eBay On Who Spends More: NBA Or NHL Fans?

The eternal debate: Which sports fans spend the most to glorify and identify with their favorite teams? Which leagues?

Ebay said on Wednesday (June 1) that the current sports season marks a bit of history as the San Francisco Bay area has teams in both the hockey and basketball championships at the same time. The key interest here to PYMNTS is, well, payments and how they have been tracking thus far. The teams themselves — the San Jose Sharks and the Golden State Warriors — have been perking up due to the international scope of buying, but as noted by Zoher Karu, eBay VP and chief data officer, in a statement:

“While it’s no surprise that there’s been an influx of memorabilia hitting eBay, it’s been fascinating to see how team popularity is spread across the U.S. For instance, the Pittsburgh Penguins are concentrated on the East Coast, but they still had a large following in Florida — despite the fact that they knocked out the Tampa Bay Lighting in the previous round. Maybe it’s Penguins fans flying south for the summer?”

Drilling down into the data, San Jose Sharks fans were ahead of the game: The Sharks had 10,000 views of memorabilia on eBay. The April measure of basketball excitement saw growth, with much of that tied to the Cleveland/Golden State rivalry. Key events included LeBron James’ new shoe launches and also a slew of pennants.