Posted on 04/16/2018 11:33:44 AM PDT by C19fan
Its just April. Because this is baseball, that is an entirely reasonable explanation for the problem. And so, too, is the weather, the nasty, Mother Nature-must-be-pissed-at-someone sort of frigid that canceled half a dozen more games Sunday afternoon and is threatening to set records for postponements.
And yet one look at the numbers across Major League Baseball shows a grim landscape. Not in home runs (which are down) or strikeouts (which are up) but attendance. Which isnt just down it is down precipitously, enough that one league official expressed concern that this isnt simply a manifestation of the weather but something deeper and more troublesome for the game.
Im worried, he said. The tanking scares me.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
See New York Fed: Total Household Debt.
-PJ
There are simply too many dates on the baseball calendar and too many teams in the postseason. This pushes the start of the season into March and the end of the World Series to late October.
I also think almost every major sport has the same problem, for what it's worth.
The problem is that Miami has done this teardown thing several times, especially after winning a World Series.
Fans are just tired of it.
Baseball used to be on Free TV. Now you need a subscription to something to watch it.
That was stupid. Really stupid.
How about "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!"
That said, I have been concerned for a while about slow play. It should not take four hours to play a baseball game. There have been some rules changes, so we'll see what those do.
I would almost consider splitting the League into two tiers, with Promotion/Relegation, like Soccer.
The worst teams get demoted to the second-tier, and the best teams in the second-tier get promoted to the Top League.
This is exactly how I feel right now.
yeah, and if you make another call like that, I will taunt you a second time....
I have a cousin down there, usually drive down to catch a Reds game with him. Just this last weekend, looked up tickets for the day we both have open...
https://www.mlb.com/marlins/tickets/specials/mexican-heritage-celebration
Maybe next year.
Yes, yes, yes.
I have been following the Texas Rangers games for about 5 years. I have noticed during that time at both home and away games the stadiums are more than half empty.
If they seem to be getting close to being play-off contenders, their home game attendance improves significantly.
Teams may be getting enough in TV royalties, because nearly every game is broadcasted.
One of the hosts pointed out that the combination of two things has led to a pending disaster in the MLB schedule this season:
1. A lot of early season rainouts.
2. Unbalanced schedules and inter-league play that limits the number of road trips to cities outside the division.
They used the Yankees-Tigers weekend series in Detroit as an example of how disruptive this will be. They got in the first game of the series on Friday night, then had a rainout on Saturday. They scheduled a day-night doubleheader on Sunday to make up the Saturday game, then had that rained out as well.
So the Yankees and Tigers have to make up TWO games in Detroit later this season ... but since they don't play in the same division the Yankees aren't scheduled to travel there again in 2018. So MLB will have to either schedule a doubleheader on an off day, or they will have to move the two games to New York in September and play them as Detroit "home" games.
LMAO.
Umpires are part of Baseballs' story-line and tradition. Bitchin' about a bad call is part of the experience. Want electronics? Stay home and play video games.
2. End the abomination known as inter-league play.
Agree, but not a big deal IMHO.
The game needs to be shortened, and played during hours that young people can watch. No commercial breaks outside normal game stoppages.
Ticket prices for all but the best seats and boxes need to be reasonable as should the concessions.
I used to get Yankee tickets behind home plate for free. After parking and food for a family of 4, I was out over $200.00. Face value of the tickets was something like $300. per.
The problem is that MLB relies so much on TV revenue, which will take a huge hit if half the franchises in any given year basically become AAA+ teams.
I watched part of that game—cuddled up with my dog next to the wood stove. ;-)
A near blizzard in KC last Saturday for the Angel game. Sunday’s game cancelled because it was too cold to play.
Gee, I wonder what could be causing low attendance?
The worst part of inter-league play is that it forces the schedules out of balance. This has implications for the playoffs because the wild card teams may simply be the two teams that played the easiest inter-league schedules.
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