So, the topic of conversation now that the Eagles are tanking like the Stock Market and the Phillies are the latest team in Philly to become our "hope" is whether or not Philly is a football or baseball town.
Well, the ratings came in from Sunday and the Eagles had over 45% of the viewership and the Phillies clocked in at 25%. According to Howard Eskin, roughly 300,000 more people were watching the Eagles based on those figures.
I think if you take it a little further you have to account for sports bars. If you look up how Nielson TV shares are defined, they determine it by the number of televisions that are tuned in to a particular broadcast. Let's take it a step further and think about sports bars. They have many more TV's than your average home. Usually they'll have 6-12 TV's in a room and some may have many more.
Let's go even further. What has been the biggest sports product in demand for Philly fans? The Eagles of course. So, sports bars are naturally going to have the Eagles game on more TV's. Go to any sports bar when they're on even while the Phillies are on and they might put the Phillies on one or two screens, but the Eagles will be on most of the other screens.
This will certainly skew the numbers a lot. Now, how can we quanitify this? It's hard to tell, but we would be kidding ourselves by dismissing this because Nielson Ratings are determined by numbers of TVs, which doesn't necessarily mean numbers of people.
With that said, based upon the interest in the Phillies and the Eagles looking to be headed for their third playoff-less season in four years it's about even in terms of interest for both teams. And, if the Phillies win the World Series this year, thereby breaking the curse, then it will become a baseball town again.
For years the Eagles reigned supreme for obvious reasons. The Phillies ownership basically pissed on the fans from the time of the strike up until Citizen's Bank Park opened in 2003. Meanwhile, the Eagles were on the ascent and made it to the playoffs for five straight seasons, from 2000-2004, including four straight trips to the NFC Title Game and a Super Bowl appearance.
Now, the Phillies have ascended and finally broken through the barrier of mediocrity that marred that organization during the Bowa years and Charlie Manuel's era from 2001-2006. They took their first step last year in making it to the playoffs and have now won a round for the first time since '93.
The Eagles organization on the other hand is appearing to be headed down the Rabbit Hole of Oblivion, yet they keep fooling themselves into believing they're better than they are, but more and more fans are having none of it.
One team goes up, another falls down. And, once it's sustained for a period of time that's what it takes for a town to become a quote unquote baseball or football town.
Sure, the Eagles are Philly's answer to the Boston Red Sox, but the Phillies have nearly caught up to them because the Eagles pissed away a window of opportunity that the organization may not see again for another generation.
The Phillies despite being held hostage by a penurious ownership and at times an incompetent front office have done the unthinkable by mirroring the 1980 World Series team in having an up and down season only to surprise us at the right time. Remember, the team that won the World Series had a season much like the 2008 Phillies in that they struggled throughout the year and barely made it in the postseason only to catch fire at the right moments.
8 more wins and this is a baseball town. Mark it down.
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