The Durham Bulls were chosen as the favorite North Carolina-based professional team by Capital Sports readers in an online poll.The minor league affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays got 57 percent of the vote compared to the second-place finishing Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL which got 21 percent of the vote.
There were not as many responses to this unscientific poll as last week's poll about whether or not Butch Davis would be back next season as UNC's coach. That plays into the common thought that this is a college sports area and that fans of pro teams often like teams outside of North Carolina so they weren't inclined to vote.
Still, the results were interesting. In a separate poll, the Carolina Panthers of the NFL were chosen as the least favorite NC-based pro team with 36 percent of the vote. The next least favorite teams were soccer's Carolina Railhawks and the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats which each got 27 percent of the vote.
The Railhawks didn't get a single vote as favorite NC-based pro team while the Carolina Mudcats and Durham Bulls didn't get a single vote as least favorite NC-based pro team.
Many fans of the Mudcats and Bulls enjoy the experience of going to the games but I doubt as many of their fans follow the players and standings as much as Hurricanes' fans do. But that's just an educated guess.
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Difficult assertion to prove/disprove — Bulls v Canes — but probably true. High Bulls count probably the result of the poll being mentioned on a Bulls blog, www.watchingdurhambullsbaseball.com. So there are least a few folks who track players/standings etc. Canes did put a few more folks into seats 600k or so to 500k or so and surely have a higher fraction of those folks who are beyond casual fan status.
ReplyDeleteBoth Bulls games and Canes games are fun but I'd have to say that the Bulls are more enjoyable (and relaxing) to watch but I'm more bummed out if the Canes lose a game which I attend.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's NHL vs. minor league. Maybe it's the price difference. Maybe it's the fact that Bulls players come and go fairly often while most Hurricanes players are there for the whole season. Not sure. Thanks to watchingdurhambullsbaseball.com for getting the word out.