READ FULL STORY HEREAre the Phillies really more popular than the Eagles? Has their success in recent years turned Philadelphia from a football to baseball town? What is the greatest Philly sports tradition or venue and does our current pro-Phillies bias really hold up against the hard data?
An expansive survey released today by the Philadelphia Daily News looks to answer those questions and many more. Today’s release was the first of a four part series titled the “Philadelphia Fan Project”. Collecting data of 2,300 subscribers on the philly.com website and with assistance from the Sport and Industry Research Center at Temple University the Daily News has presented an informed and thoroughly interesting piece. Below are some of the highlights and critique of a fan study that is sure to settle certain arguments while creating hot topics of discussion around the water coolers and drinking establishments of greater-Philadelphia.
Q: What is your favorite Philadelphia pro sports team?
1) Phillies – 54%
2) Eagles – 30%
3) Flyers – 12%
4) Sixers – 4%
As anyone who is involved in political polling for a living will surely tell you surveys such as these are relevant only within the specific time period they are taken. Surely this set of data collected by the Daily News in mid-March skews favorably towards the Phillies. Coming off of their second consecutive World Series appearance there was significant buzz for the local baseball franchise as they were gearing up for the 2010 season at Spring Training in Clearwater. Counter that with growing criticism of the Eagles who exited the NFL postseason with an embarrassing playoff defeat in January.
March also is not football season and good or bad it would be interesting to see what the results of this poll would have been if the data had been collected between the months of August (NFL preseason) and January (NFL postseason). Still the Phillies considerable advantage over the Eagles is notable and, while no prior studies can be used to compare, it has to mark a considerable turnaround in the appeal for both teams from just a few years ago.
Unsurprisingly the Flyers and Sixers trailed well behind. Not that Philly fans needed a survey to tell them that the Phillies and Eagles were the top dogs in town but that both the hockey and basketball seasons were in full swing by March, unlike football or baseball, ought to come with a growing sense of alarm for the occupiers of the Wachovia Center. The Flyers recent playoff surge belies a relatively disappointing regular season that nearly cost them a postseason appearance. The Sixers meanwhile are trending aimlessly backwards. The faceless franchise is in the bottom-third of NBA attendance, local TV-ratings while finishing high on its list of loses during the 2009-10 season. Amazing to think how different the landscape was for the local hoops team just six or seven years ago.
Q: Which team will win the next championship?
1) Phillies – 89%
2) Eagles – 5%
3) Flyers – 5%
4) Sixers – 0%
Energized by the recent success of their baseball team Philadelphia sports fans not only rate the Phillies as their current favorite but also by a landslide believe they have the best shot of any of the four teams to bring another championship parade to the City of Brotherly Love. In 2008 the Fightin’ Phils broke the city’s quarter-century title drought and nearly nine in ten responders to this poll believe they’ll also win the next title. The Phillies success, narrowly missing a World Series title repeat last fall, has seemingly embolden local sports fans with a sense of confidence. For whoever does wind up winning the next championship the average responder believes it will happen within the next two years.
The Eagles are coming off of an 11-5 season in 2009 and reached the Conference Title Game as recently as January of that year. Yet only one in twenty give the Birds, behind new starting quarterback Kevin Kolb, the best shot of winning a championship out of the four major pro teams occupying the sporting landscape in Philadelphia. Equaling their total are the Flyers who are a consistent playoff team but have failed to hoist the Stanley Cup since 1975. Again the Sixers trail the pack in fourth place. Virtually no one assumes an NBA Championship is in the cards anytime soon, much less before another World Series parade, Lombardi or Stanley Cup trophy comes to town.
Q: Philadelphia is a __________ town?
1) Football – 70%
2) Baseball – 27%
3) Hockey – 2%
4) Basketball – 1%
As a team the Phillies may be number one in the hearts of Philadelphians but the sport of baseball remains a distant second to their passion for football. Philly has recaptured some of its long lost recognition as a top of the line baseball city in recent years. In 2009 alone the Phillies had the highest attendance percentage in all of baseball and were third behind the Red Sox and Cardinals in local-TV ratings. Yet football is king in Philadelphia just as it is in most of the country.
Harris polls surveying fans nationwide have shown the NFL as a two to one favorite over the MLB for favorite sports league. Those numbers are even more lopsided in favor of football when the college ranks are included. In Philly football is the choice of seven in ten responders when asked what they consider to be the “biggest” sport in town. The Eagles success in spite of not having won a championship in five decades reflects this passion for pigskins. The Birds have the highest attendance percentage in the NFL since 1990, a season ticket waiting list that stretches over decades and local television fan base that is routinely among the top-tier of the league.
Both Sports Illustrated and the Sporting News have ranked Philadelphia as either the best or one of the top-three hockey cities in America in recent years. None the less the locals defer heavily to football and baseball as the two prominent sports in the City of Brotherly Love. Just 2% of the overall crowd sees Philadelphia as a hockey town. Only 1% consider it to be a basketball-first city despite many great 76ers moments, players and teams and the fabulous local college basketball tradition of the Big-5. The disparity between football and baseball remains large but it’s probably as close as it has been in recent memory. Fueled by the Phillies success baseball has convinced 27% of local sports fans that it is the top sport in Philadelphia.
Q: What is your favorite Philadelphia sports venue?
1) Citizens Bank Park – 74%
2) Lincoln Financial Field – 8%
3) Wachovia Center – 8%
4) Palestra – 8%
Postseason baseball in Philadelphia has become a familiar occurrence in recent years and the fans have responded by routinely packing the seats at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies soaring popularity as reflected in this study has made the “Bank” the place to be in recent years. Yet the success of the team that plays there does not completely explain the massive disparity between it and the other venues as Philadelphia’s favorite place to watch a sporting event.
Nearly three-quarters of responders chose the Phillies home park as their favorite place to watch a game. The accessibility of baseball as a cheaper and more family oriented option always gives baseball an edge in this department. Even during lousy attendance seasons for the Phillies at the often reviled Veterans Stadiums 1.5 to 2-million fans routinely passed through the turn styles each season. Even those totals dwarfed figures for the Eagles, Flyers and Sixers who have fewer games, sell pricier tickets and in the case of hockey and basketball play in a far smaller venue.
Dismissing Citizens Bank Park as merely the product of a championship caliber team’s success or its accessibility as the home of a fan friendlier sport would be missing the point however. In truth the “Bank” is widely considered one of the best stadiums in all of Major League Baseball. Opened in 2004 the beautiful baseball-only park instantly gave droves of fans a better excuse to attend a baseball game than ever before. Whereas the foreboding Vet was hardly a choice venue even in years when the Phillies played well, Citizens Bank with its beautiful design, fan-friendly arrangements and caveats in tow encourages Philadelphia fans to enjoy a night at the park even if the baseball team is performing below par.
Another state of the art facility is Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Eagles since 2003. Rarely do football stadiums exude the same type of charm or distinction as their baseball-only counterparts however which immediately places the “Linc” behind the eight ball. Furthermore the fan experience while riveting when the local football team is playing well touches far fewer fans. Most of the attendees during each game of each season are among the few dozen thousand season ticket holders and with only eight regular season games scheduled there are ten-times less the opportunities to catch the Eagles than the Phillies. If that weren’t enough the ticket prices surely are. Lower-level tickets at the “Linc” average $95. That’s a far pricier option for a family of four than grabbing decent seats at a Phillies game.
Q: What is the best Philadelphia sports tradition? (Responders allowed to choose up to three)
1) Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” – 43%
2) E-A-G-L-E-S chant – 42%
3) The Big-5 – 39%
4) Army-Navy Game – 29%
5) Penn Relays – 21%
6) Dave Zinkoff intros – 17%
7) Booing – 16%
8) Fireworks night at the Phillies – 16%
9) Tailgating – 14%
10) “Let’s Go Flyers” chant – 12%
Perhaps nothing is more identifiable with the Philly sports scene than a fan “booing” or an E-A-G-L-E-S chant breaking out yet it’s a patriotic anthem that stirred emotions at Flyers games which comes out on top.
Allowing responders to choose up to three famous Philly traditions, fifteen received votes, but none more than 43% who choose Kate Smith’s famous rendition of “God Bless America” at Flyers games. The hockey team went an amazing 81-21-4 when Smith belted out the patriotic standard rather than a Star Spangled rendition at the Spectrum. Smith has been immortalized by a statue outside the famed Philly arena and will also have her likeness placed on a stamp on May 19th – the 36th anniversary of the Flyers first Cup clinching victory in 1974.
The Eagles were a close second on this list with 42% choosing the never mistaken “E-A-G-L-E-S” chant heard for decades. Also prominently positioned was the great Philly college basketball tradition of the Big-5 particularly its history of games at the iconic Palestra. The Army-Navy Game (29%) is a yearly Philadelphia tradition and also cracking the 20% barrier are the nationally recognized Penn Relays. Former 76ers P.A. announcer Dave Zinkoff is remembered fondly by at least 17% of responders most notably for his famous starting lineup introductions including one “Julius Errrrrrvvvvvving”.
If this were a national survey the Philly fan “boo” would have to be the front runner for the top-spot. Local fans disagree however with only 16% identifying the classic phrase as either self defining or worthy of a great local sports tradition. Tailgating, primarily before Eagles games, is highly regarded by 14% of the audience and “Let’s Go Flyers” chants (12%) while popular are around three and a half times less immortalized in the hearts of Philly fans as roars of “E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles”. Missing the top-ten but also receiving votes were streamers and rollouts at the Palestra (10%), Businessperson Specials at Phillies games (9%), boxing fights at the Blue Horizon (4%), the recently participated Broad Street Run (3%), and the Pennsylvania Derby in horse racing (1%).
A: Most popular teams and topics online (Philly.com webpage views for March, 2010)
1) Eagles – 36.8%
2) Phillies – 29.0%
3) Flyers – 17.4%
4) High School Sports – 8.9%
5) Sixers – 7.9%
The Phillies may be the most popular team in town according to polls but the real action shows the Eagles are still getting more attention. The figures above were taken from the Inquirer and Daily News accompanying website www.philly.com. The percentages represent the breakdown of “sub-front” page views by team or topic. There were more than 2.5-million of these page views during the month of March and despite it coming in the midst of the NFL offseason the Eagles remained the topic generating the most attention online.
How that translates into overall popularity is the subject of debate. News for an organization can be good, bad or just plain interesting. Although their season was over by two months during this online measurement cycle the Donovan McNabb trade situation had remained a hot topic on the minds of local sports fans well before he was officially dealt to Washington. Still the Eagles impressive showing beating the Phillies by nearly eight-percentage points despite being up against Spring Training fever is revealing. It also perhaps serves as a counterpoint to the perception that the Phillies are now the city’s most popular team based off of ever changing fan polling.
The Flyers stretch run began in earnest during the month of March meanwhile. It was as previously eluded to a rather ordinary and uneventful regular season for the Flyers yet a significant percentage of Philly sports fans still kept up with the latest news on their team. Sadly for the Sixers when it comes to this measurement of fan enthusiasm they couldn’t even crack the top-four. That position goes to the philly.com section titled “Rally” that focuses on local high school sports. With their lifeless 2009-10 season winding down the Sixers ultimately scored 7.9% of the total page views in March. That’s more than four and a half times less the attention the Eagles received despite it being arguably the least eventful of NFL months.
An expansive survey released today by the Philadelphia Daily News looks to answer those questions and many more. Today’s release was the first of a four part series titled the “Philadelphia Fan Project”. Collecting data of 2,300 subscribers on the philly.com website and with assistance from the Sport and Industry Research Center at Temple University the Daily News has presented an informed and thoroughly interesting piece. Below are some of the highlights and critique of a fan study that is sure to settle certain arguments while creating hot topics of discussion around the water coolers and drinking establishments of greater-Philadelphia.
Q: What is your favorite Philadelphia pro sports team?
1) Phillies – 54%
2) Eagles – 30%
3) Flyers – 12%
4) Sixers – 4%
As anyone who is involved in political polling for a living will surely tell you surveys such as these are relevant only within the specific time period they are taken. Surely this set of data collected by the Daily News in mid-March skews favorably towards the Phillies. Coming off of their second consecutive World Series appearance there was significant buzz for the local baseball franchise as they were gearing up for the 2010 season at Spring Training in Clearwater. Counter that with growing criticism of the Eagles who exited the NFL postseason with an embarrassing playoff defeat in January.
March also is not football season and good or bad it would be interesting to see what the results of this poll would have been if the data had been collected between the months of August (NFL preseason) and January (NFL postseason). Still the Phillies considerable advantage over the Eagles is notable and, while no prior studies can be used to compare, it has to mark a considerable turnaround in the appeal for both teams from just a few years ago.
Unsurprisingly the Flyers and Sixers trailed well behind. Not that Philly fans needed a survey to tell them that the Phillies and Eagles were the top dogs in town but that both the hockey and basketball seasons were in full swing by March, unlike football or baseball, ought to come with a growing sense of alarm for the occupiers of the Wachovia Center. The Flyers recent playoff surge belies a relatively disappointing regular season that nearly cost them a postseason appearance. The Sixers meanwhile are trending aimlessly backwards. The faceless franchise is in the bottom-third of NBA attendance, local TV-ratings while finishing high on its list of loses during the 2009-10 season. Amazing to think how different the landscape was for the local hoops team just six or seven years ago.
Q: Which team will win the next championship?
1) Phillies – 89%
2) Eagles – 5%
3) Flyers – 5%
4) Sixers – 0%
Energized by the recent success of their baseball team Philadelphia sports fans not only rate the Phillies as their current favorite but also by a landslide believe they have the best shot of any of the four teams to bring another championship parade to the City of Brotherly Love. In 2008 the Fightin’ Phils broke the city’s quarter-century title drought and nearly nine in ten responders to this poll believe they’ll also win the next title. The Phillies success, narrowly missing a World Series title repeat last fall, has seemingly embolden local sports fans with a sense of confidence. For whoever does wind up winning the next championship the average responder believes it will happen within the next two years.
The Eagles are coming off of an 11-5 season in 2009 and reached the Conference Title Game as recently as January of that year. Yet only one in twenty give the Birds, behind new starting quarterback Kevin Kolb, the best shot of winning a championship out of the four major pro teams occupying the sporting landscape in Philadelphia. Equaling their total are the Flyers who are a consistent playoff team but have failed to hoist the Stanley Cup since 1975. Again the Sixers trail the pack in fourth place. Virtually no one assumes an NBA Championship is in the cards anytime soon, much less before another World Series parade, Lombardi or Stanley Cup trophy comes to town.
Q: Philadelphia is a __________ town?
1) Football – 70%
2) Baseball – 27%
3) Hockey – 2%
4) Basketball – 1%
As a team the Phillies may be number one in the hearts of Philadelphians but the sport of baseball remains a distant second to their passion for football. Philly has recaptured some of its long lost recognition as a top of the line baseball city in recent years. In 2009 alone the Phillies had the highest attendance percentage in all of baseball and were third behind the Red Sox and Cardinals in local-TV ratings. Yet football is king in Philadelphia just as it is in most of the country.
Harris polls surveying fans nationwide have shown the NFL as a two to one favorite over the MLB for favorite sports league. Those numbers are even more lopsided in favor of football when the college ranks are included. In Philly football is the choice of seven in ten responders when asked what they consider to be the “biggest” sport in town. The Eagles success in spite of not having won a championship in five decades reflects this passion for pigskins. The Birds have the highest attendance percentage in the NFL since 1990, a season ticket waiting list that stretches over decades and local television fan base that is routinely among the top-tier of the league.
Both Sports Illustrated and the Sporting News have ranked Philadelphia as either the best or one of the top-three hockey cities in America in recent years. None the less the locals defer heavily to football and baseball as the two prominent sports in the City of Brotherly Love. Just 2% of the overall crowd sees Philadelphia as a hockey town. Only 1% consider it to be a basketball-first city despite many great 76ers moments, players and teams and the fabulous local college basketball tradition of the Big-5. The disparity between football and baseball remains large but it’s probably as close as it has been in recent memory. Fueled by the Phillies success baseball has convinced 27% of local sports fans that it is the top sport in Philadelphia.
Q: What is your favorite Philadelphia sports venue?
1) Citizens Bank Park – 74%
2) Lincoln Financial Field – 8%
3) Wachovia Center – 8%
4) Palestra – 8%
Postseason baseball in Philadelphia has become a familiar occurrence in recent years and the fans have responded by routinely packing the seats at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies soaring popularity as reflected in this study has made the “Bank” the place to be in recent years. Yet the success of the team that plays there does not completely explain the massive disparity between it and the other venues as Philadelphia’s favorite place to watch a sporting event.
Nearly three-quarters of responders chose the Phillies home park as their favorite place to watch a game. The accessibility of baseball as a cheaper and more family oriented option always gives baseball an edge in this department. Even during lousy attendance seasons for the Phillies at the often reviled Veterans Stadiums 1.5 to 2-million fans routinely passed through the turn styles each season. Even those totals dwarfed figures for the Eagles, Flyers and Sixers who have fewer games, sell pricier tickets and in the case of hockey and basketball play in a far smaller venue.
Dismissing Citizens Bank Park as merely the product of a championship caliber team’s success or its accessibility as the home of a fan friendlier sport would be missing the point however. In truth the “Bank” is widely considered one of the best stadiums in all of Major League Baseball. Opened in 2004 the beautiful baseball-only park instantly gave droves of fans a better excuse to attend a baseball game than ever before. Whereas the foreboding Vet was hardly a choice venue even in years when the Phillies played well, Citizens Bank with its beautiful design, fan-friendly arrangements and caveats in tow encourages Philadelphia fans to enjoy a night at the park even if the baseball team is performing below par.
Another state of the art facility is Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Eagles since 2003. Rarely do football stadiums exude the same type of charm or distinction as their baseball-only counterparts however which immediately places the “Linc” behind the eight ball. Furthermore the fan experience while riveting when the local football team is playing well touches far fewer fans. Most of the attendees during each game of each season are among the few dozen thousand season ticket holders and with only eight regular season games scheduled there are ten-times less the opportunities to catch the Eagles than the Phillies. If that weren’t enough the ticket prices surely are. Lower-level tickets at the “Linc” average $95. That’s a far pricier option for a family of four than grabbing decent seats at a Phillies game.
Q: What is the best Philadelphia sports tradition? (Responders allowed to choose up to three)
1) Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” – 43%
2) E-A-G-L-E-S chant – 42%
3) The Big-5 – 39%
4) Army-Navy Game – 29%
5) Penn Relays – 21%
6) Dave Zinkoff intros – 17%
7) Booing – 16%
8) Fireworks night at the Phillies – 16%
9) Tailgating – 14%
10) “Let’s Go Flyers” chant – 12%
Perhaps nothing is more identifiable with the Philly sports scene than a fan “booing” or an E-A-G-L-E-S chant breaking out yet it’s a patriotic anthem that stirred emotions at Flyers games which comes out on top.
Allowing responders to choose up to three famous Philly traditions, fifteen received votes, but none more than 43% who choose Kate Smith’s famous rendition of “God Bless America” at Flyers games. The hockey team went an amazing 81-21-4 when Smith belted out the patriotic standard rather than a Star Spangled rendition at the Spectrum. Smith has been immortalized by a statue outside the famed Philly arena and will also have her likeness placed on a stamp on May 19th – the 36th anniversary of the Flyers first Cup clinching victory in 1974.
The Eagles were a close second on this list with 42% choosing the never mistaken “E-A-G-L-E-S” chant heard for decades. Also prominently positioned was the great Philly college basketball tradition of the Big-5 particularly its history of games at the iconic Palestra. The Army-Navy Game (29%) is a yearly Philadelphia tradition and also cracking the 20% barrier are the nationally recognized Penn Relays. Former 76ers P.A. announcer Dave Zinkoff is remembered fondly by at least 17% of responders most notably for his famous starting lineup introductions including one “Julius Errrrrrvvvvvving”.
If this were a national survey the Philly fan “boo” would have to be the front runner for the top-spot. Local fans disagree however with only 16% identifying the classic phrase as either self defining or worthy of a great local sports tradition. Tailgating, primarily before Eagles games, is highly regarded by 14% of the audience and “Let’s Go Flyers” chants (12%) while popular are around three and a half times less immortalized in the hearts of Philly fans as roars of “E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles”. Missing the top-ten but also receiving votes were streamers and rollouts at the Palestra (10%), Businessperson Specials at Phillies games (9%), boxing fights at the Blue Horizon (4%), the recently participated Broad Street Run (3%), and the Pennsylvania Derby in horse racing (1%).
A: Most popular teams and topics online (Philly.com webpage views for March, 2010)
1) Eagles – 36.8%
2) Phillies – 29.0%
3) Flyers – 17.4%
4) High School Sports – 8.9%
5) Sixers – 7.9%
The Phillies may be the most popular team in town according to polls but the real action shows the Eagles are still getting more attention. The figures above were taken from the Inquirer and Daily News accompanying website www.philly.com. The percentages represent the breakdown of “sub-front” page views by team or topic. There were more than 2.5-million of these page views during the month of March and despite it coming in the midst of the NFL offseason the Eagles remained the topic generating the most attention online.
How that translates into overall popularity is the subject of debate. News for an organization can be good, bad or just plain interesting. Although their season was over by two months during this online measurement cycle the Donovan McNabb trade situation had remained a hot topic on the minds of local sports fans well before he was officially dealt to Washington. Still the Eagles impressive showing beating the Phillies by nearly eight-percentage points despite being up against Spring Training fever is revealing. It also perhaps serves as a counterpoint to the perception that the Phillies are now the city’s most popular team based off of ever changing fan polling.
The Flyers stretch run began in earnest during the month of March meanwhile. It was as previously eluded to a rather ordinary and uneventful regular season for the Flyers yet a significant percentage of Philly sports fans still kept up with the latest news on their team. Sadly for the Sixers when it comes to this measurement of fan enthusiasm they couldn’t even crack the top-four. That position goes to the philly.com section titled “Rally” that focuses on local high school sports. With their lifeless 2009-10 season winding down the Sixers ultimately scored 7.9% of the total page views in March. That’s more than four and a half times less the attention the Eagles received despite it being arguably the least eventful of NFL months.
PHOTO CREDIT: ASSOCIATED PRESS / Matt Slocumb
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