Document Type
Article: Campus-only access
Publication Date
Spring 2003
Abstract
Compared with broadcasts of other professional sports (most notably basketball and football), baseball has for years drawn an older audience, but few studies have been done to investigate if there is a relationship between age and the extent to which an individual follows baseball. A survey of 1,074 spectators at minor league baseball games in Omaha, Nebraska, and Sioux City, Iowa, shows that the relationship is significant. Survey results showed that the older a person was, the more hours of baseball on TV that person was likely to watch. Older people also spent more time following baseball via radio and the newspaper. Attendance was another variable for which age was a significant predictor. In addition, the survey showed that exposure to baseball early in life was a significant predictor in interest in the game. The younger a person was when seeing his or her first professional game, the more likely that person was, as an adult, to have a favorite team and to read about baseball in the newspaper.
Recommended Citation
Ogden, David C. and Hilt, Michael L., "Baseball and Its Appeal to Older Americans" (2003). Communication Faculty Proceedings & Presentations. 4.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/commfacproc/4
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Comments
Use the following credit line: From The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 2002 © 2003 Edited by William M. Simons. Series Editor Alvin L. Hall by permission of McFarland & Company, Inc., Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640. www.mcfarlandpub.com.