IMHO, that makes my point much stronger. If sports got higher ratings than the Moon landing, it's a clear indication we're in a bubble that inflates the importance of and interest in space exploration.
My only point is I think geeks over-estimate the popularity of space exploration, incorrectly generalizing "it excites me/my type" to "it excites everyone/humanity." If regularly-held sporting events eclipse singular events in space exploration, it deflates high-flying rhetoric that expects the latter to be "the single most watched event in human history."
I make no comment on the importance of sports. But I'd argue that professional sports are probably more abstract (ultimately counting according to some arbitrary rules) and (practically, in a human sense) about as distant as space exploration.
I agree that a televised Mars landing would be the most watched televised event in history.