Louisville is #1 fan of NCAA basketball (Lexington, Campbellsville: transplants, credit, transfer)

[johnsonkk]

Recent article about Louisville fans watching the most NCAA basketball (per capita) than any other city in the country.

The College Basketball Capital of the World - WSJ

Birmingham, AL is the most active football fans. New Orleans is for NFL football. Article gives credit to strong fan support along with recent championships by both UK and UofL teams.

[TarHeelNick]

I question this statistic....

[Crazee Cat Lady]

Lol, ofcourse you do, you TarHeelNick!

(Me too, it should be Lexington!)

[johnsonkk]

Originally Posted by TarHeelNick

I question this statistic....

The article uses tv ratings to measure fans and consumers of the sport. Espn says the only market that watches over 5% of subscribers for any college basketball, night after night is Louisville at over 5% of the espn subscribers, regardless if Louisville or Lexington is playing. Same analysis for deciding new Orleans is the lead NFL viewers (per capita). Buffalo for NHL. DC for MLS (soccer). Strength of fans or sheer numbers could be in another city. This article was geared at measuring per capita viewers, by sport.

[TarHeelNick]

Originally Posted by johnsonkk

The article uses tv ratings to measure fans and consumers of the sport. Espn says the only market that watches over 5% of subscribers for any college basketball, night after night is Louisville at over 5% of the espn subscribers, regardless if Louisville or Lexington is playing. Same analysis for deciding new Orleans is the lead NFL viewers (per capita). Buffalo for NHL. DC for MLS (soccer). Strength of fans or sheer numbers could be in another city. This article was geared at measuring per capita viewers, by sport.

Do they take into account things like the local CBS affiliate Raycom broadcasting every ACC game live instead of regular programming every winter? Or is it only accounting for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, and ESPNU viewers?

[johnsonkk]

Originally Posted by TarHeelNick

Do they take into account things like the local CBS affiliate Raycom broadcasting every ACC game live instead of regular programming every winter? Or is it only accounting for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, and ESPNU viewers?

I don't think they measured local tv because they didn't mention it in article. Assuming they can measure viewers, if local stations broadcast thousands of games, it would kinda skew the numbers. Again, don't know.

[Toxic Toast]

Originally Posted by TarHeelNick

Do they take into account things like the local CBS affiliate Raycom broadcasting every ACC game live instead of regular programming every winter? Or is it only accounting for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, and ESPNU viewers?

Why is it so difficult for people in North Carolina to understand that they don't corner the market on college basketball obsession?

[censusdata]

I'd guess the list is primarily based on tv ratings. Louisville tv market (which extends from Bedford to North Vernon in Indiana south almost from a Mammoth Cave to Campbellsville line) always ranks very high for NCAA tournament and NBA draft tv ratings. Almost everyone in this market is a fan of a basketball first school (Louisville, Kentucky, Indiana, Purdue, and Western KY). It's also a market without any local pro teams, unlike Charlotte, Raleigh, Indy, etc.

I'd say Lexington market is as enthusiastic but usually such list only county the larger markets, maybe a cutoff of 50 largest or something. Lexington market is probably just a bit below their size threshold.

I'd love to see Louisville get an NBA team someday, I think it could be to basketball what St Louis is for baseball. Our ABA team did well on the court and in attendance but got axed for political reasons during the ABA / NBA merger. But the NBA here won't happen until the leadership for the movement isn't an old, bitter polarizing old man named J Bruce Miller

[Chicago76]

Originally Posted by TarHeelNick

Do they take into account things like the local CBS affiliate Raycom broadcasting every ACC game live instead of regular programming every winter? Or is it only accounting for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, and ESPNU viewers?

Regardless of how they do it, I've seen studies that look at the NCAA tourney (no Raycom issue) or ESPN data that was probably pre-Raycom agreement that say the same thing. It's actually been this way for some time. I remember seeing NCAA tourney/Final Four ratings by market for several years 10-12 years ago. Whenever Louisville didn't have a team in the FF, they led FF ratings among markets who also didn't have a team in FF.

Nielsen did a 5 year NCAA tourney rating average where Louisville came out way ahead (2004-08): http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/c...ment-guide.pdf

ESPN mentioned before that Louisville had consistently rated at the top over a 10 year stretch 2003-12: College Basketball

Greensboro, KC, Indianapolis, Columbus, Raleigh-Durham, and Charlotte are next up.

I've seen a lot of other Nielsen coverage year to year on the final four

It would make sense that Louisville would be #1. Like Raleigh-Durham, there are a lot of major hoops universities not only in Kentucky but also a short distance away. Unlike Raleigh-Durham, the area doesn't have as many domestic transplants or internationals. I imagine if they could do "locals" only ratings, the two areas would run neck and neck.

[ServoMiff]

Originally Posted by Chicago76

Regardless of how they do it, I've seen studies that look at the NCAA tourney (no Raycom issue) or ESPN data that was probably pre-Raycom agreement that say the same thing. It's actually been this way for some time. I remember seeing NCAA tourney/Final Four ratings by market for several years 10-12 years ago. Whenever Louisville didn't have a team in the FF, they led FF ratings among markets who also didn't have a team in FF.

Nielsen did a 5 year NCAA tourney rating average where Louisville came out way ahead (2004-08): http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/c...ment-guide.pdf

ESPN mentioned before that Louisville had consistently rated at the top over a 10 year stretch 2003-12: College Basketball

Greensboro, KC, Indianapolis, Columbus, Raleigh-Durham, and Charlotte are next up.

I've seen a lot of other Nielsen coverage year to year on the final four

It would make sense that Louisville would be #1. Like Raleigh-Durham, there are a lot of major hoops universities not only in Kentucky but also a short distance away. Unlike Raleigh-Durham, the area doesn't have as many domestic transplants or internationals. I imagine if they could do "locals" only ratings, the two areas would run neck and neck.

I think the emphasis on the report is that this shows that Louisville residents care about the GAME of college basketball more than anywhere else, regardless of whether their team is playing or not. The success of their own team(s) certainly plays into this, because if their own team sucked, it would really drain their motivation for watching other games, especially if their rival was doing well.

UK fans tend to enjoy watching Louisville lose and vice versa, but they generally won't tune in to watch a rival in a game they feel they'd win anyhow. This explains why I never watch UK games once they start SEC play. It's so awful. UK seems like the Gonzaga of the midwest/mid-south with how bad the SEC is this year. Fitting that the Gonzaga team has 1 player who transferred from both UK and UofL on their roster (Wiltjer and Nunez, respectively).

I get the sense that NC basketball fans don't really care about the BYU-Gonzaga or Butler-Villanova matchups as much as Louisville residents do, which would explain why they're #1.