NY’ers Believe Yankees More Likely Than Mets to Make Playoffs
Bronx Bombers NY’s Favorite Team; Mets, Giants, Bills & Jets Follow
Football Edges Out Baseball, Basketball as Top Spectator Sport
Majority Exercise at Least 3 Hours a Week; Walking, Jogging & Working Out Top Pursuits
Loudonville, NY. As baseball season begins, 45 percent, down from 59 percent, of New Yorkers last year think the Yankees are more likely to make the playoffs this year compared to 35 percent, up from 18 percent last year, that believe in the Mets, according to a new Siena College poll (SRI) of New York State adults released today. Twenty-two percent of all New Yorkers name the New York Yankees as their favorite state sports team followed by the Mets (13 percent), the Giants (12 percent), the Buffalo Bills (8 percent) and the Jets (6 percent).
“Ninety wins and a trip to the World Series has changed a lot of minds. Last year by over three to one, New Yorkers predicted Yankee rather than Met success. Today despite a plurality continuing to think it more likely the Yankees rather than the Mets will play into October, the Mets have nearly doubled their believers overall and are seen as more likely to make the playoffs among those that call themselves sports fans – over half of New Yorkers – by 46 to 41 percent,” according to SRI’s Director, Don Levy. “Is baseball still the national pastime? Only one in five New York adults name baseball as their favorite sport while a quarter prefer football and 18 percent say basketball.”
Nearly a quarter of New Yorkers say that they exercise no more than an hour or two a week and 20 percent do not walk, jog, go to the gym or play sports at all, but over half, 56 percent, get at least 3 hours of physical activity in an average week. Just under one in ten exercise at least 10 hours in an average week. Walking or hiking is named by 26 percent as their favorite physical activity followed by going to the gym/working out by 14 percent and jogging/running by 12 percent.
This Siena College Poll was conducted March 7-30, 2016 by telephone calls conducted in English to 800 New York State residents. Respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest male in the household. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 4.2 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting. Sampling was conducted via a stratified dual frame probability sample provided by Survey Sampling International of landline and cell phone telephone numbers from within New York State weighted to reflect known population patterns. Data was statistically adjusted by age, region, race/ethnicity and gender to ensure representativeness. The Siena College Research Institute, directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D., conducts political, economic, social and cultural research primarily in NYS. SRI, an independent, non-partisan research institute, subscribes to the American Association of Public Opinion Research Code of Professional Ethics and Practices. For more information, call Dr. Don Levy at (518) 783-2901. For survey cross-tabs: www.Siena.edu/SRI/Research.
