A large chunk of sports fans watched fewer games once leagues started getting political.
According to a poll from Yahoo News and YouGov, 34.5% of fans said they watched fewer sporting events because of the political and social justice messaging that became prevalent in the second half of 2020. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Every player, coach and ref takes a knee during the national anthem before the Pelicans-Jazz game pic.twitter.com/LZy1A6s8VM
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 30, 2020
That’s more than 1/3 of sports fans. The poll indicated that about 11% watched more sports and 56.3% saw no change.
If I’ve said it once, then I’ve said it a million times. Politics is going to destroy sports if we don’t dial it back.
Nobody wants to watch a game at the end of a long week to be lectured by millionaires. Nobody wants to see that.
We want to watch the action. Instead, for large chunks of 2020, we got nonstop lecturing and activism, especially from NBA players.
All players, coaches and refs take a knee and lock arms during the national anthem before the Lakers-Clippers game. pic.twitter.com/eZ9RHE3eh7
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 31, 2020
Sports are also meant to unify people. One of the best parts about sports is the fact they bring people together.
I’ve been to a lot of football games in my life, and I never asked somebody who they voted for before getting into their thoughts on the game.
We seem to have forgotten that in America. We’ve lost our sense of coming together, and sports becoming political is tearing us apart.
KD and LeBron showed their support for Colin Kaepernick with limited edition jerseys during Super Bowl week. (via @Lakers/@Kaepernick7) pic.twitter.com/I9r5XoZ3bE
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 2, 2019
If the leagues don’t figure it out, then viewership will continue to fall. It’s truly a sad state of affairs.
