Boston Bruins vs Boston Celtics Current Popularity

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by ryanthegoldengod

Nothing personifies how spoiled Boston sports fans have become more than this. In the 11 seasons since 2007 the Red Sox have won the World Series twice, had winning seasons 8 out of 11 seasons, won 4 AL East titles, made 6 playoff appearances. Oh, and they've won the AL East 3 straight years. They have had 2 AL MVP's and a Cy Young Award winner.

They hit one bad stretch where they had 3 losing seasons in 4 years but the one winning season they won the World Series!

Forget 04--07 even happened for a minute. Red Sox fans for 86 years couldn't have imagined the last 11 years in their wildest dreams.

But I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong. It's just incredible how quickly a fan base can go from cursed, despairing, and neurotic to spoiled rotten. It's the same with the Pats.

I don't disagree at all - the Sox have been one of the best franchises in all American sports over the last 2 decades. The problem is that the indisputable best franchise plays 30 miles away in Foxboro, and the other two in town have had some success too. This fan base is incredibly spoiled. To be clear, I'm a Sox fan above all else. And no matter how much they win I will always be a cynic and I will always assume that they will find a way to lose or blow it. I grew up with that being the norm, and it's hard to shake it. The 2013 team remains one of my favorites from this city. Apart from the 2001 Patriots, it may be the biggest overachieving Boston team win a Championship in the last 20 or so years. Last year was fun, and I'm still hopeful for this one.

[masssachoicetts]

I think the Sox peaked in 04-08 because it was the first time in 86 years they won the WS. That adrenaline rushed into 07 and so on..

But over the past few years, the Pats seem to be the most popular team. Atleast out here in the South Shore/Metro West.

Celtics and Bruins have swapped places recently.. Bruins pull slightly ahead now.

[BostonBornMassMade]

https://thebiglead.com/2018/03/07/ki...t-hockey-talk/

"The Celtics may be a distant third behind the Sox and Pats, but the Bruins are a distant fourth behind them in terms of aggregate interest."

"As a writer at Boston.com, I wrote about Boston’s big four sports teams from our news desk, mostly blogging about news and viral video clips. No one read my stories on the Bruins. As ravenous as core Bruins fans are for content, there can’t be many of them out there."

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

https://thebiglead.com/2018/03/07/ki...t-hockey-talk/

"The Celtics may be a distant third behind the Sox and Pats, but the Bruins are a distant fourth behind them in terms of aggregate interest."

"As a writer at Boston.com, I wrote about Boston’s big four sports teams from our news desk, mostly blogging about news and viral video clips. No one read my stories on the Bruins. As ravenous as core Bruins fans are for content, there can’t be many of them out there."

This is the impression I've gotten, unfortunately. I tried to go watch the Bruins-Canes game 2 the other day. Bars near me (Brighton) were basically empty. Yeah the game was on, but very few people there, most people not interested. I ended up just going home. I can't imagine that for any Pats or Sox playoff game, even Celtics.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

This is the impression I've gotten, unfortunately. I tried to go watch the Bruins-Canes game 2 the other day. Bars near me (Brighton) were basically empty. Yeah the game was on, but very few people there, most people not interested. I ended up just going home. I can't imagine that for any Pats or Sox playoff game, even Celtics.

Really? I'm no big Bruins fan myself (For me It's Sox>Pats>......Celtics>Bruins), and I think the Bruins are definitely more popular than the Celtics. At least at this general point in time (not just taking into account the Celtics flop and the Bruins playoff success).

I work near the Garden and walk the length of Causeway street almost every night. Bruins fans fill the bars early and keep them full all night. You can't miss the fact that there's a Bruins game at the Garden when it's happening. Fans everywhere. You still see Celtics fans at the bar, and you see them walking around before/after the game, but not in anywhere near the force that you see Bruins fans. Local bars near me get pretty busy even for regular season Bruins games. Celtics regular season games are background noise for the most part - nobody really pays much attention.

Obviously this is anecdotal, but that's been my experience.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by lrfox

Really? I'm no big Bruins fan myself (For me It's Sox>Pats>......Celtics>Bruins), and I think the Bruins are definitely more popular than the Celtics. At least at this general point in time (not just taking into account the Celtics flop and the Bruins playoff success).

I work near the Garden and walk the length of Causeway street almost every night. Bruins fans fill the bars early and keep them full all night. You can't miss the fact that there's a Bruins game at the Garden when it's happening. Fans everywhere. You still see Celtics fans at the bar, and you see them walking around before/after the game, but not in anywhere near the force that you see Bruins fans. Local bars near me get pretty busy even for regular season Bruins games. Celtics regular season games are background noise for the most part - nobody really pays much attention.

Obviously this is anecdotal, but that's been my experience.

I don't doubt that at all, but I would suggest outside that area, you don't see nearly as much Bruins fandom in the neighborhoods beyond.

[btownboss4]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

https://thebiglead.com/2018/03/07/ki...t-hockey-talk/

"The Celtics may be a distant third behind the Sox and Pats, but the Bruins are a distant fourth behind them in terms of aggregate interest."

"As a writer at Boston.com, I wrote about Boston’s big four sports teams from our news desk, mostly blogging about news and viral video clips. No one read my stories on the Bruins. As ravenous as core Bruins fans are for content, there can’t be many of them out there."

It’s interesting because the Bruins beat the Celtics every time they went Head to Head in the playoffs this year.

[bostonguy1960]

Hmmmm...the Bruins have been getting local tv ratings of 12 to 17 since beating Toronto. Very solid but no, not the 35-42 even a Patriots regular season game gets. But neither do the Celtics or Red Sox, at least this early in their playoffs.

Even the Red Sox World Series game 6 win last fall was down from the previous ones... to about a 35-36 local rating? I think they peaked in the first round at a 25 rating for beating the Yankees in game 5. For comparison, last year's regular-season Red Sox NESN ratings were 6-7, amongst the best in baseball as usual. They play double the number of Bruins and Celtics games, of course, so their nuch higher ratings are even more impressive in contrast.

I think the Bruins ratings dipped this year about 15% to a paltry 2.5 but still better than most American cities. Celtics plummeted also... I heard 30%? I'm guessing to about a 3.0 on NBC Sports Boston. Plus, many of both teams' marquee games are shown only on NBCSN and NBC, and TNT and ESPN, respectively. I don't think these count in the local cable ratings, obviously, so local ratings would be a bit higher if no games were on national cable or network airwaves. Hard for a direct comparison then...

I read on a sports ratings site today that last year's game 4 of Celtics vs. Cavaliers, a conference final, had a 12 or so local rating; the Bruins last night in their conference final in a game 3 with an uninteresting 2-0 series lead on an uninteresting team in the Hurricanes.l had a 17. Not an exact comparison, but a marquee LeBron James Cavaliers team vs. last year's Celtics scored less here. Plus the Bruins generally beat the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs last month, whether head to head or different nights... obviously much to do with a much more enticing opponent. Plus the Bruins competed against the ESPN NBA draft last night which was up 70% in ratings and still did well against that boring Carolina opponent.

I walked by an Irish bar on Harvard Street in Brookline last week in the 3rd period, and there were several people watching the game from barstools with interest against Columbus.

There seems to be a decent amount of Bruins talk on the two sports radio stations, as there should be right now, but still plenty of Celtics talk a week after their collapse talking about their still interesting team and upcoming summer transactions.

Plus the Globe sent Dan Shaughnessy down to Carolina, and he never covers hockey unless it's this deep in the playoffs. So at least the Globe values the Bruins and it had three stories on the top of the sports page today vs. Chris Sales' 17 strikeouts at the bottom of the page. Same with the Herald, as the Bruins today had the big back page headline and photo vs. the Res Sox small headline below.

In comparison to the 14-17 local Bruins ratings for the three games against Carolina so far, game 7 of the enticing previous round of Golden State vs.Houston saw the San Francisco market get an 18 vs. a 14 in Houston. I bet those numbers stabilize against Portland in this round at least early on.

In other words, even Golden State isn't drawing a 20 or 30 rating for a round 2, game 7. So I think a Bruins range of a 12-17 rating or so last round and this round is acceptable, comparable to Golden State and Houston for their NBA teams who bask in a much more popular sport.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

I think the Sox peaked in 04-08 because it was the first time in 86 years they won the WS. That adrenaline rushed into 07 and so on..

But over the past few years, the Pats seem to be the most popular team. Atleast out here in the South Shore/Metro West.

Celtics and Bruins have swapped places recently.. Bruins pull slightly ahead now.

Kyrie Irving is toxic. If Bill Belichick ran the Celtics, he would have been traded for a 3rd round draft pick back in January. I used to like the Jae Crowder/Kelly Olynyk team of a couple of years ago that played team basketball and overachieved. With Kyrie, I get the Rickey Henderson/Chad Ochocinco me, me, me vibe. I stopped watching.

[stanley-88888888]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Kyrie Irving is toxic. If Bill Belichick ran the Celtics, he would have been traded for a 3rd round draft pick back in January. I used to like the Jae Crowder/Kelly Olynyk team of a couple of years ago that played team basketball and overachieved. With Kyrie, I get the Rickey Henderson/Chad Ochocinco me, me, me vibe. I stopped watching.

i believe in danny ainge.