The Indianapolis 500 is on television Sunday. So what are your plans? Sit around with friends and share a few cold ones?
Or will you be watching the PGA St. Jude Classic? Or the Corning Classic? Or Rockies-Cubs? Or Phillies-Braves? Or White Sox-Rangers? Or the French Open? Or NFL Europe? Or the Crush?
Or skip them all and watch highlights later?
If you do, you’re not alone.
The Indy 500 is still a red-letter day on the American sports calendar. More than 250,000 people are expected to cram into the Brickyard today. But, like many other sporting events that used to captivate the country, it appears to be slowly sliding out of America’s sports consciousness.
Viewers are opting for an ever-expanding choice of niche alternatives, such as bass fishing, poker, indoor football and extreme sports.
“We’re just saturated with this stuff,” said Burt Sugar, who has covered boxing for more than 50 years and is a noted sports historian. “How do you make an event? What is a major event today? Is the World Series a major event? It’s not (huge) on nighttime television. It used to be a big daytime thing, and the kids today won’t see it.
“We’re losing what was an event. It’s not dumbing down. It’s the plateauing down of American excitement and taste.”
Other than the Super Bowl, America’s over-the-top unofficial national holiday, it appears fewer and fewer sports events galvanize the country. The Red Sox-Yankees seven-act drama in the American League Championship Series last fall was an exception.
The Indy 500 used to be.
In 1974, when there were the big three networks and no competition, the race drew a 16.4 rating. A year ago, that figure dropped to 4.1, according to Nielsen Media Research. (A rating reflects a percent of all television households.)
Legendary race car driver Mario Andretti doesn’t blame the multitude of cable television options for the loss of interest in IndyCar racing. Instead, the war between the Indy Racing League and CART slowed the sport over the past decade, he said.
“Obviously, there are other choices there,” he said. “But a lot of the (lost) popularity is coming back. We’re beginning to feel that pretty much all the top talents are here. But (having) a unified series is the bottom line.”
Big events losing luster
When the Indy 500 was at its peak in the 1970s, heavyweight boxing was huge.
Muhammad Ali was the most popular athlete in the world. His over-the-air network fights late in his career against Leon Spinks and Earnie Shavers still rank among the top-50 rated televised sporting events.
Today, name three world champions. Any division. Any classification.
“Boxing’s gone down because the people who were boxers are middle linebackers for NFL teams,” said David Halberstam, who has chronicled American society and sports in books ranging from “The Fifties” to “The Amateurs.” “Ray Lewis and Lawrence Taylor would have been boxers in another age.”
The end result is the lack of one dominant persona, such as Ali, who can make America take notice.
“If you look at the heavyweight division today, it’s on the cusp of being called off on account of a lack of interest,” Sugar said. “You can put the four heavyweight champions in a police lineup, in their robes, gloves and trunks, and not only would no one guess who they are, they wouldn’t know what they did for a living.”
It’s not only boxing and the Indy 500 that have lost a large chunk of their popularity.
How long since anyone has cared about baseball’s All-Star Game? At one time, the National League’s 11 consecutive victories from 1972-82 made the Midsummer Classic a ratings bonanza. Last year, the commissioner had to put a World Series home-field advantage on the line to get anyone to watch.
“The All-Star Game is affected by many things,” broadcaster Bob Costas said. “I think interleague play is a good thing, but there’s always consequences. I remember the last All-Star Game NBC had. And I remember saying on the air to Joe Morgan, ‘Tom Glavine facing Nomar Garciaparra! When have I seen this before? Oh, yeah! Thursday.”‘
Don’t just look at dwindling TV ratings.
Only one Super Bowl since 1987 is among the top-10 rated Super Bowls. Then again, when Joe Montana led San Francisco’s win over Cincinnati in the 1982 Super Bowl, the highest-watched sports event in history, ESPN barely reached your corner bar.
New England’s past two Super Bowl wins didn’t have any less impact on the American consciousness. It’s just that the interests of American sports fans are being tugged from all directions.
“What’s really happened is we don’t look at sports and big events the same way,” said New York Times columnist Robert Lipsyte, who has written numerous sports books. “Boxing is the best example. There was a time when sports was some sort of crucible of character building. We looked at it as some sort of moral stage. In so many ways, sports was a reflection of us as a people.
“In the kind of neighborhoods that produced boxers, guns replaced gloves as weapons of choice. There goes the Golden Gloves.”
On starting block
While we might not look at major sporting events the same way, sports still hold a unique grip on the American public.
In the past year, 14 of the top-15 rated television shows have been sporting events, topped by the New England-Philadelphia Super Bowl. The only nonsports show to crack the list was the Academy Awards. And, TV rights fees for major professional sports continue to escalate.
Talk to the current shakers and takers in the sports world, and you would think we were experiencing the golden age of sports. For every sport trending downward in popular interest, new ones emerge as challengers.
NASCAR has exploded in popularity in the 21st century, much as the NFL did in the 1970s. The NBA Finals drew an 11.5 rating a year ago, second best of the past six years. Kentucky Derby ratings, while not matching those of the 1980s, are trouncing those of the 1990s.
And NASCAR is a TV ratings hit. What used to be a cult sport in the South has crossed the continent as middle America has discovered stock car racers look like us, talk like us and drive cars that look like ours. In overall sports network ratings a year ago, NASCAR trailed only the NFL (10.1-5.6), according to Nielsen.
One can argue a big NASCAR race today is every bit as big as the Indianapolis 500 used to be. Denver sports marketing expert Dean Bonham does, but said the proliferation of sports reduces the attraction of any one spectacle.
“There is just the same level of big sports events (today), but they don’t have the impact,” Bonham said. “There’s such a high level of proliferation of sports activities. Twenty years ago, an NFL game was a big thing. There was nothing else to do on a Sunday. (Even) if you weren’t in a market, you watched.
“Now, there are tons of viewing options and attendance options.”
The Indy 500 comes on TV at 10 a.m. today.
Gentlemen, start your remote controls.
Staff writer Mike Chambers contributed to this report.
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
