Fanning the flame: Nielsen says Cubs more popular than Sox

A couple days ago, the Houston Chronicle published on its Sports Update blog the Nielsen ratings results for a variety of sporting events in several markets. There were a few surprises (Orlando has the highest average placement for major national sporting events), but there were also plenty of no-brainers.

This includes the television ratings numbers that quantify how much more popular the Cubs are than the White Sox in this market:

Also of note — the fact that despite shocking the world to win the AL East last year, the Tampa Bay Devil Puffs were dead last in ratings of any team in their home town. Ouch!

For the 10 major sporting events in major markets, Chicago ranked fairly low at No. 51 out of 56. This further proves that if we Chicagoans don’t have a horse in the race, we really don’t care.