The Yankees/Red Sox are in the middle of a pennant race, but it is not resonating nationally. I don’t remember a season where the buzz has been this minimal. No one is talking baseball.
Sure, the Yankees are generating buzz on WFAN, but the bigger picture is troubling. I do agree with the premise that analytics are killing the entertainment value of baseball. At the end of the day, aren’t sports entertainment?
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The fact that the yanks and sox are in a race is icing on the cake.
Never taught to bunt? Ever? That's scary...(although it could have only been a "Mets thing").
When was the last time you saw a kid riding his bike with a baseball mitt on the handlebar? Or kids playing self-hit,half-field in a park?
Like telephone booths and record stores - just a relic of bygone days...
There's just more entertainment options out there than their used to be. MLB could help themselves by improving the pace of play and trying some measures to get more balls in play, but the MLB audience is aging and ratings are going to be flat/down long term IMO.
Analytics really has nothing to do with it IMO. The NBA has embraced analytics completely and it's ratings are grow with the younger demographic.
I see everyone playing. Even kids in the street. It’s incredible.
I don’t see anyone throwing a football around.
I see
Baseball
Soccer
Hockey - don’t see it but I know it’s popular.
Agreed I cant take it anymore.
I don’t want either. But it’s not a good comparison anyway, there’s no salary cap, having multiple all stars doesn’t guarantee success, and both players are going to make over half a billion combined soit’s a pretty big gamble.
As for the OP, I think a lot of it’s marketing. The MLB has an athlete that’s basically right up there with LeBron James and you’d never know it. I support moves like banning (or modifying) the shift and getting rid of pitchers hitting to make the game a bit more “exciting”, but ultimately I think the MLB needs to do a better job promoting. They won’t be able to alter the game enough to attract the younger crowd that needs instant gratification so I wouldn’t change things too much and risk alienating some of the fans that it already has.
Analytics, the shift, marketing.... none of this matters if children find the game to be boring.
Analytics, the shift, marketing.... none of this matters if children find the game to be boring.
Those have always been the arguments against baseball, it’s why I hated it as a kid. I’ve found many adults like me that didn’t enjoy it much as a kid and now have a new found appreciation for it at an older age. And since you can make a fuckton of money playing it, there’s will always be a ton of interest, especially as kids are shifted away from the more violent sports.
I think there will be more rule changes in the near future designed to speed up the game a bit and maybe make things a little more exciting. Hopefully nothing too drastic, but some minor changes to pick up the pace a bit wouldn't bother me.
I don't think baseball is in any danger of having "super teams" get to and win the WS each year. I think there's still a good bit of unpredictability there. The Royals were anything but a superteam a few years ago. The Cubs did it with mostly homegrown stars like Rizzo and Bryant. Houston drafted Correa, they scouted and signed Altuve when he was really young, they drafted Springer, etc.
There's a lot of talent across the league. It's scattered all over. It's not completely concentrated within 3-4 teams.
Mike Trout is the best player in baseball but his team hasn't won a postseason game in his entire career. In the NBA, LeBron James and 4 janitors get to the Finals.
The game is slow, I get why people lose interest. But I personally love having baseball during the dog days of summer and the postseason is still really exciting, IMO.
I think there will be more rule changes in the near future designed to speed up the game a bit and maybe make things a little more exciting. Hopefully nothing too drastic, but some minor changes to pick up the pace a bit wouldn't bother me.
I don't think baseball is in any danger of having "super teams" get to and win the WS each year. I think there's still a good bit of unpredictability there. The Royals were anything but a superteam a few years ago. The Cubs did it with mostly homegrown stars like Rizzo and Bryant. Houston drafted Correa, they scouted and signed Altuve when he was really young, they drafted Springer, etc.
There's a lot of talent across the league. It's scattered all over. It's not completely concentrated within 3-4 teams.
Mike Trout is the best player in baseball but his team hasn't won a postseason game in his entire career. In the NBA, LeBron James and 4 janitors get to the Finals.
The game is slow, I get why people lose interest. But I personally love having baseball during the dog days of summer and the postseason is still really exciting, IMO.
Agree with everything, but the sport needs to regain some footing nationally. Idk the answer to that, but more buzz is needed.
Too many pitching changes
The death of the productive out
Lack of small ball play
Quote:
I'm in the minority but I still absolutely love baseball.
I think there will be more rule changes in the near future designed to speed up the game a bit and maybe make things a little more exciting. Hopefully nothing too drastic, but some minor changes to pick up the pace a bit wouldn't bother me.
I don't think baseball is in any danger of having "super teams" get to and win the WS each year. I think there's still a good bit of unpredictability there. The Royals were anything but a superteam a few years ago. The Cubs did it with mostly homegrown stars like Rizzo and Bryant. Houston drafted Correa, they scouted and signed Altuve when he was really young, they drafted Springer, etc.
There's a lot of talent across the league. It's scattered all over. It's not completely concentrated within 3-4 teams.
Mike Trout is the best player in baseball but his team hasn't won a postseason game in his entire career. In the NBA, LeBron James and 4 janitors get to the Finals.
The game is slow, I get why people lose interest. But I personally love having baseball during the dog days of summer and the postseason is still really exciting, IMO.
Agree with everything, but the sport needs to regain some footing nationally. Idk the answer to that, but more buzz is needed.
Yeah, I would agree - I think they definitely have to find more ways to speed up the game.
Some of the time spent on replay is really ridiculous. It should be part of the game - I think it's important to get the calls right, but sometimes these guys are standing there with the headsets on for like 5 minutes at a time and it just kills the momentum and rhythm.
MLB definitely doesn't market their stars all that well, either.
We live in an instant gratification society, so a lot of people just don't have the patience for a slower-paced sport. I think that part of it is just something that will be tough to overcome.
But from a competitive standpoint, I do think the league is pretty healthy and interesting. I think there are several teams who have a legit shot at winning the World Series right now. It's definitely not like the NBA where you can just fast forward to another boring Warriors championship.
As another poster said, the significant increase in entertainment options has decreased viewership on concentrated shows/sports/etc. A casual NFL fan may have gotten bored with the league and decided to watch some of the 70 million shows on Netflix instead, for example.
Of course, MLB has its issues (as it always has). As does the NFL (as it always has, although the league has been a bigger mess this decade). But I think the issue is more with casual fans choosing other entertainment options than anything else.
Also of note: World Series TV ratings used to be sky high. But attendance was far worse a few decades ago. It's because people interested in baseball casually at best may have just flipped to the World Series to pass time. Now they don't have to do that.
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The players aren't getting assholes, so therefore baseball sucks? Oof.
Every sport seems to be facing an existential crisis. Football viewership is down, baseball attendance is down, basketball is getting ruined by the Warriors.
Might it just be that most Americans have extraordinary access to entertainment and leisure and what once was time committed to sports is committed to the myriad other things directly in our faces?
The last great era of attention and revenue for baseball was directly connected to the home run boom. But now there aren't enough bunts?
Compared to 20 years ago there are 2 more strike outs per game and less than 1 fewer hits per game. That's really destroying the game?
Dad may be but the wife is watching her thing, kids are on ipads and tablets and people who don't give a flying shit about a sport aren't forced to watch it. It's real paring down of who is actually WANTING to watch these events. The pie is much bigger and slicers are smaller and there are more consumers than ever. Everyone is shrinking, all the major sports will suffer to a point but they'll adjust and the ad revenue and fight over network control will continue. They'll take a smaller bite, the games will suffer in viewership but people who love it will pony up more money to see it. You really think a Giants Panthers ticket in the 300s is worth $400 per seat? Fuck no, but in this case the demand is low and it humps the demand curve in a way it shouldn't. People are desperate to turn a profit on tickets and they inflate the shit out of prices because there are WAY fewer people willing to sell them. It violates basic supply/demand but it highlights greed because it uses premium pricing hoping to fool consumers that if something is expensive it must be in short supply. WRONG, people are giving away tickets and losing money and until the folks reselling realize that the attendance will keep dropping until it hits a critical mass and folks realize they can get face value tickets the longer they wait.
The secondary market for tickets to sports is out of fucking control and it's killing in stadium attendance because the frightened sellers want to turn a profit at the expense of Joe and Jane Consumer. The worm will or may turn when those ticket sucking brokerage houses realize people don't want to pay those shit prices. That kills in stadium attendance and in turn makes the game shittier to watch on TV. Keep gouging people and they will revolt and that's what we're seeing along with the huge splintering off of specialized entertainment. If MLB and the NFL don't want to die, they will take actual control of tickets and sell them ALL at face value to an end user, not a fucking broker.
Met baseball is in such a state that I'm stuck hoping that a Met fan with a terminal illness kills Fred and Jeff Wilpon. That's where I'm at with baseball.
But if you're a casual fan, for the same or even less money you have umpteen entertainment options at your disposal, and maybe you tune in for the playoffs.
I think the shifts and constant pitching changes have put a damper on things, as well.
There’s countless reasons and I don’t see it getting any easier for the major leagues to increase viewership and revenue.
Captplanet : 7/10/2018 8:44 pm : link : reply
It's turning into an upper-middle-class sport, that is not attracting kids at a young age
With the influx of Latin Americans to the sport in recent years, it is not an upper-middle-class endeavor, unless you just want to make a sweeping generalization about the white USA players.
I know it is that way for me. I'll watch the Mets (although not as much lately!), but almost never watch games with other teams. I used to watch BoSox-Yankees, Dodgers-Giants, but no I couldn't care less. That isn't the same with the NFL, I'll watch almost anything that's on.
I know it is that way for me. I'll watch the Mets (although not as much lately!), but almost never watch games with other teams. I used to watch BoSox-Yankees, Dodgers-Giants, but no I couldn't care less. That isn't the same with the NFL, I'll watch almost anything that's on.
Bingo. It’s why the narrative that the NFL is in shambles is wildly off base. We all watch non NYG games, not so with MLB.
Dad may be but the wife is watching her thing, kids are on ipads and tablets and people who don't give a flying shit about a sport aren't forced to watch it. It's real paring down of who is actually WANTING to watch these events. The pie is much bigger and slicers are smaller and there are more consumers than ever. Everyone is shrinking, all the major sports will suffer to a point but they'll adjust and the ad revenue and fight over network control will continue. They'll take a smaller bite, the games will suffer in viewership but people who love it will pony up more money to see it. You really think a Giants Panthers ticket in the 300s is worth $400 per seat? Fuck no, but in this case the demand is low and it humps the demand curve in a way it shouldn't. People are desperate to turn a profit on tickets and they inflate the shit out of prices because there are WAY fewer people willing to sell them. It violates basic supply/demand but it highlights greed because it uses premium pricing hoping to fool consumers that if something is expensive it must be in short supply. WRONG, people are giving away tickets and losing money and until the folks reselling realize that the attendance will keep dropping until it hits a critical mass and folks realize they can get face value tickets the longer they wait.
The secondary market for tickets to sports is out of fucking control and it's killing in stadium attendance because the frightened sellers want to turn a profit at the expense of Joe and Jane Consumer. The worm will or may turn when those ticket sucking brokerage houses realize people don't want to pay those shit prices. That kills in stadium attendance and in turn makes the game shittier to watch on TV. Keep gouging people and they will revolt and that's what we're seeing along with the huge splintering off of specialized entertainment. If MLB and the NFL don't want to die, they will take actual control of tickets and sell them ALL at face value to an end user, not a fucking broker.
This started strong and then went into some weird diatribe about ticket brokers... even though any of us could have seen any Giants game we wanted last year well under face.
Meh ESPN is going down the tubes. Feels good man.
Met baseball is in such a state that I'm stuck hoping that a Met fan with a terminal illness kills Fred and Jeff Wilpon. That's where I'm at with baseball.
😂😂😂
That last paragraph was unexpected
The NFL was like that until a couple of years ago. Visionairies Mara-Roselle-Tagliabue architected a remarkable product that continued to grow every year even in the 21st century and become the world's most successful sports/entertainment franchise in the world.
I thought running the NFL was idiot proof, until Goodell showed me otherwise.
But my kids were most excited about catching a foul ball. Brought their gloves, etc. but ... with all the netting now, which I get it, too many spectators were on their iPhones not paying attention and got nailed in the head .... but with the netting foul balls are way down now. I counted on one hand the balls that went into stands on our side of the field. Kids left bored and disappointed (losing 9-0 didn't help).
I think all the warm comments on football above are misplaced - they have issues now too and it has more to do with fantasy football leveling off than about Goodell.
Watching a game at home has improved dramatically in the last 15 or so years. HDTV and beyond, the ability to watch or follow multiple games simultaneously, rewind, pause. You can easily get great beer and food for much less than you would at a game. There is still something enjoyable about going to a game every now and then but not if it’s crazy expensive.
NBA and NHL have smaller buildings at least. Football has far fewer games and tailgating is the main attraction for many. Baseball is sort of the worst of both worlds. Tons of games so not single game feels meaningful until late in the year and huge stadiums.
I also think they need to figure out how to promote their stars. Not sure any baseball player is very famous. Maybe Bryce Harper?