A December 2003 Gallup poll found that 37% of Americans named football as their favorite sport to watch. Almost a third of this number, 14%, said basketball, followed by 10% who named baseball and 6% who said figure skating. Ice hockey was named by 5%, as was auto racing. (See Figure 5.1.) Golf was named by 3%, and soccer and boxing were cited by 2% each.
While the number of Americans naming football and basketball had held relatively steady over the preceding ten years, the number of baseball fans had declined noticeably. Baseball was once the top spectator sport in America—in 1948, 39% named it their favorite sport to watch, and in 1960, 34% did, with football cited by just 21%. By 1972, however, football had taken the lead, 32% to 24%.
In 2003 about 67.6 million people attended Major League Baseball games and slightly more than 28,000
FIGURE 5.1
bought tickets to the average game. In the National Basketball Association's 2003–04 season, 20.3 million fans bought tickets, and an average of 17,059 attended each game. The National Hockey League also counted close to 20.3 million tickets sold in 2003–04 and averaged 16,533 per game. The National Football League had 17.1 million ticket buyers in 2003, but with far fewer games the average attendance was 66,726.
Although ratings of televised sports including baseball, basketball, and hockey declined in the early twenty-first century, football held steady. In 2004 approximately seventy-two thousand ticket buyers and 143 million television viewers watched the Super Bowl victory of the New England Patriots over the Carolina Panthers.
Collegiate Athletics
FOOTBALL. College sports are also popular with Americans, and many college teams inspire more devotion than
TABLE 5.1
| National Collegiate Athletic Association football attendance, 2003 | ||||||
| Division I-A and I-AA conferences and independents | ||||||
| Total teams | G | 2003 attend. | Avg. PG | Change+ in avg. | Change+ in total | |
| #Did not have same lineup as 2002. | ||||||
| $New national record. | ||||||
| *Record high. | ||||||
| SOURCE: "2003 NCAA College Football Attendance," The National Collegiate Athletic Association Statistics Service, 2004, http://www.ncaa.org/stats/football/attendance/2003/2003footballattendance.pdf (accessed September 10, 2004) | ||||||
| 1. Southeastern (I-A) | 12 | 83 | $6,146,890 | $74,059 | Up 744 | Up 61,734 |
| 2. Big Ten (I-A) | 11 | 75 | 5,264,867 | *70,198 | Up 261 | Dn 190,238 |
| 3. Big 12 (I-A) | 12 | 81 | *4,565,288 | *56,362 | Up 1,187 | Up 206,470 |
| 4. Atlantic Coast (I-A) | 9 | 58 | *3,012,392 | *51,938 | Up 945 | Up 54,781 |
| 5. Pacific-10 (I-A) | 10 | 62 | 3,199,732 | *51,608 | Up 1,610 | Dn 100,129 |
| 6. Big East (I-A) | 8 | 51 | *2,390,358 | *46,870 | Up 3,179 | Up 74,750 |
| 7. Div. I-A Indep.# | 4 | 21 | 940,404 | 44,781 | Up 6,755 | Up 103,830 |
| 8. Mountain West (I-A) | 8 | 49 | *1,607,660 | 32,809 | Dn 2,077 | Up 2,905 |
| 9. Conference USA (I-A)# | 11 | 67 | *2,167,173 | *32,346 | Up 5,705 | Up 382,218 |
| 10. Western Athletic (I-A) | 10 | 59 | 1,455,837 | 24,675 | Dn 384 | Up 2,431 |
| 11. Mid-American (I-A) | 14 | 84 | *1,496,906 | 17,820 | Up 283 | Up 76,381 |
| 12. Sun Belt (I-A)# | 8 | 42 | *602,763 | *14,352 | Up 795 | Up 19,817 |
| 13. SW Athletic (I-AA) | 10 | 48 | 579,976 | 12,083 | Up 1,133 | Up 120,065 |
| 14. Southern (I-AA)# | 9 | 54 | 563,433 | 10,434 | Up 647 | Up 44,712 |
| 15. Ivy (I-AA) | 8 | 42 | 431,729 | 10,279 | Up 919 | Dn 26,893 |
| 16. Gateway (I-AA) | 8 | 50 | *509,725 | *10,195 | Up 835 | Up 51,103 |
| 17. Big Sky (I-AA) | 8 | 49 | 495,861 | 10,120 | Up 484 | Up 42,976 |
| 18. Southland (I-AA)# | 6 | 33 | 31,628 | 10,049 | Up 373 | Dn 16,725 |
| 19. Mid-Eastern (I-AA) | 9 | 39 | 388,800 | 9,969 | Up 705 | Dn 65,147 |
| 20. Atlantic 10 (I-AA) | 11 | 66 | 535,253 | 8,100 | Up 841 | Up 46,439 |
| 21. Ohio Valley (I-AA)# | 9 | 48 | 343,855 | 7,164 | Up 12 | Up 36,327 |
| 22. Div. I-AA Indep.# | 7 | 41 | 244,645 | 5,967 | Up 846 | Up 34,691 |
| 23. Patriot (I-AA) | 8 | 49 | *277,167 | 5,656 | Up 445 | Up 42,692 |
| 24. Big South (I-AA)# | 5 | 29 | 136,101 | 4,693 | Dn 1,223 | Dn 17,710 |
| 25. Pioneer (I-AA) | 9 | 54 | *210,949 | 3,906 | Up 574 | Up 44,367 |
| 26. Northeast (I-AA) | 8 | 37 | *89,255 | *2,412 | Up 357 | Up 4,983 |
| 27. Metro Atlantic(I-AA)# | 6 | 33 | 62,007 | 1,879 | Dn 243 | Dn 5,883 |
| Div. I-A teams | 117 | 732 | 32,850,270 | 44,877 | — — | — — |
| Div. I-A neutral sites | 12 | 776,619 | 64,718 | — — | — — | |
| Div. I-A bowl games | 28 | 1,458,757 | 52,098 | — — | — — | |
| Div. I-A. totals # | 117 | 772 | *35,085,646 | *45,447 | Up 1,080 | Up 701,382 |
| Div. I-AA teams | 121 | 672 | 5,200,384 | 7,739 | — — | — — |
| Div. I-AA neutral sites | 26 | 855,451 | 32,902 | — — | — — | |
| Div. I-AA championship game | 1 | 14,281 | 14,281 | — — | — — | |
| Div. I-AA totals # | 121 | 699 | 6,070,116 | 8,684 | Up 791 | Up 544,866 |
| Div. II teams | 150 | 771 | 2,744,177 | 3,559 | — — | — — |
| Div. II neutral sites | 14 | 84,443 | 6,032 | — — | — — | |
| Div. II championship game | 1 | 7,236 | 7,236 | — — | — — | |
| Div. II totals # | 150 | 786 | 2,835,856 | 3,608 | Up 285 | Up 189,044 |
| Div. III teams | 229 | 1,127 | 2,097,719 | 1,861 | — — | — — |
| Div. III neutral sites | 16 | 50,129 | 3,133 | — — | — — | |
| Div. III championship game | 1 | 5,073 | 5,073 | — — | — — | |
| Div. III totals # | 229 | 1,144 | 2,152,921 | 1,882 | Up 123 | Up 153,258 |
| All NCAA teams | *617 | *3,401 | *46,144,539 | 13,568 | Up 444 | Up 1,588,324 |
their professional counterparts. Saturday afternoon in autumn in many college towns offers more than just a football game—it gives old college friends a chance to reconnect and colleges the opportunity to pamper wealthy alumni from whom they hope to someday receive donations.
The "tailgate" party is a ritual of college football, and parking lots near stadiums on football Saturdays are typically filled with large recreational vehicles, campers, and station wagons from which food and drinks are dispensed as fans socialize before the game. With autumn leaves crunching underfoot, the scent of grilling burgers fills the air, and the strains of the school fight song drift in from the marching band warming up nearby. Season tickets to many college teams' football seasons are prized possessions, and they are sometimes handed down from generation to generation.
In 2003 total attendance for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I-A football was 35.1 million. An additional 11.1 million attended games at smaller schools in the Division I-AA, Division II, and Division III leagues. Average attendance in Division I was 45,447, and for the NCAA as a whole it was 13,568. (See Table 5.1.)
TABLE 5.2
| National Collegiate Athletic Association women's basketball attendance, 2003–2004 | ||||||
| [NCAA varsity women's teams only; home attendance includes double-headers with men in which separate attendance was taken by halftime of the women's game] | ||||||
| Total teams | Game or session | 2003–04 net attendance | Average per game or sesson | Change@ in total | Change@ in avg. | |
| *Record. Net attendance includes some double-headers with men if attendance is counted by halftime of the women's game. @The 2002–03 figures used for comparisons reflect 2003–04 changes in divisional lineups to provide parallel comparisons (i.e., 2003–04 lineups vs. same teams in 2002–03, whether members or not). | ||||||
| SOURCE: 2003–2004 NCAA Women's Basketball Attendance, The National Collegiate Athletic Association Statistical Service, 2004, http://www.ncaa.org/stats/w_basketball/attendance/2003-04/2003-04_attendance.pdf (accessed September 10, 2004) | ||||||
| Home attendance, NCAA Div. I | *324 | 4,273 | 6,718,289 | 1,572 | Down 177,244 | No change |
| NCAA Div. I Tournament | — | 42 | 318,666 | 7,587 | Down 15,921 | Down 379 |
| Other Div. I neutral sites | — | 120 | 136,422 | 1,137 | Up 14,908 | Up 62 |
| NCAA Division I totals | *324 | 4,435 | 7,173,377 | 1,617 | Down 178,257 | Down 2 |
| Home attendance, NCAA Div. II | 269 | 3,456 | 1,631,098 | 472 | Up 14,603 | Up 9 |
| Home attendance, NCAA Div. III | *415 | *4,912 | *1,039,547 | *212 | Up 39,076 | Up 4 |
| Neutral-Site attendance, Divs. II & III | — | 154 | 88,712 | 576 | Up 18,527 | Up 99 |
| NCAA Div. II Tournament | — | 36 | 43,309 | 1,203 | Down 11,466 | Down 319 |
| NCAA Div. III Tournament | — | 44 | 40,063 | 911 | Down 800 | Down 18 |
| National totals | 1,008 | 13,037 | 10,016,106 | 768 | Down 147,523 | Down 6 |
The football team of the University of Michigan sold out every home game in 2003, boasting average attendance of 110,918 per game, or 103% of the stadium's official seating capacity. Other teams, including Penn State, Tennessee, and Ohio State, also averaged more than 100,000 per home game.
BASKETBALL. College basketball draws millions of fans each year. In 2003 varsity men's basketball drew a total of 30.1 million fans, twenty-five million of whom went to Division I games. The average game in Division I had 5,372 in attendance, with the entire NCAA averaging 2,339. Leading schools included Kentucky, with an average of 22,271 per home game, Syracuse, with 20,921, and Louisville, with 19,037.
SOCCER, BASEBALL, AND OTHER SPORTS. According to the NCAA Web site, more than 40,000 student athletes participate in NCAA competition each year. In addition to football and basketball, other popular college sports included soccer, ice hockey, volleyball, baseball, softball, and lacrosse, a sport gaining enthusiasts in the early twenty-first century. The 2003 NCAA lacrosse championship game was attended by 43,898. According to U.S. Lacrosse, Inc., in 2003 almost 25,000 men and 5,500 women were playing lacrosse.
WOMEN'S ATHLETICS. Title IX of the Education Amendments passed by Congress in 1972 addressed gender equity in college education, and a series of amendments and later legal rulings significantly improved funding for women's sports programs in colleges, which had previously been given little money. As a result, opportunities for women in college athletics were greatly expanded, and their popularity exploded. In 2003–04 attendance at NCAA women's basketball games was ten million for all divisions. Division I schools averaged 1,617 fans per game. (See Table 5.2.)
Professional Wrestling—Is It a Sport?
Professional wrestling enjoyed a dramatic increase in popularity in the 1990s, but then peaked and fell off in the early years of the twenty-first century. World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE—formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation) sold 1.8 million tickets to live events in 2003, down from a high of 2.5 million in 2001. Sales of pay-per-view television shows dropped to 5.3 million from eight million.
Wrestling fans tend to be male and young. According to Nielsen Media Research cited by the WWE in 2003, 71% of the television audience for WWE programs was male, and 29% was female. More than half were under the age of thirty-four, with 42% between twelve and twenty-four.
Professional wrestling is really athletic entertainment, since the results of the match are usually predetermined, a fact many Americans formerly did not understand. A 1999 Gallup survey found that eight out of ten Americans believed that the outcomes of most wrestling matches were fixed, compared to less than two out of ten who believed that in 1951. This may be why 81% of Americans, according to the survey, said that wrestling was not a sport. True wrestling fans, however, begged to differ. Among persons describing themselves as wrestling fans (and 18% of Americans did), 44% said that wrestling was, indeed, a sport.
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