Flyers vs. Sixers popularity contest
Who is more popular, the Sixers or the Flyers?
Flyers vs. Sixers popularity contest
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
I meant to get to this last week, not because I’m hockey’s greatest defender or anything, but just because. And this admittedly is a little bit of an odd time to be wondering who is more popular in town, the Sixers or the Flyers, given their recent spectacular demises. But, well, here goes.
On 950 ESPN, Mike Missanelli is a huge hockey hater. He’s a talented guy, he’s kicking ass in the ratings -- really an amazing thing to watch -- and that’s all fine. He doesn’t like the game and that’s not a big deal. Lots of people don’t like hockey (although I would argue that Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby throwing dueling hat tricks at each other in the same game is worth a look). But his insistence that there are “10 times as many” Sixers fans compared to Flyers fans is just wrong.
I know, I know, “10 times as many” is just a conversational shorthand. But by any standard, you can’t come up with anything approximating the claim.
Attendance, you know. The Flyers have outdrawn the Sixers for most of the last four decades. The haters dismiss that one with the idea that there are only 20,000 Flyers fans in town, and they all show up, and they have more money, and et cetera. OK, fine.
But television is different. Most everybody who wants cable has cable. There is no great economic barrier to getting it anymore. For the overwhelming majority of people in this area, watching the Sixers involves no economic burden. All it takes is click of your thumb.
And, well, the Sixers and Flyers were both just beaten in first-round playoff series after playing middling kinds of regular seasons.
In the regular season, the Sixers averaged a 1.4 rating (42,000 households) on Comcast SportsNet. The Flyers averaged a 2.4 rating (71,300 households).
In Game 5 of their playoff series against Orlando, the Sixers drew a 2.6 rating and peaked at a 4.1. In Game 3 of their playoff series against the Penguins, the Flyers drew a 5.2 rating and peaked at a 6.8, beating the CW and NBC in primetime.
One demographic: for ages 25-54, the Sixers did a 1.9 rating and the Flyers did a 4.6.
These are not isolated numbers, either. The Flyers have outdrawn the Sixers for years. These are real numbers, real facts, and they drive economic decisions by advertisers.
Now, we all remember 2001, when the Sixers went to the NBA Finals and enchanted the town. That was a special time. I will agree that basketball has the potential to build a bigger bandwagon than hockey in those kinds of moments because of overall familiarity with the sport among the people who climb upon bandwagons. But I also recognize that as a unique situation driven by two unique personalities, Allen Iverson and Pat Croce.
But day-in and day-out, the Flyers are a lot more popular than people think -- even here, even today. Hockey is not as popular as basketball but the Flyers are, in many ways, more popular than the Sixers.
Hey Rich, did you just move into the city? Of course the Flyers are more popular than the Sixers. Their fan base is way more loyal, win or lose.— SayHello2MyLittleFriend
nice article Rich and I agree with your conclusion.— potus- Rich, thanks, now please forward this article to the CSN program director that makes us Flyers fans watch CN8 while the Sixers get the high def feed— LongtimeFan3
- Interesting blog entry. I am only 25, but I have been living in this area since 1990 and I would say that the Flyers are definitely more popular than the Sixers. I am a big NBA guy and I love the Sixers, but the Flyers bring out a lot more passion in this city. I think a big part of the reason is that Philly is not a big NBA city. It does not identify with the game. The only reason it was popular when A.I. was here was because of his personality. I feel like most of the time when I talk about the NBA with people in this region, I find more fans of other teams rather than the Sixers. It is not the Sixers' mediocrity because there are other towns across the league where teams are not much better or worse and they sell the arena out every night. It is just the town.— Birdsfan83
- cant be a true phour for phour without bleeding orange and black. i feel bad for hardcore philly fans who treat the nhl and the flyers as the red headed stepchild. i honestly believe the nhl to be a far better product than the nba and going to flyers games vs. going to sixers games is just not even close.— drumminge6
- longtimefan3 is so on the money...CN8 for flyers game is an insult...cater to your audience..and your audience is larger for flyers games..dopes..— rothstein12
- the NBA is UNWATCHABLE and has been for years!! The NHL is approaching that status with the seemingly endless whistles...— beagle29
- I really don't care for basketball or hockey, but I always say that if the flyers or sixers are in the playoffs I'll root for them, because I only root for Philly teams (not a bandwagoner, i never claim to be a FAN, but i'll root for them). However, in my area whenever either of the teams makes the playoffs, it causes the Phillies games to be blacked out. As a result, I end up rooting against them, because they take away my Phillies viewing time. I know that was long winded and doesn't really apply to this article, but i needed to vent about that. Go Phils!— vetlincbank
- Once the MLS moves to the banks of the Delaware, the sixers may fall to fifth in overall popularity, and that doesn't factor in college football, basketball, high school sports and fantasy sports. The NBA has fallen so far off the map that they control TV angles as to not show the thousands of empty playoff seats at the wach-off centers' upper tier. You could not pay me enough to attend a sixers game...regime change and still terrible decisions...if iguodala was allowed to play out his contract this year and become a free agent, we could have paid him 7-8 million a year instead of the 16 million he is now collecting as our 3rd best player, not to mention the cap flexibility we would have obtained by not signing him prior to the season. Even after making the mistake of Brand, we would have had enough cap space to sign two good/excellent free agents and then bring iguodala back at market rate. stone hands dalembert seems to think that at 11 million per season, he is being underutilized, even though he has the worst hand eye coordination this side of biron or mutumbo. The team is unwatchable, and since it will be the same for the foreseeable future, their is no reason to tune in unless a major trade is made. eagles, flyers/phillies, villanova, wings, barrage, chester boys hs basketball, rec league sports....sixers. The NBA, call me when ten teams fold and the league and every team in it is competitive again.— tkohl
- Hockey is hard to follow on TV (I can hardly see the puck on my TV) and not many people can play it as youths, these are the two biggest problems hockey faces. Of course this leads to the lack of opportunity that minorities have to play it, and thus the amount of minorities that watch it. Other than that, there is really no question in my mind as to which sport is more exciting to watch. Basketball only matters in the last two minutes, and then they call a timeout every ten seconds if it is close - I don't have the attention span for that. As far as excitement goes - NOTHING beats playoff hockey... not even most Super Bowls. Of course I could be partial - hockey is like a religion to me!— Spazcat
It's funny. I've never considered Hockey a second class sport growing up in Philly. But now that I live in LA, land of Lakes (lots of laughing) seeing the Kings and Ducks second to the Lakers (maybe not the clippers) well, it's all very interesting.— flyler- Once the MLS moves to the banks of the Delaware, the sixers may fall to fifth in overall popularity, and that doesn't factor in college football, basketball, high school sports and fantasy sports. The NBA has fallen so far off the map that they control TV angles as to not show the thousands of empty playoff seats at the wach-off centers' upper tier. You could not pay me enough to attend a sixers game...regime change and still terrible decisions...if iguodala was allowed to play out his contract this year and become a free agent, we could have paid him 7-8 million a year instead of the 16 million he is now collecting as our 3rd best player, not to mention the cap flexibility we would have obtained by not signing him prior to the season. Even after making the mistake of Brand, we would have had enough cap space to sign two good/excellent free agents and then bring iguodala back at market rate. stone hands dalembert seems to think that at 11 million per season, he is being underutilized, even though he has the worst hand eye coordination this side of biron or mutumbo. The team is unwatchable, and since it will be the same for the foreseeable future, their is no reason to tune in unless a major trade is made. eagles, flyers/phillies, villanova, wings, barrage, chester boys hs basketball, rec league sports....sixers. The NBA, call me when ten teams fold and the league and every team in it is competitive again.— tkohl
Comment removed.- Missanelli is wrong about everything he says. You would think that if you GOT PAID to talk about sports for a living you would understand that the Flyers are unquestionably more popular in this region that the Sixers are. We are all in agreement and none of us watch sports professionally. Many conclusions about talk radio can be drawn from this.— sla6yer
- Comment removed.
