Of course, this being the USA, 'football' refers not to the sport of the World Cup but the one of the Super Bowl. Or at least in theory it does: who can tell what people are actually looking for when they type 'football' into Google's search engine.
Anyway... removing football from the list and replacing it with the other big sports - baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer (yes the other football) - suddenly presents an intriguing map:
It's an odd one. The only one it's easy to say much about is hockey: the sport thrives in northern states, along the Canadian border. None of the states coloured blue here has an NHL franchise, but with the exception of the Green Bay Packers neither do they have a franchise in any of the other main professional team sports. Washington State uniquely prefers soccer, something not easy to explain. You might chalk it up to Washington's large immigrant community, but certainly a good many states here have high immigrant populations.
Now... baseball vs. basketball? It's tough to see what's happening here. The South and the Northeast seem to prefer baseball, but why? And why is the heartland so basketball-happy?
I can only make a stab at an answer. The populous states, containing big cities, seem to prefer baseball: California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New York. Perhaps states with successful baseball franchises get the interest in baseball, whereas states with no MLB team gravitate to basketball. Why? Well, like American football, basketball is also a college sport, and the NCAA competes for attention with the NBA. Perhaps it's the college level, something baseball doesn't really have, that pushes it ahead.
"None of those states have an NHL Franchise".
ReplyDelete"It's an odd one. The only one it's easy to say much about is hockey: the sport thrives in northern states, along the Canadian border. None of the states coloured blue here has an NHL franchise, but with the exception of the Green Bay Packers neither do they have a franchise in any of the other main professional team sports."
1. The Packers play in Wisconsin, which is colored Green, not blue. Wisconsin has 2 other professional sports teams, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Milwaukee Bucks.
2. Yes, there is one state that's colored blue that has an NHL franchise. The Minnesota Wild, who play in Saint Paul.
3. Cross the river from Saint Paul into Minneapolis and you'll see Target Field, the home of MLB's Minnesota Twins, the Target Center, the home of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves and US Bank Stadium (Which when you posted your blog entry, was the location of the Metrodome). Both the Metrodome and US Bank Stadium were the home of the Vikings.
"None of those states have an NHL Franchise".
ReplyDelete"It's an odd one. The only one it's easy to say much about is hockey: the sport thrives in northern states, along the Canadian border. None of the states coloured blue here has an NHL franchise, but with the exception of the Green Bay Packers neither do they have a franchise in any of the other main professional team sports."
1. The Packers play in Wisconsin, which is colored Green, not blue. Wisconsin has 2 other professional sports teams, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Milwaukee Bucks.
2. Yes, there is one state that's colored blue that has an NHL franchise. The Minnesota Wild, who play in Saint Paul.
3. Cross the river from Saint Paul into Minneapolis and you'll see Target Field, the home of MLB's Minnesota Twins, the Target Center, the home of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves and US Bank Stadium (Which when you posted your blog entry, was the location of the Metrodome). Both the Metrodome and US Bank Stadium were the home of the Vikings.