Seattle Weekly had a bit of a dig at us this morning, in a post that bears the headline, “World Cup Ratings Prove Seattle Is More Soccer-Mad Than Portland.” One Caleb Hannan goes on to elaborate:
According to Nielsen, Seattle-Tacoma is averaging a 2.2 rtg (which translates to about 41,000 households per match) for the World Cup through yesterday’s matches (25 on ESPN and four on ABC). That ranks 16th among the 56 metered markets, which is right in line with Seattle’s population numbers.
Welly well, a big old pat on the back to Seattle for neither falling short of or surpassing ratings expectations. But here’s the real question: How is Portland measuring up?
Portland, meanwhile, has only managed a 1.5 rtg, placing it 50th out of 56 cities, and well below its ranking as the 25th largest media market in the country. Shiver those Timbers, Rose City. (I’m not even sure what that means. But it sounded kind of cool in my head.)
Oh.
This is surprising. As near as I can tell, we’re pretty soccer-mad here. The games seem to be televised everywhere. I even caught a glimpse of the match today when I went out to pick up lunch. Hmm, maybe Portlanders are watching the games together, in public, sharing the company of their fellow sports enthusiasts, instead of cloistering themselves away in solitude like those loner Seattleites. Yeah, that explains it! I guess that means we’re greener, too.
How do people who watch the games at bars get measured?
I watched US/England at the horse brass (pretty high capacity) and by the time the game was on, they were refusing new customers at the door because the place was so packed.
Similarly, when I watched the second US match there, all seats were filled prior to starting time.
I’m sure Seattle has it’s full bars for soccer too, but one thing I seem to have noticed this time around is that it seems like every bar in town has jumped on the world cup band wagon this year (pulling from individual households watching the matches). I have no idea what the crowd was like at any other place in town during US matches, or what the crowds were like at the horse brass during non-US matches, but from my (admittedly limited) experience this year, Portland has a lot of fans.
We aren’t a bunch of old fashioned idiots like Seattle, we watch it on the espn3 and on pirate streams from atdhe.net
This just proves that Seattle is chock-full of dumb-asses who have nothing better to do than draw pointless and incorrect conclusions from incomplete datasets.
Yeah, I think we just have less cable-subscribing suckers in Portland, and more people who like to watch WC as god intended: with a drunken crowd.
@Jeff: people watching in bars, or on big screens downtown, aren’t counted in the numbers AT ALL. Given how many bars are showing the games here, and how busy they’ve been, those numbers are worth about as much as a French footballer.
@CC:
Hell yeah you’re supposed to watch the games with a drunken crowd. I also take mine with an English Breakfast. And I don’t even normally eat breakfast. Anytime you can get ham, irish back bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, stewed tomatoes, baked beans, toast, fry-bread, and jam on one plate for under $8; count me in.
Those numbers, sitting at home watching without a drunken crowd, and sitting at home watching without the horse brass english breakfast are all about as worthless as a french footballer.
I’ve watched most of every match (except a couple of the 4:30am ones) and only one of those was on my own TV. The rest were either ESPN3 or ESPN Mobile TV, a bar or at Director Park.
Seattle typically renounces Tacoma until it needs it to manufacture some favorable statistics.
PHONIES.
I don’t know when the games are on.
I don’t know who’s playing whom.
And I don’t give a shit.
Yo, word up bikefor1. I’m sayin’: Seattle just has bigger muscles… and penises than us in Portland. They love their soccer.
People are watching this on TV? They were playing the Argentina game at work, but streaming it online.
No one gives a crap about a bunch of 135 lbs soaking wet boys kicking a ball.
Score: 0-1 oohhh what an exciting game! excuse me..match.
we still have timbers games to watch and go to, unlike mls teams on break, distracting us from obscure games at 4:30am
Also…who has a Nielsen ratings box in their house? I have never met anyone with one and it was shown in the last couple years that young people are way under-counted b/c of this.
Seattle proves to be a bunch of shut-ins who watch soccer alone at home! should have been the headline.
Horse Brass, Blitz, Kell’s, TL, all packed.
And we don’t have Drew Carey, which pretty much wins any Portland v. Seattle soccer discussion.
Soccer sucks. That is all.