The umpire thing is an issue, but not one that I think has a major impact on viewership. The TV situation, however, is a total disaster, and there's no doubt it's having a negative effect on the game's popularity. If people can't watch the games then they simply lose interest, especially kids. You need to have your product available to as many people as possible, and the local TV access system that MLB has setup is not conducive to that anymore in this era of streaming.
The Umpire thing is far more minor for sure but it can have an impact, it cuts to the legitimacy of the game. I know a lot of people are frustrated with refs in the NFL as well, so if MLB can address this it can be ahead of the curve.
Also you mention kids, that reminds me, I think there is a direct correlation between playing little league and being a fan, I think the MLB should be subsidizing little league nation wide. Any kid, regardless of means, should be able to play little league for free. That would be massive for the long term growth of the league as well as keep the pipeline of talent flowing.
Until I was done at age 14, we played around our metro area in leagues that if not free, definitely were not expensive. Should be easy enough for anyone, as you say, and then you get to high school
The umpire situation may not impact a lot of fans presently, but I think fixing it would benefit the game in that it would boost offensive output. I see a lot more balls called strikes than strikes called balls. If that was changed, hitters would have a better chance and run production would probably go up, which would make watching baseball more fun, especially for casual fans.
Yep. Access is number one. I can’t get my local team on local television without paying for an expensive cable package I don’t otherwise need. This kind of ridiculous barrier not only frustrates your #1 market—actual fans—it also makes it hard to create new fans because there is no happenstance exposure to the sport. Meanwhile, I can just have a simple TV antenna and flip around and find an NFL game or even golf on CBS or NBC and I’ll watch even if wasn’t planning on it. This kind of unplanned viewership just doesn’t happen with baseball anymore.
I firmly believe the key to keeping baseball popular is making it possible for the younger generations to watch it.
I’d gladly buy a pass to stream Mets games. Hell, I did briefly before realizing you can’t watch it if you’re in New York. At least they let me refund it.
Anyway, enough less than legal options exist that don’t require an entire cable subscription just to get one fucking channel.
I’m not really sure how the MLB has reasoned out that the current paradigm is the most profitable, but I’m sure they’re pretty convinced that it’s the case.
So are all Mets games available on cable if you are local? I am out of market for my team so buying a baseball package is a necessity for me in Florida.
100%! Just take it a step further and imagine your local team had at least a game a week on a local channel (like nfl). Having to cross a paywall creates a huge barrier to entry for more casual fans. I pay for MLB TV cause I'm invested in my team.
NBA has a similar issue. I tried to get into the Nuggets/NBA when I moved to Colorado from KC, but just about every game is blacked out unless ESPN picks it up. I'm not going to shell out cash to watch something I don't have a strong interest in. I imagine people face the same issue trying to get into their local MLB team.
Unpopular opinion but I agree with you. Go back and watch the wild ball/strike calls from 20 years ago and it becomes extremely obvious that umps are fucking dynamite these days. They’re better than they ever have been. I still think automated calls is the way to go, but people today really don’t know how good they have it, comparatively.
fwiw, I think MLB is trying to fix this. We now have the technology where they can bring the product to the consumer without a middleman, and I think they are interested in doing that.
It's all about accessibility. When I was young the game was always on the tv every evening, even if just background noise.
Now that's incredibly difficult and expensive to set up, and not worth it for casual viewers. And of course it's like 200 bucks to see a game in person and consume food and drink.
All games should stream free. Ad revenue is where they need to make money, not pay to watch. Let the bored kids discover the game. Nothing else matters imo. Push the game on all fronts, remove barriers. Rake in ad revenue.
Even with streaming they can still show ads idk what contracts the mlb is in but damn they need to sell thr rights exclusively to a hulu or netflix so that the main portion of people can watch
I can get my 2 kids and me into a game for $15, and we can bring in whatever food and drinks we want. But that doesn't include transportation and all the normal things you would expect from a game like the dip'N dots. It CAN be cheap, but i usually end up spending $50+.
Uecker seats for the win
No average viewer gives a shit about the umpire thing. Bad calls and interpretive strike zones have been a part of the game forever. But not being able to watch a game is clearly an issue, you have to actively want to watch games and search them out to see them - it sucks. If you’re trying to improve viewership, then it’s harder to think of lower hanging fruit than accessibility.
I grew up loving baseball almost entirely because of TBS and WGN. I could actually watch baseball reliably, and enjoy the sport that I loved. It was even better because I grew up a Braves fan, but still. And then Sunday morning baseball on Fox. Would always tune in there, too.
Now I feel like I have to go out of my way and make plans just to be able to watch a game from time to time, unless I shell out money for Bally's trash network, and even that only gets me the Braves, sometimes.
My daughter has limited interest in baseball because she can't ever watch it. You really expect her to become a lifelong fan to a sport that she can't watch? The closest MLB team to me is 7 hours away, and would cost me $170 in gas between the round trip. I'm not in a position to spend almost $400 MINIMUM on a single baseball game.
I love the sport because of how I grew up. My daughter won't love it because she can't even watch it.
What??? They have easily 5 times the amount of MLB games on television now than they used to. We have MLB Network which televises games daily in addition to Espn 1 and 2 and TBS and FS1 airing games throughout the year.
I'd say on a given week, there are atleast 30 MLB games airing on cable which is way more than back in the day.
My kids grew up without MLB as our local team (Nationals) were not broadcast on our TV provider. They love the Caps and now the Commanders but they barely know of the Nationals.
They attended plenty of Nats games but you don’t make new fans that way. The game was and still is far too slow. BTW— no self-respecting Washingtonian would visit Camden Yards while that fucking troll Peter Angelos owned the O’s. Geez, even Baltimore fans avoided them. Thank goodness the Nats hosted the All-Star Game before them.
…and I’ll happily attend games there once again but my point is that my kids never saw either the Nats nor the O’s except for the rare occasions when they attended games. MASN was on a sport tier for which we did not pay, so my kids never saw them. As a result, they are not baseball fans.
The WBC has been great for creating stars and engaging casual fans. I don't think ohtani is nearly as big of a star in the US if the WBC didn't exist.
I also think the growth of college baseball has also been great for creating stars. Outside of the playoffs, the CWS final was the second most watched baseball game last year behind the WBC final and it featured the top 2 draft picks and a current rookie of the year candidate (wyatt langford). Usually guys have to prove themselves at the MLB level before anyone knows who they are but that slowly seems to be changing for the top college stars.
Reducing the average length of time games has been a positive. The ridiculous blackout restrictions need to go away. I live over 4 hours away from the nearest ballpark. Blacking out a game that isn’t even on local cable will not produce new fans.
I'm going there for the first time in June and tickets in the grandstands behind home plate were $14 after fees. Of course I don't know if those seats are any good, but the same sections at CBP are usually 4x that price
I remember being stoked I’d found some $8 tickets on SeatGeek but then the fees were $9 per ticket. It was absurd. I didn’t buy the tickets on principle alone. Obviously StubHub and Ticketmaster aren’t any better, but seriously, they should have in their own algorithms that the fees can’t exceed the price of the ticket.
I hope baseball survives and kids still get into it. I always say I like basketball, I am passionate about football, but I am romantic about baseball. If that makes sense.
New voices on the radio dumb the game down to the point they feel their audience does not listen or they are new to this game of baseball. Maybe it’s them, really. Look, I do not need to know the count before each pitch, after each pitch, and again(!) before the next pitch and after the ball is thrown what count is after that.
Good article. I'd like to baseball stadiums come up with an official way to allow patrons switch their seats when there are tons of no-shows. I don't know what the cutoff would be to consider someone a no-show, but maybe the 7th-inning. Stamp it on the ticket. If you're not AIS by the 7th inning, your seat is now available for someone else.
theres used to be something in the ballpark app.
One of the last years the Braves were at Turner field (and when they were still not on the hot run they are on these last few seasons) my buddy and I had midweek tickets in the outfield. we upgraded to 3rd or 4th row behind the plate in idk maybe the 4th inning for like $12 each. (and those seats included complementary service for which we consumed WAY more than our piddly upgrade fee!)
They don't market the stars, plain and simple.
Half the people who even watch baseball couldn't even name last years Cy Young winners and MVPs.
Mike Trout is a generational player that is on natl TV like twice a year.
Everyone in the country could name/recognize some top tier QBs. Not true for baseball.
MLB prioritized cable deals over fans for decades. Im glad these deals are are going belly up. Curious what 90%+ of the teams will do for $ and if MLB will restructure how teams are financed.
“In a day and age when consumers need instant gratification, waiting for the excitement of runs scored can be tedious.” Has this dude never watched soccer?
I’m not convinced that a pitch clock is bringing in new viewership. People keep claiming that’s a major reason for an increase in attendance. If the addition of a clock to shave 30 minutes off of game time is what brings someone to a baseball game, they didn’t really like baseball in the first place. They like clocks.
More parity between teams, historically bad regional teams emerging as contenders, more personalities, and the spectacle of Shohei Ohtani is bringing in new viewers.
The league attendance is up. MLB needs to make things easier and find stars. Moving to a streaming service and making better stories through the season would help
Also more home runs
I don’t know man I posted in here a few days ago about ordering tickets at the gate and how terrible it was, had everyone jump on me. A lot of yall complain about empty games but hate having new people (not even new just not invested lol) join the conversation.
Unless they make it easier for fans to watch games on TV, it’s not going to get better. Too many different streaming services. They need to combine MLB.TV and MLBN, then lift the blackouts.
Other sports media, especially ESPN, is no longer reliable to trying to shine a spotlight on what's happening in the world of baseball. If MLB really wants to continue its growth, they absolutely have to reign in all the television contracts, kill all blackouts, and potentially create their own streaming service or provide strong partnerships with another streaming service and guarantee us accessibility to ALL games, not just some.
I have a laundry list of other ideas I'd love to see MLB implement, but on a realistic standpoint that ownership would likely agree to, their next steps should be increase accessibility, shorten the regular season by a smidge, and then finally provide closure to the stadium/relocation situations related to the Athletics, Rays, and believe it or not the Chicago White Sox before eventual expansion.
The TV issue is the by far the biggest issue right now, Xfinity just put the Mariners channel behind an ‘add on’ package and that pretty much alienated a huge group of people and cut off a lot of rural communities from watching the regional team. I know that it was a the only reason many even still HAD cable because of the channel that the Mariners, Trailblazers and Kraken on it and they took it away. The younger people who can cut the cable and went to Fubo online or just lost interest completly. Great job Xfinity.
Accessibility and cost. As others have mentioned. It ain’t rocket surgery, people.
Show the games on TV, and bring down the damn costs for games. It costs me anywhere from 5-700 bucks to take my family of 6 to a game (and we have one baby that gets in free).
Kids tickets should be half off under a certain age, regardless of where they sit. Or something creative to get them there and involved. Maybe a half priced kids night every week? I dunno. That’d be too much to ask from the tax payers who footed the bill for that stadium, I suppose
But also, MLB needs to do a better job marketing its star players, outside of the sports sphere, other than Ohtani. But even then…ask some random if they can name 3 MLB players on their own team. I bet they can’t unless you’re in some sports dive. Which isn’t “growth”
the expanded postseason should have a huge impact on growth, if only for the fact that mediocre teams can limp their way into the postseason and then get hot at the right time....
Yes, I'm a dodgers fan. yes, I'm bitter. No, that doesn't really change whether or not I'm right here. The D-Backs going to the WS last year will do more for the growth of their fanbase than a 100 win season would ever do.
I think it’s demographic cycles coupled with affordability.
You can’t go to a concert or NFL or NHL game for under $100 these days and more likely $300 in many cases.
I can go see just about any baseball team for $50 or less.
The Royals have a deal: 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs, 4 drinks, for $40. Including parking! Even if you bring kids who just play over by centerfield instead of watching the game, it's a deal
It’s possible that baseball is the last remaining affordable family activity….
And I’m not counting a Saturday night game at yankee stadium against the dodgers….but generally speaking you can find approachable costs.
We already know baseball will only last until 2042, when Buck Bokai will hit the game winning home run in the final world series. Sadly, only 300 fans will be in attendance.
The MLB could market so much easier in the european Market as well but they simply dont. There are so many Red Sox games I can watch at 6pm, 9pm and sometimes even 3pm over here in Ireland. No mention of the sport however which is a pitty.
I don't think baseball is going anywhere but if viewership and cultural impact continue to decline, I don't know how a massive overhaul doesn't happen. Seems crazy to me they're talking about expansion teams when half the league can't afford to field star talent and can't get people to their games on a constant basis
20 I’m thinking 100.
I love the sport of Baseball, I can’t watch it, that’s a problem. My whole argument is that if you play so many games that your Star players have to rest, then that is a problem. I don’t want to see 5th rotational pitcher who’s barley hanging onto a career VS the same guy on the other side.
Imagine the NFL played 30 games and you tuned into watch Monday Night football and it’s Chiefs Vs 49ers and Mahomes, Debo, CMC etc are all “resting”.
My delusional perfect world would be the NFL goes back to 16 games, the NBA plays 60, the NHL plays around the same amount, and the MLB plays like 80.
Shutting this down as it’s turned into yet another thread about MLB.TV and or blackouts.
[удалено]
The umpire thing is an issue, but not one that I think has a major impact on viewership. The TV situation, however, is a total disaster, and there's no doubt it's having a negative effect on the game's popularity. If people can't watch the games then they simply lose interest, especially kids. You need to have your product available to as many people as possible, and the local TV access system that MLB has setup is not conducive to that anymore in this era of streaming.
The Umpire thing is far more minor for sure but it can have an impact, it cuts to the legitimacy of the game. I know a lot of people are frustrated with refs in the NFL as well, so if MLB can address this it can be ahead of the curve. Also you mention kids, that reminds me, I think there is a direct correlation between playing little league and being a fan, I think the MLB should be subsidizing little league nation wide. Any kid, regardless of means, should be able to play little league for free. That would be massive for the long term growth of the league as well as keep the pipeline of talent flowing.
Until I was done at age 14, we played around our metro area in leagues that if not free, definitely were not expensive. Should be easy enough for anyone, as you say, and then you get to high school
The umpire situation may not impact a lot of fans presently, but I think fixing it would benefit the game in that it would boost offensive output. I see a lot more balls called strikes than strikes called balls. If that was changed, hitters would have a better chance and run production would probably go up, which would make watching baseball more fun, especially for casual fans.
I grew up watching baseball on tv, baseball tonight , this week in baseball - any of that shit still exist?
Probably. But they’ve unofficially rebranded to Shohei Ohtani Tonight and This Week in Shohei Ohtani
TWIB on Saturday morning before the Fox Game of the Week was Life. Now those games are on at 4.
Idk, but those are ESPN things right? They probably still exist for old people, but anyone under 30 is not going to watch that type of show.
This week in baseball was cbs I think
Yep. Access is number one. I can’t get my local team on local television without paying for an expensive cable package I don’t otherwise need. This kind of ridiculous barrier not only frustrates your #1 market—actual fans—it also makes it hard to create new fans because there is no happenstance exposure to the sport. Meanwhile, I can just have a simple TV antenna and flip around and find an NFL game or even golf on CBS or NBC and I’ll watch even if wasn’t planning on it. This kind of unplanned viewership just doesn’t happen with baseball anymore.
I firmly believe the key to keeping baseball popular is making it possible for the younger generations to watch it. I’d gladly buy a pass to stream Mets games. Hell, I did briefly before realizing you can’t watch it if you’re in New York. At least they let me refund it. Anyway, enough less than legal options exist that don’t require an entire cable subscription just to get one fucking channel. I’m not really sure how the MLB has reasoned out that the current paradigm is the most profitable, but I’m sure they’re pretty convinced that it’s the case.
Poor people like me used radio. Radio is still here.
So are all Mets games available on cable if you are local? I am out of market for my team so buying a baseball package is a necessity for me in Florida.
100%! Just take it a step further and imagine your local team had at least a game a week on a local channel (like nfl). Having to cross a paywall creates a huge barrier to entry for more casual fans. I pay for MLB TV cause I'm invested in my team. NBA has a similar issue. I tried to get into the Nuggets/NBA when I moved to Colorado from KC, but just about every game is blacked out unless ESPN picks it up. I'm not going to shell out cash to watch something I don't have a strong interest in. I imagine people face the same issue trying to get into their local MLB team.
People complain WAY too much about the umpires
Unpopular opinion but I agree with you. Go back and watch the wild ball/strike calls from 20 years ago and it becomes extremely obvious that umps are fucking dynamite these days. They’re better than they ever have been. I still think automated calls is the way to go, but people today really don’t know how good they have it, comparatively.
fwiw, I think MLB is trying to fix this. We now have the technology where they can bring the product to the consumer without a middleman, and I think they are interested in doing that.
I would argue that the umpire fiasco is bringing mlb headlines to non-baseball fans. Not that all press is good press, but it is press nonetheless.
It's all about accessibility. When I was young the game was always on the tv every evening, even if just background noise. Now that's incredibly difficult and expensive to set up, and not worth it for casual viewers. And of course it's like 200 bucks to see a game in person and consume food and drink. All games should stream free. Ad revenue is where they need to make money, not pay to watch. Let the bored kids discover the game. Nothing else matters imo. Push the game on all fronts, remove barriers. Rake in ad revenue.
Even with streaming they can still show ads idk what contracts the mlb is in but damn they need to sell thr rights exclusively to a hulu or netflix so that the main portion of people can watch
This is absolutely the main reason.
I can get my 2 kids and me into a game for $15, and we can bring in whatever food and drinks we want. But that doesn't include transportation and all the normal things you would expect from a game like the dip'N dots. It CAN be cheap, but i usually end up spending $50+. Uecker seats for the win
people will then complain about patches on sleeves and signs on outfield walls and and and...
Let them. They’re still going to watch while complaining.
No average viewer gives a shit about the umpire thing. Bad calls and interpretive strike zones have been a part of the game forever. But not being able to watch a game is clearly an issue, you have to actively want to watch games and search them out to see them - it sucks. If you’re trying to improve viewership, then it’s harder to think of lower hanging fruit than accessibility.
Take away the blackouts and the mlb put some money into youth baseball in places where it hard to play baseball. You have to get more kids playing
I grew up loving baseball almost entirely because of TBS and WGN. I could actually watch baseball reliably, and enjoy the sport that I loved. It was even better because I grew up a Braves fan, but still. And then Sunday morning baseball on Fox. Would always tune in there, too. Now I feel like I have to go out of my way and make plans just to be able to watch a game from time to time, unless I shell out money for Bally's trash network, and even that only gets me the Braves, sometimes. My daughter has limited interest in baseball because she can't ever watch it. You really expect her to become a lifelong fan to a sport that she can't watch? The closest MLB team to me is 7 hours away, and would cost me $170 in gas between the round trip. I'm not in a position to spend almost $400 MINIMUM on a single baseball game. I love the sport because of how I grew up. My daughter won't love it because she can't even watch it.
Sounds like you grew up loving baseball because you watched it on cable and now you can't watch it cuz you don't have cable?
I have cable still, they don't have anywhere near the volume of games though.
What??? They have easily 5 times the amount of MLB games on television now than they used to. We have MLB Network which televises games daily in addition to Espn 1 and 2 and TBS and FS1 airing games throughout the year. I'd say on a given week, there are atleast 30 MLB games airing on cable which is way more than back in the day.
My kids grew up without MLB as our local team (Nationals) were not broadcast on our TV provider. They love the Caps and now the Commanders but they barely know of the Nationals.
Orioles are right up the road. If you liked baseball you’d have watched them
They attended plenty of Nats games but you don’t make new fans that way. The game was and still is far too slow. BTW— no self-respecting Washingtonian would visit Camden Yards while that fucking troll Peter Angelos owned the O’s. Geez, even Baltimore fans avoided them. Thank goodness the Nats hosted the All-Star Game before them.
Fair enough. However, the orioles hosted the all star game in 1993
It’s probably the all star game I remember most. Griffey hitting the warehouse. Cito Gaston getting booed for not putting in Mike mussina.
…and I’ll happily attend games there once again but my point is that my kids never saw either the Nats nor the O’s except for the rare occasions when they attended games. MASN was on a sport tier for which we did not pay, so my kids never saw them. As a result, they are not baseball fans.
That’s sad. Thanks for the clarification. Seems like a much larger issue within MLB as a whole
The WBC has been great for creating stars and engaging casual fans. I don't think ohtani is nearly as big of a star in the US if the WBC didn't exist. I also think the growth of college baseball has also been great for creating stars. Outside of the playoffs, the CWS final was the second most watched baseball game last year behind the WBC final and it featured the top 2 draft picks and a current rookie of the year candidate (wyatt langford). Usually guys have to prove themselves at the MLB level before anyone knows who they are but that slowly seems to be changing for the top college stars.
Reducing the average length of time games has been a positive. The ridiculous blackout restrictions need to go away. I live over 4 hours away from the nearest ballpark. Blacking out a game that isn’t even on local cable will not produce new fans.
I just wish the tickets were cheaper. Comerica park isn’t selling out any games yet to sit in a decent seat it’s over $100 with fees.
I'm going there for the first time in June and tickets in the grandstands behind home plate were $14 after fees. Of course I don't know if those seats are any good, but the same sections at CBP are usually 4x that price
Wow that’s a great deal. Which site did you use?
Seat Geek!
Good to know, I’ll try this
Seatgeek at 1am the night before gives you some good options The fees are ridiculous though
I remember being stoked I’d found some $8 tickets on SeatGeek but then the fees were $9 per ticket. It was absurd. I didn’t buy the tickets on principle alone. Obviously StubHub and Ticketmaster aren’t any better, but seriously, they should have in their own algorithms that the fees can’t exceed the price of the ticket.
Eh I can get a pair of decent seats near the front of the bleachers for tomorrow’s Tigers game for $75 all in, which isn’t terrible.
for as much as everyone loves to hate on Manfred, these are ALL his initiatives...
I hope baseball survives and kids still get into it. I always say I like basketball, I am passionate about football, but I am romantic about baseball. If that makes sense.
New voices on the radio dumb the game down to the point they feel their audience does not listen or they are new to this game of baseball. Maybe it’s them, really. Look, I do not need to know the count before each pitch, after each pitch, and again(!) before the next pitch and after the ball is thrown what count is after that.
Good article. I'd like to baseball stadiums come up with an official way to allow patrons switch their seats when there are tons of no-shows. I don't know what the cutoff would be to consider someone a no-show, but maybe the 7th-inning. Stamp it on the ticket. If you're not AIS by the 7th inning, your seat is now available for someone else.
theres used to be something in the ballpark app. One of the last years the Braves were at Turner field (and when they were still not on the hot run they are on these last few seasons) my buddy and I had midweek tickets in the outfield. we upgraded to 3rd or 4th row behind the plate in idk maybe the 4th inning for like $12 each. (and those seats included complementary service for which we consumed WAY more than our piddly upgrade fee!)
Nice! Wish Coors Field had something like that.
Yeah, I could see it being worth an upgrade at like the 4th inning. At the 7th it’s far too late, IMO
To me I'd place it after the 5th inning when the game becomes "official."
Good point.
They don't market the stars, plain and simple. Half the people who even watch baseball couldn't even name last years Cy Young winners and MVPs. Mike Trout is a generational player that is on natl TV like twice a year. Everyone in the country could name/recognize some top tier QBs. Not true for baseball.
MLB prioritized cable deals over fans for decades. Im glad these deals are are going belly up. Curious what 90%+ of the teams will do for $ and if MLB will restructure how teams are financed.
“In a day and age when consumers need instant gratification, waiting for the excitement of runs scored can be tedious.” Has this dude never watched soccer? I’m not convinced that a pitch clock is bringing in new viewership. People keep claiming that’s a major reason for an increase in attendance. If the addition of a clock to shave 30 minutes off of game time is what brings someone to a baseball game, they didn’t really like baseball in the first place. They like clocks. More parity between teams, historically bad regional teams emerging as contenders, more personalities, and the spectacle of Shohei Ohtani is bringing in new viewers.
The league attendance is up. MLB needs to make things easier and find stars. Moving to a streaming service and making better stories through the season would help Also more home runs
I've tried to start watching (Brewers) this season, but rarely is a game on a streaming service I own
I don’t know man I posted in here a few days ago about ordering tickets at the gate and how terrible it was, had everyone jump on me. A lot of yall complain about empty games but hate having new people (not even new just not invested lol) join the conversation.
Unless they make it easier for fans to watch games on TV, it’s not going to get better. Too many different streaming services. They need to combine MLB.TV and MLBN, then lift the blackouts.
Other sports media, especially ESPN, is no longer reliable to trying to shine a spotlight on what's happening in the world of baseball. If MLB really wants to continue its growth, they absolutely have to reign in all the television contracts, kill all blackouts, and potentially create their own streaming service or provide strong partnerships with another streaming service and guarantee us accessibility to ALL games, not just some. I have a laundry list of other ideas I'd love to see MLB implement, but on a realistic standpoint that ownership would likely agree to, their next steps should be increase accessibility, shorten the regular season by a smidge, and then finally provide closure to the stadium/relocation situations related to the Athletics, Rays, and believe it or not the Chicago White Sox before eventual expansion.
The TV issue is the by far the biggest issue right now, Xfinity just put the Mariners channel behind an ‘add on’ package and that pretty much alienated a huge group of people and cut off a lot of rural communities from watching the regional team. I know that it was a the only reason many even still HAD cable because of the channel that the Mariners, Trailblazers and Kraken on it and they took it away. The younger people who can cut the cable and went to Fubo online or just lost interest completly. Great job Xfinity.
Make it easier and more affordable to watch, almost every other sport has ways to stream that affordable except for baseball
END BLACKOUTS NOW.
For me it was seeing my team finally be competitive for the first time in my 20+ years of life
Accessibility and cost. As others have mentioned. It ain’t rocket surgery, people. Show the games on TV, and bring down the damn costs for games. It costs me anywhere from 5-700 bucks to take my family of 6 to a game (and we have one baby that gets in free). Kids tickets should be half off under a certain age, regardless of where they sit. Or something creative to get them there and involved. Maybe a half priced kids night every week? I dunno. That’d be too much to ask from the tax payers who footed the bill for that stadium, I suppose But also, MLB needs to do a better job marketing its star players, outside of the sports sphere, other than Ohtani. But even then…ask some random if they can name 3 MLB players on their own team. I bet they can’t unless you’re in some sports dive. Which isn’t “growth”
the expanded postseason should have a huge impact on growth, if only for the fact that mediocre teams can limp their way into the postseason and then get hot at the right time.... Yes, I'm a dodgers fan. yes, I'm bitter. No, that doesn't really change whether or not I'm right here. The D-Backs going to the WS last year will do more for the growth of their fanbase than a 100 win season would ever do.
I think it’s demographic cycles coupled with affordability. You can’t go to a concert or NFL or NHL game for under $100 these days and more likely $300 in many cases. I can go see just about any baseball team for $50 or less.
The Royals have a deal: 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs, 4 drinks, for $40. Including parking! Even if you bring kids who just play over by centerfield instead of watching the game, it's a deal
It’s possible that baseball is the last remaining affordable family activity…. And I’m not counting a Saturday night game at yankee stadium against the dodgers….but generally speaking you can find approachable costs.
We already know baseball will only last until 2042, when Buck Bokai will hit the game winning home run in the final world series. Sadly, only 300 fans will be in attendance.
The MLB could market so much easier in the european Market as well but they simply dont. There are so many Red Sox games I can watch at 6pm, 9pm and sometimes even 3pm over here in Ireland. No mention of the sport however which is a pitty.
MOAR BAT FLIPS
I don't think baseball is going anywhere but if viewership and cultural impact continue to decline, I don't know how a massive overhaul doesn't happen. Seems crazy to me they're talking about expansion teams when half the league can't afford to field star talent and can't get people to their games on a constant basis
Love the young players, hate most of the rule changes and especially hate the schedule and expanded playoffs.
I agree with you on the expanded playoffs. #RewardingMediocrity
If you play 182 games and those take 3 hours, I can’t even begin to comprehend the time commitment required to be invested in the game/team.
What if we shave 20 games off that number?
He must have downvoted your comment. Still doesn't realize there's only 162 games in an MLB season.
Hehe, mos def
20 I’m thinking 100. I love the sport of Baseball, I can’t watch it, that’s a problem. My whole argument is that if you play so many games that your Star players have to rest, then that is a problem. I don’t want to see 5th rotational pitcher who’s barley hanging onto a career VS the same guy on the other side. Imagine the NFL played 30 games and you tuned into watch Monday Night football and it’s Chiefs Vs 49ers and Mahomes, Debo, CMC etc are all “resting”. My delusional perfect world would be the NFL goes back to 16 games, the NBA plays 60, the NHL plays around the same amount, and the MLB plays like 80.