Pace of game rules in the AFL saved an average of 10 min off the game time

Dgilpin

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Rasputin said:
 


Football makes it pretty easy to follow. You pick college or pro, and you have one day each weekend to do all your errands and yardwork and whatever, and you spend the other day watching football. Then there's Mondays if you chose pro, and now Thursdays, but at most it's three days a week, and that's only if you feel the need to watch every single game you can, and really, who does that?
 
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I know far more people who watch football 3-4 days a week , then will watch 3-4 baseball games a month.
 

soxhop411

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FOX made major in-roads with a younger audience, something detractors like to say baseball is losing. The 25 hours of the 2014 World Series averaged a 3.7 in the 18-49 age bracket, raising FOX’s season-to-date prime-time average in the demo by 20 percent (2.0 to 2.4) and had as much impact on the prime-time ratings race as an entire season of a top-10 show.
The World Series on FOX provided FOX prime-time victories in Adults 18-49 on six of the seven nights it aired, and ranks sixth as the highest-rated program in prime time broadcast television for the year.
http://t.co/3V2eObYBZ8
 

cannonball 1729

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soxhop411 said:
 
You know what's striking about that chart?  Three of the last four World Series have been exciting.  From 2004-2010, the World Series was pretty much never in doubt; I think the only series that went more than 5 games was 2009, and that was because the Yankees couldn't beat Cliff Lee but couldn't lose otherwise.  We've had a pretty good run of World Series luck recently.
 

timlinin8th

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Chemistry Schmemistry said:
  

It's easier to dismiss someone by name-calling than admit there's something to an argument. My point is fairly simple: the decline of World Series ratings tracks closely to the beginning of the wild card.

The decline of World Series ratings can not be explained by general declines in television viewing, because sports viewing is up, in general. The expansion of the playoffs, complete with welfare (in the form of wild card vouchers) for mediocre teams causes people to view baseball as a local sport. Which means they still watch local telecasts in most places (the Red Sox local ratings, for example, remain strong even when the team isn't as good), but they don't watch national games when their team isn't involved.

How else do you explain the facts?
A lot of people have tried, but you keep shouting the same point ad nauseam and stating these things as "facts" without any real evidence whatsoever.
 

Chemistry Schmemistry

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I can't help it if you're going to stick your fingers in your ears and sing every time I quote the facts. Whatever makes you happy.
 

gaelgirl

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Chemistry Schmemistry said:
I can't help it if you're going to stick your fingers in your ears and sing every time I quote the facts. Whatever makes you happy.
I don't think you understand the difference between correlation and causation. You have given no evidence that it is the wild card specifically causing a decline in World Series viewership. The evidence you think you've given, the timing of the decline in ratings with the implementation of the wild card, has many, many critics because it has many, many logical holes. For one, according to that chart up there, the highest-rated World Series in the last 20 years was after the wild card was in effect. Secondly, and perhaps most critically, the wild card was implemented in the same year that baseball destroyed itself with the strike. How can you prove that your timing of the World Series declines in viewership isn't owing to once-casual fans abandoning the sport entirely because after the strike, the found they enjoy doing other things more? 
 
Further, your argument has a logical hole in that you argue the wild card keeps people interested in their own teams for longer, but if their own teams were out of contention early... they would follow other teams more closely? What? Why? Why would people be compelled to invest months of time and energy into the competitors of the team they love most? In the past, most people didn't get to watch baseball every day. National games were a chance to see baseball and the stars they'd only had a chance to read or hear about. Now they can watch literally every game played every day, if they're motivated to do so. You can't re-capture that sense of scarcity. Stop televising every game and you lose way more fans than gain them. There's just a crapload more things to do and a seven-game series takes a long time to watch. I'm a watch-every-day kind of die-hard Giants fan and I didn't even watch most of Game Four. I was at a super-fancy Halloween party. 
 
We've all provided you with a ton of evidence that baseball is an incredibly healthy, thriving sport in most ways. I don't think we're the ones sticking our fingers in our ears. 
 

SumnerH

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Furthermore the decline in viewers predates the wild card by 10-15 years. You may as well claim that the Expos moving to DC or Reagan being re-elected caused the decline.
 

soxhop411

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The average game time of the 16 games played at Salt River, in which the clocks were enforced, was two hours and 42 minutes -- a full 10 minutes quicker than the Fall League average in 2013. A closer look at the numbers shows that extrapolating the average time per plate appearance from the MLB average of 77 plate appearances per game would equate to an even brisker average game time of two hours and 39 minutes.
 
Non-clock games at other Fall League venues employed a rule that required players to keep at least one foot in the batter's box throughout plate appearances, unless one of a few exceptions, such as a foul ball, occurred. And the automatic intentional walk was in play at every venue. When a manager called for an intentional walk, the batter automatically took first base instead of standing in for four pitchouts.
 
With those rules, the average time in games played outside of Salt River was two hours and 46 minutes, or two hours and 43 minutes when calculating the time based on the average plate appearance
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/mlb-saving-time-game-pace-arizona-fall-league-afl-experiment-112114
 

nattysez

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Well, I don't believe it -- they're actually going to try to shorten between-innings breaks.
 
 
Pitchers would be asked to complete their warmups and be ready to start the inning 30 seconds before the end of all commercial breaks between innings, per Stark. Hitters would also be affected by the proposal, which would require them to step into the batter's box 20 seconds prior to the completion of each break.
Commercial breaks, which often last in excess of three minutes, could be cut down closer to the desired time of 2:05, league officials told Stark. The end result could shave 15 minutes off of the average game.
The proposal isn't without its potential hiccups. Clubs are reportedly worried about having enough time to run between-innings contests and promotions, and some players don't believe they're completely to blame for the extended delays, instead pointing the finger at TV crews.
 
 

hbk72777

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nattysez said:
Well, I don't believe it -- they're actually going to try to shorten between-innings breaks.
 
 
 
 
       As they should. There are so many more pitching changes today than there was even 15-20 years ago, so they still have enough breaks to sell commercial time.
 
Not to mention all of the the in game ads, like the "verizon call to the bullpen" or the "Hyndai starting  line up"