Canadians and Americans are less likely to purchase apparel from teams and watch games at a pub or bar than in 2019.
Vancouver, BC [September 11, 2020] – The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the consumer behaviour of sports fans in Canada and the United States, a new two-country Research Co. poll has found.
In the online survey of representative national samples, only 12% of Americans and 8% of Canadians say they have gone to a pub or bar to watch professional sports in the year 2020.
In contrast, 23% of Americans and 18% of Canadians say they watched professional team sports at a pub or a bar in 2019.
While 23% of Americans and 16% of Canadians bought apparel from a professional sports team in 2019, the proportion has dropped to 15% in the United States and 7% in Canada during 2020.
In addition, 10% of Americans and 7% of Canadians have cancelled a subscription to a cable or satellite channel where they watched sports—down from 20% and 15% respectively who had a subscription in 2019.
A similar situation is observed on streaming services that show professional sports, with 8% of Americans and 7% of Canadians cancelling a subscription—down from 20% and 11% respectively who had one last year.
Fewer Americans are participating in sports pools (from 11% in 2019 to 7% in 2020) and placing wagers on sporting events (from 12% to 8%). The drops on these two indicators are not as pronounced in Canada, where fantasy league participation went from 9% to 7%, and placing wagers went from 6% to 5%.
More than half of Canadians (54%) consider themselves fans of the National Hockey League (NHL). Fewer than two-in-five Canadians are fans of the National Basketball Association (NBA) (37%), Major League Baseball (MLB) 33%, the Canadian Football League (CFL) (31%), the National Football League (NFL) (31%) and Major League Soccer (MLS) (21%).
In the United States, 59% of Americans say they are fans of the NFL, and 51% are fans of MLB. Fewer Americans consider themselves fans of the NBA (44%), the NHL (36%) and MLS (26%).
A majority of Canadians think the NHL (59%) and the NBA (52%) did a “good job” in dealing with the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fewer Canadians (37%) offer the same positive assessment to the CFL, the NFL, MLB and MLS.
In the United States, 51% of Americans say the NBA did a “good job” in facing the pandemic, followed by the NFL with 49%, MLB with 46%, the NHL with 44% and MLS with 37%.
Almost two thirds of respondents in each country (64% of in Canada and 64% in the United States) think professional athletes should speak their mind if they are concerned about social and political issues.
Photo Credit: Phillyfan0419
Methodology:
Find our Canadian tables here, our American tables here and download the press release here.
For more information on this poll, please contact:
Mario Canseco, President, Research Co.
778.929.0490
[e] mario.canseco@researchco.ca