Generational Differences in Feelings about Sports Leagues

In the most recent Sports Innovation Institute survey, 500 Central Indiana fans shared their favorite sports leagues as well as their favorite teams and organizations in and around the Indianapolis area.

Breaking down this survey into generations (Millennials, Generation X, Baby Boomers), the National Football League (NFL) is the favorite among all three generations. Dr. David Pierce sees five-time NFL Most Valuable Player and former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, who is a national icon among all generations, as a catalyst that helped change the sports culture in Indiana.

Check out the interactive table below to see where your favorite sports league ranked.

Jump to a generation:

Millennials

Gen X

Baby Boomers

Generation Overview: Millennials

Millennials are the only represented generation with a change in their top spot when it comes to overall feelings about sports leagues. ‘Sports in General’ slightly edged out the ‘NFL’ showing that Millennials enjoy the atmosphere and rush that sports bring.

The NBA ranked the highest with Millennials compared to the Generation X and Baby Boomers. The drama filled, flashy play that the NBA brings tends to resonate more with the younger sports views in comparison to the slower paced sports.

In fact, when it comes to slower paced competition, the PGA ranked second to last on the Millennials overall feelings about sports. However, golf trends in an upward state and seems as if the sport becomes an acquired taste throughout the generations.

As we look at the Millennial chart, we see a constant trend of speed and fast paced sports leagues ranking much higher than the other generations. Women’s International Soccer, UFC, Gymnastics, and even the NHL float closer to the top on an average basis in this generational dispute.

Meanwhile, Indy Car, NASCAR, and (as we touched on earlier) the PGA all sink drastically in comparison.

Millennials are used to having highlights at their finger-tips, and the leagues that are covered the most in the main stream sports media help reflect that in the survey. Hence why the NBA has appealed more to this generation and a budding sport like the UFC has grasped more fans recently with the rise of ruthless champions like Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor. 

Generational Overview: Gen X

In the Generation X responses, we see a slight dynamic change when it comes to all aspects of sports leagues. Even though it isn’t by much, the MLB is ranked highest out of all three generations here.

During the Generation Xers younger years, they witnessed legends in the baseball world such as Mike Schmidt, Reggie Jackson, Tom Seaver, and Rod Carew who all helped draw in young fans at the time. We’ve started to see this similar trend with Millennials and the NBA thanks to players like Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Tim Duncan, and Dirk Nowitzki.

We also start to see the increase and decrease of certain sports as the Generation Xers play the middle child in the survey. For example, we see Indy Car jump from just being inside the top-15 overall when it comes to Millennials, all the way to the top-10 in Generation X.

Another drastic jump when it comes to a sport is the swing in NASCAR’s popularity with the older generations. As you can see from the chart, NASCAR ranks in the top-15 overall in the Generation X poll, when the same sport comes in the bottom 4 based on the Millennial poll.

As we look at the Generation X chart, we can start to formulate the trends that are happening in sports fandom. The rise of certain leagues (NASCAR, PGA, and Indy Car) and the decline of others (NBA, Women’s International Soccer, UFC) becomes prominent as we look at the Baby Boomers.

Generational Overview: Baby Boomers

Baby Boomers’ overall feelings about sports leagues continue to set the bar for the other generations as the NFL, Sports in General, and the Summer Olympics all fall within the top-3 once again. However, not everything about these generations stays in the same pattern.

If we do a direct comparison to the Millennials and Baby Boomers we see the most drastic differences when it comes to certain leagues. The PGA’s constant rise in popularity throughout the generations is capped off as the league goes from second to last in the Millennials chart to 12th on the Baby Boomers survey result.

Another massive jump is NASCAR. A league that went from the bottom 4 all the way up to top-10. Baby Boomers tend to be more patient in their sports watching as Indy Car is also in the top-10. The pride that the central Indiana Baby Boomers show when it comes to Indy Car is something that Millennials may grow to appreciate after being around it more and more in their life time. 

The sports leagues that are gaining younger fans, such as the NBA and UFC take a small slide in the SII survey. UFC falls from just outside the top-15 for Millennials to the bottom 2 for Baby Boomers. However, this makes sense since this is a relatively young sport that is still growing on a mainstream level.