I'm not American and I like all these Three Major Sports but I really
don't understand why media and sports fans tend to have a double
standard with NBA(and NFL) and MLB.
I have been reading how the NBA ratings were for Game 1 and I have
found that all media are pointing how good they were, even beating the
last episode of the Sopranos and the Tony Awards. The national Nielsen
ratings for Sunday's Game 1 on ABC were 9.8 rating and 17 share. This
was in June when the seasons of almost all series in other TV networks
are over and where there's no competition from other sports events. In
addition media writes that those ratings are up 53 percent from a 6.4,
that were the lowest rated NBA Finals.
I searched the TV ratings for last year's World Series and I have
found very interesting data: Game 1 of the series got a 10.9 rating
and 20 share and of course they don't hesitate to write a headline
like this: "Yanks-Marlins Series third-lowest rated ever".
Los Angeles is the 2nd largest market and Detroit the 10th while New
York is the 1st and Miami-Ft. Lauderdale the 17th.
Anyway, if instead of Detroit we pick the teams from the 9th TV market
(Atlanta) or the 11th (Houston), and those teams had to play agains
New York (I guess that the Yankees are in baseball what LA is in
basketball), what would the ratings be for the World Series even
considering that they are played in October when all the seasons of
series are on TV and there are other sports competitions? I guess that
they will be better than the ratings for Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Why this double standard in baseball and so much "tolerance" with NBA
and NFL?
Thank you.