Will Nats Make D.C. Divorce Rate Plummet?
The Washington Nationals are in contention to be the worst major league baseball team since the legendary 1962 New York Mets, but does the mere presence of a baseball franchise so powerfully change men’s attitudes that it can substantially reduce a metropolitan area’s divorce rate? Researchers at University of Denver and Texas A&M have published a study that says cities with Major League Baseball franchises boast divorce rates 28 percent lower than rates in other cities that don’t yet have teams. In Denver, for example, the divorce rate fell by 20 percent between 1990–before the Colorado Rockies were created–and 2000, seven years after the team’s debut. That’s a 25 percent larger drop than the nationwide divorce rate took over the same period. The study found similarly big declines in divorce rates in other areas that added baseball teams over that period–Phoenix, Miami and Tampa Bay. The study didn’t look at Washington because we didn’t get a franchise until 2005. But the consisten
