The growing convergence of left-wing politics and sports is turning off a lot of fans, who are now turning off the games. A new Yahoo News/YouGov survey reveals 34.5 percent of fans who watch sports on TV now watch less because of political and social justice messaging. That includes 53 percent of Republicans, 38 percent of Independents, and even 19 percent of Democrats. "We're talking about a pretty massive number of people deciding to abandon sports," says Clay Travis, host of Outkick the Coverage on SportsTak 790.
Travis discussed the numbers on his show, noting they match a lot of the ratings trends in sports over the past couple of years. "Almost every league is down in some way, and what is interesting about this is they are down at the time that sports, theoretically, would have been a saving grace more so than it ever has before," says Travis.
The onset of "woke" sports also comes as younger fans are tuning out to consume sports through social media and video game consoles, rather than through traditional viewing. "So younger people watch sports less, and older people are being turned off because of the politics in sports...that's a bad duo," says Travis.
That leads us to the poll question this morning.