While this is coming from a Twitter page, it's from a trusted Sports Business Journal writer. According to SBJ's John Ourand (and his Twitter page), the Buffalo-Tennessee preseason game apparently did approximately 7.9 million viewers to the Red Sox-Yankees 4.7 million viewers. Once official numbers come in I'm sure we'll see a change, but I can't imagine it'll be all that much (if these aren't official numbers)
I realize it was the first football game of the year, but for a preseason game not involving two of the bigger markets, that's pretty amazing to me. I'm not even looking at this as a "Ha ha baseball, you suck" type of moment because I'm a big baseball fan. Rather, I look it as an example of just how ingrained football is becoming in our culture. Baseball will always be the national pasttime of America. However, football is clearly the most popular sport on tv at this point. As much as I love baseball, I can see why people don't enjoy a televised baseball game as much as a televised football game.
I'm curious if anybody can think of any other reason why the first preseason game of the year would have this kind of ratings victory against the biggest rivalry in baseball?