Working the Numbers

Yesterday's post on using the Google trends tool has generated some fascinating comments, and if you missed it, I encourage you to check it out as some people have done some fascinating checks of their own and posted the results. Overall, the numbers that others have found confirm the basic hypothesis: Demand for MLS information is met with the same amount of media that a similar demand for other sports is met with. DC United seems to be an exception locally, so it might help if other blogs ran the numbers for their local teams. But overall in terms of search requests, MLS represents well against both the NHL, and even the NBA and MLB (the NFL, of course, crushes it). Yet the number of news mentions, MLS is at the bottom of that back.

If you're the kind of person inclined to view things through the lens of economics, you might be able to make an argument that the media is underserving a market that is making its demand curve clearer.

Update: Others are hitting the books... On the Pitch and We Call It Soccer have their analysis and recommendations up. Tasty.