So, turns out @FSU_Softball v. @Vol_Softball were a bigger @espn viewership draw then a number of other "big dog" events 👀https://t.co/wUrDsNRuA7— FastpitchNews (@Fastpitchnews) February 22, 2019
Florida State-Tennessee Proved to be a Big TV Draw
Florida State-Tennessee Proved to be a Big TV Draw
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Posted on February 22, 2019
The Florida State Seminoles win over the Tennessee Volunteers during the inaugural St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational proved to be a big TV hit.
The Noles-Vols game was televised Sunday night on ESPN2 and was watched by 291,000 viewers according to ShowBuzzDaily.com.
It is the most watched opening season College Softball telecast on the ESPN2 Family networks. Keep in mind, normally ESPN’s first ESPN2 telecast has aired around March. The Noles-Vols had stiff competition for viewership as the game went up against UFC on ESPN and the NBA All-Star game on TNT.
The game was still the most watched ESPN2 telecast. Here are the performance numbers from previous seasons on ESPN2.
2019- Tennessee vs Florida State – 291,000
2018- Texas A&M at Florida- 228,000
2017- Auburn at Florida – 226,000
2016- Florida at LSU – 250,000
The Noles and Vols were the most watched TV program on ESPN2 on Sunday. The game outrated Men’s College Basketball games like Memphis at UCF (Sat 6pm on ESPN2 212,000 viewers) and Oklahoma at TCU (ESPN2 Noon 268,000 viewers). The game also had more viewers than both NHL’s games that aired on NBC Sports Network on Monday night including the Tampa Bay Lightning versus Columbus Bluejackets broadcast gaining 281,000 viewers while the Boston Bruins versus San Jose Sharks game saw 184,000 viewers. Numbers for games that aired on ESPNU during the tournament in Clearwater were not available.
ESPN’s next telecast on ESPN or ESPN2 will be ESPN March 23 when Washington travels to Eugene to take on Oregon at 4pm.
#FSU included in this article as reporting $2.2 million in softball revenue for the 2016-17 season. https://t.co/dTU12ocy4E— Curt Weiler (@CurtMWeiler) February 21, 2019
https://www.softballamerica.com/stories/ncaa-softball-is-now-a-revenue-sport/
The top school listed -- Florida State (the 2018 NCAA champions) -- reported $2.2 million in softball revenues. Baylor University also reported $2.2 million in revenue and 42 additional programs reported more than $1 million in revenues.
When we look at all college sports, we see that only three men's sports -- football, men's basketball, and baseball -- report larger revenues than women's softball. The Department of Education reports revenue on at least 30 men's college sports, so at least 27 men's college sports are not doing as well today at women's softball.
The data from the Department of Education only goes back to the 2003-04 season. When we adjust the revenue data for inflation, we don't see a single college softball team reporting more than $1 million in revenue 14 years ago. So, in just 14 seasons we have seen remarkable growth in the amount of money in softball.
When we look at football and men's baseball, the growth in revenues was 115.8 percent and 185 percent respectively. In women's basketball, revenues grew 158.3 percent. But in women's softball, total reported revenues grew by 217.4 percent. Yes, softball is growing faster than all these sports.
The growth in women's softball isn't just seen in the revenue data. In 2015, it was reported the Women's College World Series between Michigan and Florida averaged 1.85 million viewers. Meanwhile the Men's College World Series only averaged 1.4 million viewers. So, the WCWS attracted 31% more viewers than the CWS in 2015.
In 2017, it was reported that Oklahoma's two-game sweep of Florida averaged 1.72 million viewers, the most watched sweep in WCWS history. The opening game of this series -- a game that lasted 17 innings -- had 1.583 viewers. This was the most viewers for an opening game in WCWS history. Those numbers were significantly larger than what ESPN was attracting for Monday Night Baseball that same year. According to Marketwatch, ESPN was only seeing 1.1 million viewers on average for Major League Baseball on Monday night in April that season.
In 2018, the WCWS ratings declined. It was reported the second game of the series between Florida State and Washington only attracted 1.5 million viewers. Although the 2018 series didn't attract quite the same audience as Oklahoma and Florida the year before, Sports Media Watch did report that
"... FSU’s win was the most-watched weeknight baseball or softball game since MLB Opening Day (Giants-Dodgers: 2.0M). It topped the competing Marlins-Cardinals MLB game on FS1 by nearly 300% (383K)."
The television ratings numbers tell the same story we see in the revenue numbers. Women's college softball can no longer be described as just another "non-revenue" sport. Increasingly softball teams -- and their players -- are major attractions for a universities' sports fans.
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