'Sorry, NFL: Baseball Is Still America's Pastime'

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/10/sorry-nfl-baseball-is-still-americas-pastime/280985/

What a lot of us have been saying for years here:

It comes down to this: Baseball’s appeal is largely regional, while football’s is national. Baseball is followed locally, generally by fans who go to games. Football is followed on TV by fans who seldom, if ever, go to the stadium to see the games in person: Back in 2000, a report by MLB’s Blue Ribbon Panel estimated that perhaps 96 percent of all of those who identify themselves as football fans have never been to a pro football game.

 

This is a dumb, dumb argument all the way around. And this article is as dumb as the posts that say "Packers-Vikings outdrew the World Series so SUCK IT MLB!!!!"

Both sports are raking in more money than their owners ever dreamed possible.

 

The money quote cites a 13-year-old estimation from Major League Baseball. In other words, it relies on old, biased guesswork. Yeah, that's convincing.

 

That makes no sense.

 

1) How far off do you think that estimate is (or was)?

2) Given your answer to 1, to what degree do you think things have changed (re: attendance patterns in the NFL) since 2000?

 

What doesn't?

 

I think what a lot of us have been saying is that it's a fool's errand to point to some single metric -- e.g., attendance, TV viewership, you name it -- as demonstrating the greater purchase on the American public held by either the NFL or MLB.

 

Own a franchise in either sport, you won't get poor unless you're really an idiot.

 

PS: The overwhelming majority of sports fans I have met in what's getting to be a long life like both sports. Nobody has to choose just one.

 

Oh no, equivocation is not allowed. YOU MUST CHOOSE!

 

What are the numbers if you add up all the MLB TV money vs. the NFL's?

 

The pastime argument is insipid. However, I do think baseball will eventually surpass football in terms of industry revenue because it delivers exponentially more content. Recent regional cable deals in a number of markets are indicative of that trend.