The Atlanta Hawks TV ratings are down due to a multitude of reasons
The Atlanta Hawks are the eight-worst team in terms of television ratings according to a graphic released a day or so ago. There is a multitude of reasons for this and not all of them are the fault of the franchise.
Firstly the Hawks missed out on ratings at the start of the season as the Atlanta sports community was getting behind the Braves who won the world series. The Hawks were struggling for chemistry at that point thanks to preseason injuries so were losing. The casual sports fan is always going to watch a potential championship series over the start of a season any day.
Then, after making State Farm Arena a fortress and losing most away games, the Hawks then flipped the script and started losing games at home and winning on the road. However, the damage was done at that point. Again, the casual fan will not watch a team that is losing, especially the way the Hawks did during some of those games.
The Atlanta Hawks then fell victim to injury and illness.
When expectations are high because the team has just gone within two games of making the NBA Finals, to fall out of play-in contention was a hard pill to swallow. The reason for this is that the Hawks had a massive injury crisis at the wing position which was scarily similar to last season. The difference is the players who were coming into the lineup were not doing their roles well enough this season.
Then the Covid-19 crisis hit and the Hawks had so many of their top guys out. This means that the team that they could field was a few of their top guys and then G League players. Unless you are a hard-core fan or you cover the team, this was not the brand of Atlanta Hawks basketball that you wanted to watch.
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Now, when you look at the television rating chart you see teams like the OKC Thunder are above the Hawks. This is because the fans know that they are watching the future being built. The Hawks’ future is right now and they were losing badly. That is a reason to change the channel for a lot of fans.