MT @MLB: MLB finished 2014 reg season w attendance of 73,739,622 - the 7th highest total all-time: http://atmlb.com/1mHMijN
MLB finished 2014 reg season w attendance of 73,739,622, 7th highest all-time
- Thread starter soxhop411
- Start date
Wait, wait wait wait, hold the phone, chuck.
Second largest total in MLB history and most since 1995?
So, remember all that talk about how Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa "saved" baseball with the home run chase?
After the 1994-1995 strike, that is.
Doesn't the fact that 1996-2013 didn't match the return of baseball in 1995 in terms of attendance rather suggest that the thing that "saved" baseball was, in fact, the return of baseball?
Blah blah blah, yes it's only a couple weeks worth of data blah blah, still, some assertions deserve to be kicked in the nuts.
Second largest total in MLB history and most since 1995?
So, remember all that talk about how Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa "saved" baseball with the home run chase?
After the 1994-1995 strike, that is.
Doesn't the fact that 1996-2013 didn't match the return of baseball in 1995 in terms of attendance rather suggest that the thing that "saved" baseball was, in fact, the return of baseball?
Blah blah blah, yes it's only a couple weeks worth of data blah blah, still, some assertions deserve to be kicked in the nuts.
You had the 2 biggest rivalries in MLB this weekend, with the 2 "small stadium" teams being the ones on the road. That skews the numbers. It's waaaay too early in the season to make any kind of conclusion that the numbers are "this good."soxhop411 said:
And the weather was fabulous for an early April in the Northeast/Upper Midwest for the most part.
Dan to Theo to Ben said:
Well, that was a big reason why attendance numbers were so bad the last few years, because the weather was bad.
Also, Cubs-Cardinals is one of the two biggest rivalries in MLB? Away with ye.
This won't mean a ton if the World Series viewing audience still averages well over 50 and continuing to trend higher. MLB can tout the attendance numbers, but they will continue to be in trouble if they're continuing to skew toward an aging demographic. The NBA and NFL are both well under the MLB's average viewing age. MLB's viewers are closer to age to golf viewers than they are to those of the NBA, NHL, and NFL.
A lot has been made of how forward-thinking MLBAM has been in terms of protecting its content and having it available (for a cost) on their own sites, but in the age of Youtube, blocking content has only led to sports that were willy-nilly about protecting their copyrighted material on these platforms (MLB was vigilant about taking down any Youtube video that, for example, contained career highlights of Joe Morgan or Pedro Martinez), while kids could pull up highlights at will of Earl Campbell, or Cam Neely, or Dominique Wilkins. MLB has done a much better job of this as of late, but I think it's too little too late.
A lot has been made of how forward-thinking MLBAM has been in terms of protecting its content and having it available (for a cost) on their own sites, but in the age of Youtube, blocking content has only led to sports that were willy-nilly about protecting their copyrighted material on these platforms (MLB was vigilant about taking down any Youtube video that, for example, contained career highlights of Joe Morgan or Pedro Martinez), while kids could pull up highlights at will of Earl Campbell, or Cam Neely, or Dominique Wilkins. MLB has done a much better job of this as of late, but I think it's too little too late.
They should use hometown announcers for playoff games, the guys who have followed the teams all season long and actually have some insight. They could do it like they did those NCAA hoops games this year, one channel for one team's announcers and a second channel for the other team.
mt8thsw9th said:This won't mean a ton if the World Series viewing audience still averages well over 50 and continuing to trend higher. MLB can tout the attendance numbers, but they will continue to be in trouble if they're continuing to skew toward an aging demographic. The NBA and NFL are both well under the MLB's average viewing age. MLB's viewers are closer to age to golf viewers than they are to those of the NBA, NHL, and NFL.
A lot has been made of how forward-thinking MLBAM has been in terms of protecting its content and having it available (for a cost) on their own sites, but in the age of Youtube, blocking content has only led to sports that were willy-nilly about protecting their copyrighted material on these platforms (MLB was vigilant about taking down any Youtube video that, for example, contained career highlights of Joe Morgan or Pedro Martinez), while kids could pull up highlights at will of Earl Campbell, or Cam Neely, or Dominique Wilkins. MLB has done a much better job of this as of late, but I think it's too little too late.
I see many more children in the stands than I do in any other sport.
I think young people would rather go to a game than watch it at home, while the other sports are in the reverse. Many NFL fans aren't even loyal. If it wasn't for Fantasy and betting, how many would watch?
Another thing you have to remember, the baby boomers. They're the majority now, and people aren't having as many children today. That brings the average age up.
I'm not worried about baseball. Like Jim Kaat always says, he would've killed to play in front of the amount of fans in the stadiums today. He always brings up the fact that there were some day games where he played in front of less the 2000 people.
