[jonnyss]

Couple of thoughts:

1) I played football and basketball and ran track in high school.  My worst injuries always came from basketball (dislocations, sprained ankles), but I had two concussions in football.  Really didn't want to play it, but father-of-the-year pressured me to do so.

2) I can't speak to age group appeal like BC just did, but here's the collective, league-wide season live attendance for the major sports leagues. I did not include any non-American leagues in any sport other than EPL. Second figure is annual TV viewership:

 - MLB, 68.5 mms. (30 teams) - Does not include AAA (13.5 mms.), AA (8.8 mms.), 24 mms.
 - NCAA D1 FBS football, 36.7 mms. (131 teams), 249 mms.
 - NCAA D1 basketball, 28.0 mms. (358 teams), 351 mms. men, 349 mms. women
 - NHL, 22.2 mms. (30 teams), 27.6 mms.
 - NBA, 22.0 mms. (32 teams, never would have guessed that hockey outdrew the NBA collectively), 50.4 mms.
 - NFL, 17.0 mms. (32 teams), 114.4 mms.
 - EPL, 11.1 mms. (20 teams, premier division only)
 - MLS, 8.7 mms. (28 teams) , 29.3 mms.

The not too surprising conclusions is that it's immaterial which sports are more popular across the age ranges, unless you're selling advertising or tickets.  They serve different purposes.  Baseball is the ultimate social game with the most possible in-person interactions.  it's the slowest, with the least action, so it's a fun social activity.  Basketball and hoickey are frenetic, focus is on the action.  Soccer, less so, and if you didn't grow up with the game, you don't understand the subtleties or the differences between MLS and EPL (which are vast, let me assure you). Our pro soccer league is to EPL what Korean baseball is to MLB.

I found the changes in sports viewership over time to be noteworthy.  Soccer is on an upswing...still small, but went up 250% in a decade.  Football hit a nadir at 28% and in a decade peaked at 43%.  I don't understand the basketball chart.  It's been between 8% and 15% for its entire existence.  It was at 8% in 1937, it's at 9% now, though it's wholly different.  Remember the late 1970s NBA championships were on tape delay? And then after rounds of improvement, from Chamberlain/Russell to Dr. J/Kareem to Bird/Magic to Jordan to Kobe to Lebron to Durant/Curry/Harden, interest in the NBA - I thought - took off.

the women's ncaa bb tv viewership seems surprisingly high. am i reading it correctly as 349 million vs 351 million men? if true, that's great! sure bodes well for women's bb as a revenue sport.

[jonnyss]

Couple of thoughts:

1) I played football and basketball and ran track in high school.  My worst injuries always came from basketball (dislocations, sprained ankles), but I had two concussions in football.  Really didn't want to play it, but father-of-the-year pressured me to do so.

2) I can't speak to age group appeal like BC just did, but here's the collective, league-wide season live attendance for the major sports leagues. I did not include any non-American leagues in any sport other than EPL. Second figure is annual TV viewership:

 - MLB, 68.5 mms. (30 teams) - Does not include AAA (13.5 mms.), AA (8.8 mms.), 24 mms.
 - NCAA D1 FBS football, 36.7 mms. (131 teams), 249 mms.
 - NCAA D1 basketball, 28.0 mms. (358 teams), 351 mms. men, 349 mms. women
 - NHL, 22.2 mms. (30 teams), 27.6 mms.
 - NBA, 22.0 mms. (32 teams, never would have guessed that hockey outdrew the NBA collectively), 50.4 mms.
 - NFL, 17.0 mms. (32 teams), 114.4 mms.
 - EPL, 11.1 mms. (20 teams, premier division only)
 - MLS, 8.7 mms. (28 teams) , 29.3 mms.

The not too surprising conclusions is that it's immaterial which sports are more popular across the age ranges, unless you're selling advertising or tickets.  They serve different purposes.  Baseball is the ultimate social game with the most possible in-person interactions.  it's the slowest, with the least action, so it's a fun social activity.  Basketball and hoickey are frenetic, focus is on the action.  Soccer, less so, and if you didn't grow up with the game, you don't understand the subtleties or the differences between MLS and EPL (which are vast, let me assure you). Our pro soccer league is to EPL what Korean baseball is to MLB.

I found the changes in sports viewership over time to be noteworthy.  Soccer is on an upswing...still small, but went up 250% in a decade.  Football hit a nadir at 28% and in a decade peaked at 43%.  I don't understand the basketball chart.  It's been between 8% and 15% for its entire existence.  It was at 8% in 1937, it's at 9% now, though it's wholly different.  Remember the late 1970s NBA championships were on tape delay? And then after rounds of improvement, from Chamberlain/Russell to Dr. J/Kareem to Bird/Magic to Jordan to Kobe to Lebron to Durant/Curry/Harden, interest in the NBA - I thought - took off.

the women's ncaa bb tv viewership seems surprisingly high. am i reading it correctly as 349 million vs 351 million men? if true, that's great! sure bodes well for women's bb as a revenue sport.