Baseball Is Dying

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

The Washington Nationals are about to be sold, rumors are in the $2 billion range. They paid MLB $400 million for the franchise in 2006.

right the real value is in the franchise value, but there are billionares that love the idea of owning a team and dont care if 'overpaying' heck look whats going on with Twitter..

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by 1952boyntoncollector

right the real value is in the franchise value, but there are billionaires that love the idea of owning a team and dont care if 'overpaying' heck look whats going on with Twitter..

I don't know, between the owners and players there just seems to be so much more money in the game nowadays. If fan interest is deteriorating, who's paying for it all?

[dfletch00]

Just sat through about the shortest and one of the longest MLB playoff games in history - Its not dying .... 35,000 fans sat ... and mainly stood for 15 innings yesterday in Cleveland and game time was about 45F and windy...

Many families and more kids than I have ever seen ...and i've seen alot .

Its still fun - enjoy it ... see you next NYY!

(Kudos to my wife! spent her birthday at the game)

[HistoricNewspapers]

Originally Posted by dfletch00

Just sat through about the shortest and one of the longest MLB playoff games in history - Its not dying .... 35,000 fans sat ... and mainly stood for 15 innings yesterday in Cleveland and game time was about 45F and windy...

Many families and more kids than I have ever seen ...and i've seen alot .

Its still fun - enjoy it ... see you next NYY!

(Kudos to my wife! spent her birthday at the game)

Correct.

All one has to do is compare the Yankee average game attendance of 40,000 each of the last few non covid years and they dwarf the attendance numbers in Ruth's and Mantle's Yankee times. They aren't even close.

In the 1960's the Yankees outdrew the New York Rangers by only a few thousand fans a game.

Do the same for the Cubs. Not even a comparison. The NHL was more popular in the 1960's than the Cubs were. The Blackhawks outdrew the Cubs on a per game average.

So if these attendance numbers are considered as "baseball is dying" then what the heck was baseball when Hockey out-drew them? In a coma?

All these reasons given as to reasons of "baseball is dying" have been said for every generation when compared to the previous generation. Nothing new. Just a new generation of older people doing the same thing that was done/said to their own generation when THEY were younger.

It is more of a "get off my lawn' phenomenon than anything else.

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

I don't know, between the owners and players there just seems to be so much more money in the game nowadays. If fan interest is deteriorating, who's paying for it all?

right but movies make a ton of money, noone complains if tom cruise makes 300 million, it easier to have no talent to be an actor than a baseball player as you can lose your job much easier and higher risk of injury no matter what your name is.....certain movie names will continue to get work for far longer than if they were terrible hitters.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by 1952boyntoncollector

right but movies make a ton of money, noone complains if tom cruise makes 300 million, it easier to have no talent to be an actor than a baseball player as you can lose your job much easier and higher risk of injury no matter what your name is.....certain movie names will continue to get work for far longer than if they were terrible hitters.

Not sure what your point is here. Just like the movies, in the end money=interest. If baseball was dying, the money would at least start to dry up, but it seems to be the opposite, everything just keeps going up and up and up.

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

Not sure what your point is here. Just like the movies, in the end money=interest. If baseball was dying, the money would at least start to dry up, but it seems to be the opposite, everything just keeps going up and up and up.

I think there is commentary that due to the all of the new online media sources that right now there is overpaying for sports content like Amazon etc, once this gets sorted out you would imagine money will go down to the leagues, also sports gambling is influencing is my guess as well, at least the potential is whats driving up speculative pricing..

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by 1952boyntoncollector

I think there is commentary that due to the all of the new online media sources that right now there is overpaying for sports content like Amazon etc, once this gets sorted out you would imagine money will go down to the leagues, also sports gambling is influencing is my guess as well, at least the potential is whats driving up speculative pricing..

Could be, but the "speculative pricing" in all things related to baseball has done nothing but increase dramatically for my entire lifetime, and I'm 76 years old. I remember when a consortium led by Edward Bennett Williams bought the Orioles in the 1970s for $10M, then sold it to in the mid-80s for $70M. How many billions would it go for today? Yes, much of this appreciation derives from new sources of revenue, but those seem to keep popping up, i.e. merchandising, cable TV, naming rights, now gambling, and doesn't that all boil down to consumer interest anyway, including the explosion of our hobby during this time? Even with live attendance, requiring enormous effort and expense on the part of multiple generations spoiled by the comforts and convenience of having every sport imaginable brought to them on large HD screens while they sit on the couch devouring delicious foods of all kinds delivered to their doors, they rouse themselves in numbers unheard of in my youth to freeze at ballgames in April and October. If this is all a bubble, as predicted by many for this entire time and continuing today, it sure is taking its time popping. At some point, and we're 150 years into it now, maybe it's time to attribute all of this to the fact that baseball is truly a great and fascinating game, so much so that no matter how hard they try, the idiots that run it can't seem to kill it off.

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

Could be, but the "speculative pricing" in all things related to baseball has done nothing but increase dramatically for my entire lifetime, and I'm 76 years old. I remember when a consortium led by Edward Bennett Williams bought the Orioles in the 1970s for $10M, then sold it to in the mid-80s for $70M. How many billions would it go for today? Yes, much of this appreciation derives from new sources of revenue, but those seem to keep popping up, i.e. merchandising, cable TV, naming rights, now gambling, and doesn't that all boil down to consumer interest anyway, including the explosion of our hobby during this time? Even with live attendance, requiring enormous effort and expense on the part of multiple generations spoiled by the comforts and convenience of having every sport imaginable brought to them on large HD screens while they sit on the couch devouring delicious foods of all kinds delivered to their doors, they rouse themselves in numbers unheard of in my youth to freeze at ballgames in April and October. If this is all a bubble, as predicted by many for this entire time and continuing today, it sure is taking its time popping. At some point, and we're 150 years into it now, maybe it's time to attribute all of this to the fact that baseball is truly a great and fascinating game, so much so that no matter how hard they try, the idiots that run it can't seem to kill it off.

you make good points..at least baseball doesnt have the concussion and life altering injuries compared to football as well...