The most recent Seton Hall Sports Poll gauged the pulse of the nation on the 2024
Summer Olympics and was featured in U.S. News & World Report, PR NEWS, the Legal Sports Report, MaineBiz, Gaming Today and more.
The poll, which is sponsored by Seton Hall’s Stillman School of Business and the Sharkey Institute, featured a national representative sample from YouGov
weighted on U.S. Census Bureau figures for age, gender, ethnicity, education, income
and geography and has a margin of error of +/-2 percent.
The U.S. News & World Report article, “Paris Olympics to Open Friday But Some Sports Are Getting a Head Start,” detailed the poll’s findings on the expressed intent of Americans to watch this
year’s Olympics and their level of excitement regarding the opening ceremony. U.S News also featured a quote from Professor Charles Grantham, former executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. U.S. News writes:
According to a Seton Hall University sports poll, conducted at the end of June, Americans are more excited than in previous years
to watch the 2024 Olympics. Over 1,600 adults across the country were asked if they
were “more excited to watch the opening ceremony than previous ones,” 56 percent of
self-described Olympic fans, 51 percent of sports fans, 59 percent of avid fans and
48 percent of casual fans said “Yes.”
When compared to the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics, 59 percent of the general population
and 75 percent of sports fans said they planned to watch at least part of the Paris
Games, up from 49 percent of the general population and 65 percent of sports fans
who said they would watch the Tokyo Games.
“Clearly, interest in the Paris 2024 Olympic games is the strongest in recent years,”
Seton Hall Professor Charles Grantham, director of the Center for Sport Management, said in a statement. “Beyond being in Paris, one of the most visited and famous
cities in the world, these games feature a better time difference to see more competitions
live, and less off the field distractions such as the pandemic (Tokyo 2021) or human
rights concerns (Beijing 2022).”
In PR News, the poll was featured in its “PR Roundup” under the heading of “Americans Ready for Olympics.”
In the article, PR News recounts the impact of Covid on the last Summer Olympics and notes “it’s no surprise
that Americans are more than ready for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games….”
The article further notes that:
The latest Seton Hall Sports Poll shows when asked if they were “more excited to watch the opening ceremony than previous
ones,” 56 percent of “self-described” Olympic fans, 51 percent of sports fans and
48 percent of casual fans responded yes. This year’s opening ceremonies are said to
feature the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop as teams are introduced aboard boats cruising
down the Seine River.
The poll also shows that 59 percent of the general population and 75 percent of self-described
sports fans said they planned to watch at least part of the Olympics. In comparison,
for the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics just 49 percent of the general population and 65
percent of sports fans said they would watch—a difference of 10 points for each category.
Given the numbers, PR News offers a few “communication takeaways,” while noting that “marketers have a unique
opportunity to leverage the immense social conversation surrounding the games to connect
with new and existing fans in meaningful ways.”
Americans Ready to Bet on Olympics
In Legal Sports Report (as well as Gaming Today, MaineBiz and more) the story focused on the poll’s findings about sports betting. The article
in Legal Sports Report, “Business By The Books: Analyst Forecasts Major Sports Betting, iGaming Growth,” included a section on “Olympic sports betting interest,” which cited the poll:
More than a fifth of Olympic fans say they plan to bet on the games this year. That
is according to a poll from Seton Hall and the Sharkey Institute that asked 1,611 people in June.
That 22 percent of Olympics fans joined 15 percent of the general population with
plans to bet.
Nearly three in 10 people say betting should be allowed on the games at 29 percent.
Another 38 percent said there should not be betting on the Olympics with the last
33 percent having no opinion.
The Sports Poll’s full release along with questions and charted breakdowns may be
found at “Americans Ready for Olympics, Opening Ceremonies and Placing Bets.”
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