The Harris Poll on American attitudes towards sports revealed more than twice as many people now name professional football (29 percent) as their favourite sport as mention baseball (13 percent).
Eighteen years ago, in the first poll in this series, almost as many people chose baseball (23 percent) as chose pro football (24 percent) as their favourite sport.
Over the years, football's lead has widened steadily from one percentage point in 1985 to seven percentage points in 1989 to eleven points in 1997 and sixteen points this year.
During this period those whose favourite sports are men's pro basketball (now 10 percent), and auto racing (now nine percent) have both increased by four percentage points.
Harris Interactive polled 1,011 adults by telephone during August 12 and 17.
For the full results, see the features section of sportbusiness.com
