How do certain sports fans vote?

[DariusNJ]

I know that there's no real way to find out, but I want to see what people think. What percentage of different sports fans vote for the Republican\ Democrat in an even election?

My Predictions:
Football fans: Republican 55, Democrat 45
Basketball: Democrat 75, Republican 25
Baseball: 50-50
Hockey: Democrat 85, Republican 15
NASCAR Racing: Republican 90, Democrat 10
Golf: Republican 85, Democrat 15
Tennis: Not sure, but I'm guessing Democrat?

[DariusNJ]

NASCAR and Golf are pretty wildly popular. I imagine the split would be near even.

Only in the South...

Yep, in southern states like California and New Hampshire.

lol, yeah your right, NASCAR racing has some liberal viewers now, but it remains heavily dominated by white, religious, Southerners.

[DariusNJ]

What about real football? What do you think the numbers for Calcio fans are?

We don't have many soccer fans here in the US, lol. It's a good question though, I'm thinking that American soccer fans would probably lean towards Democrats.

[DariusNJ]

I know that there's no real way to find out, but I want to see what people think. What percentage of different sports fans vote for the Republican\ Democrat in an even election?

My Predictions:
Football fans: Republican 55, Democrat 45
Basketball: Democrat 75, Republican 25
Baseball: 50-50
Hockey: Democrat 85, Republican 15
NASCAR Racing: Republican 90, Democrat 10
Golf: Republican 85, Democrat 15
Tennis: Not sure, but I'm guessing Democrat?

I can only comment on hockey as you can tell.

One thing is probably for certain in football and basketball.  Pro fans are definitely more Democratic while college fans are definitely more Republican.  I would think Pro football has a narrow Dem lean, while basketball has a strong Dem lean due to it's urban nature.  College football and basketball fans are definitely strong Republican outside of the West, Midwest, and Northeast/Mid-Atlantic and probably tossup/lean GOP in those regions.

Baseball is almost impossible to call.

I agree that college football fans are strongly Republican.

 I disagree about the college basketball statement however. College basketball fans are definitely more Republican than the NBA fans, but I'd still say they vote Democrat 55-60%. PPP did a poll during March Madness which showed that UNC fans were actually quite liberal. Duke fans were a bit more conservative, but still more liberal than the electorate. College basketball is very popular in the Midwest (a lean Dem region) and the Atlantic Coast (VA & NC especially). In the South, college basketball is more popular among blacks than whites, which would mean more Dems watching. I think the only region where college basketball fans would be more GOP is in the West, but even then, it would be barely GOP (52-48).

[DariusNJ]

One thing most of you haven't taken into account is that sports fans tend to be male - who tend to be more Republican than the general population.  Outside of basketball fans (who skew more African American than other sports fans), I think a majority of sports fans are probably Republican, less so for rich man sports like tennis and golf than for blue collar sports like NASCAR, football and hockey.

True sports nuts - those who go to games - are probably more white, male and Republican than casual sports fans.

That's definitely true. For example, people in the crowd at the Super Bowl have to be much wealthier than the average football fan, which probably skews them more Republican, I would think.

[DariusNJ]

Nascar crowd: Tennis, Golf, Baseball, Hockey 60/40 GOP
MTV crowd: Football and Basketball  60/40 Labor

Hockey fans for the GOP? What makes you think that?

[DariusNJ]

I agree with most of the opinions here regarding the different sports however i differ on baseball. I think it would be wise to seperate pro and college baseball.  Pro baseball is a northeast, great lakes, and west coast sport.  yes there are teams in texas and florida but look at the attendence there, a tcu football game gets a bigger crowds than the atros cards or a usf game gets larger crowds than a marlins braves game.  For this reason and the regionality, if thats a word, i would put pro baseball in a lean dem catergory.  From my experience **** anecdotal**** pro baseball fans tend to be more liberal not just democratic.  Plus college baseball which may sckew statistics if someone ever tried to quantify this is clearly a southern sport, the whole year round thing and all. God we got crushed when we played southern teams during travel teams and aau seasons.  It was not even fair. RAMBLE RAMBLE RAMBLE.

Yeah, all college sports attract a much more conservative audience than their big league counterparts.

If MLB baseball viewers are split politically, then college baseball viewers are pretty conservative without a doubt.

[DariusNJ]

Bush won the election at Wrigley Field in 2004 over Kerry. The fans voted as they entered the gates. I Will wager to say that outside of Hockey and Basketball (because of the African Americans), most sports are more GOP than Democrats. It's simply because more men who love sports tend to be more conservative and "manly" and thus would vote Republican.

Really? That's interesting, do you remember the exact results?

I know golf is HEAVILY Republican. It's hard to argue it's a 50/50 split. I believe Billy Andrae was the ONLY registered Democrat on the entire PGA Tour in 2004. I remember that being discussed during a tournament.

Yeah, I always assumed that gold was heavily GOP. Although now I'd think it would be something like 80-20 GOP, while maybe 10 years ago, it would have been 85-15 or maybe even 90-10.

[DariusNJ]

Yeah, all college sports attract a much more conservative audience than their big league counterparts.

Is this simply because of urban/rural geography, or is there anything more than that?

Yeah I would think urban\rural geography is the reason. All 50 states have college sport teams, while the major franchises are only located in big cities. So, for example, if you like watching basketball and you live in Mississippi, your "home team" is in New Orleans or Memphis, which aren't even in the state of Mississippi, obviously. So for a basketball fan in MS, they would rather support a college basketball team like Mississippi State.

Also, tradition is probably a big part of it. Watching college football is a tradition in the South. It has been popular in the South for a LONG time, and most of the college football fans (in the South anyway) are conservatives.

Here's an interesting article I read about the tradition of college football in the South:
http://media.www.westerncarolinian.com/media/storage/paper265/news/2007/09/20/Features/The-Popularity.Of.College.Football.Grows.In.The.South-2978438.shtml

[DariusNJ]

Did you guys see the Baseball All-star game? It seemed like a large part of the crowd was booing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXuigXfhwC0