I’ve gotten a couple of e-mails over the weekend wondering how the Spurs’ “watched/attended/listened” rankings compiled by the Scarborough Sports Marketing Group compared to others across the league.
These questions were a result of a story in Saturday’s paper where Bill Nielsen, Scarborough’s vice president of sales, said the Spurs should be in position to endure the lockout better than other NBA franchises because of their traditional strong support.
The good folks at Scarborough were willing to share their most recent “WAL” rankings for the NBA and the other major sports.
It’s a ranking that determines what percentage of fans in a market have either watched a local team on television, attended a game in person or listened to one on radio in the last year.
The ranking provides a pretty accurate glimpse of the NBA’s best and worst American markets. Toronto isn’t included in their compilations.
Here’s a look at the NBA from 1 through 29 for their most recent figures of this season. The number is parenthesis is where the team ranked in Scarborough’s last rankings.
(1) San Antonio Spurs: 61% (1)
(2) Cleveland Cavaliers: 58% (2)
(3) Boston Celtics: 50% (6)
(4) Utah Jazz: 47% (3)
(5) Phoenix Suns: 45% (5)
(6) Los Angeles Lakers: 44% (10)
(7) Oklahoma City Thunder: 44% (17)
(8) Portland Trail Blazers: 43% (7)
(9) New Orleans Hornets: 41% (8)
(10) Denver Nuggets: 40% (12)
(11) Dallas Mavericks: 39% (9)
(12) Chicago Bulls: 39% (15)
(13) Detroit Pistons: 38% (4)
(14) Memphis Grizzlies: 37% (13)
(15) Miami Heat: 37% (18)
(16) Houston Rockets: 37% (11)
(17) Orlando Magic: 33% (14)
(18) Milwaukee Bucks: 33% (19)
(19) Indiana Pacers: 30% (16)
(20) Sacramento Kings: 28% (20)
(21) Atlanta Hawks: 24% (24)
(22) Charlotte Bobcats: 24% (23)
(23) Philadelphia 76ers: 23% (22)
(24) Golden State Warriors: 20% (26)
(25) New York Knicks: 18% (27)
(26) Washington Wizards: 18% (25)
(27) Minnesota T’wolves: 16% (21)
(28) Los Angeles Clippers: 12% (28)
(29) New Jersey Nets: 11% (29)
These numbers indicate a couple of different findings. It can be argued that the markets at the top of the list have been the league’s best over the years. I’m also intrigued with the way that Oklahoma City’s market is getting excited about the Thunder for obvious reasons.
And as teams take these numbers to potential advertisers, even the larger markets at the bottom of the list like New York, New Jersey and the Los Angeles Clippers all have markets of millions of potential customers.
Here’s a listing of the best and worst teams in Scarborough’s most recent rankings for Major League Baseball.
The best:
(1) St. Louis Cardinals: 73% (2)
(2) Cincinnati Reds: 70% (7)
(3) Minnesota Twins: 70% (3)
(4) Boston Red Sox: 69% (1)
(5) Philadelphia Phillies: 69% (4)
And the worst:
(25) New York Mets: 36% (26)
(26) Los Angeles Dodgers: 34% (25)
(27) Washington Nationals: 33% (28)
(28) Los Angeles Angels: 29% (27)
(29) Oakland Athletics: 28% (29)
And here are Scarborough’s most recent WAL rankings for National Football League franchises.
The best:
(1) New Orleans Saints: 87% (2)
(2) Green Bay Packers: 84% (1)
(3) Pittsburgh Steelers: 82% (3)
(4) Indianapolis Colts: 75% (4)
(5) Minnesota Vikings: 73% (5)
And the worst:
(28) Miami Dolphins: 43% (28)
(29) San Francisco 49ers: 42% (29)
(30) New York Giants: 40% (30)
(31) New York Jets: 37% (31)
(32) Oakland Raiders: 28% (32)
These ratings show