Normally, May is a plethora of sports. Hockey and basketball are coming to a close, baseball is heating up and the NFL draft has just happened. But, in 2020 May was quiet. The leagues were all shut down while ESPN showed old competitive eating competitions. But now the leagues are all back and, a new online survey conducted by Regina Corso Consulting among 2,099 U.S. adults, 18 and older between April 14 and 17, 2021 shows that, for the most part, Americans think they’ve done a decent job over the past year.
When it comes to which league has done the best job dealing with playing in the pandemic, three in ten (31%) say the National Football League (NFL) has done the best job while over one-quarter (27%) say the National Basketball Association (NBA) has done the best job. One-quarter of Americans (24%) say Major League Baseball (MLB) has done the best job dealing with playing in the pandemic and one in five (19%) say the National Hockey League (NHL) has done the best job.
There is a generational gap over which league has done the best job. Millennials, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers/Greatest Generationers are more likely than Gen Zers to say the NFL has done the best job (31%, 33% and 31% vs. 24%). But, Gen Zers are more likely than the three older generations to say the NBA has done the best job (38% vs. 27%, 26% and 22%). There is also a partisan split with Democrats being more likely than Republicans and Independents to say the NBA has done the best job (34% vs. 21% and 26%) while Republicans are more likely than Democrats and Independents to say MLB has done the best job (29% vs. 22% and 21%).
Looking at this from the other side, over one-quarter of Americans (27%) say the National Hockey League has done the worst job, one-quarter say the National Basketball Association (26%) and the National Football League (26%) has done the worst job and one in five (21%) say Major League Baseball has done the worst job dealing with playing in the pandemic.
Again, there is a generational gap with Gen Z being more likely than Millennials, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers/Greatest Generationers to say the NHL has done the worst job dealing with playing in the pandemic (36% vs. 28%, 26% and 21%) while Gen Xers and Baby Boomers/Greatest Generationers are more likely than Gen Zers and Millennials to say the NBA has done the worst job (31% and 29% vs. 19% and 24%). Women are more likely than men to say the NFL has done the worst job (28% vs. 23%) and men are more likely than women to say MLB has done the worst job (23% vs. 19%).
