In news that should surprise absolutely no one, nearly 50 percent of American sports fans changed their viewing habits in response to the deluge of social justice activism from sports leagues and athletes in 2020.
The results of the YouGov/Yahoo News poll painted a grim image of the current sports fan landscape.
“Of those who watch sports on TV, about 11 percent said they now watch more as a result of political and social messaging,” Yahoo! Sports reported. “However, 34.5 percent, more than one-third, said they are watching less. The vast majority, roughly 56.3 percent, said they watch about the same amount regardless of political or social messaging.”
The numbers are even starker when looking at the contrast between males and females, and political party affiliation:
Men were more likely to turn away from sports as a result of social messages; 37.6 percent of males said they had tuned in less, as opposed to 28 percent of females. Meanwhile, 13 percent of men said they watched more sports in the wake of social justice movements, as opposed to only 7 percent of women.
The breakdown by political party runs as might be expected given the tenor of the national conversation around sports. About 13.7 percent of Democrats say they watched more sports in the wake of social justice movements, while 19 percent watched less. On the other hand, only about 8.6 percent of Republicans watched more sports, while 53 percent watched less once social justice messaging became prominent.
Given that the overwhelming majority of sports fans are males and a large number of them tend to be conservative, this poll bodes ill for the sports world.
Though, as bad as these numbers are, it gets worse. A huge percentage of independents also said they were watching less sports due to activist athletes and sports leagues.
“Worth noting is that Independents came in somewhere in the middle, with about 8.7 percent saying they watched more sports in the social justice era, and about 38.6 percent saying they watched less,” Yahoo! Sports reported.
If the collective sports leagues of America even care about their fans anymore, this would be the time to panic. In many ways, the number of independents abandoning the games is even more alarming than the total number of sports fans. If people even “middle of the road” are fleeing the fan ranks in those kinds of numbers, there is no better proof that the woke sports movement has thoroughly alienated the American sports fan.
Quite possibly to the degree that many will never return. But again, that only matters if the leagues even care anymore.
“The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,601 U.S. adults interviewed online between February 20-22, 2021. The poll has a margin of error of ±2.7%.”
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