Do the immense ratings for the 2012 Olympics indicate that U.S. spectator sports fans are suffering burnout from college football, college basketball, the NFL, NBA and MLB?
The television ratings for the Olympics were the best ever, but this fact doesn’t necessarily represent any correlation with the ‘Big 3′ U.S. spectator sports.
It may be that sports spectator consumption is still rising, and the Olympics is simply part of America’s insatiable love for watching athletes perform.
But there does seem to be a palatable letdown since the Olympics ended.
With every passing four years, the Olympic Games become more accessible to watch. The broadcasts are involving more and more sports each time.
Watching international volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, badminton, water polo, field hockey, track and field, gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, rowing, diving and swimming is pretty cool. It’s nice to be interested in other sports, even if the time spent with them is brief.
Every four years, the Summer Olympics prove to be compelling to watch.
Preseason NFL as a comparison to the Olympics feels like a major letdown.
Plus, it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with the names of the players. Maybe, by the end of August, anticipating that first week will be exciting. But getting excited about training camp is not really fun.
College football is even less than an afterthought right now. It’s all just too much to follow.
It seems being an NFL fan and a college football fan is too much to ask for. Maybe the national championship game in January will be an interesting game.
After the Olympics, baseball feels sleepy. The Olympics had drama of all sorts, so much so that there was too much to list or count. Maybe September pennant races or the Little League World Series will wake up the masses?
Having all the best NBA players together for the U.S. team and be seriously tested was awesome to watch. Now, after the NBA Finals and the Olympics, watching basketball can take a rest.
For whatever reason, the ‘Big 3′ seem just a little less significant since the Olympics ended. It was a flurry of exciting competition for two straight weeks.
Now, there are so many other sports to play and so many other things to do in life, why spend so much of the time involved with the details of football, basketball and baseball?
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Howard Alperin is Managing Editor of AmericanizeSoccer.com
About Howard M Alperin
