I know more Brooklyn Dodgers fans in New York than Mets fans.
I have to be skeptical about a NESN poll that has the Red Sox #1 and the Bruins #2 when, last I knew, NESN was owned by the Red Sox and the Bruins.
I lived in New England for over 40 years, and the Bruins fan base was the most loyal but least elastic. They would draw 13,909 every game, whether in first place or last, and if you had a UHF paraboloc antenna on a distant bar, you could draw a few tables full of fans for every game that WSBK(?) carried, but come playoff time, that draw did not substantially increase.
I think Charles Barkley called the Celtics fair weather fans and he was right. During the Sidney Wicks era, I used to drive to Boston about once very two weeks, buy a couple of $3 tickets a couple hours before game time, go out and eat, and then have my choice of seats. I even sat in the press row once, when only four reporters attended the game. But when they signed Larry Bird, I arrived at the Garden three hours before the first day that tickets went on sale and was about 20th in line, but could only get lousy weekday seats for unimportant opponents, as the successful (and very white) Larry Bird Celtics sold out every game for nearly the next decade.
Now, I live in Washington, DC. Here is the complete ranking of all of the important, Washington, DC area sports teams.
1. Redskins