Utah Jazz Help Boost NBA Ratings

According to Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal, NBA viewership has been down right about 5 percent when matching it up with last year’s TV numbers.

There has been plenty of outcry throughout the last handful of seasons when it comes to the NBA and it’s product not living up to fans expectations.

From your classmate to your uncle to your hair stylist you may have heard some of these struggles in regard to today’s NBA

These can range from pace of play/frequent stoppages, flopping, players resting, and the amount of three point shot attempts the average NBA team takes.

Although none of these are universally agreed upon, they do seem quite common among groups of NBA fans.

Fans generally want to see more defense, less generic offensive plays and some more physicality/intensity/toughness in the highest level of hoops.

Pair these reason’s for concern with the slightly declining viewership numbers and one could imagine that the unsatisfied fans voices have gotten much louder than in year’s past.

Despite this, one thing the NBA still gets right to this day, that few have complaints on, is the whole trade deadline.

The excitement and anticipation of teams shaking and moving is typically enough to make people forget for just a moment the beef they have with the current state of NBA games.

This year was a perfect example of such as guys such as Luka Doncic and Jimmy Butler all joined up with new squads.

These moves not only potentially rejuvenate players but the fans themselves as people tune in to see the difference a transaction or two might make.

For example, a disgruntled Jimmy Butler got shipped to Golden State and helped NBA TV earn a season high 555,000 in viewership numbers when they beat the Bucks on February 10^th according to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch.

That trend stayed steady on Monday night when Luka Doncic dressed in front of the Lakers faithful for the first time since being acquired from the Dallas Mavericks.

This is where the Jazz come in by the way.

As far as viewership numbers go in Utah, the Jazz have struggled.

In fact, Utah is ranked 4^th for the “Bottom 5 NBA teams Year-over-Year Average Viewership” by Sports Business Journal, down 44 percent.

This can easily be explained by the Jazz being one of the worst teams in the NBA, a new pro sports team in town in the NHL’s Utah Hockey Club, and once again a general disinterest in losing basketball teams from a fanbase who is accustomed to quite a bit of regular season success.

Even so, they did get to help the NBA bump those TV numbers up this week by being the sacrificial lamb on the schedule for the newest of a long line of Lakers stars (Luka Doncic) to demand a national audience.

Luka’s much anticipated debut against the rudderless Jazz, losers of 15 of their last 18 games, was flexed into the ESPN lineup somewhat last minute, and it sure did deliver.

Sports Business Journal and Tom Friend cited that the game drew an average of 2 million pairs of eyeballs, “nominally above the current national average this season of 1.77 million.”

Friend even mentions that before Christmas day games took place, “ESPN, ABC, and TNT were averaging roughly 1.4 million viewers, a drop of 19% year-over-year.”

So 2 million, with a peak of 2.55 million (sportsmediawatch) isn’t bad at all.

The Lakers won handily, despite Utah’s best efforts, with a final score of 132-113.

Utah Coach Will Hardy would remark afterwards that “we got our butts kicked.”

But by being the Los Angeles punching bag, Utah fans at least now have a game to remember, even if it is for all the wrong reasons.

At least they got on national TV right?

Eat your hearts out Washington Wizards.

The Jazz can find redemption tonight at 7:00 as they host Luka, LeBron and the Lakers in a game that is set to draw less eyeballs than the first meeting.