Do you remember hearing about the sports teams theory of college admissions? Basically when a college athletic team (likely football) does well, more people apply to that school the next year. You may have heard it called the "Flutie effect" thanks to Boston College's Doug Flutie. A few years ago USA Today confirmed this pattern with some real numbers. Which brings us to the importance of a certain post-season baseball game later today in which the Detroit Tigers will try to get closer to the World Series and therefore increase real estate sales. Wait what? Confused? What we are saying is that if sports success stories can get more people to apply to a college, they can also get more people interested in living in Detroit. Basically it is good PR for a city that has trouble getting the rest of American to print stories other than reports on vacancy. So if you've got a "for sale" sign in your front yard right now that's been sitting there for a while you might want to put down the hedge clippers and go root for the Tigers. If the Lions' winning streak continues you might just get to up the asking price. Fingers crossed. Last Monday's game was the most-watched ever in regular-season Lions TV History.
· Monday game was largest local TV audience for Lions; Tigers win, too — at least in ratings [Crain's]
· Schools score big when sports teams win [USA Today]