The NBA has China. What are we doing?
Has the MLB lapped the NBA?
- Thread starter CrimsonTider
- Start date
murksiderock
Superstar
I spent a lot of time in Denver in 2024 and 2025. All I was saying was that the Nuggets and Rockies are of equal stature; both the Avs and Broncos are way more popular than both.
I agree team popularity doesn't matter to stakeholders, all I'm pointing out is that MLB does extremely well in its local markets, and just responding ti the inquiry of where is the MLB team as or more popular than the NBA team.
The answer is that in most local markets, the MLB team is more popular than the NBA team. But the NBA is the more popular sport overall, and more popular with American youth, and more popular online.
Houston is very much a football city and the Texans are the most favored team there. I was just saying that the MLB squad in Houston is more popular than the NBA one.
FunkDoc1112
Heavily Armed
One series had LA and the most popular player in the sport, the other series had Indiana and Oklahoma City
Comparing World Series and Finals ratings are pointless because they depend entirely on who's playing
duckbutta
eienaar van mans
Lots of people will tune in to watch the WBC but won't tune in to watch the jays vs yankees on a random tuesday at 3 pm.
The locals will tune into most games and that’s what matters for the regular season
murksiderock
Superstar
Some of these places I have experience in, others I asked Google "rank the most popular teams in ____ city".
I have no experience in Toronto, so I Googled it and they say the Leafs are by far the most popular team there, but that since the 2010s, the Raptors and younger generation of Torontonians, have pushed the Raptors past the Jays in popularity, though the Jays are still popular; they were just more popular than the Raptors pre-2010s.
I live literally a block away from Coors field...I can tell by the lack of traffic and the amount of street parking available during games.
Broncos>Nuggets>Av's>Rockies
The Rockies for good reason due to ownership and roster mismanagement
murksiderock
Superstar
The Rockies have been one of the worst teams in baseball for a while, so of course traffic to games is low. They have the cheapest tickets in MLB solely because they suck, because Denver isn't the cheapest cost of living market in MLB.
The Nuggets were an afterthought until Jokic really popped ~6 years ago, you have diehards for every sport, so there were diehard Nuggets fans (I know a Mexican guy who was born and raised in Denver and loves the Nuggets over all the other Denver teams)....but even with the Nuggets being consistently good and winning a title, they aren't really more popular than the Rockies.
Denver as a city and region is much more of a baseball town than a basketball town. Let the Rockies become competitive again....Nuggets back to sole possession of 4th place
I love Denver, the Northeast (mainly Central Park and Northfield) my stomping grounds!
The Rockies have been one of the worst teams in baseball for a while, so of course traffic to games is low. They have the cheapest tickets in MLB solely because they suck, because Denver isn't the cheapest cost of living market in MLB.
The Nuggets were an afterthought until Jokic really popped ~6 years ago, you have diehards for every sport, so there were diehard Nuggets fans (I know a Mexican guy who was born and raised in Denver and loves the Nuggets over all the other Denver teams)....but even with the Nuggets being consistently good and winning a title, they aren't really more popular than the Rockies.
Denver as a city and region is much more of a baseball town than a basketball town. Let the Rockies become competitive again....Nuggets back to sole possession of 4th place
I love Denver, the Northeast (mainly Central Park and Northfield) my stomping grounds!
Denver is such a transient city that the old school ways of thinking "baseball town" , "basketball town"....doesn't really matter in 2026
Metrics from attendace, foot traffic near the stadium, social media follows/engagment, engagment that actually funnels to growth and/or $....The NBA has the MLB beat.
The money their business partners(Amazon, Netflix, Apple, etc) pay the leagues reflects that and other metrics not publicly available...
They been the worst franchise in baseball like a decade now and still avg like 25 k owner is happy with that
Im saying historically the Astros & Rockets are a 1A/1B, they flip flop depending on who’s doing better. Astros are coming off an all time run so they have more juice now, but during the Hakeem era and even Yao, the Rockets had more buzz in the city
Houston is a fairweather sports town
murksiderock
Superstar
Every big city is a transient town
New York is a transient city, you know how many people live there that aren't from there?People assimilate to the place they move to; the place they move to doesn't turn into the place they came from. Didn't you grow up in Cleveland?
Social media engagement tells you the more popular sport, but it doesn't tell you shyt in market. Denver overall, is not a basketball city. It's a baseball region.
Bruh if the Rockies get competitive again they blowing past the Nuggets. Nuggets are the most recent team to win a title, been consistently good for like 7 years, more consistent than any other Denver team, and they still a distant third to the Broncos and Avalanche...and basically tied with the Rockies.
There are people who care about the Nuggets but if the Rockies start winning they blowing past the Nuggets, the average, typical Denverite, would care more if the Rockies are good, than with the Nuggets being good.
If
Basketball town
Baseball town
None of that matters
You said it yourself every big city is transient (which I do agree)
if this then…none of that shyt mattersEvery big city is a transient town
People assimilate to the place they move to; the place they move to doesn't turn into the place they came from. Didn't you grow up in Cleveland?
Social media engagement tells you the more popular sport, but it doesn't tell you shyt in market. Denver overall, is not a basketball city. It's a baseball region.
Bruh if the Rockies get competitive again they blowing past the Nuggets. Nuggets are the most recent team to win a title, been consistently good for like 7 years, more consistent than any other Denver team, and they still a distant third to the Broncos and Avalanche...and basically tied with the Rockies.
There are people who care about the Nuggets but if the Rockies start winning they blowing past the Nuggets, the average, typical Denverite, would care more if the Rockies are good, than with the Nuggets being good.
Basketball town
Baseball town
None of that matters
You said it yourself every big city is transient (which I do agree)
