Younger fans a parallel to what we're seeing in younger collectors?

[Rich Klein]

Couple of things

1) The pace of game is really important. The new Rangers ballpark has a roof and thus the temperature is moderated unlike the old days where you could be outside in 100 degree weather for hours

And let me tell you, if you sat at either previous ballpark in Arlington, you knew you were going to be in 3 plus hours in that heat. No fun. The pitch clock helps that and it's velocity not the pitch clock causing the pitching injury issues. ESPN just had an article which basically verified that assumption.

2) I'm lucky here in East Plano to be about 15-20 minutes from the Frisco Roughriders ballpark. Lot closer than Arlington, lot less expensive and I don't worry about staying till the end of any game. In fact, although we never could figure out the answer with their game day programs to have what I wanted for my birthday, I spent a good 45 minutes at the Dr. Pepper Field with one of the sales reps just chatting baseball. No way a major league team does that for you.

3) another thing baseball does need to figure out is to fix the Regional Sports Networks (RSN) or local cable issue. It's too difficult to figure out how to watch Rangers games since 2020 when Bally's was dropped by my cable company.

4) And the final thing baseball needs to do is to fix their blackout rules for MLB.TV. The blackout areas are too expansive. I know someone in Austin Texas who is blacked out from watching the Houston Astros (not sure about the Rangers in his case). The radius of the blackout should be smaller.

Regards
Rich

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

they missed:

5. GAMBLING - from full season fantasy leagues to traditional sports betting to one day fantasy or prop betting and the fact that the even the casual viewing public is being beaten over the head with gambling advertising, more young people have, mistakenly, seen baseball as a path to riches with no labor.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

they missed:

5. GAMBLING - from full season fantasy leagues to traditional sports betting to one day fantasy or prop betting and the fact that the even the casual viewing public is being beaten over the head with gambling advertising, more young people have, mistakenly, seen baseball as a path to riches with no labor.

+100% the corporate embracing of gambling on sports will ruin many lives. Well done Manfred.

[Snapolit1]

Gambling seems like a societal issue. But sure blame Manfred for it. All the other major sports leagues have shunned it, right? NFL? NBA?

[scooter729]

I coach Little League near Boston, and our league received cases of 2024 Topps this year (for the first time), directly from Topps. Every coach was given enough packs to distribute a pack to each player.

It was fun to watch the excitement among all of the kids as they opened the packs, shared cards with friends, etc.

I don't know how widespread this effort was by Topps to get cards directly into the hands of kids, but it was very well-received among the kids I saw that got them!

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Well done Manfred.

Manfred works at the behest of his corporate masters, he as about as much power to make decisions to the overall workings of MLB as any of us do, he gets paid the big bucks to be the face of the blame.

[BioCRN]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

4) And the final thing baseball needs to do is to fix their blackout rules for MLB.TV. The blackout areas are too expansive. I know someone in Austin Texas who is blacked out from watching the Houston Astros (not sure about the Rangers in his case). The radius of the blackout should be smaller.

I live in an area where WAS + BAL are blackout areas. There are 0 over-the-air, cable, satellite, or streaming options to get WAS or BAL games in my area. Even if you wanted to throw money at the problem to see the games, nope.

The blackout rules are insanely strict. As weird as they can be in California, if you're in Guam then you're in SF/OAK blackout territory...because whatever.

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by BioCRN

I live in an area where WAS + BAL are blackout areas. There are 0 over-the-air, cable, satellite, or streaming options to get WAS or BAL games in my area. Even if you wanted to throw money at the problem to see the games, nope.

The blackout rules are insanely strict. As weird as they can be in California, if you're in Guam then you're in SF/OAK blackout territory...because whatever.

I live 300 miles from Seattle. The Mariners are blacked on MLB.TV for me.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by BioCRN

I live in an area where WAS + BAL are blackout areas. There are 0 over-the-air, cable, satellite, or streaming options to get WAS or BAL games in my area. Even if you wanted to throw money at the problem to see the games, nope. The blackout rules are insanely strict. As weird as they can be in California, if you're in Guam then you're in SF/OAK blackout territory...because whatever.

Really? I had no problem getting Nats games on cable (Verizon's Fios) when I lived in Arlington, VA, and have no problem getting them (Xfinity) now that I'm 80 miles away in Winchester, VA. Are you telling me that the games are blacked out in the entire D.C. area now? How can they make any money on the TV rights, then? And that's not going to help get fans interested. I don't get it.

[ValKehl]

I live in Manassas, VA. and I have cable via Verizon's Fios. I get all of the Nationals and Orioles games on MASN.

[BioCRN]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

Really? I had no problem getting Nats games on cable (Verizon's Fios) when I lived in Arlington, VA, and have no problem getting them (Xfinity) now that I'm 80 miles away in Winchester, VA. Are you telling me that the games are blacked out in the entire D.C. area now? How can they make any money on the TV rights, then? And that's not going to help get fans interested. I don't get it.

I'm in North Carolina. It's BAL/WAS region until you get to Charlotte, NC area in the south of the state (ATL).

The amount of BAL/WAS fans here are very few, so it doesn't upset too many.