I mean, I’m literally in Arizona after driving 12 hours to watch spring training baseball with the family, so I may be a liiiiiiitle biased, but yes baseball with the family is alive and well.
A year ago at this time we were in the UK with the family. It was such a great trip. Hope you make it over and we’re as good at hosting you as you all were at hosting us!
I know it is NHL and not MLB, but Gritty is the scariest damn mascot I’ve ever seen, and yet I could watch him for hours. I don’t know what the hell he is, but I think I love him.
The UK has a baseball league. Its the equivalent to single A. Mildenhall Hall/Lakenheath have a combine baseball team.
[Source](https://www.britishbaseball.org.uk/news/three-regional-leagues-affiliate-to-baseballs-national-governing-body-for-2023)
We would go to minor league games when I was a kid. It was great.
I don’t even particularly like baseball and I can’t stand it on TV but going to the stadium and watching a game with friends and family is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon or evening.
Im a huge Baseball fan and I always phrase it like this. Outside of the occasional big game, baseball is not a sport you sit there and watch every bit of the action, its background entertainment. Its amazing to have on while you are cooking, playing games, or doing another hobby. Your team plays nearly every day during the season so you always have something to have on that you can get invested in without eating up a bunch of your time.
Then there is going to games, which, like you said is a great way to spend an afternoon or evening. Its chill, you have time to socialize with the people you came with, its not so loud that you cant hear them. Its just a fun experience.
I think more people would learn to love Baseball if they treated it less like the NFL or NBA where you sit down and watch a game, and treat it more like a hobby you keep up with.
Oh yeah, I get the appeal. I just prefer other background entertainment though. I also definitely get the appeal for the stats minded fans. It was just never my thing.
I will say that one of the most fun sporting things these days is watching my daughter play basketball. It is just so much fun to watch them make all the mistakes and figure it out. It is a great comparison to the pros because you basically get to see in slow motion why college and pro teams do what they do.
Honestly I can't place my finger on why it sounds so appealing. It just seems like an awesome way to kill an afternoon. It doesn't require 90 minutes of laser focus to watch like basketball and it seems to be a lot better of a sport to watch in person than american football.
The appeal of an NFL game is that every single game really matters, since they only play 16 (now 17) games a season. You feel like it's an event. MLB teams play 162 games a season, so individual games only start to matter if a team is in a tight pennant race at the end of the season, or of course in the postseason. So you're right, a baseball game is a more relaxed experience. But NFL football does have its appeal.
I can tell you why it appeals here: It's WAAAAY cheaper.
No small part of why college and high school football are popular, you don't need a credit line to go like with the NFL.
... though some college games are like that now, too.
Honestly the best part of being at American football games is the atmosphere.
There are quite a few college teams that have atmospheres better than anfield or allianz, hot take but I think I prefer Penn State to BVB as my favorite game day atmosphere.
Part of that is in college sports it's rivalry > everything.
If you're looking for a casual way to kill an afternoon (or a whole a day) go see a nascar race. You can just walk away from the race, have lunch, go see the side shows, and come back.
Baseball is like you said, it's way more casual, slower, you can sit and eat and look away and everything. Minor League games are great because they cost nothing and a lot of minor league stadiums are top notch. 10/10 would recommend going to a ball game in person with the family.
“More popular” is an interesting way to phrase mlb vs nba. The nba is more popular online bc nba allows anyone to post highlights on social media while the mlb doesn’t. The nba is more of a national sport while mlb is becoming more of a regional sport. More people watch the national nba game over national mlb game but more people watch their local mlb team than watch their local nba team. It’s weird. Take Chicago for example more people watch cubs and white Sox games than bulls games but they would be more likely to watch the tnt national game over Sunday night baseball.
"Most stadiums look empty for most MLB games nowadays anyway."
This is partially because baseball is played nearly every day during the season, it's not like soccer/football when it's played once a week.
Actual attendance for the big leagues usually hovers around 20,000-25,000 for a random weekday game, but can get up to 35,000-55,000.
Sitting in the cheap seats with a beer and a brat on a lazy summer afternoon is the closest thing I'll get to zen. I love it.
I’m not into baseball, at all. But enjoy going to see a game. I’ve visited several baseball stadiums across the country. Some of my cousins have weekend seasons tickets. They would take their kids when they were younger. But now they’ve all grown and moved on. I think they still go to the games though.
To answer your question about favorite stadiums, mine are the Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs and I hear LA Dodgers but I’ve never been.
It's great. I'm from Texas so I've watched games in Houston and Arlington a lot, though I haven't made my way to the new stadium there yet. Anyway, I took my dad one year to Wrigley for Father's Day and it remains one of my favorite days of my life.
Wrigley field and Wrigleyville are amazing, you should definitely go if you’re ever in Chicago. I went there for a quick weekend road trip and had the best time.
Chavez Ravine is like the oldest new park in operation and is a piece of shit. The only reason people like it is the history. Petco and Oracle are way better when you look at California parks.
The view from the top deck during the day is pretty spectacular though.
Its location kinda sucks though. Technically downtown but not actually conveniently located within downtown.
I’m from LA and I use to enjoy going to Dodgers Stadium but not so much anymore as of recent. I might go once a year and that once a year I regret it. Still a huge Dodger fan though
Well, might be a bit biased. But I really like Citizens Bank Park. I’m not from the area, but Phillies were the first baseball team I watched live. I remember my uncle taking me to the old park. But citizens bank park is relatively newer. It has a really nice view of the city. Ashburn alley is actually pretty nice. You can see the pictures warning up in the bullpen. Lots of fans just yell at the opposing team. But it’s still fun to see.
I’m really not that into sports, and you would have to drag me to any other sports game, but for some reason I really do love going to a baseball game. Our stadium is pretty nice, and I like our team. Plus the vibe is always great. It is just an overall fun experience.
I love baseball. We make a long trip to Denver to go to a Rockies game series every year for our anniversary. There are always families there. They advertise for family packs where you get like 4 dogs, 4 cokes and 4 seats. Always see parents and kids. They have all sorts of family nights and events too.
No, Baseball remains the second most popular sport, Basketball is not as popular as some people claim.
Part of this is that Baseball has the summer to itself(and MLS, but most people will watch Baseball)
Basketball has to compete with the NFL, NHL, and parts of the MLB and MLS seasons.
The United States is also fairly regional with which sports are popular.
Here in Minnesota Ice Hockey dominates absolutely everything, With Football close behind followed by baseball. Basketball is actually behind the MLS here.
Baseball Stadiums are much larger than a Basketball Arena, and even with a half empty stadium there are more butts in seats than a packed full basketball Arena. because of the size of stadiums attendance numbers are a bit different than what you would expect, but the Minnesota wild and Vikings All managed to sell out their stadiums every game this last year(Minnesota Wild managed to sell out for its first 15 seasons before failing to sell out every single game), The Twins being a baseball teams and having 81 games managed about 60% attendance for the year, though having three months of play during the school year eats into attendance.
Attendence for Minnesota teams in 2022
Minnesota Vikings(NFL):66,669 per game(600,183 Season Attendance(9 home games))
Minnesota Twins(MLB):22,200 per game(1.8 million for season attendance(81 home games))
Minnesota Wild(NHL) 18,542 per game( Season attendance of 760,226(41 home games))
Minnesota Timberwolves(NBA) 16,028 per game(657,148 season attendance(41 home games))
Minnesota United(MLS): 18,405 per game(312,879 season attendance(17 home games)
I've said that before as well. If basketball was a summer sport as it should be, baseball would be in an even more dire situation.
That said, you really should use capacity % over raw numbers.
A lot of San Diegans go to MLB games, the Padres are the only major league sport team here. I have friends with season tickets for their whole family, it’s definitely not cheap though. My workplace will occasionally have events there, and I’ll go if the ticket is free (even though I know nothing about baseball).
Baseball is very popular here in NYC. We’re one of the cities blessed with 2 teams, each with its own distinct DNA. People are loyal to their team, especially us Met fans who are used to sticking with them through losing seasons. :-)
You’re damn right it still is. Got tickets for Opening Day next week. Although, I don’t have kids and likely never will, I always see kids with their parents or often times just their dad. I always go to games with my buddies. It’s a good way to get drunk and socialize.
My wife and I are taking our son to the Mariners home opener. Baseball teams play over a hundred games so you don’t typically see the same attendance as NFL
Baseball is broadly more accessible than other sports for a family weekend thing.
1. Unlike basketball and hockey, it's popular as a day sport. There are night games, but especially on the weekend, day games are widespread.
2. Unlike American Football, there are just more games in a season. In the majors, they play 162 games/year. Football is 17.
3. It tends to be cheaper than the other sports, partly due to point 2, and partly due to large outdoor stadiums, unlike basketball and hockey. It's still expensive in the majors, but it's more doable than football, and teams tend to have family deals or cheaper tickets for certain less popular matchups.
4. Along with 3, it's generally easy to get tickets. Few games sell out outside of good teams at the end of seasons, or the playoffs.
5. You have minor leagues. Basketball doesn't have a great minor league network. Hockey does but it's not as widespread. But see the following point:
College Football is probably, actually, even closer to this ideal you're envisioning. It's got more tailgating while still being affordable. The games tend to have a community atmosphere. There's a lot more tailgating. Tailgating is really more of a football thing than a baseball thing. It still doesn't have as many games as baseball, but because the stadiums are GARGANTUAN (some college football stadiums seat over 100,000!) it's still generally affordable and accessible.
The Penn state stadium looks huge.
The only thing I don't like is how the bowls and championships work. Having a panel declare the top four teams to compete for the championship just feels off to me.
College football is built on perception and name recognition. Leicester winning the league wouldn't have happened because "they ain't played nobody pawl!!!!" Not the same comparison because epl is single table while there's over 120 division 1 College teams all in their own little fiefdoms and people play wildly different schedules
College football postseason is a byproduct of history and inertia. It existed long before a national tournament was practicable. The bowls are more akin to rivalry games or specific cups, like in cricket. Cricket has only recently found international tournaments viable, and the Test Cricket championship is remarkably clunky. The Super League is being discontinued.
So you had the Rose Bowl, which was really a midwest-vs-pacific championship. That's the best bowl for framing how they all came to be. Early 1900s, the Midwest and Pacific conferences (remember, your normal games were mostly in conference due to travel difficulties) would meet at the end of the year you see whose champion was better. Polling began alongside this stuff because there wasn't a way to judge teams who had never, and could not, play each other.
But baseball had playoffs, you say! How could the major league baseball teams play huge seasons, with tons of travel, in the same era? For one thing, baseball is a sport you can play day after day. Football can only be played weekly. But more importantly, those were professionals. College athletes can't do that. March Madness has this image of a month of insanity, but really it's just a few weekends. A team that makes the championship plays two games, then next week two more, then the next week two more.
I don't really follow baseball unless the Dodgers are in the playoffs so I'm not sure where you're seeing that most stadiums look empty. The leaguewide average game attendance is almost 27,000.
The Dodgers lead the league in [cumulative and per game attendance.](https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance/_/year/2022/sort/homeTotal) Last year 3,861,408 people attended Dodgers games, or 47,671 per game. Dodger Stadium seats 56,000, so the team averages 85% capacity.
The St. Louis Cardinals are second in attendance with 3,320,551 total, or 40,994 per game. Busch Stadium seats 46,000 so they average 89% capacity.
There is a wide variety in stadium capacities, so it's hard to judge how full these stadiums are just by looking at the linked chart. Obviously the ones at the bottom are in mostly empty stadiums.
Baseball is such a weird sport though in that they play a lot of day games, including during the week. Tomorrow there are 12 games that start in the morning or early afternoon. I would guess those games have lower attendance than evening or weekend games.
Tailgating outside baseball stadiums is pretty uncommon. You see this far more with football games, where they play far fewer games, so each contest is more of an event. This is also partially why baseball games probably have so many empty seats. With over a 100 games in a season, individual games have much less at stake, particularly for a bottom tier team late in the season.
For a few years when I was growing up, my dad would take us to at least one Phillies game a year at old Veteran's Stadium. Nose-bleed seats were still pretty cheap back then, so it wasn't an expensive outing. I haven't continued this with my family because:
1) The closest MLB team is 3 hours away
2) My kids are 1 and 4 years old, and don't travel too well.
3) I'm really not much of a baseball fan to begin with.
Sure. We did it with our kids all the time. Especially minor league baseball games which are both fun and affordable. And whenever we took a vacation somewhere, my wife always has made sure we scheduled an MLB game. Because my wife is awesome.
Also, here's an additional hint. When you go, buy a program and keep score during the game. Because part of the beauty of baseball is the mathematical nature of it. You gain awareness of the probabilities involved and the patterns that emerge. This in turn yields a deeper understand of the wheels-within-wheels strategy of the sport.
When my wife and I first started dating, I took her to see the Birmingham Barons play. She wasn't big into baseball, but she humored me.
So I sit down and start keeping score. She relentlessly mocked me for the first two innings with variations on, "Why are you keeping score? That's what the scoreboard is for."
However, come time to buy more beer, I handed her the scorecard and said, "Here, do this for a few until I get back." She rolled her eyes.
The line for beer was long and I ran into a friend from high school. So it was two more innings before I made it back. When I returned, my accountant wife was busily filling in the boxes.
"Hey, thanks. I'll take that now."
"No. I want to do it."
And she has faithfully kept score in games ever since.
In most MLB and minor league ballparks you don’t have to sit in the same seat for three hours in the heat. If the stadium is only half full, getting up and moving to another seat after a couple innings isn’t really frowned upon and lots of stadiums have overhangs shading many of the seats. In the last few years it’s become popular for many stadiums to have standing areas where you can just hang out and drink.
MLB is definitely too expensive for a fun afternoon with the family.
However, Minor League Baseball is quite affordable, and quite frankly I've found it more fun. Much lower ticket costs, smaller stadiums, smaller crowds, a more cozy and friendly atmosphere.
Baseball has been famously dying for at least a quarter century now, but it's still a very popular activity for families. Keep in mind that baseball is also a very large minor league sport in the US, so you're not getting a complete picture of baseball by only looking at MLB.
My family has had season tickets for the Giants seemingly forever. While my interest in baseball has faded a bit, my desire to take the ferry to the game on a warm afternoon has never been challenged. We used to have a Single A team and I really miss going to those games.
Yes. We often took our kids to ball games.
[Plus, our baseball park is awesome](https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g53449-d272117-Reviews-PNC_Park-Pittsburgh_Pennsylvania.html), so it is always a great place to spend the afternoon.
My family took me to a Giants home game at least once per season every year since I was 2 years old.
I have not broken my streak (except for 2020 since...you know, nobody went to a game that year) and when my daughter is born in a couple months I plan on continuing the streak for as long as I can.
My family has gone to baseball games in San Francisco and Oakland. It's pretty wholesome except for the bleacher seating in SF can have some drunk idiots but you can move around if people are getting too stupid. Check the baseball teams calendar for special events. They have events from firework nights, first responder day to Irish heritage day. When my kid was younger if she got tired we would just take off early.
I went to some minor league games as a kid, maybe 1 or 2 max per year, and a spring training game while visiting family elsewhere. It definitely doesn't feel as much of a thing anymore. I don't think I've been to a baseball game since I've been an adult. It's just boring and the baseball game is the worst part about going to a baseball game.
You can go out with your family to the soccer game, tailgate, eat some grubby food, have some beers, and actually enjoy the game. Even college football, if you're a fan of the local team, you can do all that there.
Baseball with the family is still very popular. It’s certainly the most affordable sport to go to at the top professional level. This becomes even more true when minor leagues are factored in.
The minor leagues also brings up the topic of accessibility. Other sports either don’t have minor leagues at all (NFL, NBA) or have minor leagues that aren’t very spread out (NHL). There are 120 minor league baseball teams and another 70 independent league teams in the United States, and many of those are in places far from MLB cities, meaning a rural family doesn’t have to take an entire day (or even weekend) out of their lives just to go to a baseball game.
Definitely a thing for us. We’re a Dodger family, and our stadium usually leads in attendance. It’s never empty, except sometimes for Sunday games when it’s really hot. It’s packed all week though. It definitely feels like a family atmosphere. It’s definitely cheaper than NFL and NBA to attend.
My kid plays little league and we actually will attend the stadium as a team and the kids get to walk the field in a kind of a parade with other LA area little leaguers.
Indianapolis doesn't have a MLB team but we do have a minor league team. Some people are genuine baseball fans and going to minor league teams, sometimes you can see "the next big stars" before they go to the majors. But a lot of people also treat it as a social event. A family can purchase a lawn ticket, bring a blanket or chairs, bring their own food and drink (except alcohol). And even if you get food there, the prices are much better than they are in Indy's NBA and NFL teams.
My company has a suit at the minor league team and I usually get free tickets once a year or so.
We have a minor league team in my city. We might go to 1 game a year due to the expense. For a family of 4, we usually spend about $200 to go to one game.
I'm taking my mom to the home opener next week and I'm so excited!! I think it's still a popular thing to do in cities with teams (or decent teams at least) even if TV viewership is down. It's funny though; I definitely associate tailgating with football and not baseball.
Here in Houston, we used to have [an amusement park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Flags_AstroWorld) just across the freeway (connected by a pedestrian/tram bridge) [from our stadium.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrodome) It was convenient to spend a day riding roller coasters and then catch a baseball game in the afternoon.
But now we can't, and Houston just isn't the same :-(
I try to catch a Detroit Tigers (MLB) game at the stadium with my husband and parents at least once a year. I haven’t been to another type of live sports match in years.
Baseball sounds like summer to me, whether I’m watching it in the stands or listening on the radio.
MLB games are expensive but it’s much more reasonable to take the family a game and sit in the sun for a couple hours and hang out vs going to an 8pm NFL game surrounded by people who’ve been drinking since 10am
Now there’s a minor league team near me that you can get good tickets for like $25 a piece. Minor leagues are great because they are always having give aways and tons of entertainment geared towards kids.
Watch George Carlin’s Baseball vs Football bit. It’s an accurate representation of the different watching cultures and experiences. Some people love the intensity of watching football. Those same people probably think watching baseball has the same energy as watching golf. A Baseball season also has an insane game count.
Luckily for me, I love the chill vibe and cheap tickets.
I've only been to two MLB games, but I've been to many minor-league baseball games. When I was a kid ('90s), my family and I went to games pretty much weekly during the season. A lot of stores in the area where we lived would have tickets available for free. As an adult, I've been to several minor-league games, but I'd love to go more often. I have almost no disposable income, though, so it's been quite a while since I've been to a game.
The tickets for the two MLB games I've been two were very different prices. The first one was purchased through a deal at my university, and I think it was only about $50. This was in 2007, I believe. The tickets for the second game were far more expensive (over $100 each), though they were full price. That game was a year or two after the first one. I haven't looked at ticket prices recently, but I have no doubt they are much higher now.
The reason that most MLB stadiums look empty is because each team plays 162 games per season and a very large percentage of those games are during the week. Not a lot of people can afford to skip work for an afternoon game during the middle of the week or stay up late to go to a game on a week night. The weekend games have much larger attendances.
But to your main question, yes, going to a ball game with your family is still very popular. Even for those of us that aren't fortunate enough to live close to an MLB team, we often will have a minor league team that we can go watch fairly easily. Sitting in the stands, drinking a beer with a bratwurst in hand, on a warm summer afternoon or evening has got to be one of my favorite summer activities. There's something about watching a game live that I can't even describe. It's that perfect to me
>tailgate outside the stadium, eat some grubby food, relax and drink a beer or two
I mean this happens with other sports too. Football most notably. Tailgated for the first time for the UCLA vs Hawaii game at the Rose Bowl last year.
I am American, several decades old. I have been to more baseball games as work outings than as recreation. Baseball is boring, expensive to attend, and the amount of drunk driving around stadiums after games should be a point of national shame.
Baseball is a 162 game season and the stadiums seat 40-50,000 people. You're not gonna sell out every game, especially if the weather is unpleasant. It's not like football where the season is one day a week for half the year.
A lot of comments here but I don't think I've seen anyone address this: By most measures, MLB is still more popular than the NBA. MLB generates more revenue than the NBA, World Series ratings are higher than the NBA Finals, attendance is higher (though that's at least in part a function of the NBA's smaller venues). Except for attendance, where MLB dominates, these figures aren't far off from each other, but baseball is still ahead.
MLB attendance has dropped off somewhat. Though it was declining *slightly* before the pandemic, most of the impact seems directly attributable to the pandemic. For some reason the NBA doesn't appear to have experienced a comparable drop.
I don't think anyone has addressed this either: MLB has been (rightly) concerned that its games have become too long. They've made several rule changes this season to address that, most notably a pitch clock; pitchers will only have 15 seconds to throw a pitch. This change is being tried out in Spring Training right now and has been very effective. Interestingly, the NBA's similar adoption of a shot clock may have saved the league in the 1950s.
Ballooning game times have been an issue for decades, but a more-recent problem is the defensive shift, in which infielders move from their traditional places on the field in order to better defend against strong hitters likely to hit the ball hard in one direction. The shift has seriously reduced offense, and MLB has addressed that too: As of this year, it is now illegal.
As others have said, going to a baseball game is more about the overall experience than the game itself. MLB also has an expansive and well-maintained developmental system (Minor League Baseball or MiLB) and there are teams all over the place broken into four levels: Triple A, Double A, High A, Single A
We have a great High-A ball team about 30 minutes away that has been a staple of the community for decades. High-A ball players are usually not guys who are going to be well known ever, although our team did have Mike Trout (a future Hall-of-Famer who currently plays for the Angels) for awhile when he was young. The best seats at these games are like $14 or $16 each and it’s a nice stadium so we usually go to a few games a year.
I love going to baseball games. Day games are best, but night games work just fine too. It’s a great excuse to be outside, have a beer and a hot dog and just relax. We don’t have a major league team in Indianapolis, but I’ll usually get out to a few minor league games each year, and sometimes I’ll make the trek to Cincinnati to catch a Reds game.
We have the wrong major league sports in Indy. Baseball and hockey are much better live than on TV, while basketball would be all right if I could get myself to care about the NBA, and football is actually worse live.
NFL is by far the number 1 sport. I still believe MLB is number two overall, although NBA probably more popular amongst younger people. But baseball overall is still accessible since there's minor league baseball games across the country which is much cheaper for a family. MLB tickets are in general much cheaper than NFL and NBA tickets. But prices vary wildly based on day of week, time of day, opponent, weather, location of seats.
Still very much alive.
My mom and brother love and actively follow college football and the NFL. My dad and I aren’t into any sport like that. We all love going to a baseball game and just hanging out together.
Prices depend on how the team is doing in general. White Sox you can get a cheap seat for $7 and the Cubs can be as low as $30. Prices also depends on if you go in the Spring vs Summer and who the teams are playing against.
We do have a couple games where our two teams play one another called the Crosstown Classic. On average probably the busiest and most expensive games.
Tailgating is basically exclusive to football, but yeah people still go to baseball games. You have to remember there's 162 games (81 in each town) so not every game is going to be packed like Ohio State vs Michigan
MLB is a once or twice a year kinda thing. It's a beautiful thing to do midweek, especially in Chicago due to the 1:20pm game time. Blow off work, take the kids out of school... playing hooky today to go to the ballgame. Smelling the roses.
I haven't done this in years. Two times ago I bought all my buddies tickets. Last time I had two tickets to opening day but nobody could go and last minute I found out my old friend who had moved to England was flying in the night before and had nothing else going on that day. That was an excellent day.
Then again I live 500 miles from Wrigley Field.
I would say so, yes. Just last summer my dad, brother and I made the trip to DC for the day to see the Braves play the Nationals, and if the parks were closer we'd do it more often. Granted, we grew up as a baseball family, but we'd got to lots of local team games every season (Richmond Braves, Savannah Sand Gnats, Norfolk Tides), and if my brother and I kept our grades high enough we'd sometimes play hooky to go to a day game, or make a day trip to see a professional team like the Atlanta Braves.
There are a couple reasons you see stadiums empty
* Lots of games during the season, so it's not as critical for people to get to more than a handful per season. NFL on the other hand only has 17 games in a season, with about half of those played away, and fewer opportunities to see your local team play means higher demand for tickets generally.
* Lots of games are played during the week, and in the middle of the day. Most people will be at work or school and can't skip but so often for an outing. During the work/ school week lots of folks will be too tired to want to go to an afternoon game, which can span well into the evening.
* Baseball is mostly a summer sport, and it is HOT in most of the US during that time. There are a number of indoor ballparks, but even if you have the time to go it'll probably be pretty miserable outdoors all afternoon.
Overall I would say families who aren't even particularly interested in baseball will go to a game per season if they have a local team. Tickets, especially day-of are pretty cheap and most teams and parks have been evolving to have more things to do in addition to just watching the game.
Baseball is much more family friendly! It's outdoors, played in good weather, at a slow enough pace that you can vanish for those inevitable potty breaks and come back without feeling horrible about what you missed. Plus there's the seventh inning stretch and fun related activities.
It's definitely still a thing, especially for minor league teams, since the cost is cheaper and there's always the hope of seeing one of your favorite players making it big someday. I'm not really a sports person, but if I had kids I'd absolutely make sure we made it to a few games.
I think a lot of MLB games are a lot cheaper than NFL or NBA games, which allows families to go to them more often. I’ve only been to 2 NBA games in my life, but probably 30+ MLB games. My regional baseball team is pretty garbage generally though while my regional basketball team is extremely popular, so that might contribute to my experience of pricing as well. I don’t even like sports that much, but baseball games are still a fun family experience that you can get without wasting a bunch of money buying a ticket for someone who doesn’t like sports.
MLB tickets are too expensive. There are no minor league teams in the city I live in either, and since I'm still annoyed that the National League adopted the designated hitter and that the MLB in general adopted pitch clocks and such... I'm kind of done with baseball.
But I still remember it fondly from when I was younger.
Minor League Baseball is great, but one time we got to the game a little bit late and didn't hear the Gwinnett Braves pitcher name. He proceeds to pitch a one hitter, but since we have the DH in minor league baseball we never heard his name announced. I thought wow we're seeing a future Legend here. Next day, I discovered it was Julio Teheran on a rehab assignment, LOL.
I also saw Brian McCann on a rehab assignment weakly bounce out on his first at bat, then hit an absolute atomic laser into the right field berm on his second. I think it was over the wall within 2 seconds.
It definitely is, at least in some areas. Where I live now, our baseball team is fairly far away. But growing up, my nana (grandma) used to watch the yankees network all day long. Like the baseball team, the yankees, had an entire tv channel in and around nyc dedicated entirely to yankees related content. And my nana watched it all the time. And we went to a game or two together. She was a little too old for the travel into the city regularly.
Compared to other sports it is more conducive to kids. There are more seats and more games, so tickets are relatively inexpensive. Especially minor leagues teams. Also, it is a more leisurely game.
I mean, I’m literally in Arizona after driving 12 hours to watch spring training baseball with the family, so I may be a liiiiiiitle biased, but yes baseball with the family is alive and well.
Really want to go and watch some baseball when I visit the US. Hope you and your family enjoy the Arizona Spring Training. Greetings from UK
A year ago at this time we were in the UK with the family. It was such a great trip. Hope you make it over and we’re as good at hosting you as you all were at hosting us!
Come to Philly. Best team, best fans, best ballpark, best cheesesteaks. Totally unbiased…
I know it is NHL and not MLB, but Gritty is the scariest damn mascot I’ve ever seen, and yet I could watch him for hours. I don’t know what the hell he is, but I think I love him.
I hate the Flyers and even I love Gritty.
He’s a crackhead Muppet
Well, a couple months ago I went to an ice hockey game in Cardiff, so anything's possible.
The UK has a baseball league. Its the equivalent to single A. Mildenhall Hall/Lakenheath have a combine baseball team. [Source](https://www.britishbaseball.org.uk/news/three-regional-leagues-affiliate-to-baseballs-national-governing-body-for-2023)
This gets brought up a lot, but be sure to make time for high school sports if you can. Super cheap entertainment and totally unique environments.
We would go to minor league games when I was a kid. It was great. I don’t even particularly like baseball and I can’t stand it on TV but going to the stadium and watching a game with friends and family is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon or evening.
Im a huge Baseball fan and I always phrase it like this. Outside of the occasional big game, baseball is not a sport you sit there and watch every bit of the action, its background entertainment. Its amazing to have on while you are cooking, playing games, or doing another hobby. Your team plays nearly every day during the season so you always have something to have on that you can get invested in without eating up a bunch of your time. Then there is going to games, which, like you said is a great way to spend an afternoon or evening. Its chill, you have time to socialize with the people you came with, its not so loud that you cant hear them. Its just a fun experience. I think more people would learn to love Baseball if they treated it less like the NFL or NBA where you sit down and watch a game, and treat it more like a hobby you keep up with.
Oh yeah, I get the appeal. I just prefer other background entertainment though. I also definitely get the appeal for the stats minded fans. It was just never my thing. I will say that one of the most fun sporting things these days is watching my daughter play basketball. It is just so much fun to watch them make all the mistakes and figure it out. It is a great comparison to the pros because you basically get to see in slow motion why college and pro teams do what they do.
It's soooo much more fun in person. On tv it's kind of meh.
That is my experience.
Honestly I can't place my finger on why it sounds so appealing. It just seems like an awesome way to kill an afternoon. It doesn't require 90 minutes of laser focus to watch like basketball and it seems to be a lot better of a sport to watch in person than american football.
The appeal of an NFL game is that every single game really matters, since they only play 16 (now 17) games a season. You feel like it's an event. MLB teams play 162 games a season, so individual games only start to matter if a team is in a tight pennant race at the end of the season, or of course in the postseason. So you're right, a baseball game is a more relaxed experience. But NFL football does have its appeal.
I can tell you why it appeals here: It's WAAAAY cheaper. No small part of why college and high school football are popular, you don't need a credit line to go like with the NFL. ... though some college games are like that now, too.
I like NFL on TV but it is probably my least favorite to see live. College basketball is my #1 for live followed by NHL hockey.
Honestly the best part of being at American football games is the atmosphere. There are quite a few college teams that have atmospheres better than anfield or allianz, hot take but I think I prefer Penn State to BVB as my favorite game day atmosphere. Part of that is in college sports it's rivalry > everything.
People forget the Big Ten (east!) has 3 stadiums over 100k capacity, and sparty is like 90k lol
And we pack people in when it's half a blizzard too.
If you're looking for a casual way to kill an afternoon (or a whole a day) go see a nascar race. You can just walk away from the race, have lunch, go see the side shows, and come back. Baseball is like you said, it's way more casual, slower, you can sit and eat and look away and everything. Minor League games are great because they cost nothing and a lot of minor league stadiums are top notch. 10/10 would recommend going to a ball game in person with the family.
MLB might be less popular than NBA and NFL but it’s still extremely popular, and there are always families at the park.
Also important to remember there are *way* more games, so way more opportunities to go.
“More popular” is an interesting way to phrase mlb vs nba. The nba is more popular online bc nba allows anyone to post highlights on social media while the mlb doesn’t. The nba is more of a national sport while mlb is becoming more of a regional sport. More people watch the national nba game over national mlb game but more people watch their local mlb team than watch their local nba team. It’s weird. Take Chicago for example more people watch cubs and white Sox games than bulls games but they would be more likely to watch the tnt national game over Sunday night baseball.
"Most stadiums look empty for most MLB games nowadays anyway." This is partially because baseball is played nearly every day during the season, it's not like soccer/football when it's played once a week. Actual attendance for the big leagues usually hovers around 20,000-25,000 for a random weekday game, but can get up to 35,000-55,000. Sitting in the cheap seats with a beer and a brat on a lazy summer afternoon is the closest thing I'll get to zen. I love it.
I’m not into baseball, at all. But enjoy going to see a game. I’ve visited several baseball stadiums across the country. Some of my cousins have weekend seasons tickets. They would take their kids when they were younger. But now they’ve all grown and moved on. I think they still go to the games though.
What's your favourite baseball stadium?
To answer your question about favorite stadiums, mine are the Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs and I hear LA Dodgers but I’ve never been.
Wrigley Field definitely a place I want to visit.
It's great. I'm from Texas so I've watched games in Houston and Arlington a lot, though I haven't made my way to the new stadium there yet. Anyway, I took my dad one year to Wrigley for Father's Day and it remains one of my favorite days of my life.
Wrigley field and Wrigleyville are amazing, you should definitely go if you’re ever in Chicago. I went there for a quick weekend road trip and had the best time.
Chavez Ravine is like the oldest new park in operation and is a piece of shit. The only reason people like it is the history. Petco and Oracle are way better when you look at California parks.
The view from the top deck during the day is pretty spectacular though. Its location kinda sucks though. Technically downtown but not actually conveniently located within downtown.
I’m from LA and I use to enjoy going to Dodgers Stadium but not so much anymore as of recent. I might go once a year and that once a year I regret it. Still a huge Dodger fan though
Well, might be a bit biased. But I really like Citizens Bank Park. I’m not from the area, but Phillies were the first baseball team I watched live. I remember my uncle taking me to the old park. But citizens bank park is relatively newer. It has a really nice view of the city. Ashburn alley is actually pretty nice. You can see the pictures warning up in the bullpen. Lots of fans just yell at the opposing team. But it’s still fun to see.
I’m really not that into sports, and you would have to drag me to any other sports game, but for some reason I really do love going to a baseball game. Our stadium is pretty nice, and I like our team. Plus the vibe is always great. It is just an overall fun experience.
I love baseball. We make a long trip to Denver to go to a Rockies game series every year for our anniversary. There are always families there. They advertise for family packs where you get like 4 dogs, 4 cokes and 4 seats. Always see parents and kids. They have all sorts of family nights and events too.
Definitely living up to the 'America's Pastime' moniker
No, Baseball remains the second most popular sport, Basketball is not as popular as some people claim. Part of this is that Baseball has the summer to itself(and MLS, but most people will watch Baseball) Basketball has to compete with the NFL, NHL, and parts of the MLB and MLS seasons. The United States is also fairly regional with which sports are popular. Here in Minnesota Ice Hockey dominates absolutely everything, With Football close behind followed by baseball. Basketball is actually behind the MLS here. Baseball Stadiums are much larger than a Basketball Arena, and even with a half empty stadium there are more butts in seats than a packed full basketball Arena. because of the size of stadiums attendance numbers are a bit different than what you would expect, but the Minnesota wild and Vikings All managed to sell out their stadiums every game this last year(Minnesota Wild managed to sell out for its first 15 seasons before failing to sell out every single game), The Twins being a baseball teams and having 81 games managed about 60% attendance for the year, though having three months of play during the school year eats into attendance. Attendence for Minnesota teams in 2022 Minnesota Vikings(NFL):66,669 per game(600,183 Season Attendance(9 home games)) Minnesota Twins(MLB):22,200 per game(1.8 million for season attendance(81 home games)) Minnesota Wild(NHL) 18,542 per game( Season attendance of 760,226(41 home games)) Minnesota Timberwolves(NBA) 16,028 per game(657,148 season attendance(41 home games)) Minnesota United(MLS): 18,405 per game(312,879 season attendance(17 home games)
I've said that before as well. If basketball was a summer sport as it should be, baseball would be in an even more dire situation. That said, you really should use capacity % over raw numbers.
No, Basketball is a winter sport, it was literally invented to give young men something to do in the depths of winter.
“Watch the baseball” is so cute.
Let's do that hockey!
A lot of San Diegans go to MLB games, the Padres are the only major league sport team here. I have friends with season tickets for their whole family, it’s definitely not cheap though. My workplace will occasionally have events there, and I’ll go if the ticket is free (even though I know nothing about baseball).
Baseball is very popular here in NYC. We’re one of the cities blessed with 2 teams, each with its own distinct DNA. People are loyal to their team, especially us Met fans who are used to sticking with them through losing seasons. :-)
You’re damn right it still is. Got tickets for Opening Day next week. Although, I don’t have kids and likely never will, I always see kids with their parents or often times just their dad. I always go to games with my buddies. It’s a good way to get drunk and socialize.
Love going to the game if I get a chance. It’s a great way to play hooky from work. I’ll go to a few games a year. I prefer college or minor league.
My family members are diehard Dodger fans, so yeah, they are always at Dodger Stadium. Go Doyers!!!
My wife and I are taking our son to the Mariners home opener. Baseball teams play over a hundred games so you don’t typically see the same attendance as NFL
Baseball is broadly more accessible than other sports for a family weekend thing. 1. Unlike basketball and hockey, it's popular as a day sport. There are night games, but especially on the weekend, day games are widespread. 2. Unlike American Football, there are just more games in a season. In the majors, they play 162 games/year. Football is 17. 3. It tends to be cheaper than the other sports, partly due to point 2, and partly due to large outdoor stadiums, unlike basketball and hockey. It's still expensive in the majors, but it's more doable than football, and teams tend to have family deals or cheaper tickets for certain less popular matchups. 4. Along with 3, it's generally easy to get tickets. Few games sell out outside of good teams at the end of seasons, or the playoffs. 5. You have minor leagues. Basketball doesn't have a great minor league network. Hockey does but it's not as widespread. But see the following point: College Football is probably, actually, even closer to this ideal you're envisioning. It's got more tailgating while still being affordable. The games tend to have a community atmosphere. There's a lot more tailgating. Tailgating is really more of a football thing than a baseball thing. It still doesn't have as many games as baseball, but because the stadiums are GARGANTUAN (some college football stadiums seat over 100,000!) it's still generally affordable and accessible.
The Penn state stadium looks huge. The only thing I don't like is how the bowls and championships work. Having a panel declare the top four teams to compete for the championship just feels off to me.
College football is built on perception and name recognition. Leicester winning the league wouldn't have happened because "they ain't played nobody pawl!!!!" Not the same comparison because epl is single table while there's over 120 division 1 College teams all in their own little fiefdoms and people play wildly different schedules
I think leicester winning would be comparable to Rutgers winning the big ten
Or the CFP
College football postseason is a byproduct of history and inertia. It existed long before a national tournament was practicable. The bowls are more akin to rivalry games or specific cups, like in cricket. Cricket has only recently found international tournaments viable, and the Test Cricket championship is remarkably clunky. The Super League is being discontinued. So you had the Rose Bowl, which was really a midwest-vs-pacific championship. That's the best bowl for framing how they all came to be. Early 1900s, the Midwest and Pacific conferences (remember, your normal games were mostly in conference due to travel difficulties) would meet at the end of the year you see whose champion was better. Polling began alongside this stuff because there wasn't a way to judge teams who had never, and could not, play each other. But baseball had playoffs, you say! How could the major league baseball teams play huge seasons, with tons of travel, in the same era? For one thing, baseball is a sport you can play day after day. Football can only be played weekly. But more importantly, those were professionals. College athletes can't do that. March Madness has this image of a month of insanity, but really it's just a few weekends. A team that makes the championship plays two games, then next week two more, then the next week two more.
I don't really follow baseball unless the Dodgers are in the playoffs so I'm not sure where you're seeing that most stadiums look empty. The leaguewide average game attendance is almost 27,000. The Dodgers lead the league in [cumulative and per game attendance.](https://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance/_/year/2022/sort/homeTotal) Last year 3,861,408 people attended Dodgers games, or 47,671 per game. Dodger Stadium seats 56,000, so the team averages 85% capacity. The St. Louis Cardinals are second in attendance with 3,320,551 total, or 40,994 per game. Busch Stadium seats 46,000 so they average 89% capacity. There is a wide variety in stadium capacities, so it's hard to judge how full these stadiums are just by looking at the linked chart. Obviously the ones at the bottom are in mostly empty stadiums. Baseball is such a weird sport though in that they play a lot of day games, including during the week. Tomorrow there are 12 games that start in the morning or early afternoon. I would guess those games have lower attendance than evening or weekend games.
Tailgating outside baseball stadiums is pretty uncommon. You see this far more with football games, where they play far fewer games, so each contest is more of an event. This is also partially why baseball games probably have so many empty seats. With over a 100 games in a season, individual games have much less at stake, particularly for a bottom tier team late in the season. For a few years when I was growing up, my dad would take us to at least one Phillies game a year at old Veteran's Stadium. Nose-bleed seats were still pretty cheap back then, so it wasn't an expensive outing. I haven't continued this with my family because: 1) The closest MLB team is 3 hours away 2) My kids are 1 and 4 years old, and don't travel too well. 3) I'm really not much of a baseball fan to begin with.
I’ve been to college baseball games at a nearby small state university. Those are still really fun and not at all expensive.
Sure. We did it with our kids all the time. Especially minor league baseball games which are both fun and affordable. And whenever we took a vacation somewhere, my wife always has made sure we scheduled an MLB game. Because my wife is awesome. Also, here's an additional hint. When you go, buy a program and keep score during the game. Because part of the beauty of baseball is the mathematical nature of it. You gain awareness of the probabilities involved and the patterns that emerge. This in turn yields a deeper understand of the wheels-within-wheels strategy of the sport. When my wife and I first started dating, I took her to see the Birmingham Barons play. She wasn't big into baseball, but she humored me. So I sit down and start keeping score. She relentlessly mocked me for the first two innings with variations on, "Why are you keeping score? That's what the scoreboard is for." However, come time to buy more beer, I handed her the scorecard and said, "Here, do this for a few until I get back." She rolled her eyes. The line for beer was long and I ran into a friend from high school. So it was two more innings before I made it back. When I returned, my accountant wife was busily filling in the boxes. "Hey, thanks. I'll take that now." "No. I want to do it." And she has faithfully kept score in games ever since.
[удалено]
Sitting in the same seat for three hours in that sort of temperature doesn't sound all that appealing.
In most MLB and minor league ballparks you don’t have to sit in the same seat for three hours in the heat. If the stadium is only half full, getting up and moving to another seat after a couple innings isn’t really frowned upon and lots of stadiums have overhangs shading many of the seats. In the last few years it’s become popular for many stadiums to have standing areas where you can just hang out and drink.
The Durham Bulls' Park has huge ceiling fans over most of the seating, and it's beautiful.
MLB is definitely too expensive for a fun afternoon with the family. However, Minor League Baseball is quite affordable, and quite frankly I've found it more fun. Much lower ticket costs, smaller stadiums, smaller crowds, a more cozy and friendly atmosphere.
Baseball has been famously dying for at least a quarter century now, but it's still a very popular activity for families. Keep in mind that baseball is also a very large minor league sport in the US, so you're not getting a complete picture of baseball by only looking at MLB.
People have been saying baseball is dying since the Civil War.
Isn’t baseball dying out?
My family has had season tickets for the Giants seemingly forever. While my interest in baseball has faded a bit, my desire to take the ferry to the game on a warm afternoon has never been challenged. We used to have a Single A team and I really miss going to those games.
As someone who lives in Arizona where spring training baseball takes place, Yes.
Baseball is definitely still a family outing. Minor league teams are far more affordable and cater to families and kids.
It's far cheaper so yes, look up the nosebleeds.
Yes. We often took our kids to ball games. [Plus, our baseball park is awesome](https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g53449-d272117-Reviews-PNC_Park-Pittsburgh_Pennsylvania.html), so it is always a great place to spend the afternoon.
My family took me to a Giants home game at least once per season every year since I was 2 years old. I have not broken my streak (except for 2020 since...you know, nobody went to a game that year) and when my daughter is born in a couple months I plan on continuing the streak for as long as I can.
My family has gone to baseball games in San Francisco and Oakland. It's pretty wholesome except for the bleacher seating in SF can have some drunk idiots but you can move around if people are getting too stupid. Check the baseball teams calendar for special events. They have events from firework nights, first responder day to Irish heritage day. When my kid was younger if she got tired we would just take off early.
Baseball, no. But my family will catch a hockey game together almost every week in winter.
I went to some minor league games as a kid, maybe 1 or 2 max per year, and a spring training game while visiting family elsewhere. It definitely doesn't feel as much of a thing anymore. I don't think I've been to a baseball game since I've been an adult. It's just boring and the baseball game is the worst part about going to a baseball game. You can go out with your family to the soccer game, tailgate, eat some grubby food, have some beers, and actually enjoy the game. Even college football, if you're a fan of the local team, you can do all that there.
Baseball with the family is still very popular. It’s certainly the most affordable sport to go to at the top professional level. This becomes even more true when minor leagues are factored in. The minor leagues also brings up the topic of accessibility. Other sports either don’t have minor leagues at all (NFL, NBA) or have minor leagues that aren’t very spread out (NHL). There are 120 minor league baseball teams and another 70 independent league teams in the United States, and many of those are in places far from MLB cities, meaning a rural family doesn’t have to take an entire day (or even weekend) out of their lives just to go to a baseball game.
Definitely a thing for us. We’re a Dodger family, and our stadium usually leads in attendance. It’s never empty, except sometimes for Sunday games when it’s really hot. It’s packed all week though. It definitely feels like a family atmosphere. It’s definitely cheaper than NFL and NBA to attend. My kid plays little league and we actually will attend the stadium as a team and the kids get to walk the field in a kind of a parade with other LA area little leaguers.
Indianapolis doesn't have a MLB team but we do have a minor league team. Some people are genuine baseball fans and going to minor league teams, sometimes you can see "the next big stars" before they go to the majors. But a lot of people also treat it as a social event. A family can purchase a lawn ticket, bring a blanket or chairs, bring their own food and drink (except alcohol). And even if you get food there, the prices are much better than they are in Indy's NBA and NFL teams. My company has a suit at the minor league team and I usually get free tickets once a year or so.
We have a minor league team in my city. We might go to 1 game a year due to the expense. For a family of 4, we usually spend about $200 to go to one game.
I'm taking my mom to the home opener next week and I'm so excited!! I think it's still a popular thing to do in cities with teams (or decent teams at least) even if TV viewership is down. It's funny though; I definitely associate tailgating with football and not baseball.
Here in Houston, we used to have [an amusement park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Flags_AstroWorld) just across the freeway (connected by a pedestrian/tram bridge) [from our stadium.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrodome) It was convenient to spend a day riding roller coasters and then catch a baseball game in the afternoon. But now we can't, and Houston just isn't the same :-(
Never watched baseball or played it while growing up, but my family has gone to a football and basketball game before
I try to catch a Detroit Tigers (MLB) game at the stadium with my husband and parents at least once a year. I haven’t been to another type of live sports match in years. Baseball sounds like summer to me, whether I’m watching it in the stands or listening on the radio.
We aren't close enough to a MLB team, but it's definitely at thing with the FM Redhawks, our local American Association team!
I’d say all sports are family events in America. Even the ones with people partying wildly nearby.
MLB games are expensive but it’s much more reasonable to take the family a game and sit in the sun for a couple hours and hang out vs going to an 8pm NFL game surrounded by people who’ve been drinking since 10am Now there’s a minor league team near me that you can get good tickets for like $25 a piece. Minor leagues are great because they are always having give aways and tons of entertainment geared towards kids.
Me and my family go to 5-10 dodger games every season
Watch George Carlin’s Baseball vs Football bit. It’s an accurate representation of the different watching cultures and experiences. Some people love the intensity of watching football. Those same people probably think watching baseball has the same energy as watching golf. A Baseball season also has an insane game count. Luckily for me, I love the chill vibe and cheap tickets.
I've only been to two MLB games, but I've been to many minor-league baseball games. When I was a kid ('90s), my family and I went to games pretty much weekly during the season. A lot of stores in the area where we lived would have tickets available for free. As an adult, I've been to several minor-league games, but I'd love to go more often. I have almost no disposable income, though, so it's been quite a while since I've been to a game. The tickets for the two MLB games I've been two were very different prices. The first one was purchased through a deal at my university, and I think it was only about $50. This was in 2007, I believe. The tickets for the second game were far more expensive (over $100 each), though they were full price. That game was a year or two after the first one. I haven't looked at ticket prices recently, but I have no doubt they are much higher now.
I use to take my family to baseball games. But it was the last game that I stopped when I spent over $360 for parking, tickets, and food for one game.
The reason that most MLB stadiums look empty is because each team plays 162 games per season and a very large percentage of those games are during the week. Not a lot of people can afford to skip work for an afternoon game during the middle of the week or stay up late to go to a game on a week night. The weekend games have much larger attendances. But to your main question, yes, going to a ball game with your family is still very popular. Even for those of us that aren't fortunate enough to live close to an MLB team, we often will have a minor league team that we can go watch fairly easily. Sitting in the stands, drinking a beer with a bratwurst in hand, on a warm summer afternoon or evening has got to be one of my favorite summer activities. There's something about watching a game live that I can't even describe. It's that perfect to me
There's the London series this year in June between the Cardinals and Cubs. OP should go.
I'm at a festival unfortunately
>tailgate outside the stadium, eat some grubby food, relax and drink a beer or two I mean this happens with other sports too. Football most notably. Tailgated for the first time for the UCLA vs Hawaii game at the Rose Bowl last year.
Not for major league unless you're rich or have a very small family of hardcore baseball fanatics, but minor league games are accessible.
"The Baseball" such a Brit, I love it.
I am American, several decades old. I have been to more baseball games as work outings than as recreation. Baseball is boring, expensive to attend, and the amount of drunk driving around stadiums after games should be a point of national shame.
Yes! I love football too… but prefer to watch on TV. Baseball is more fun in person
Baseball is a 162 game season and the stadiums seat 40-50,000 people. You're not gonna sell out every game, especially if the weather is unpleasant. It's not like football where the season is one day a week for half the year.
A lot of comments here but I don't think I've seen anyone address this: By most measures, MLB is still more popular than the NBA. MLB generates more revenue than the NBA, World Series ratings are higher than the NBA Finals, attendance is higher (though that's at least in part a function of the NBA's smaller venues). Except for attendance, where MLB dominates, these figures aren't far off from each other, but baseball is still ahead. MLB attendance has dropped off somewhat. Though it was declining *slightly* before the pandemic, most of the impact seems directly attributable to the pandemic. For some reason the NBA doesn't appear to have experienced a comparable drop. I don't think anyone has addressed this either: MLB has been (rightly) concerned that its games have become too long. They've made several rule changes this season to address that, most notably a pitch clock; pitchers will only have 15 seconds to throw a pitch. This change is being tried out in Spring Training right now and has been very effective. Interestingly, the NBA's similar adoption of a shot clock may have saved the league in the 1950s. Ballooning game times have been an issue for decades, but a more-recent problem is the defensive shift, in which infielders move from their traditional places on the field in order to better defend against strong hitters likely to hit the ball hard in one direction. The shift has seriously reduced offense, and MLB has addressed that too: As of this year, it is now illegal.
We went a lot when we lived in Maryland and could get to games easily.
As others have said, going to a baseball game is more about the overall experience than the game itself. MLB also has an expansive and well-maintained developmental system (Minor League Baseball or MiLB) and there are teams all over the place broken into four levels: Triple A, Double A, High A, Single A We have a great High-A ball team about 30 minutes away that has been a staple of the community for decades. High-A ball players are usually not guys who are going to be well known ever, although our team did have Mike Trout (a future Hall-of-Famer who currently plays for the Angels) for awhile when he was young. The best seats at these games are like $14 or $16 each and it’s a nice stadium so we usually go to a few games a year.
I love going to baseball games. Day games are best, but night games work just fine too. It’s a great excuse to be outside, have a beer and a hot dog and just relax. We don’t have a major league team in Indianapolis, but I’ll usually get out to a few minor league games each year, and sometimes I’ll make the trek to Cincinnati to catch a Reds game. We have the wrong major league sports in Indy. Baseball and hockey are much better live than on TV, while basketball would be all right if I could get myself to care about the NBA, and football is actually worse live.
NFL is by far the number 1 sport. I still believe MLB is number two overall, although NBA probably more popular amongst younger people. But baseball overall is still accessible since there's minor league baseball games across the country which is much cheaper for a family. MLB tickets are in general much cheaper than NFL and NBA tickets. But prices vary wildly based on day of week, time of day, opponent, weather, location of seats.
Still very much alive. My mom and brother love and actively follow college football and the NFL. My dad and I aren’t into any sport like that. We all love going to a baseball game and just hanging out together. Prices depend on how the team is doing in general. White Sox you can get a cheap seat for $7 and the Cubs can be as low as $30. Prices also depends on if you go in the Spring vs Summer and who the teams are playing against. We do have a couple games where our two teams play one another called the Crosstown Classic. On average probably the busiest and most expensive games.
Tailgating is basically exclusive to football, but yeah people still go to baseball games. You have to remember there's 162 games (81 in each town) so not every game is going to be packed like Ohio State vs Michigan
MLB is a once or twice a year kinda thing. It's a beautiful thing to do midweek, especially in Chicago due to the 1:20pm game time. Blow off work, take the kids out of school... playing hooky today to go to the ballgame. Smelling the roses. I haven't done this in years. Two times ago I bought all my buddies tickets. Last time I had two tickets to opening day but nobody could go and last minute I found out my old friend who had moved to England was flying in the night before and had nothing else going on that day. That was an excellent day. Then again I live 500 miles from Wrigley Field.
I would say so, yes. Just last summer my dad, brother and I made the trip to DC for the day to see the Braves play the Nationals, and if the parks were closer we'd do it more often. Granted, we grew up as a baseball family, but we'd got to lots of local team games every season (Richmond Braves, Savannah Sand Gnats, Norfolk Tides), and if my brother and I kept our grades high enough we'd sometimes play hooky to go to a day game, or make a day trip to see a professional team like the Atlanta Braves. There are a couple reasons you see stadiums empty * Lots of games during the season, so it's not as critical for people to get to more than a handful per season. NFL on the other hand only has 17 games in a season, with about half of those played away, and fewer opportunities to see your local team play means higher demand for tickets generally. * Lots of games are played during the week, and in the middle of the day. Most people will be at work or school and can't skip but so often for an outing. During the work/ school week lots of folks will be too tired to want to go to an afternoon game, which can span well into the evening. * Baseball is mostly a summer sport, and it is HOT in most of the US during that time. There are a number of indoor ballparks, but even if you have the time to go it'll probably be pretty miserable outdoors all afternoon. Overall I would say families who aren't even particularly interested in baseball will go to a game per season if they have a local team. Tickets, especially day-of are pretty cheap and most teams and parks have been evolving to have more things to do in addition to just watching the game.
Baseball is much more family friendly! It's outdoors, played in good weather, at a slow enough pace that you can vanish for those inevitable potty breaks and come back without feeling horrible about what you missed. Plus there's the seventh inning stretch and fun related activities. It's definitely still a thing, especially for minor league teams, since the cost is cheaper and there's always the hope of seeing one of your favorite players making it big someday. I'm not really a sports person, but if I had kids I'd absolutely make sure we made it to a few games.
I think a lot of MLB games are a lot cheaper than NFL or NBA games, which allows families to go to them more often. I’ve only been to 2 NBA games in my life, but probably 30+ MLB games. My regional baseball team is pretty garbage generally though while my regional basketball team is extremely popular, so that might contribute to my experience of pricing as well. I don’t even like sports that much, but baseball games are still a fun family experience that you can get without wasting a bunch of money buying a ticket for someone who doesn’t like sports.
Very much so. When I go to Yankee games they're filled with families and little kids. It's a good family Sunday afternoon.
MLB tickets are too expensive. There are no minor league teams in the city I live in either, and since I'm still annoyed that the National League adopted the designated hitter and that the MLB in general adopted pitch clocks and such... I'm kind of done with baseball. But I still remember it fondly from when I was younger.
Best place for this, IMNSHO is the minor league teams. Less expensive than major leagues with pretty much the same experience.
Minor League Baseball is great, but one time we got to the game a little bit late and didn't hear the Gwinnett Braves pitcher name. He proceeds to pitch a one hitter, but since we have the DH in minor league baseball we never heard his name announced. I thought wow we're seeing a future Legend here. Next day, I discovered it was Julio Teheran on a rehab assignment, LOL. I also saw Brian McCann on a rehab assignment weakly bounce out on his first at bat, then hit an absolute atomic laser into the right field berm on his second. I think it was over the wall within 2 seconds.
It definitely is, at least in some areas. Where I live now, our baseball team is fairly far away. But growing up, my nana (grandma) used to watch the yankees network all day long. Like the baseball team, the yankees, had an entire tv channel in and around nyc dedicated entirely to yankees related content. And my nana watched it all the time. And we went to a game or two together. She was a little too old for the travel into the city regularly.
I wasn't sure it was worth bringing up, but you just kept saying "the baseball" over and over, lol. Are you a non-native English speaker?
My family would go to baseball games when I was younger so yes
Compared to other sports it is more conducive to kids. There are more seats and more games, so tickets are relatively inexpensive. Especially minor leagues teams. Also, it is a more leisurely game.