Here are the ratings for 2002 on all major sport finals...MLS cup...dead last. WC not listed. 2002 Ratings for Major Sports Championships Event Network Number of games Teams Rating NFL Super Bowl Fox 1 New England-St. Louis 40.4 NFC Champ. Game Fox 1 St. Louis-Philadelphia 22.7 AFC Champ. CBS 1 New England-Pittsburgh 21.2 NCAA Men's Champ. CBS 1 Maryland-Indiana 15.0 BCS Champ. Game Rose Bowl ABC 1 Miami, Fla.-Nebraska 13.8 Baseball World Series Fox 7 Anaheim-San Fransicco 11.9 NBA Western Conf. Finals NBC 3* L.A. Lakers-Sacramento 11.8 Daytona 500 NBC 1 Won by Ward Burton 10.9 NBA Finals NBC 4 L.A. Lakers-New Jersey 10.2 Masters final round CBS 1 Won by Tiger Woods 9.2 U.S. Open golf final round NBC 1 Won by Tiger Woods 8.9 Kentucky Derby NBC 1 Won by War Emblem 8.3 PGA Champ. final round CBS 1 Won by Rich Beem 7.5 U.S. Open men's final CBS 1 Sampras-Agassi 6.2 U.S. Open women's final CBS 1 Serena-Venus Williams 5.2 Indianapolis 500 ABC 1 Won by Helio Castroneves 4.8 British Open final round ABC 1 Won by Ernie Els 4.5 NHL Finals ABC 3* Detroit-Carolina 3.6 Wimbledon women's final NBC 1 Serena-Venus Williams 3.4 Wimbeldon men's final NBC 1 Hewitt-Nalbandian 2.4 MLS Cup ABC 1 L.A.-New England 0.8
Correct. And this list points out nothing that we didn't already know. I take that back, there are interesting facts here, but none of them have anything to do with soccer. Sachin
Thanks for posting this, SoccerScout. I'm just curious as to your source, though. ------------------------------- I think we can all draw some obvious lessons from this -- Lesson A being, of course, that the more people we get interested in MLS, the more respect we'll get. No other way around it.
source: usatoday.com It is interesting how bad Hockey ratings are. Soccer could beat hockey and already does on a WC level. Anyone know previous years MLS cup ratings? And MLS ratings year to year. Have the remainded the same...gone up..down?
It's all the fault of those damn soccer-bashing talk show hosts. If it wasn't for them, we'd be winning the World Cup every time, and MLS Cup ratings would dwarf those of the Super Bowl.
Fox can't be happy about that Game 7 (and neither was I ) I liked how Sacto-LA beat out LA-Jersey too. This is pure speculation, but if every MLS playoff game was on one of the ABC/ESPN channels, that number goes up to challenge Wimbledon/Stanley Cup. I was watching the game with a bunch of my buddies, and the first question from the non soccer fans was "Where were the rest of the playoffs?"
Soccerscout: Please name the event, of those above, that was broadcasted against competition, in the middle of the afternoon? Looking at the first 7 events, these where all stand alone events in Prime time In fact, you could make an argument for alot of these shows.... most on the bottom appeared early in the morning, against no competition. The US Open tennis appeared immediately after a slate of NFL games as a lead in.... I really beleive the comparison is not fair. If MLS where a 20 to 30 team league, and heavily promoted (as is EVERY SINGLE event listed) and then drew numbers similiar to the Stanley Cup (which is incidently shown in Prime Time, with no other sports competition), then I would concede the point..
Re: Re: bottom of the barrel And they earned it. Life's not fair. The fact that the championship game for MLS got mediocre ratings vis a vis regular season matchups for the NFL speaks directly to the relative popularity of the two sports in this country right now. If my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle.
Sorry ND, but not so fast with this. The WNBA final on NBC drew a 1.4 rating, something like 75% higher than MLS Cup.
Didn't the first MLS Cup get a 1.4? I want to know how the hell that happened. And as a side note, it makes you wonder just how much of a factor "quality of play" is.