The Sports Business Journal released some local TV Ratings figures, and it seems the Golden State figure has fattened. While the publication cannot release overall viewership rankings as of yet, they can divulge that the Warriors jumped +92% in TV viewership this year. That placed the Warriors with a 2.90 per capita TV rating, right behind the Knicks and Celtics.
It’s a dirty secret that basketball lags far behind in popularity out here. The national impression is that GSW might have the “best fans in the world,” and while that could be true inside Oracle, the conventional wisdom hasn’t been reflected so much in scope of TV audience, or in local sports radio zeitgeist. To live in the Bay is to hear endlessly about the Giants and 49ers. Obviously, winning has so much to do with that, but if a team wins enough over a long period of time, it gains partisans for life.
The Warriors have not won a lot, and have failed to win for a long period of time. But from this jump in TV audience we can see that there’s much previously dormant enthusiasm here. Local fans have been waiting to get enthused about this team, for forever it seems. They jumped at the chance in a merely moderately decent year. Can you imagine how popular an actual great Warriors team would be?