Baseball or Football

**jbhtexas** · 04-23-2009, 12:23 AM

Originally Posted by jumbopackage

The XFL or USFL wasn't an extension of the NFL, it was an attempt to create a whole new professional league at that same level, and it required the same level of financial support to succeed.

As I posted earlier, 79,000,000 people a year watch MLB games. It seems to me that if professional FB would have anywhere near that kind of fan support, the USFL would have made it, even to watch FB that wasn't quite NFL caliber. Also, prior to the USFL, there was also the WFL that failed.

In any case, the USFL is apparently going to try it again. As with the other attempts, the success will depend on whether fans come to watch the games. I guess the organizers of this league must see somthing out there, or they wouldn't be trying it (unless they are insane)...

The New USFL - For the Love of the Game!

**EYEoftheSTORM** · 04-23-2009, 12:31 AM

Originally Posted by chuckd4735

Some people should not be allowed to post...

Do you think if football had 81 home games that they would be sell outs every game.... think before you criticize

**ianoconnor** · 04-23-2009, 12:33 AM

Better: Baseball
More popular: Football

**jumbopackage** · 04-23-2009, 12:36 AM

Originally Posted by jbhtexas

As I posted earlier, 79,000,000 people a year watch MLB games. It seems to me that if professional FB would have anywhere near that kind of fan support, the USFL would have made it, even to watch FB that wasn't quite NFL caliber. Also, prior to the USFL, there was also the WFL that failed.

In any case, the USFL is apparently going to try it again. As with the other attempts, the success will depend on whether fans come to watch the games. I guess the organizers of this league must see somthing out there, or they wouldn't be trying it (unless they are insane)...

The New USFL - For the Love of the Game!

Again, you're comparing apples to oranges.

Compare ratings for the NFL playoffs to the MLB playoffs.

Compare ratings for NFL regular season games to MLB regular season games.

They are two different things, and they are somewhat hard to compare. I would wager if you cut the number of MLB games in 1/4, you still wouldn't draw significantly more people per game than you do now. Just because MLB has a much longer season doesn't mean that it's more popular.

As for the USFL/XFL/WFL thing, you're asking fans in cities that already have professional franchises to start cheering for a new team that doesn't have the best talent (that would be in the NFL) in direct competition to the NFL. It's a totally different set of circumstances than minor league baseball, where the teams don't exist in the same cities as big league teams. It would be like trying to start up a minor league baseball team in a city that already has a MLB team in it playing at the same time.

**jbhtexas** · 04-23-2009, 12:49 AM

Originally Posted by jumbopackage

It's a totally different set of circumstances than minor league baseball, where the teams don't exist in the same cities as big league teams. It would be like trying to start up a minor league baseball team in a city that already has a MLB team in it playing at the same time.

Huh???

Right now, DFW has three minor league baseball teams playing at the same time as the Texas Rangers. The Grand Prairie AirHogs were started up last year, and their brand new ballpark is about 5 miles away from the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Of course baseball and football are difficult to compare...they are totally different sports. But we are trying to evaluate the popularity of each sport, and in order to do that, we have to compare something...

**coachdags** · 04-23-2009, 12:51 AM

Interesting question....?

There is the professional argument and then the collegiate argument, and I guess you could throw in High School, Amateur and Youth Leagues too......Which is the Most overall popular...?

Poll Added....

**ISUboi12** · 04-23-2009, 12:54 AM

Since when is average attendance a criteria for popularity?

Does that mean Nascar is more popular than the NFL?

I feel like baseball is more popular, especially because it is affordable and caters to families. Its level of fanaticism might not be the same.

**coachdags** · 04-23-2009, 12:59 AM

I imagine to find the answer one would need:

Particaption
Attendance
Viewership

At all levels of play for both Sports.....

**bigredqb7** · 04-23-2009, 12:59 AM

i voted on the assumption that football was not american football, but real football. was i wrong in doing this?

**coachdags** · 04-23-2009, 01:01 AM

Originally Posted by bigredqb7

i voted on the assumption that football was not american football, but real football. was i wrong in doing this?

You knew what you were doing , you Soccer fanatic....

**ketchupnmustard** · 04-23-2009, 01:02 AM

I'd rather go to a football game because as a fan, I feel somewhat more involved in the game. Football games usually have a little more charge in the atmosphere.

But in the Summer, baseball's charm is it's pretty nice to just sit, crack open peanuts, drink beer, and heckle the closest opposing player. But not necessarily in that order.

**bigredqb7** · 04-23-2009, 01:04 AM

Originally Posted by coachdags

You knew what you were doing , you Soccer fanatic....

haha you caught me

**isunorth** · 04-23-2009, 02:29 AM

Originally Posted by ISUboi12

Since when is average attendance a criteria for popularity?

Does that mean Nascar is more popular than the NFL?

I feel like baseball is more popular, especially because it is affordable and caters to families. Its level of fanaticism might not be the same.

+1

Average attendance at the pro level is misleading and frankly doesn't mean anything when you consider that there are only about 25-30 markets that have professional sports franchises (not representative of the entire country), scheduling varies dramatically, stadium size differs, etc.

You also have to consider that each league is a business and that some do better jobs of marketing than others. Perception may be that one is "more popular" than another, but that may not actually be the case. This also varies from region to region. Trying telling someone in South Boston or the Bronx that baseball isn't popular anymore

Football has an advantage because the vast majority of the games are played on weekends which allows for greater attendance. It also has an advantage because there are only 16 games in the regular season versus 162 in baseball. It's quite easy to make a commitment to attend 8 home football games, but something quite different to make 81 home baseball games in 6 months (that's about 3 games per week). I don't know ***** about Nascar, but don't they only have one event at a time? You'd have to pack every NFL or MLB fan into 1 stadium at a time to make that argument fair.

All that being said, I may give football the nod due to the following at the collegiate level. There may only be 25-30 pro sports markets, but even a smaller state like Iowa can have 200,000 people in football stadiums across the state on a Saturday afternoon.