Most Football Fans Welcome World Football League

The Harris Survey

For Release: Thursday, August 22, 1974

'C MOST FOOTBALL FANS MELCOME WORUl FOOTBALL LEAGUE

By Louis Harris

By a two-to-one margin, football fans nationwide look upon the formation of the new World Football League as a "good development" for professional football. Part of the reason can be found in a backlash vhich developed against the National Footlrdl League during the prolonged player strikes, and part in a feeling that players will get a better break with two competitive leagues.

The statement that "the new WFL won't have enough good players and the NFL will also be weaker for losing some good stars, so pro football will suffer and not be as good" was rejected by a 50-28 percent majority of sport fans. By a narrower 46-35 percent plurality, the fans also rejected the argument that the new league will create overexposure for pro football on television. The survey was taken among a nationwide cross section of 1,249 persons who said they follow sports, including 896 who reguarly follow football.

On the issue of the NFL players' strike, 38 percent of football fans nationwide sided with the players, 22 percent with the club owners, 16 percent with neither, 3 percent with both sides, and 21 percent could not make up their minds. It is significant that sentiment on the strike tended to parallel fan reaction to the launching of the WE.

The cross section was asked:

''AS you know, the World Football League (WFL) is now getting started and has signed up a number of star - players from the National Football League (NFL). Do you think the starting of the new World Football League is a good development for professional football, a bad development, or doesn't it make much difference one way or the other?"

NEW WORLD FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Total Foot- ball fans % Good development Bad development No difference Not sure

Among those who view the new league favorably, the top reason volunteered for backing it was sunued up by a 42-year-old steelworker in Youngstown, Ohio, who said, "1t's a good thing to keep the NFL from thinking it can do what it wants with the sport. Competition in sports is healthy."

Another favorite reason was that it would give more players a chance to play. As a businessman in Needham, ?[ass., said, "Now all those guys who have warmed the bench for nearly their whole pro careers will be able to show us what they can do." Tied closely to this line of reasoning was this typical argument articulated by a space engineer in La Jolla, Cal., "~oungerplayers will get a much better break with the new league."

Opponents of the WFL centered their fire on the claim that two leagues will "dilute the talant and weaken the gar?e." As n Chicago sl~opkeepersaid, "They'll split up too many of the good players b between the leagues and we'll never get to see the best play against each other." A lawyer in Miami volunteered another common reason in opposition, "It will lead to overexposure for certain and that will cheapen pro football as a sport --- just too many games or? TV."

A female store clerk in Iloline, Ill., expressed the view of some fans when she added, no here is too much money involved in getting players to go to the new teams. Football is becoming a business and not as much fun." d Football fans were asked this series of statements on the new league:

"Let me read you some statements which have been made about the new World Football League. For each, tell me if you tend to agree or disagree. (READ STATE~ENTS)"

Dis- Not Agree agree % I 2 Pro-WFL. The players get a better break with two leagues in competition, and the players deserve to get a financial break. The NFL, has become too powerful, and the WFL will keep it on its toes.

Ant 1-m There is alreadv too much Dro football on TV so the new WFL, will mean excessive pro football being played and on TV. 35 46 19 The new WFL. won't have enough good players and the NFL, will also be weaker for losing some stars, so pro football will suffer and not be as good. 28 50 2 2

Not only do fans believe that competition will help the sport, but it is obvious that the long player strike in the NFL has hurt that league. Fans were asked: d "Which side do you side with in the National Football League players' strike -- the players or the club owners?"

SYMPATHIZE WITH IN NFL STRIKE

Total Fans X Players 38 Club owners 22 Neither fvol.) 16 Both (vol.) 3 Not sure 2 1

The attitudes of the fans expressed in this survey reflect a rather widely held antipathy today toward the owners of pro football teams. Nor is this feeling limited to pro football.

The Harris Sports Survey also asked basketball fans if they favored a merger of the NBA and the ABA leagues. By a narrow 33-29 percent, with 38 percent not sure, the fans opposed an NBA-ABA merger. The biggest single reason for opposition to the merger was "it would mean less competition and would give the owners a monopoly over the sport."

The crisis for owners with the fans these days is real, and foreshadows demands for change in many professional sports. For the moment, pro football is the target of such initiations, but there is every likelihood that other sports will be affected by fan reactions in the months and years ahead.