The more things change..
“It is argued that statistics develop fans by increasing their knowledge of the game. By this logic crowds should be hitting unprecedented peaks today. The biggest crop of potential fans in history, the World War II babies, who now are at an age when youngsters generally are wrapped up in sports, has been exposed to an incessant barrage of figures from newspapers and television. Kids have more spending money and parents certainly are more sports-conscious than they were a generation ago. Yet with one exception attendances have declined steadily in the last decade. There has been an upswing only in horse racing, the one sport that bars minors.”
-Sports Illustrated, November 24, 1958
