For Immediate Release: August 26, 2002
Contact: press@decisionanalyst.com
Survey Indicates 43% Of Major League Baseball® Fans Would Lose Interest After Strike
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas—Major
League Baseball® stands to lose a large percentage of its fans if the strike
planned for Aug. 30 takes place, according to final results from a survey by American
Consumer Opinion®. Of the 715 survey respondents (screened for at least a
“slight” interest in Major League Baseball®) 82% said they are “somewhat,”
“very,” or “extremely” interested in the sport now. If the strike happens, that
number drops to 39% — a loss of 43% of the current fan base. Further, 60% of
survey respondents say a strike would hurt Major League Baseball®
“tremendously.”
“This shows that baseball would lose a significant
portion of its fan base with no guarantee when, or if, they would come back,”
said Brett Townsend, a research analyst at Decision Analyst, Inc., which owns American
Consumer Opinion™. “In this case, the ‘vocal minority’ who have been predicting
the negative effects of a baseball strike really do speak for the majority of
fans.”
Survey respondents were also asked to react to a
series of statements to indicate their feelings about the proposed baseball
strike. Nearly half of the respondents — 45% — agreed to the statement, “I
would be disgusted if Major League Baseball® were still on strike on Sept. 11.”
“After Sept. 11, 2001, Major League Baseball® took a very patriotic
stance, and baseball games were one of the first public ‘group’ activities to
resume after the terrorist attacks,” said Townsend. “If this work stoppage
causes Major League Baseball® to be absent on the one-year anniversary of the
attacks, it would be a major turn-off to those same fans they were able to
console a year ago.”
Respondents’ reactions to the proposed strike include:
Note: Numbers don’t add up to 100% because respondents
were instructed to “choose all correct answers.”
Methodology
Based on an Internet survey conducted between August 22 and 23, 2002
with 715 U.S. respondents, balanced by gender, age and
geography, and screened for at least “slight” interest in Major League
Baseball®. Results are correct within a +/- 4% margin of error.
American Consumer Opinion® is owned by Decision Analyst, Inc. For more information contact
Cristi Allen via email (callen@decisionanalyst.com)
or phone (1.800.262.5974)
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