On this All-Star Day, Harris Interactive released its latest poll on which teams were most popular; it shows a distressing trend for our team. The Tigers are tied for 12th most popular (tied with Seattle and the Texas Rangers, who are financially insolvent and for sale.) That's down from tenth a decade ago.
So what? Revenues from selling caps and junk, ticket sales, television receipts and all related income comes from being popular. Frankly, and bitterly, that's why the game is so dominated by the Yankees and Red Sox, big market clubs with tremendous popularity. What is all boils down to is that the Tigers and most of the rest of the AL plays to give the Yankees a "venue" for their product.
Maybe most concerning is that when asked "Do you follow Major League Baseball?" the vast majority (64 percent) say "No." That's a number that's been dropping like like a fly ball.
Survey questions can be misleading. I know people who would say they do not follow MLB but they do follow a particular team. Someone alwsys says the sky is falling but somehow it never does.
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