Poll: Baseball Fans Are Caring Less For Sport

NEW YORK--As the baseball season ends, six in 10 fans say they have less interest in the sport than before the seven-month strike, according to an Associated Press poll.

The expanded playoffs that begin this week are mildly popular among fans, but most are troubled by the rise in player salaries in recent years, the poll finds.

Attendance at ballparks during the regular season ending yesterday is down by more than 19 percent. Some teams are wondering if they can fill stadiums this week for the first play-offs in which each league's best second-place finisher is a wild-card contender, joining the league's three division champions.

Nearly half the fans--46 percent--say that having wild-card teams in the playoffs is a change for the better, while just 12 percent consider it a change for the worse.

Eight in 10 fans intend to follow the World Series closely on television, but only half those people say they will be watching very closely. Among all adults in the poll, not just fans, 38 percent plan to follow the Series closely on TV.

The poll was taken by phone September 22-26 by ICR Survey Research Group of Media, Pa., part of AUS Consultants.

Results from the random sample of 1,008 adults have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

In an AP poll in March, 28 percent of fans said they thought they would have less interest following the strike. In the latest poll, 60 percent of fans express less interest in baseball, as do 43 percent of all Americans.

Alienation is higher among men at 55 percent than women at 31 percent and rises from 30 percent among the lowest income group to 55 percent among those with the highest income. The percentage of people who say they are at least somewhat of a fan has fallen to 33 percent from 40 percent in March.

Among fans, 45 percent in the current poll support the owners more in the contract dispute, while 33 percent favor the players.