All they need to do is expand to Japan.
All they need to do is expand to Japan.
That is actually a very good idea.
I know it would take a lot of resources, but I've always thought that if I were in charge of a major US pro sports league, I would try to start whole leagues in a few other countries, and then develop a global club/team (as opposed to national team) competition between league champions/top few finishers across the leagues. It seems like the best way to penetrate a domestic market is to have a domestic league that is in some way tied to the premier league/clubs in the world (and thus generates fanhood of teams in that league as well as the domestic one).
The global coordination between soccer competitions (domestic league regular season, Champions league, domestic cups played between clubs of different levels, regional national team championships, global national team championships, Club World Cup. . . etc) is impressive, but I feel like one of the major US leagues could make it happen if it were a priority (in some sports it might be easier to just buy some of the already existing leagues outright rather than to start a new one).
Right. Because transcontinental flights and ten day road trips don't stink enough for the players, we need to add transpacific flights and road trips that would have to be a month long to justify the travel time required.
No way the players union ever agrees to this, and they shouldn't. The way to keep baseball strong is to relax its rigidity a little to make it easier for players to appeal to younger fans. The NBA is doing this brilliantly, and the NFL is failing spectacularly. Baseball needs to realize which way the wind is blowing.
Please let it die. Too long of a season and just all around boring.
Little League style rules from when I played.
4 run max while batting until the last 2 innings.
All games 7 innings.
Regular season 120 games
The trouble with baseball is that it's really meant to be taken in live, not on TV. Attending a minor league game in person is infinitely more fun than watching a major league game on television. This just doesn't really mesh with the modern ad revenue driven model for major sports.
Not sure what the answer is, though. Maybe a greater focus on minor leagues with small city and neighborhood level teams offering an in-park experience as an evening of entertainment while just leaving a few true big market teams at the major league level.
They need to adopt slow pitch softball rules from my league (might be universal). Start with a 1-1 count. Once you have two strikes, you get one foul ball. Second foul ball after you have 2 strikes is an out. We often play our 7 inning games in an hour.
Slow pitch softball games go quick because you should be able to hit the first pitch in play most of the time.
30 preseason games
182 regular season games
5 more weeks of post season
Way too many stupid pitching changes using statistical models so that one pitcher comes in to pitch to just one batter, then another pitching change.
Idiots stepping out of the batters box after every pitch to redo their batting gloves.
Outrageous parking costs.
Violent fans.
$12 for a Pepsi.
Homerun fence completely covered by advertisements.
Run a mile around the bases before each inning. Six prelims, two semifinals, and then a final before the 9th. Our best milers wouldn't even need to do any of this "base mileage" bullpucky, just racing every day like they used to when men were tough!
MLB doesn't need saving, it's doing just fine.
19 of the top 20 highest years for attendance for MLB were in the last 20 years.
1961, when Mantle and Maris were chasing Ruth's homerun record..... teams averaged about 13,000 in attendance.
last year teams averaged 30,000
It's funny how easily people follow a narrative even if it's not true,
Baseball lost me, at least as a TV viewer, when they decided that each pitch needed to have an advertising image attached to it. Not only do you have to sit through unending commercials, but then you must have one or more ad images planted behind the batter so you have to see an ad on each pitch.
Netflix just became the most valuable media company in the world, and they ban ads. Maybe baseball, and a number of other entertainment options, should follow suit by looking to limit or eliminate ads.
derp wrote:
MLB doesn't need saving, it's doing just fine.
True