I've been trying to figure out why Utah is so . . . Olympic. The only idea I can come up with has to do with the sampling of the voters. Let's assume there is a constant percentage of Americans who really love the Olympics. That would mean that Utah keeps coming out first in these polls not because we love the games more, but because of the sampling method. My theory (I'm not saying it's a good one, it's just the only one I have at this point) is that the Olympic loving people in other states are being drowned out by the hordes of other non-Olympic people going to ESPN.com to check up on their local MLB or NFL team, or their favorite NASCAR driver. In Utah, there isn't a pro team that does anything this time of the year, so many Utah sports fans are in a somewhat dormant state during the summer. This results in the Olympics fans being more noticeable in online polls. (I hope that made sense. I just rewrote that explanation like 5 times.)
Anyway, does anyone else have an idea why Utah loves the Olympics so much?
4 comments:
Proximity? You might try to find the comparable numbers for Athens versus outlying Greece. Probably too much noise to be useful though.
Well, about 3 minutes after I posted, I realized a pretty obvious explanation: Utah has hosted the Olympics more recently than any other state, which would go along way toward explaining their enthusiasm, I think.
(Since the Olympics was the only time in my life I haven't lived in Utah, I kinda forget about them sometimes.)
I think you are on to something with your idea about sampling. Utah society is very homogeneous compared to most other states.
That doesn't explain why a particular thing would be popular in Utah, but if demographics favors a certain activity--whether it's watching the Olympics, playing Guitar Hero, voting Republican, or taking Prozac--then Utah is going to score pretty high.
Like with pro sports fans, there's just not a lot of competing cultural diversity to drown out the dominant trends.
Maybe a better question would be why DOESN'T a state that enjoys sports so much have a professional baseball team? For the record, I've been to a Bee's game. They don't count.
And while we're on the topic, I for one have really seen all the Michael Phelps I care to see for a very long time. Can he possibly get rich on endorsements when he has been spun to death? Bring on May/Walsh - go beach volleyball!
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