It has been a long time since I have attended a sporting event beyond the high school level. Having said that, I do attend a lot of meetings and events all across the State of Texas the majority of which are connected to conservative politics. At every political event, we begin with an invocation (a payer to our God) followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag and often the singing of the National Anthem and we don't stop there. We follow with the pledge of allegiance to the Texas Flag and again the singing of Texas Our Texas. Those that can stand do so and those that can no longer stand remain seated yet every last person either salutes the Flag or has his or her hand over their heart. Never once have I seen a Republican take a knee or raise a clinched fist. Should that ever happen I strongly suspect the offending individual would be taken to the door by force if necessary.
Your darn right we believe in freedom of speech or expression with some exception. At our events we expect Patriotism and Pride for our great land, a land not perfect but always striving to achieve Liberty and Freedom for all. If you don't like our event and our actions, you are always FREE to leave. As Americans we all have the freedom to not take part or assemble with those we don't agree with.
This takes me back to my opening statement about Sporting Events, and the huge decline in event viewer participation both in person and through media sources. The most current example is the opening of the Tokyo Olympics where viewer participation is down by 36%. The 2012 Olympics had 46.7 million viewers while the 2016 Olympics had 26.5 million viewer and the current Olympic opening had only 16.7 million viewers, the lowest level of viewers in 33 years. That goes back to 1988 and at the current rate of decline, the Olympics may be near their end. Much of the liberal media is trying to blame the decline on the Covid Virus and the change in viewers habits due to Covid. Last I checked, Covid was not around in 1988, in fact it wasn't around even in 2016.
So why is sporting event attendance declining? In my opinion, it is all tied to Patriotism and American Pride. Americans are disgusted when they see some spoiled athlete who has the ability to literally make millions of dollars hawking everything from sandwiches to tennis shoes with their endorsement fame while publicly expressing their hate for the country that allows then the freedom and opportunity to make those ridiculous sums of money. We also don't wish to watch men competing in women's events.
When we see an athlete taking a knee or sitting on their butts or worse yet raising their clinched fist in hate for the Country and the Flag they represent, we turn them off. We refuse to submit to such abuse by these privileged individuals. If not for their God given talents they would probably find themselves selling sandwiches or tennis shoes at the retail level.
The decline we are seeing is not restricted to just the Olympics but to all sports. Some other declines are as follows: Stanley Cup Finals down 61%, US Open Golf down 56%, NBA finals down 49%, US Open Tennis down 45%, Kentucky Derby down 43%, NBA playoffs down 37%, College Football regular season down 30%, NFL regular season down 13%.
A few other interesting stats; one in four NFL fans earn more than $100K annually, one in four NFL fans make less than $40K annually; 77% of NFL fans are Caucasian,15% African American and 8% Hispanic; 37% of NFL fans are over 55 years of age, 34% are 35-54 years of age and 29% are under 35. NFL events draw an average of 68,000 fans while NASCAR draws 98,000.
Not only will I not waste my time watching these ungrateful athletes, I also won't buy the products they sell. Seems like a lot of Americans feel the same as I and we are turning OFF sports.
God Bless America !!!
Terry Harper
State Republican Executive Committee for Senate District 21
