San Jose Bills Fan Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 (edited) The Sports Business Journal Daily passed along a simple study of "Home Market Fan Penetration" that was performed by Scarborough Sports Marketing. It's a pretty good way to gauge fan loyalty towards their home team and the degree to which a community is wired to their team. The study measures the markets based upon where adult fans said they had watched a game on TV, listened to a game on the radio or attended at least one game during the past year. Considering the Bills decade of suckitude, the Bills, predictably fared well. http://www.sportsbus.../NFL-demos.aspx Interesting to see which teams dropped and to question whether those teams have "fair-weather fans." It's also interesting to see to what degree if any, the numbers correlate to winning and losing. Edited July 10, 2011 by San Jose Bills Fan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zonabb Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 One glaring issue..... The NYC and Bay area teams are in the bottom four due to allegiance for each team in the region but when taken in combination the NFL penetration in those markets put them near the top, which shows why the NFL wants to be in LA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San Jose Bills Fan Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 One glaring issue..... The NYC and Bay area teams are in the bottom four due to allegiance for each team in the region but when taken in combination the NFL penetration in those markets put them near the top, which shows why the NFL wants to be in LA Yeah, that really jumps off the page… Niners, Giants, Jets, and Raiders are the bottom 4 teams in the study. I was surprised a bit that Cincinnati's fans seem VERY loyal (6th) in spite of generally being considered one of the worst-run franchises in all of pro sports. The Broncos fans fared well despite a bad year but they haven't endured the interminable mediocrity of teams like the Bills and Bengals. Be interesting to see the numbers for Denver next year if they continue to suck. No surprise with the Packers and Steelers (2nd and 3rd), but surprised by the Bears middle-of-the-road ranking (16th) considering the Bears tradition and the fact that they were a playoff team last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowery4 Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 People in the biggest cities are from other places. Might account for fan loyalty numbers not being as high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSaint Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 The Sports Business Journal Daily passed along a simple study of "Home Market Fan Penetration" that was performed by Scarborough Sports Marketing. It's a pretty good way to gauge fan loyalty towards their home team and the degree to which a community is wired to their team. The study measures the markets based upon where adult fans said they had watched a game on TV, listened to a game on the radio or attended at least one game during the past year. Considering the Bills decade of suckitude, the Bills, predictably fared well. http://www.sportsbus.../NFL-demos.aspx Interesting to see which teams dropped and to question whether those teams have "fair-weather fans." It's also interesting to see to what degree if any, the numbers correlate to winning and losing. winning is big. obviously theres a lot of other factors but when you have a team that is going to the superbowl, everyone watches. everyone. when its as simple as "have you watched a game in the last year?" it makes a lot of sense seeing the top few up there. the other factor i would say is alternatives in the city -- having two nfl teams obviously kills you in this poll. if im a casual fan in a giants household, im not going to see many jets games. having other sports teams in general likely splits the market some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San Jose Bills Fan Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 (edited) People in the biggest cities are from other places. Might account for fan loyalty numbers not being as high. Of big markets other than the New Jersey teams, Boston is 10th (with a winning team but lots of competition for the sports entertainment dollar) and Philly is 13th. Washington D.C. is a city with a lot of transplants and they are 22nd. Houston is 24th. Atlanta is 25th with a strong program. Tampa Bay is 27th with an up and coming team. Buffalo and Cinci really come out of this looking good. Detroit (26th) not so much. winning is big. obviously theres a lot of other factors but when you have a team that is going to the superbowl, everyone watches. everyone. when its as simple as "have you watched a game in the last year?" it makes a lot of sense seeing the top few up there. the other factor i would say is alternatives in the city -- having two nfl teams obviously kills you in this poll. if im a casual fan in a giants household, im not going to see many jets games. having other sports teams in general likely splits the market some. And yet, two up-and-coming teams, Atlanta (25th) and Tampa Bay (27th), rate very low. Seahawks also won their division but only ranked 21st and I'm really astounded by Chicago's rating of only 16th although bowery raised a good point about big city having lots of transplants. Edited July 10, 2011 by San Jose Bills Fan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billsfan89 Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 One glaring issue..... The NYC and Bay area teams are in the bottom four due to allegiance for each team in the region but when taken in combination the NFL penetration in those markets put them near the top, which shows why the NFL wants to be in LA Also for NYC you have two teams and I know there are a lot of frauds that root for both teams thus that could skew the percentage of fans watching as they might pick one over another. Throw in the fact that there are a ton of other entertainment options in that area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CowgirlsFan Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 I wasn't surprised to see that my Boys had dropped from 7 to 11 with the year they had on the field. People here in the DFW area don't always watch when the team is on a losing trend. They make other plans. I believe you guys refer to that as "fair weather". It was nice to see the Bills hold their position. You guys rewarded them with your interest because you could see some progress being made each week. For the most part, I think Bills fans support their team MORE from start to finish each year when the team stuggles than mine do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maryland-bills-fan Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 RANK PREV. TEAM % 1 2 Saints 87% 2 1 Packers 84% 3 3 Steelers 82% 4 4 Colts 75% 5 5 Vikings 73% 6 11 Bengals 70% 7 8 Chiefs 70% 8 6 Broncos 69% 9 10 Ravens 66% 10 9 Patriots 66% 11 7 Cowboys 66% 12 12 Bills 64% 13 14 Eagles 63% 14 13 Chargers 61% 15 16 Browns 61% 16 17 Bears 61% 17 15 Titans 60% 18 19 Jaguars 56% 19 20 Panthers 56% 20 18 Cardinals 54% 21 22 Seahawks 53% 22 23 Redskins 52% 23 23 Rams 52% 24 27 Texans 51% 25 26 Falcons 51% 26 24 Lions 50% 27 25 Buccaneers 49% 28 28 Dolphins 43% 29 29 49ers 42% 30 30 Giants 40% 31 31 Jets 37% 32 32 Raiders 28% What I see is that California and Florida don't really stack up so well. Warm weather cities with big time college football have the fan base thinking about the beach, fishing, and their partician local school as well as NFL football. The really big cities with two teams suffer from (as said above) a high % of people who grew up somewhere else and still root for their downhome team, where their relatives still live. Florida teams and California teams are more likely to move away because of the tempid fan base. The other remaining teams will pick up fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSaint Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 And yet, two up-and-coming teams, Atlanta (25th) and Tampa Bay (27th), rate very low. Seahawks also won their division but only ranked 21st and I'm really astounded by Chicago's rating of only 16th although bowery raised a good point about big city having lots of transplants. i wouldnt call what the seahawks did last year impressive. at what point do you think seattle residents said "man we might win it all this year." a poll like this you arent looking at the die hard year in and year out fans. what makes the real difference is the lady at the water cooler that doesnt know how many points you get for a field goal but watches because there is a buzz in the city and she doesnt want to be left out. how you get that buzz is being a real contender. atlanta is the only you listed that was there, and it is a city with a lot of transplants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyst Posted July 10, 2011 Share Posted July 10, 2011 I have to think teams like the Patriots, Saints and Cowboys attract a high amount of fair weather fans who simply say they've watched a game to feel like a part of their community or support their local team. It's like those radio surveys that ask what you listen to...I filled the journal once and noticed it was just odd because I would fill 24 hours of radio listening supporting the channels I liked even though I did not listen. Then I just changed it to support the channels I liked without listening as often as I truly did. The bottom line, I bet someone in Boston would be more likely to watch a Patriots game when they are sold out for every game and always on and their is a heavy fan-saturation of the community even though not everyone follows the team. Just like one of my cousins down here - he watched the Panthers games because they were the local team. He didn't give a crap how they did or spend a nickel on the team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San Jose Bills Fan Posted July 10, 2011 Author Share Posted July 10, 2011 i wouldnt call what the seahawks did last year impressive. at what point do you think seattle residents said "man we might win it all this year." a poll like this you arent looking at the die hard year in and year out fans. what makes the real difference is the lady at the water cooler that doesnt know how many points you get for a field goal but watches because there is a buzz in the city and she doesnt want to be left out. I agree with you the Seahawks season was not impressive. The point is this: Because they were in a weak division, the Seahawks were in or near first place all season long… meaning they were in playoff contention all season long. What would that have done to the numbers in this study for other teams, particularly the BIlls or the Bengals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BUFFALOKIE Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 RANK PREV. TEAM % 1 2 Saints 87% 2 1 Packers 84% 3 3 Steelers 82% 4 4 Colts 75% 5 5 Vikings 73% 6 11 Bengals 70% 7 8 Chiefs 70% 8 6 Broncos 69% 9 10 Ravens 66% 10 9 Patriots 66% 11 7 Cowboys 66% 12 12 Bills 64% 13 14 Eagles 63% 14 13 Chargers 61% 15 16 Browns 61% 16 17 Bears 61% 17 15 Titans 60% 18 19 Jaguars 56% 19 20 Panthers 56% 20 18 Cardinals 54% 21 22 Seahawks 53% 22 23 Redskins 52% 23 23 Rams 52% 24 27 Texans 51% 25 26 Falcons 51% 26 24 Lions 50% 27 25 Buccaneers 49% 28 28 Dolphins 43% 29 29 49ers 42% 30 30 Giants 40% 31 31 Jets 37% 32 32 Raiders 28% What I see is that California and Florida don't really stack up so well. Warm weather cities with big time college football have the fan base thinking about the beach, fishing, and their partician local school as well as NFL football. The really big cities with two teams suffer from (as said above) a high % of people who grew up somewhere else and still root for their downhome team, where their relatives still live. Florida teams and California teams are more likely to move away because of the tempid fan base. The other remaining teams will pick up fans. What I see is that California sure as heck does not need another team!!! Or two, seriously??? The chargers look pretty high on that list, except didn't the article say that they had the sharpest decline in fan following, or something to that effect? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganesh Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 People in the biggest cities are from other places. Might account for fan loyalty numbers not being as high. Also, there are so many other things to do in the big cities compared to the tiny Green Bay or Buffalo... The New Orleans being at the top is just an exception of having faced Katrina and the Saints helping rebuild that city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonkey Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 (edited) What I find more interesting than the rankings are the percentages. According to this, only 64% of adults in Buffalo watched even 1 game last season (where adult fans said they had watched a game on TV, listened to a game on the radio or attended at least one game during the past year). In a small market like Buffalo I would have expected that number to be higher, even with the decade+ of suck in progress. The Jags with their hideous attendance numbers got 56% for Petes sake. Edited July 11, 2011 by CodeMonkey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Never NEVER Give-up Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 With Bflo's 64%, I wonder if that's 64% of WNY AND Rochester AND Southern Ontario AND Toronto - - then that'a an awesome number. If it is just the Bflo area, it's a pretty anemic number. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonkey Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 With Bflo's 64%, I wonder if that's 64% of WNY AND Rochester AND Southern Ontario AND Toronto - - then that'a an awesome number. If it is just the Bflo area, it's a pretty anemic number. The article says "of any home market". I'm not sure what the definition of the Bills home market is, but I think it is just Buffalo. I remember when I asked the Rochester TV station if a game would be broadcast they said they could not because Rochester was not considered the home market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSaint Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Also, there are so many other things to do in the big cities compared to the tiny Green Bay or Buffalo... The New Orleans being at the top is just an exception of having faced Katrina and the Saints helping rebuild that city. The top 5 or so were all in conference championship games. Several in the superbowl. In the last 18 months. Though I agree on buffalo, the others have winning in common first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Wiz Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 (edited) The article says "of any home market". I'm not sure what the definition of the Bills home market is, but I think it is just Buffalo. I remember when I asked the Rochester TV station if a game would be broadcast they said they could not because Rochester was not considered the home market. But for some reason it falls into the blackout market. Double standards I tell ya. Edited July 11, 2011 by The Wiz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonkey Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 But for some reason it falls into the blackout market. Double standards I tell ya. Clearly true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts