Participants of team sports in the U.S. are more interested in the Winter Olympics than any another sport, according to data from SGMA. Among 22 major spectator sports polled, 67.2% of team sports participants were interested in the Winter Olympics, followed by the Summer Olympics (65.1%) and the NFL (60.5%). College football fandom jumped past MLB in this year’s survey, while women’s tennis was the only female sport to outrank its male counterpart. Fourteen percent of Americans said they were not fans of any of the 22 sports.
HOCKEY FANS RULE: Ice hockey participants are among the most enthusiastic fans of nearly all the major U.S. sports leagues, not just the NHL. Among participants in team sports in the U.S., those who said they participate in ice hockey ranked in the top five for fandom of the NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB and MLS. No other segment of team sports ranked in the top five for those respective leagues.
LOOKING FOR A BETTER PITCH: SGMA data also showed that MLS has some work to do among fans. Fifty-seven percent of participants in team sports rated themselves as “not at all interested” in the league, while 29% of soccer participants said they weren’t interested. Meanwhile, interest in int'l soccer had the biggest year-over-year percentage growth among all sports polled (+12.3%).
Listed below are ’10 percentages of team sports participants in the U.S. who are interested in major sports, compared to results from '09. Interest is defined as those who responded “very” or “somewhat” interested, but excludes those who answered “a little bit.” Also see team sports participation figures in yesterday’s issue of the THE DAILY.
| TEAM SPORTS PARTICIPANTS INTERESTED IN…… |
| SPORT | '09 | '10 | % +/- |
| Winter Olympics | 66.5% | 67.2% | 1.1% |
| Summer Olympics | 67.1% | 65.1% | -3.0% |
| NFL | 60.6% | 60.5% | -0.2% |
| College football | 52.5% | 52.8% | 0.6% |
| MLB | 53.0% | 51.7% | -2.5% |
| College basketball | 41.3% | 43.0% | 4.1% |
| NBA | 43.3% | 42.2% | -2.5% |
| NHL | 34.6% | 34.8% | 0.6% |
| NASCAR | 33.2% | 31.2% | -6.0% |
| PGA Tour | 30.5% | 30.8% | 1.0% |
| Women's tennis | 28.8% | 28.4% | -1.4% |
| College baseball | 26.6% | 27.5% | 3.4% |
| X Games | 26.9% | 26.5% | -1.5% |
| Int'l soccer | 23.5% | 26.4% | 12.3% |
| Men's tennis | 27.3% | 26.3% | -3.7% |
| MLS | 23.9% | 25.0% | 4.6% |
| Boxing | n/a | 24.5% | n/a |
| WNBA | 22.5% | 23.3% | 3.6% |
| UFC | 22.7% | 21.5% | -5.3% |
| LPGA | 21.1% | 21.3% | 0.9% |
| None | 13.5% | 14.0% | 3.7% |
