By Harry Minium
The renewal of the rivalry between Old Dominion University and Norfolk State drew the largest TV audience in Hampton Roads so far this basketball season, officials from WGNT-TV and WTKR-TV said.
According to Nielson ratings, the Wednesday night game drew a 1.5 share of the Hampton Roads TV audience on WGNT-TV. That compares well against two previous ESPN games that included some basketball blue bloods: Michigan-Duke, which drew a 1.2, and Kansas-Kentucky, which drew a 1.0.
About 9,000 households, or approximately 30,000 people, saw most or all of the ODU-Norfolk State game. That does not include a live stream of the game on the WTKR website that was available nationally that was also seen by 17,000 unique households. The total audience for the game might have exceeded 50,000 people.
ODU put away the Spartans with a late 9-0 run to claim an 80-66 victory in the 20th game between the city's two Division I programs.
The game was played at Norfolk State's Echols Hall, which seats 4,500. However, because COVID restrictions limited the crowd to 250 fans, both ODU and NSU officials worked to put the game on local TV.
"We knew that a lot of our fans and Norfolk State fans who wanted to see this game could not be there," said Senior Associate Athletic Director Jason Chandler, who negotiated with both WTKR and WGNT.
"We're heartened to see that so many fans tuned in," Dr. Chandler added.
The number is especially good considering that the game was scheduled about a week before it was played.
ODU Athletic Director Camden Wood Selig said the rating is a testament to the local fan base of both Norfolk State and Old Dominion.
"The numbers come as no surprise," Dr. Selig said. "Both institutions have very passionate and loyal fan bases that heavily populate Hampton Roads. I anticipated strong interest in the televised broadcast.
"We want to thank WGNT and WTKR for their willingness to share the game with the greater Hampton Roads community, especially with restrictions brought about by the pandemic."
He said it is significant that the game outdrew both Michigan-Duke and Kentucky-Kansas. It also drew three times the audience of the Nov. 27 game between Virginia and San Francisco that was televised on ESPN.
"That tells you that there's nothing more important to the people of Hampton Roads than our local programs," Selig said.
"People care about local sports."
Indeed they do.
When I worked at The Virginian-Pilot, we found that ODU football and basketball and high school football were the most popular sports with online readers, far surpassing ACC football, including Virginia and Virginia Tech.
Apparently, that also extends to TV viewership as well.
Stephen Hayes, president and general manager of WTKR and WGNT, said the ratings "exceeded expectations."
He added that it did so only because the deal to broadcast the game did not get done until a week before the game, leaving little time to promote the broadcast. The Virginia Lottery made the broadcast possible by stepping up as the sponsor.
"It delivered a higher number than we thought and I think where we succeeded was in making people aware of the broadcast," he said. "Then again, it was Norfolk State and ODU, two local teams with a lot of local interest."
WTKR and WGNT had hoped to do four or five local games in November and December, most involving ODU, but when the pandemic forced the Monarchs and other schools to rapidly redo their schedules, those plans changed.
He thanked Norfolk State for quickly granting rights to broadcast the game.
"When the world is back to normal, we'd like to talk to Jason and Wood about giving ODU a little more exposure on WTKR and WGNT," he said.
He would like to televise some ODU football games this fall, if Conference USA allows, and more basketball next season.
"We were happy we were able to pull this one off," he said. "Whenever we have local sports teams such as ODU and Norfolk State, the Hampton Roads community definitely shows an interest.
"I think there will be more in the future."
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu
Minium: ODU-NSU Drew Largest College Basketball TV Audience So Far This Season in Hampton Roads
