The Most Popular Team in Chicago?

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Nov 8, 2006 1:49PM

While the Democrats' resurgent popularity nationwide has come as a surprise to many, here in Chicago this is old news. We've long been blue in this town. However, it's not necessarity Cubbie blue as much as in the past. According to a new survey released by Scarborough Research, there is perhaps a surprising team at the top of the popularity ratings in Chicago — the White Sox!

According to Scarborough's survey, the Sox top even the Cubs and Bears in popularity in town. They determined this by calculating the percentage of Chicagoans who watched a game on TV, listened on the radio or attended a game in person. With a 57% reach, the Sox just slipped by the Bears (56%) and Cubs (55%).

Of course, their survey's data period (Sep. '05 – August '06) overlapped with the White Sox playoffs and World Series run last season. Even the die-hard Sox fan in us realized that probably skewed the data a wee bit.

With the Bears' hot start to the 2006 season and expected playoff run, we fully expect to see the Bears top next year's survey. What will be more interesting to see is whether the Cubs or Sox are the top baseball team in town. Was the defection of fans a more permanent trend, or simply people hopping on the World Series bandwagon?