Majority of Sports Fans Neutral in Dispute Between NFL and Referees

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- The National Football League's 2001 season begins Sunday, and it will do so with replacement referees officiating the games. The NFL's regular referees remain embroiled in a labor lockout with league management over the referees' salaries. A recent Gallup poll shows that the majority of sports fans (57%) say they don't know enough about the dispute between the league and the referees to have an opinion on the subject. There is a slight tendency for fans who do have an opinion to favor the referees over the league. Twenty-four percent of fans side with the referees while 16% side with the NFL. (Fifty-four percent of Americans identified themselves as sports fans in the poll.)

As you may know, the National Football League and its referees are currently involved in a labor dispute. Whose side do you favor in this dispute -- [ROTATED: the League (or) the Referees] -- or don't you know enough to say?

BASED ON -- 465 -- SPORTS FANS; ±5 PCT. PTS.

 

	The league	The referees	Don't know enough	BOTH/ NEITHER (vol.)	no opinion
2001 Aug 24-26	16%	24	57	2	1
(vol.) Volunteered response

Sports Fans Say Refs Doing a Good Job

Despite many stereotypes about the fans' need to blame or criticize the job done by sports officials, American sports fans give NFL referees high marks. About one in three sports fans say NFL referees do a "very good" job of officiating games, and an additional 58% say they do a "good" job, meaning that nine in 10 give the referees favorable marks. Only 6% say they do a "poor" job, while the rest have no opinion.

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 465 adult sports fans, 18 years and older, conducted August 24-26, 2001. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 5 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

In general, how would you rate the job NFL referees do -- as very good, good, poor, or very poor?

BASED ON -- 465 -- SPORTS FANS; ±5 PCT. PTS.

 

	Very good	Good	Poor	Very poor	No opinion
2001 Aug 24-26	31%	58	6	*	5

* Less than 0.5%