About

facilities-footer-imageThe poll, known as the Seton Hall Sports Poll conducted by The Sharkey Institute, debuted in February 2006 under the leadership of Rick Gentile with a poll on that year’s Olympic Games.

It was the first and only university-based, ongoing polling service exclusively devoted to the multi-billion dollar sports industry, and its findings serve as a barometer of public opinion on the many important issues confronting sport today.

The Seton Hall Sports Poll is sponsored by The Sharkey Institute and brought to you by the Stillman School of Business’ Center for Sport Management, which is under the direction of Professor Charles Grantham, former executive director of the National Basketball Players Association. Marketing Professor Daniel Ladik is the Poll’s Chief Methodologist.

With the help of other experts from the Stillman School of Business, Center for Sport Management, and a host of outside consultants from the polling community, the Seton Hall Sport Poll’s findings have achieved a tremendous amount of national and international exposure.

The Seton Hall Sports Poll conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls and has been chosen for inclusion in iPoll by Cornell’s Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Its findings have been published everywhere from USA Today, ESPN, CNBC, The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, 538.com, AP and Reuters to CNBC, NPR, Fox News, Yahoo Finance and many points in between.

The polling service covers topical matters with great immediacy and also takes a broader overview of sports issues of general interest to society. Public funding and tax breaks for stadiums and franchises, sports gambling, labor disputes, social justice issues, role models, ethical behavior, drug testing, legislative issues, franchise movements, equality for women’s sports and the leagues’ and the public’s response to COVID-19 are all examples of important cultural questions emanating from the sport universe that have been and will continue to be explored by the Seton Hall Sports Poll. As a multi-billion dollar industry, the world of sports touches almost every aspect of our lives– and is often a harbinger of larger national trends.

Corporations, leagues and special interest groups have and will be invited to commission the polling service for their own research needs.