One sport that continues to grow in the country is the popularity of college softball as more and more softball games are being televised each week. One market that has become a top market for softball is Orlando.
The latest example was April 2nd’s game between No. No. 8 Alabama and No. 1 Florida on ESPN2 was the most-watched regular season college softball game in Orlando since 2010.
The Gators win over the Crimson Tide garnered a local Orlando rating of 0.5 according to ESPNPR which was the highest-rated regular season college softball game since March 27, 2010 when the Gators and Crimson Tide garnered a 0.6 local rating.
Those are better numbers then MLB, NHL, and even some of Orlando City and Orlando Magic games do. Only the Mens College Basketball Final Four had more viewers in sports on April 2 in Orlando.
Nationally the Florida-Alabama game garnered 298,000 viewers with Orlando among the top markets. In comparison the No. 1 Gators baseball team took on the No. 3 Texas A&M Aggies only garnered 88,000 viewers nationally.
It is not surprising considering last June Orlando had the sixth most viewers of any market for the Women’s College World Series, averaging a 2.8 rating. The Women’s College World Series defeated the Stanley Cup Final head to head in Orlando as Florida’s Game Three win over Michigan garnered more than 83,000 viewers in Orlando.
Nationally the Women’s College World Series defeated the Men’s College World Series for college baseball.
This is a continuing trend throughout Orlando for some time too.
UCF Softball’s 1-0 win over Tulsa on May 9, 2015, aired on ESPN2 and garnered 139,000 viewers nationally according to SportsTVRatings.com. It is the sixth most-watched UCF sporting event in Orlando in the last year behind only five football games.
Locally, UCF’s American Conference title win had more viewers then any UCF men’s basketball game in the last two years and any women’s basketball game that has ever aired on television.
UCF will be on ESPNU on Sunday, May 1 at 5 p.m. when the Knights play the South Florida Bulls in an American Conference showdown in Tampa.
The game’s popularity has grown at the gate too.
Last Wednesday’s Florida-UCF game drew 1,064 fans, the second largest crowd in UCF softball history behind only the 1,091 in a 2010 game against Florida. It was UCF’s fourth game this season that was over the capacity at the UCF Softball Complex or sold out this season. That does not include games against Florida State that was rained out on March 29 or the game against Auburn that was moved to a 10 a.m. start on Feb. 17. If that game had played at night, the battle with another top-10 team likely would have sold out too.
