Lakers/Celtics a more apt comparison.

 

I would say lakers/celtics is pretty much the biggest rivalry for the nba. Im willing to bet a red sox/yankees series in thep layoffs would beat it rating wise and a subway series like mets/yankees would come close to beating it.

 

I think baseball is terribly boring to watch. Even the fouling crybaby fest called the NBA is a lot more fun to watch. And I used to play baseball lol. As far as going to the game, I think I like going to Baseball games live a lot more than going to Basketball games. Although an A/C arena is a lot more comfy than an out door stadium down here.

 

MLB may have slightly been ahead of the NBA.

Until LeBron James brought everyone's attention to the NBA. Ratings next season for the NBA are going to be higher than they have been in a while.

 

Or some people could get turned off by what he did and stop watching the NBA, or chalk it up as it being typical NBA stuff...

 

I'm sure some people will be turned off, but the net effect will be easily positive as more casual fans will be brought in.

 

I could see it going both ways, alot of people were watching the NBA backing in the 80's and early to mid 90's, then it kinda fell off why?? After the old vets left, like Thomas, MJ, Magic, Bird, Barkley, etc a new generation of self-absorbed players came in and it seems it hasnt changed much, at least up here anyway...

Will you get people watching sure, I think so, maybe to see if they lose, and how do out of Miami market areas get to watch them?? NBA package....I dont see casual fans lining up to buy that....

I think it will be almost be like a convenience thing, if it is on ESPN, or NBC I think they will, weekdays dead of winter, I dont think so, people will watch the Celts still, and baseball is certainly King here in the northeast...I can see even less interest in the Pats this year....

We shall see though, should be interesting..

 

So you think a random Washington Wizards/Charlotte Bobcat game in the middle of the year is going to do big or better ratings because of Lebron? I think any Miami Heat game will do very well but (and maybe this is just me being out of touch with the NBA product) I'd probably guess rating wise for other teams will be about the same for the most part.

 

I actually think a Yankees/Mets WS would do bad ratings wise as people outside of NY and non Yankee/Met fans wouldn't care about it. A Yankees/Cubs or Red Sox/Cubs would do huge ratings for obvious reasons as would a NY/Boston vs. LA Dodger WS. Much like the NBA how a Lakers vs. Celtics/Heat final would do really well.

 

with the way the media would blow it up. I doubt it.

 

I think the NBA is going to look a lot like MLB in the near future. MLB is hyped to the point where only the Yankees / Red Sox are on TV (and a select few NL teams). Fans ONLY care about those teams because those are the only teams ESPN talks about.

Now the NBA has one team with three stars - so they will spend a majority of their time talking about those players and casual fans will only care about them and Kobe.

I enjoyed turning on any NBA game and thinking that I was going to see some stars and teams with a chance to win it all - now all the hype and good players will be centralized. The Heat and Lakers will see AMAZING ratings to bring the overall attention up, but the smaller teams will cease to matter on a national scale.

 

True that. The Nationals were only on a few times this year b/c of Strasburg. Otherwise I've never seen them on ESPN. I understand they haven't been the greatest team in the world but you only get no more than 6 teams EVER on a national broadcast.

 

I think the average Wizards fan is more involved in the NBA in general now. Casual fans right now are talking about who will win the title next year. That really hasn't happened with the NBA in recent memory.

And the LeBron thing is just the first step. The NBA has lagged behind the NFL in terms of making a spectacle out of everything they do. People will spend hours watching the 5th-7th round of the NFL draft. I'm sure next offseason you'll see the NBA build off what they did this year.

 

As someone pointed out, the Finals/World Series will be contingent on the matchups. I do believe that that best World Series matchup wold rate better than the best NBA matchup. I also don't necessarily buy that the next decade will see the NBA take the lead. Baseball has a lot of young stars in the game right now - a "changing of the guard" so to speak.

The NBA has the bigger stars as of right now, but the Wade's, LeBrons, Melo's and Kobe Bryant's don't come around very often. We honestly have not seen this type of stardom in the NBA since Jordan, Magic, Bird and Barkley were all in their primes (throw a young Shaq in there as well). If you consider that all of those guys have less than a decade left of their careers, and probably less than that of their primes, it's gonna be tough for them to sustain the ratings given that the NBA is a star driven league moreso than MLB in my opinion.

 

I sometimes wonder if the NBA would be better off marketing TEAMS more than PLAYERS - similar to the NFL. I understand the NFL has a much easier job in that players wear helmets and one single player can't take over a game - but people who are now Saints fans will be fans long after Brees is gone. I don't know the same about Cavs fans post LeBron etc.

The long-term health of these leagues is built on people being fans of their teams, through thick and thin - not following players around.

 

I'm almost 100% positive every team is scheduled to be on ESPN's Sunday night game of the week at least 1 until July, then ESPN has the right to pick which game it wants to put on due to playoff races etc. Which is how it should be in my opinion. I mean I want to see a meaningful game between two teams in a race instead of a Royals/Orioles game that means nothing.

I think every team gets a lot of air time on the MLB Network between their Thursday and Sunday games they show.

Personally I really don't care what channel my favorite team is on, whether it's a local broadcast, Fox, ESPN or MLB network. I just want to be able to see the game. I also rather watch the local feed instead of it being a national game since I can get specific team coverage. Plus with the MLB baseball package or MLB TV online it gives people who don't live in the area of their favorite team a chance to watch their teams' games.

I honestly just picked two random teams off the top of my head for all I don't know if they're any good or not.

But yes the NBA is buzzing right now and there's been a lot of hype over the whole Lebron thing but the season is 4 months away, it will be interesting to see if the league can keep up the hype. I'm really not sure if you'll see a big increase in viewers besides anytime the Heat play but again I do admit I'm out of the loop in terms of the product and just speaking from my point of view. I admit I was a little interested to see where Lebron would go and I did watch the first 30 minutes of his 'decision' simply because nothing else was on TV. But once that whole thing ended the NBA was dead to me again.

 

There are teams I've never seen on ESPN. It makes sense to have the big money teams on b/c it generates revenue. I get that. All the time though?

It doesn't really bother me b/c living in the D.C. area, I can see the Nats anytime I want to. In fact, they're the only team I can stand in this area so it's good to have as much access to them as I do. I'd feel bad if you liked a team out of state, such as the Mariners or D-Backs and had no access to them b/c ESPN has an East Coast bias.

 

Which teams haven't you seen on ESPN? Just curious as the only time I really watch ESPN is for the Sunday night game, everything else I watch is via the baseball package.

Like I said though, if you live on the east coast and want to see Mariner or D-Back games you have options like the MLB Package via cable system or through MLBTV.com online. It's not like you're kept in the dark. Plus ESPN has cut down on the number of games they show now anyway since the MLB Network is around.

 

The 2009-10 NBA Finals almost doubled the 2009 World Series' ratings. This tells us that people are more interested in how the NBA's season turns out than how MLB's season turns out.

I don't think you can claim that the NBA did better because of two storied franchises playing each other. What exactly was the World Series if not two storied franchises, the Phillies and Yankees, playing each other?

The NBA is doing pretty well right now. They projected a downturn but actually made money. This is pretty amazing considering that since Jordan retired for the second time, the NBA has been dominated by the Lakers and Spurs. That's a pretty big stake in the heart of the argument that strong teams result in diminished ratings.

 

Great point, and think that's why NBA is behind MLB. When ESPN does a game, it's Yankees vs. Red Sox. When TNT or ESPN or whoever does a game, it's Kobe vs. LeBron.

It's also why I've said before, guys changing teams isn't nearly as big a deal in baseball as it is in other sports. Baseball fans seem get over it. But maybe that's because one player in basketball can mean the difference between a Finals appearance or no playoffs at all.

 

Desides, I wouldn't call the Phillies a 'Storied Franchise'. Unless of course you consider the Eagles a storied franchise.

 

It was still Philadelphia, a big market with (supposedly) passionate fans.

Although they were dead last in NBA attendance last year.

 

Yeah but no one outside of Philly cares about Philly. It really doesn't surprise me the ratings were low for a Series involving them. The Rays vs. Phillies series was one the lowest rated in recent memory IIRC.

 

Yeah I wouldn't call philly a big market. At least not as big as say the dodgers, new york, even teams like the giants.

 

http://www.tvb.org/rcentral/markettrack/us_hh_by_dma.asp

Here's a link to market size. Philly is #4. It's a huge market. The Phillies just weren't an interesting team that got non-fans to watch. Same with the Rays. The Yankees are interesting, thus got people to watch.

Incidentally, this list of market share actually undervalues S. Fla., as they remove West Palm from the market. If you add W. Palm back in, as it should be because people there root for the Fins/Heat, etc., our market moves all the way up to 10th in the country.

 

Right, but they just don't have the following of other teams. That is part of their market. Think how many fans do you see of the phillies wondering around your area, now think how many you see of the celtics, lakers, yankees, cowboys, etc.

 

True, but that's less market size and simply a by product of those teams winning alot and being on tv alot. Had the Pittsburgh Pirates won 27 World Series they'd have fans in every city too, it doesn't necessarily have to do with New York.

 

I think our definitions of market differ. You seem to define it as the tv market of the individual city. I would define though as the fan base. For instance we would say the european soccer market in the US is not very large as there are fewer soccer fans in the US.

 

I disagree. Lakers/Miami this coming season would trump any WS that MLB could put out there.

I agree the NBA is star driven and they will have another decade with the bigger stars. After that you have Durant who may extend that beyond 10 years. MLB has been on a downward spiral for decades. Back in the 80s the WS would get a 20-25+ share. Now they celebrate anything above 10. In fact, they were as low as 6 in one of the Phi/TB games. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see the MLB average drop below 10 for the next decade. It would just be continuing the established long term trend.

The NBA was generally in the teens through the Jordan years. They dropped down to 8 post Jordan. I expect that if as expected the stars are playing in the finals, that the NBA will move back up over 10. It wouldn't surprise me if the NBA dropped down after a decade or so like it did when Jordan retired. But I also expect that MLB will have continued it's downward spiral.

 

Nope, I have a trump card: The Chicago Cubs. If they ever make it to a World Series it will kick the *** of every sporting event not named The Super Bowl :hi5:

 

dodgers vs yankees would be big I would think as well. If the red sox return it would be pretty big also.

 

But by the time that happens baseball may be the 4th or 5th most watched sport.

 

Sports leagues are traditionally at their best when the large market teams are successful. Boston vs. L.A. is probably the biggest rivalry in SPORTS, so you almost have to throw that number out as I am sure it spiked way higher than the average NBA ratings, Finals or otherwise.

Same rings true for baseball and football too. If the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers, Cubs, etc., are doing well, traditionally the ratings will improve. Simply since the larger market teams have larger fans following and viewing.

LeBron going to Miami WILL help the other teams from a local ratings standpoint and in ticket sales since Miami coming into town will draw the interest now. A matchup of Miami vs. Charlotte Bobcats might not entice locl fans to sit and watch on TV last year. This upcoming season, it will be appointment television. Much like when MJ and the Bulls used to roll through towns in his heyday.

Miami will also get more primetime games which will help the national ratings of the NBA than say...a Celtics game would last year.

 

I agree, Baseball is a sport where I rather watch my team on local broadcast instead of national TV. I just love the announcers better and can't stand Buck and McCaver for fox and Joe Morgan for ESPN.

The NBA finals almost doubled the 2009 World Series ratings because they had two of the most popular teams in the NBA going at it. You can't deny it that it helped NBA get better ratings because it did. The rivalry made it must watch basketball. You also have to realize, the only people watching the World Series was East coasters. No one on the West Coast cared. Also you have to throw in the fact the Laker-Celtics series was more dramatic. It was more exciting. Everyone knew the Yankees were going to win after game 3. It barley went to game 6. If the World Series was the Yankees/Dodgers it would have higher ratings. I guarantee if the Red Sox moved to the National League and it was a Yankee/Red Sox World Series, it would have destroyed the Lakers/Celtics ratings. The teams playing the games have a huge impact on the ratings. I bet the Phillies/Rays ratings were terrible.

Agree 100%. A lot of NBA fans are fans of the players and not the team. Baseball its different.

 

Actually, the way I see it, the Lakers-Celtics rivalry isn't nearly as relevant as it used to be, and shouldn't be considered an automatic ratings draw. (And the fact that only northeasterners watched the 2009 World Series just confirms that the relative health of a sports league has no relation to the quality of its New York-area teams.)

I view it as the sport of basketball being more popular than the sport of baseball. And I think the coming clash of the titans in a potential Heat-Lakers finals will be huge.

 

I forgot it was even all star time for MLB honestly.