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.
p.s. Nice work Rich on calling out that hack— sla6yer- flyers bigger than sixers? biggest no brainer of all time. nobody cares about the stupid NBA.— Ryan
- NBA = unwatchable! The Flyers are heads and shoulders more popular than the 76ers. The Sixers could not even sell out home playoff games. That's pretty bad. Even in the early 1990's when the Flyers stunk, the Spectrum was still packed. Ed Snider is VERY lucky to have such a strong following for his beloved Flyers. Now go and win us a STANLEY CUP!— 1stStateTarHeel
- LMAO at that idiot trying to say the Sixers are more popular. It's not even a contest. Philly has simply never been an NBA town. That's just the way it is, and it'll probably never change. College basketball is a different story, but there are plenty of people like me who just can't stand the NBA. It's not only painfully obvious now, but has been for decades. The Flyers, on the other hand, finish in the top 5 in attendance every single year. As Rich pointed out, their television ratings are far better, as well. The comparison doesn't even need to be made. What was that guy smoking?— phillyfan412
- NHL ratings are going up and all the playoff games throughout the country are sold out. You can check stadium attendance on ESPN. NBA playoff games arent even sold out.— FlyersFan561
- The Flyers are way more entertaining than the Sixers and the NHL in general is a way better product than the NBA.— flossified
- Hockey players are more like athletes of the 50-60's, approachable and personable. NBA is nothing but a bunch of money hungry street thugs that just so happen to be able to dunk a basketball or shoot 40%. I wonder why the is a popularity diffence?— hexyscores
- Good stuff, Rich. I also agree with some of the comments above that the NBA is not a great product. Much prefer the college game. I have to believe though that putting a consistent winner on the floor will re-awaken the dormant local 76er fan. But first and foremost, I am a hockey fan. Watch the Stanley Cup palyoffs everynight. Its nice to see someone in the media pointing out that this is a strong hockey market. I get frustrated the the sport does not get much air time on talk radio and in the national media. There are definitely more than ten of us. Its just we have moved onto XM and other alternate sources to get intelligent hockey coverage.— patras27
- I had the good fortune of watching Dr.J, Moses, Andrew "The Boston Strangler" Toney,Bobby Jones and Mo Cheeks growing up. They were at war with the Celtics(Bird,McHale,DJ,"The Chief") and the Lakers(Magic,Kareem,Worthy). This was basketball. The game was played better and the rivalries were real. The game is not interesting any longer and the Sixers have been brutal for most of the last 25 years. I don't see competition between the Sixers and Flyers. I only see a city that cannot support a team that is not interesting in the least.— syddan26
- It's not too hard to see that the Flyers are more popular than the sixers when they've pretty much sold out the majority of their games for the past 20 years and the Sixers can only muster up about 14,000 fans for a playoff game.— Quarkt_98
- Missanelli says stuff to get people's goat and get the phones ringing. Hockey is a much better sport than basketball without the criminals playing the game. 80% of NBA players are broke within 5 years of being out of the league. Tells you what kind of character is bouncing around the NBA.— marley66
- 201 is now hd for cn8. Finally. Couldn't believe flyers took the back seat.— EC1981
- Rich -- nice article, as always. I agree with all of your assessments, and I wish more people would see this. Plain and simple, pro hockey is very entertaining and pro basketball is not. If anyone disagrees, go see one of each in person. It pains me to hear how much hockey gets badmouthed. It's like the cool thing to do now. I guess much of it can be attributed to the evil empire known as ESPN.— UncleEddie
- The radio personalities that are anti-hockey (Mike Miss and Eskin) because they 'grew up' around the NHL being an upstart, lower tier sport. Therefore, they will never recognize it as the great game that it is. They also make all their money and increase their ratings by feeding off of the cities love/hate relationship with its teams, but more often than not by focusing on the negative. Because the Flyers fans give their undying support without question they feel the need to bash hockey and the Flyers because they can not employ their negativity-based business model on them. Case closed and GO FLYERS!!!— vingio311
- One last thing to the poster that said MLS could supplant NBA as #4 in town...As bad as the NBA is, soccer will never get play in the United States. It's a horrible horrible game that will never translate into America's sports landscape.— marley66
