Posted on 04/16/2018 11:33:44 AM PDT by C19fan
It’s just April. Because this is baseball, that is an entirely reasonable explanation for the problem. And so, too, is the weather, the nasty, Mother Nature-must-be-pissed-at-someone sort of frigid that canceled half a dozen more games Sunday afternoon and is threatening to set records for postponements.
And yet one look at the numbers across Major League Baseball shows a grim landscape. Not in home runs (which are down) or strikeouts (which are up) but attendance. Which isn’t just down – it is down precipitously, enough that one league official expressed concern that this isn’t simply a manifestation of the weather but something deeper and more troublesome for the game.
“I’m worried,” he said. “The tanking scares me.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
I read somewhere where college football also took an attendance hit this past season.
its gotta be weather. Here in upstate NY, its snowing today, and we’ve had freezing rain for 3 straight weeks. I don’t think our local MLB farm team has been able to play a game at home yet
1. Call balls and strikes electronically. The technology exists, use it.
2. End the abomination known as inter-league play.
It is definitely bad weather.
I think when the weather breaks this will change.
I definitely think it is due to weather. Many high schools and colleges in our area have had to cancel most, if not all, of their track meets, baseball games, etc. so far this season. They already have a pretty short season, and are down to just 3-4 weeks left as of now.
I love baseball. My kids probably play 100 games a year, that I go to. I watch or listen on the radio to every Dodger game & any other game I can. But I never go to the stadium.
My kids have to sell Angel tickets as part of their HS baseball team. If they can’t sell them, I usually end up buying them. But the kids go with their teammates (who also couldn’t sell their tickets). I never go.
The thing is, finally after a long time baseball is getting some marketable stars, like Aaron Judge.
I also despise regular season inter-league games. It just ain’t right.
I’d be worried too if I were an owner on the hook for contracts like these....
Miami is the worst sports town in the country.
Absolutely correct. It was so much better when the NL played the AL for the first time in the World Series.
But then again, I would also get rid of the DH. That's why I rarely watch AL games.
The weather is weird. We went camping in Pennsylvania over the weekend. I took my warm weather sleeping bag because it was only going down to 60 at night. It was the coldest darn 60 degrees I’ve ever been in.
Saturday was sunny and 85 degrees for our 11 mile hike around Gettysburg Battlefield.
Sunday was 45 and misty cold rain. Just bizarre.
For now, the weather. I saw the Mariners’ Robinson Cano wearing a ski mask in 27 degree Minnesota weather on 7 April. It was a tossup who was happier to see the game end, the players or the fans.
This has been compounded that the season was moved up by about a week because of the new contract with the players that wanted more off days during the season.
I'm a baseball traditionalist, so I would like to see the season go back to 154 games, like it was prior to 1961 (I think 1961). I really don't think it would hurt total attendance much, as you would lose games on the front end in colder weather/kids still in school. It would cost each owner 4 home games/8 TV broadcasts. But like the other day, the White Sox had 971 actual bodies in the stadium for a game when it was like 35 degrees. But I'm guessing the shorter schedule won't happen.
I would also get the season back down to 154 games.
It’s definitely the weather. The Upper Midwest and the US Northeast has experienced the most miserable spring with snow, sleet and a lot of rain that is still going on as I type this.
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