Dying Sport Close to Securing $12 billion Nat'l TV Contract Extensions

Baseball is different from basketball and football because THERE ARE 162 GAMES A YEAR. Of course there's going to be more money to hand around. If I have a kid who wants to seriously attempt to be a professional athlete, I'm doing everything I can to make him a lefthanded pitcher. Even if he pulls a 4-5 ERA in relief, he can make 4+ million a year.

 

Not sure I get the dying sport. Baseball is clearly the 2nd most popular sport in America, and has been improving internationally.

 

Down side is when they get hit, it is extremely scary.

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Brandon McCarthy had to have brain surgery.

 

Clearly? Not sure about that
And are we talking popularity in terms of tv viewers, attendance, or participation?

 

MLB revenue are closer to the NFL than the NBA.

 

Clearly? not sure about that. Between the new compelling NBA Superteam era and the always insanely popular NCAA tourney, I certainly see more interest in basketball these days.

 

How does one determine whether a sport is dying or not?

Look at the demographics of the TV viewers. Baseball has more old people watching their games. Old people are also more likely to watch television.

The way I see it, the online presence of basketball and football are much bigger than baseball. This is the result of young people who pay attention to the sports but don't necessarily watch the games.

There is no reason to expect that young people who do not currently pay attention to baseball now will suddenly start watching baseball. It's more likely that once they get older they'll watch basketball more.

The concern for baseball is that the ratings may be high, but the demographics are a concern. Old people, eventually die.

 

If you have to combine the NBA and NCAA, that alone should tell you something. College baseball has never been popular. MLB on the other hand dwarfs the NBA. Has the Little League World Series ever been as popular as it has been for the past 5 years? The LA Dodgers just sold for $2 Billion.

This is a basketball forum, so the bias is obvious.

 

Pretty sure baseball is popular with young people. Maybe since I live in GA where nobody gives a damn about the Hawks, and Braves fans are everywhere. If there is a demographic concern, it is that black people seem less interested in baseball. Not one of my white friends seems to give a damn about the NBA, but they all watch football, and most follow baseball. Don't have a black friend that doesn't watch basketball and football.

 

I don't know any black baseball fans, and whites are either die-hard NBA fans or not interested at all.

Football is king because both races and ages worship it.

 

WTF? You said baseball, not me. I didn't know you were just talking MLB vs NBA. The comment about international popularity sure as hell didn't imply that.

 

Baseball was once considered the most popular sport in America, now its not even close.

A 2011 Harris poll had 36% of Americans saying PRO-football was their favorite sport and coming in a distant second was baseball (in general I guess) at 13%. For the first time college football came in at a tie with baseball.

The Harris poll also has some demographic info for those interested.

Source: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/mid/1508/articleId/950/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/Default.aspx

 

And white people always turn old. Renewable age-ist demographic.

Just because one sport becomes more popular than another doesnt mean the now lesser sport has to be DEAD SPORT WALKING. It just won't be as big.

Though there's only room for a handful of major sports to be in the viewing rotation. The key is to still be a MAJOR sport. I don't think in the USA that anything outside of soccer and hockey will erode the major sport viewer base anytime soon. If anything football will have trouble justifying its violent nature in the future and more parents will turn their kids attention to baseball.

 

Not that this applies to me or that I take any real exception to it, but I think there are as many black baseball fans as there are white blues and jazz fans.

You have to go to big northeastern cities where there's not enough land to play high school or college football, and two in particular where the 50+ year old, large market, nightly sellout NBA teams can't win championships.

 

I don't think a majority of people have ever come close to calling baseball a dying sport. They'll always own summer and people's childhood memories; and they'll always have older people and more families for the same demographic reason they have the strongest union. They're the one type of sports franchise that actually has to be run like a damn business and could therefore individually fail on their own.

 

I dont really think baseball is dying, kids still play a lot of baseball, and they will watch MLB and maybe pass it on their children too.

And why Magic Johnson would buy a baseball team for 2 billion dollars, if the sport was dying??
He could bought an NFL or NBA team for that money, if he thought that baseball was in decline.

 

Baseball is better than ever... Tons of young stars. Attendance is booming etc. (Though Houston is another story obviously)


My biggest fear for baseball in the future is giving into "baseball fans" and changing the game. Trying to speed it up/cut games/instant reply etc. There is a lot of message board talk/radio/tv etc to do this my theory is they are not going to watch regardless.

Ask me my thoughts to improve hockey. I'll have a few. But I'm never going to watch my opinion shouldn't matter...

 

i'm not sure about your logic here.

PARITY is a big reason for NFL popularity. Baseball needs more parity.