New York

New York rarely is among the ratings leaders for sports events, what with all of the other things to do around here, such as, um . . . opera, I guess.

But here is an interesting ratings tidbit: After the first 14 matches of the World Cup on ABC / ESPN / ESPN2, New York was averaging 3.4 percent of homes for the games, second only among 56 major markets measured to Miami's 3.9.

New York averaged an 8.0 for Saturday's England-U.S. game. That's a lot.