The Shrinking MLB Fan Base

[robertm389]

Money and MLB

Can add the AZ Diamondbacks to that list, they've been discussing for a long time the need to reduce the seating capacity in the stadium. They are already considering moving to a new (smaller) stadium once their current lease expires. I'll be going to my first MLB game in about 10 years next weekend, the Red Sox will be in town. Of course the Red Sox home (Fenway) is probably the blueprint showing how profitable a small stadium can be.

The Red Sox are also a case study for what a few posters upstream talked about. Their business plan appears to be to maximize the amount of money they can separate from you, and they will throw in a baseball game as a freebie. Stopped going to the Fenway about 5 years ago - a couple of hundred bucks to take the family, park the car, buy dinner. It just isn't worth it - the value just isn't there. BTW, that's heresy in this neck of the woods - hope I don't get burned at the stake!

 

[ziggy29]

MLB could schedule at least a few daytime World Series games so kids can see the finish on school nights, but they don't.

The thing is, TV drives the bus. TV wants nothing but night games for the World Series. TV wants almost all Saturday games to be night games, which appalls me.

TV gets what TV wants.

 

[BeachOrCity]

+1000000

The very first place I noticed this phenomena was Las Vegas, NV. I lived there in the mid 1980's when the actual mob was being chased out and replaced by the corporate mob. Gone were cheap rooms, coupons for shrimp cocktails, cheap food, and all the other gimmicks the actual mob used to direct the money to where they could skim the most cash. In came expensive food and hotel rooms, poor payoffs at the machines, tight fisted blackjack rules, and no more shrimp cocktail coupons.

Sounds like u miss the mob?

 

[HFWR]

Different sport, but wandered into the team merchandise shop at a recent hockey game. Player jersey, $225...

So you want me to pay so I can advertise your product?

 

[COcheesehead]

Different sport, but wandered into the team merchandise shop at a recent hockey game. Player jersey, $225...

So you want me to pay so I can advertise your product?

A “fan” will drop that in a heartbeat...it makes them part of the team. Different point of view.

 

[robnplunder]

Too many sports price out their fans. I used to go to Oakland A's games when my kid was still a kid. I loved the bleacher seat - they were cheap & very close to the players. They replaced it with much more expensive seats and that was the end of our going to the A's games.

 

[timo2]

Sounds like u miss the mob?

nope, but we went from the proverbial frying pan to the proverbial fire. the Who said it best: "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" except the new boss is worse, in this case.

 

[Chuckanut]

Baseball today is far more boring than in my youth. Years ago players did things like stealing bases, sometimes a double steal. Or sacrifice hits to advance a runner. I can’t remember the last time I saw a base runner caught in a ‘pickle’.

Today it’s a home run fest, 32 seconds of glory surrounded by an hour or more of boredom. Don’t get me started on the pitching changes. I remember seeing Koufax strike out the side on 9 pitches. Seeing the great arm of a fielder through a runner out trying to stretch.

Best of all I remember multi-hit rallies that changed a 6-1 game into a ‘“Brand New Ballgame!”

 

[Chuckanut]

The thing is, TV drives the bus. TV wants nothing but night games for the World Series. TV wants almost all Saturday games to be night games, which appalls me.

TV gets what TV wants.

The problem is if people can’t afford to go to a game from time to time they disconnect and lose interest so they don’t even bother to watch on TV.

Baseball today reminds me of Sears Roebuck 20 years ago. they’re dying and don’t even know it

 

[Col. Klink]

The DW and I go to Gainesville to watch U of Florida baseball. 10 bucks gets you a chairback seat with ample legroom and the parking is free. Bowl of jambalaya or smoked sausage sandwich is like 6 bucks. Pepsi for a buck. They even have free sunscreen. It is good quality baseball and great value.

We catch a beer at a local craft brewery, do some shopping a Trader Joes and Target, then hit our favorite Mexican restaurant on the way out of town as we head home. A great day each time.

 

[frayne]

Loved playing baseball in my youth and attending major or minor league games but to watch it on the tube other than play-offs and world series games, I'll pass. Like many other things in this country, big league professional baseball is pricing itself out of business.