Shadowlight
Master
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2013
- Messages
- 3,882
Nice article by Samuel Chi up at Breitbart News. There is a graph from four years ago that illustrates sports that are popular for Democrats and or Republicans. Tennis, European Soccer and NBA fans were more Democrat while Auto Racing, NHL , College Football and Golf fans were more likely to be Republicans. Most of the other major sports landed somewhere near the middle or just a touch to the Republican ledger. Obviously this is not a straight line thing as most all sports are enjoyed by people from all over the political spectrum but it does emphasize which sports are favored by "conservatives" and which sports are favored by "liberals" in a general sense. Chi correctly believes that the NBA fan base has shifted even more left since this graph was put up four years ago.
The NBA which ESPN is heavily invested in, is experiencing some problems similar to the downward spiral the NFL found itself in during the first half of their season. ESPN coverage of the NBA this season is down 5 % and TNT is down 8%. Even more problematic are the local station ratings. 15 NBA teams had double digit losses on their local TV ratings and across the 30 teams ratings were down a whopping 14% across 30 markets. To summarize that isn't good.
Chi sites several political moments that probably turned away some fans like the Donald Sterling incident where a private conversation was used against him. High profile players like Lebron and Curry and several Head Coaches coming out against Donald Trump are cited as well.
But what is not mentioned is what I think is the main reason the NBA is faltering. Mediocre product to a degree is hurting the league but mainly the LACK OF WHITE STARS is the REAL PROBLEM. And I am not just talking about filling up the rosters with a few more white guys. No I am talking about having several top flight white stars dot the NBA landscape. And the sport needs to present itself so white folks are not turned off by it too. If they can't or don't address the lack of whites issue then I suspect the NBA will continue to suffer. ESPN has decided to put most of their muscle behind this league but if the NBA keeps losing fans this whole set up could get ugly real fast. In fact it already has started to get ugly.
The NBA which ESPN is heavily invested in, is experiencing some problems similar to the downward spiral the NFL found itself in during the first half of their season. ESPN coverage of the NBA this season is down 5 % and TNT is down 8%. Even more problematic are the local station ratings. 15 NBA teams had double digit losses on their local TV ratings and across the 30 teams ratings were down a whopping 14% across 30 markets. To summarize that isn't good.
Chi sites several political moments that probably turned away some fans like the Donald Sterling incident where a private conversation was used against him. High profile players like Lebron and Curry and several Head Coaches coming out against Donald Trump are cited as well.
But what is not mentioned is what I think is the main reason the NBA is faltering. Mediocre product to a degree is hurting the league but mainly the LACK OF WHITE STARS is the REAL PROBLEM. And I am not just talking about filling up the rosters with a few more white guys. No I am talking about having several top flight white stars dot the NBA landscape. And the sport needs to present itself so white folks are not turned off by it too. If they can't or don't address the lack of whites issue then I suspect the NBA will continue to suffer. ESPN has decided to put most of their muscle behind this league but if the NBA keeps losing fans this whole set up could get ugly real fast. In fact it already has started to get ugly.