The Politics of American Sports Fans

With the sports world in full swing – from the Final Four to The Masters to the upcoming NBA and NHL playoffs – Vianovo partner Michael Shannon and Will Feltus, Senior Vice President at National Media, released new political sports bubbles.

The political sports bubbles are based on an analysis of Scarborough Research data, which includes more than 200,000 interviews with American adults. Bubble sizes proportionate to the percent of American adults who say they are “very interested” in each sport. Mike and Will found that:

• The NBA is to Democrats as NASCAR is to Republicans
• Democrats prefer tennis
• Meanwhile, Republicans like golf
• The WWE is commonly associated with the GOP, but UFC fans are more Republican
• The NFL, MLB and NCAA basketball are as bipartisan as apple pie

One of their most important findings bodes well for political advertisers: fans of almost every major sport are more likely to vote!