Apparently, people like to watch the NBA Finals in Atlanta, so Atlanta is an NBA town.
Even when your Atlanta Hawks aren't in the Finals -- but then again, when were they ever in the Finals?
AJC's sports business reporter Tim Tucker opined that the first four games between the Best Team Ever* (a/k/a the Miami Heat) and that other team that Mark Cuban owns that plays in Dallas (a/k/a the Dallas Mavericks) posted monster ratings in the ATL market.
The games posted an average rating of 12.9 for the first four games, peaking with a 14.3 rating for the uber-entertaining Game 4, where the Best Team Ever* blew a seven-point fourth quarter lead (not to be confused with the 15 point lead the Best Team Ever* blew in Game 2).
The numbers were well ahead of the national rating numbers of 9.2 for the Miami-Dallas season and eons head of the Braves (somewhere in the 3s) and that Stanley Cup Finals thingy between the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks. The Bruins-Canucks matchup is rightfully posting "monster" ratings in Atlanta like 1.3, 0.6 and 0.3. The 0.3 number was for Game 3 on that Versus channel.
Something tells me that Atlanta Thrashers fans are making a conscious effort to boycott anything NHL after the league conspired with the Atlanta Spirit to move the team to Winnipeg. Can't say that I blame them. I'm not watching either.