The Athletic layoffs

Alma, I think that list is fair, but there have been exceptions.

The Bills get great support, but they did not sell out either the miracle comeback against Houston 1/3/93
or what amounted to Jim Kelly's final game against Jacksonville 12/28/96. Those home playoff games were blackouts.

Dallas is a national entity. Has been for near a half-century. I can understand why a New York guy would write about the Cowboys.

 

I think the Redskins are still the team that draws the most interest in D.C. As bad as the Redskins were last year their television ratings still destroyed those of the Nationals. Redskin ratings were much higher in a had to head match up against a Nationals playoff game.

 

If any of you believe that guy on the other thread claiming to be Hansmann was actually Hansmann, I have a profitable Gannett paper to sell you

 

Those pre-Steinbrenner-suspension teams were absolutely brutal and the Mets had Gooden, Strawberry and most of the rest of that team still intact. I’m too lazy to look up NYY attendance in 1990 but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were below 2 million.

The Patriots couldn’t even get 20k in the stadium before Parcells. One of Paul Tagliabue’s best moves was convincing James Orthwein to hire Parcells, and convincing Parcells to take the job. Without Parcells, Kraft doesn’t overextend himself to buy the team and without Parcells, there’s no Belichick and later Brady.

 

In 1990 it was a little more than 2 million. In 91 and 92 it went to 1.8 and 1.7 million, then jumped back up to 2.4 million in 93, was at 1.6 and 1.7 the next two seasons. Since 96 it's never been below 2.2 million and since 99 it's never been below 3 million (1998 missed by 45,000)

 

I know this probably wouldn't happen today, but let's say there's a weather-beaten ALDS playoff series with a wacky schedule that ultimately places the Yankees in a Game 7 directly opposite the Giants on a Sunday night. Which game draws the bigger number in the NYC market?

 

In 1986, Game 7 of the Red Sox-Mets World Series went opposite Giants-Redskins on Monday Night Football at the Meadowlands. The World Series got a 38.9 rating, while MNF got an 8.8.

 

That's why I'm wondering about a lesser baseball round -- ALDS -- and curious what the comp would be. I don't honestly know. Back then, the country would have watched the baseball, but I"m not sure about the national or local comparative ratings today.

 

For what it's worth: Yankees have 3.4 million followers, Giants 1.8, Jets 1.2, Mets 1.0 on Twitter. On Instagram, Yankees 2.5, Giants 2.0, Mets 912K, Jets 735K. A good reflection that baseball remains king in New York, even among a demographic on social media that skews younger. And when it comes to "traditional media," baseball gets far more coverage than anything else.

 

I don't struggle with how to feel about it--it's great if it succeeds, more awful news for the industry if it doesn't--but everything else you wrote sums up exactly how I feel about the joint, the "holier and hipper than thou" and cliquish comments in particular. It gets a little tiresome reading their writers on Twitter and feeling as if you're observing the cool kids' lunch table. (And again, I understand sportswriting is inherently a cliquish business, but it's at a whole different level there)

 

Um, no.

Back when the Charlotte Hornets first came about, they led the NBA in attendance for years, but that was before the Carolina Panthers came into existence.

The disastrous ownerships of Shinnridge and Bob Johnson after David Stern let Shinn move Hornets 1.0 to New Orleans, and now watching Michael Jordan continue to make money while the Hornets slip further into irrelevance is about the only interesting storyline (Could they have screwed up Kemba Walker's situation any worse?). And the way in which NASCAR is heading for the cliff, you would think it's being run by the same idiots who misrun media outlets.