yes, it's a dying sport with about $8 billion in revenues. sure. NBA ratings are certainly improved...from about 1999-2008 or so, MLB outperformed NBA in every rating category imaginable. NBA has certainly improved its ratings. But that doesn't translate to the death of MLB. That's absurd. And stop with the exaggerations....NBA beats every show across from it? No, that's the NFL. They finish the year with 7-8 of the top 10 rated programs all year long. Ratings in MLB and NFL championship series usually come down to who is in the Finals/World Series...in the NFL, it doesn't matter, the whole country is watching the Super Bowl. The NFL is its own animal, entirely. Let's see what NBA Finals ratings look like if the Spurs make the Finals...they've been a nightmare for ratings every year they've made the Finals. The Angels and Marlins argument is so weak I'm not sure where to start...are you saying that the Angels and Marlins would damage the NBA? Really? Did the Mavs winning the title distract Dallas?... because the Rangers are on the cusp of drawing 3.5 million fans this season. (As a complete aside, the Angels just pulled to within 3.5 games of the Rangers and have won 8 straight. They sell over 35K seats per game -- again, before school is out when traditionally ticket sales are slowest. A little tip...ticket sales for any league always lag the success of the team, because the biggest component is typically the season ticket base which are bought the offseason before). But your comparison initially was to MLS...at least you were smart enough to back away from that table. You're generalizing your own thoughts to everyone else. You find baseball to be boring so you look for the country to feel that way...while over 30K tickets are sold to an average MLB game which is just 1 of 81 in each home market.
Come on man, who are you kidding. The writing is on the wall, and has been for sometime. You are really bringing up the Rangers as an example. I mean the Rangers have been so bad over the years, that the fact that they have gone to back 2 back World Series should deliever a huge spike in their fanbase (if not, then that makes the MLB look even worse) And FYI the Rangers fans are watching the NBA more their own team. SMH http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/05/tv-ratings-indicate-rangers-fa.html The sports smorgasbord was loaded last night. Thought it would be a good time to see what local fans were watching. The Heat overtime win over the Celtics on ESPN led the pack with a 4.8 in Dallas-Fort Worth. Mariners batting practice at the Ballpark scored a 3.9 for FSSW as viewers abandoned the game in droves. The Kings OT win over the Devils on Channel 5 scored a 1.5 ---------------------------------- But thats besides the point, the ratings for the MLB, and the merchandise selling for the MLB has been getting killed by the NBA since the start of the 2009 season. The numbers are ugly( especially if you include the world population, which i did not) As you all know Basketball the 2nd most popular sport in the WORLD, behind the great game known as futbol. But the NBA is also growing ironically in the USA once again, from the steep decline after the 1998 season up until the 2007 season. You bring up the Spurs being a ratings nightmare for a potential NBA Finals againist the Heat after i just told you that the ratings for the Spurs vs. Thunder WCF is shattering last years WCF between the Thunder vs. Mavs by a 27% increase( some of it can attributed to TNT.. which regularly outdraws ESPN NBA games). But its more than that. The OKC Thunder play in the 36th biggest market in the USA, the San Antonio Spurs play in the 44th biggest market in the USA. This series between the Spurs and Thunder is averaging 8.6 million viewers... the highest such percentage for WCF since 2002( Kings vs. Lakers). That is good for the NBA The fact that more People in Indiana watched the Pacers vs. Heat game 3 over the Indy 500( and i mean destroyed the Indy 500 in its own market). Tells me that their is a shift of power going on in the sports world. And for those laying claim to the Miami Heat drawing power.. keep in mind, that ALL NBA Games have been increasing every year since 2009( regular season games included) The freaking 2012 NBA Draft Lottery drew 2.8 million viewers, thats crazy. For a 30 minute event that isnt even the REAL NBA Draft You also fail to mention that the NBA Finals has destroyed both the MLB World Series, and NHL Stanley Cup Finals the last 3 years in terms of ratings and viewership. Also you are forgetting the fastest growing demographic in the United States of America... LATINOS. Who openly admit that basketball is 2nd to them to only soccer as their favorite sport by a WIDE margin. So maybe the huge increase in Latinos is part of the reason why these ratings for the Thunder and Spurs are so high( especially when considering the markets).. AND NO LAKERS involved And then you bring up the scandals in the NBA, but you are living in the present, and if yo are such a huge MLB Fan as you say, then you would know that no sport has seen bigger scandals than that of the MLB. I mean just last year the MVP of the NL was given the award after testing positive for steriods. Boy that couldnt have been at a worse time, because last years World Series Ratings were decent( still WAY below the NBA Finals that went a measily 6 games). And that Steriod saga just set the sport back. And we can by TV Ratings, and how abysmal the ratings for the MLB Network, and games on ESPN have been in comparison with the NBA and NBA TV. Literrally the best chance, and im sure many hardcore MLB and NHL Fans were hoping for a lost season in the NBA, that was probably their best chance to get some of that power back in the sports world. But ironically looking back at it now. I really dont even a lost season would have hurt the NBA, not like many were predicting. Back to my main issue, the most telling sign for me last year that the MLB was in trouble was that ESPN televised a Wednesday night MLB game between none other than the Red-Sox and Yankees last year in a penant race( a couple games apart from each other in the standings). And that game was absouletly destroyed by a regular season NBA game between the Jazz and Warriors on the sister network ESPN2( with Doris Burke announcing smh) You can continue to deny, and claim that NBA is being "destroyed by scandals". But if you look around you will see that the 4 biggest major sports, have been affected by scandals in one way or another. ...( NFL Spygate, Bountygate)... ( MLB Steriod Era, Ryan Braun positive test)... ( NHL cancellation of a season, might be another lockout this fall, intentional injuries in the ice).... ( NBA alleged rigged league, crooked refs) I mean from what i can gather its looks like to me that if you and many others claim that the NBA is rigged, and unwatchable, then you are only a select few, because whether you wanna believe it or not. The NBA is right now only 2nd to the NFL, and thats something you probably would and many other would have laughed at me if i predicted that this would happen after the worst NBA Finals rating ever in 2007. Also you are forgetting the age demographic and audience of teenagers in America, and ironically Canada is basically the NBA's playground, i mean the numbers are insane. The NFL is a distant 2nd is that catergory to the NBA in the 18-32 age group). The NFL is 1st however in the (33-49 age group) with the NBA trailing in 2nd FYI google it, Basketball is the fastest growing sport in Canada. Its surprising how big of an impact Wince Carter had on the youth in Canada for the game of basketball
Thank you. These conspiracy theories are kind of entertaining, but it's hard to believe anyone actually believes this stuff. Oh, well. It's the offseason. I guess people are bored.
1. Let's start with this: http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/05/tv-ratings-indicate-rangers-fa.html Ummmm...this article is about the Rangers game where the Mariners did something that's only been done twice in the last 100 years...they put up two back to back 8 run innings. The Rangers lost that game 21-8!!! Yeah...I'm shocked they changed the channel. 2. I never said the NBA was being destroyed by scandals. I think they'd do well to address the question marks. I didn't bring up the comparison to baseball...I never brought baseball into this discussion to begin with. So stop suggesting that I've been building a baseball vs. basketball case in this thread. My response was to your post suggesting that MLS was gonna kill MLB. 3. Continuing to babble on that a sport that's bringing in around $8 billion per year...and is just now starting to see huge local cable contracts (Astros anticipate $80 million more in revenues/season with new Comcast deal)...is on its death bed is utterly ridiculous. Just in the same way the NBA wasn't dying when ratings were the worst I've ever seen while the Spurs met the Cavs in the Finals. 4. Also...as an aside...your numbers on basketball in some of the articles you cited get skewed because it's played by males and females under the same name -- even though they're vastly different games when played by males and females. Baseball is a male game, predominantly...softball is it's female cousin. When you break down and ask youth what sports they play, you need to add softball into baseball in order to get to even ground.
He's been the commissioner for way too long and presides over way too many mistakes. He got lucky that Magic, Bird, and Jordan played in his era or the NBA woule be done. Furthermore, with no Yao I doubt the NBA becomes so popular in China. Stern has overexpanded the league with way too many struggling teams, oversaw two lockouts, ignored scandals, and made rule changes designed to put more fans in the seats. The NBA went from focusing on its product (basketball) to gimmicks and the occasional slam dunk. Look at how much stupid **** they have during the games? Silver won't be much better, in fact he'll probably be worse. The NBA needs a new direction and a strong leader.
