Seton Hall has spoken: Fans don't want Dodgers to be taken over by the MLB

A press release by Marty Appel Public Relations in New York:

By a margin of 45 percent to 34 percent, sports fans oppose Major League Baseball's involvement in the day-to-day operations of the Dodgers, according to a poll conducted this week by the Seton Hall Sports Poll.

The poll was conducted by random dial across the country of 726 people, of whom 495 said they followed sports. The results have a +/- margin of error of 4.5 percent.

Remarkably, among sports fans, it was women who provided the difference, opposing the move by MLB by 49 percent to 24 percent. Men were almost equally divided, 44 percent in favor, 42 percent opposed, and 20 percent said they didn't know.

"This action still has a number of acts to play out," noted Rick Gentile, director of the poll, which is conducted by The Sharkey Institute. "But for now, in the court of public opinion, the team's ownership seems to be winning versus MLB's decision."

The Seton Hall Sports Poll, the nation's only academically-based sports polling service, has been conducting polls since 2006 with Gentile, the former vice president of sports for CBS, as the poll's director.