According to Harris Interactive, when 100 million people watch the game, people tend to notice.
Harris Interactive released a poll on Feb. 5 about Americas favourite sport. A link to the poll is here. The only people surveyed in this entire survey are Americans. Some of you may surprised at the number 5 entry, because I know I was:
Pro Football (DUH!!!!)
Major League Baseball (I thought it would be number 3)
College Football (Thought it would be number 2 if not number 1)
Auto Racing (NASCAR's marketing make it viable)
Hockey (WHAAAAAA!!!!)
Number 5 really surprised me because I thought that most Americans cared more about about professional or college basketball which ranked which were 6 and 7 respectively. Also, men's golf ranked 8. Another thing that shocked me was that bowling at number 11 beat boxing at number 14.
They also mention the change in percentage of followers has risen in pro football, college football, auto racing and hockey. Each rose 6%, 2%, 5% and 3% respectively.
What shocked me was that even though baseball has recorded record revenue, they dropped 8% and pro and college basketball each dropped 2%.
This poll is only measured a certain number of Americans, this isn't a concensus of the general population.