What's the best way to measure a sport's popularity? Let's start with average viewers on national broadcasts.
If you were looking at that chart, would you say there are 3, 4 or 5 major sports? To me it looks like there's 1 major sport.
Here's an interesting chart of peak events, by sports:
(I even went back to the 2017 list to see a MLS peak, but soccer peak that year was a US-Mexico qualifier.)
The bottom line is that football dominates everything. NBA is ahead of MLB. College football and basketball are still doing well. And NHL and MLS are really in the same tier as NASCAR and golf and the rest.
One of the reason the Winter Olympics were so great, was that it perfectly filled the gap between the end of the NFL and March Madness. Also, it's cold and there's nothing to do in February beside stay inside anyways. And the fact that every Winter event is compelling, while there's plenty of Summer events that aren't fun to watch.
March Madness
There's not much better than a good tournament. It doesn't matter who the teams are. And it's right around the corner.
Selection Sunday: March 14 First two rounds: March 18-21 Sweet 16/Elite 8: March 25-28 Final Four: April 3 and 5 Rugby
Crap, who knew the Six Nations tournament was already underway...I sorta knew there was going to be rugby in the spring but I didn't figure I had missed most of it.
What hurts it (aside from the lack of publicity) is that it's not a true tournament format. Instead it follows the Premier league and every team plays every team and they just go by standings. Of course you don't want to finish last and win the "wooden spoon." Seriously, check this out, this is one wooden spoon you don't want!
Last year, Ireland won going 5-0, while Italy went 0-5. This year with two games to go, France is 3-0, England is 2-1, and Ireland is 2-1.
If England wins it's next game, and Ireland can't get to 4-1, then the final match, England vs France on March 20th will determine the champion.
Here's a highlight from last year.
Soccer
In the Premier League, it's how it always is. 10 games to go, and Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal are all at the top. Again without a playoffs, it's hard to know when to pay attention. So I'm not.
