Aussie
Years ago

Aussie basketball popularity, 2016 v early 90's?

I am fortunate enough to be old enough to have experienced the early 90's in Australia, with the explosion of basketball popularity, mainly due to Michael Jordan's influence.

Every 3rd of 4th television advert on FTA, had Michael Jordan featuring in it, be it his Sprite ads, Gatorade ads or Jordan sneakers.

I think there is no doubt that he was the most popular athlete on the planet.

He did for basketball in the early 90's what Magic and Bird did for the game in the 80's.

My question is, is basketball more popular in Australia today, than it was back in those early 90's? To be more specific, in terms of, are less kids in Oz playing the game today? About the same number today? Or more today?

Are more kids watching the NBA today than back then?

How popular is today's game of basketball compared to back then?

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KET  
Years ago

Best way of looking at it would be that basketball would have lesser share of the market in Australia then it once did in the 90s.

Basketball participation is high regardless, but attention to NBL is probably down.

Accessibility has increased since the 90's for the NBA, now there's ESPN on Fox & NBA League Pass and there's plenty of social media, online news and clips. It is probably consumed at record levels, however so is - and far more so - AFL, NRL, Cricket, NFL etc.

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Ricky  
Years ago

True that, plus AFL really stepped up their game to combat the glory days NBL, while NBL didn't do sh#t.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Michael Jordan drinks Sprite? I thought only Grant Hill drank Sprite?

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paul  
Years ago

Well, if you look at popularity in terms of people playing the game, it is many many times bigger today.

In terms of its prominence in the media it was much more popular in the early 90s.

If you look at the amount of people that go to pro games, while the gap is closing it was still a bit more popular in the early 90s.

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PeterJohn  
Years ago

Australian Bureau of Statistics

4177.0 - Participation in Sport and Physical Activities, Australia, 1995-96

Basketball - estimate was 240,200 participants aged 15 and over, nationally. Participation rate of 4.6% of the population aged 15+. Given the overall participation rate for all sports was 30.7%, that meant about 1 in 7 people playing organised sport were playing basketball, for 15+ population.


Latest edition of the same publication is 4177.0 - Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation, Australia, 2013-14

Basketball - estimate was 406,100 participants aged 15 and over, nationally. Participation rate was 2.2% of teh population aged 15+. Given the overall participation rate for all sports was 60.2%, that meant about 1 in 25 people playing organised sport were playing basketball, for 15+ population.

So numbers have gone up but basically in line with population growth, while broader participation in sport has increased more rapidly. That increased general participation is across all age groups but most marked in 45+ age groups, where participation has risen 2.5 times what it was in 1995-96.

The 1995-96 survey may be a bit late for the start of the Jordan effect referred to by the OP, however another ABS publication (1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 1992) states:

"A Sports Participation Survey was conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics throughout Victoria in October, 1989. ...
The survey collected a range of information from persons in Victoria aged 15 years and over and covered the twelve month period ending October, 1989.
During this twelve month period a total of
1.378 million persons (41.7%) participated in
sport.

...main sports participated in were ... basketball (4.2%)..."

So this participation rate for basketball was consistent with the 1995-96 national survey, with about 1 in 10 people who played sport choosing to play basketball, for 15+.

So basketball's popularity among those choosing to play sport has declined over the last 20 years, based on these numbers, among people aged 15+. Basketball participation among kids aged less than 15 I believe has always been pretty high but I haven't tried to find any stats on what has happened over the last 20 years for that age group.

FWIW, I was involved in indoor recreation centres in the 1990s and there was a general decrease in indoor court sport participation across SA, which was echoed in ABS stats across Australia at the time. I had decreasing involvement through the 2000s in a couple of rec centres and that trend continued in them, largely losing numbers to the indoor exercise (gym) market. I don't know if that's changed in the last 10 years.

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