There was recently quite a bit of hand-wringing over a Harris Interactive poll that tried to measure which sport did Americans identify as their favorite.
While it’s obvious MMA deserves to be at least measured alongside other sports, I’m not necessarily crowing about its lack of inclusion. MMA’s numbers that underscore or prove its popularity aren’t those that measure it against other sports, especially in terms that marginalize a niche sport by narrowing choices.
The survey doesn’t ask us to list our favorite sports or which sport we prefer in certain circumstances. It asks us to identify a singular favorite. Given that MMA is only truly popular when a confluence of factors act together to draw in huge swathes of an otherwise casual base, how many people actually identify MMA as their first love? Asked another way, how many hardcore fans are there? Or, even among hardcore MMA fans, how many prefer MMA as their top sport? Relative to the 31% who chose football as their top sport, it’s a less than negligible number.
Second, this poll isn’t really reflective of other data that demonstrate how enormous the sport can be at times. Consider tennis. The sport has a huge participatory rate between both genders among non-professionals, is highly international, has a long history as a spectator sport, notable television deals, recognizable stars, blue chip sponsors (Wimbledon’s recent replays were sponsored by Rolex) and every other conceivable measurement to reflect its size. Yet, among respondents, only 1% said men’s tennis was their favorite and 3% chose women’s tennis as their top choice.
There are ways to prove just how viable MMA is, of course. The UFC’s run in pay-per-view is literally unmatched. Television ratings routinely do well or even beat other traditional sports including sports named in the Harris Interactive poll. Fan attendance, icon awareness, online participation and general pop culture influence all attest to MMA being a niche sport capable of mainstream awareness or appreciation. There is a different, but equally valuable balance of goods that demonstrate the size and popularity of mixed martial arts.
And MMA fans should take steps to make sure MMA is on the sporting radar of fans, executives, researchers or other interested parties. As I stated earlier, MMA deserves to at least be measured. The abbreviations MMA and UFC should be part of every sports fan’s lexicon.
But MMA does not always look quite so pretty when we’re defining its place by sports fans’ enthusiasm. In a different world or a future era, things might change. Perhaps the UFC or Strikeforce can grow to be much larger. But for now, that is simply a fight MMA cannot win nor look good losing.
UPDATE: Here’s me last night on with Bill Rohland and Danny Rouhier discussing this very topic.