OT MLB to PDX: We're talking baseball to PDX

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One interesting thing that Manfred mentioned is the thought of splitting MLB into East and West leagues and doing away with the NL and AL divisions. The explanation he gave was about more games at night for the west coast, especially during the playoffs. As someone who has MLB tv, it can be pretty lean after 6 pm for west coast games, so I'm sure MLB is concerned, with TV contracts coming up, about how they can get more exposure on the west coast. Right now, with 30 teams in MLB, there are only 8 teams, including Denver, that are west of Denver. Throw in the Twins, the Astros, the Rangers, the Royals, the Brewers and the Cardinals, you now have 15 teams in the west and 15 in the east. That is still a pretty big stretch for west coast games, considering that 5 of those teams play in the central time zone.
I'm bringing this up as I'm not sure Nashville is such a shoo in for a team. It makes more sense to me, if you want more west coast games for TV at night and the playoffs, to have teams in Portland and Salt Lake to have more exposure on TV after 6 pm west coast time. Leagues have to focus more on the revenue from TV and not whether a city is "cool" or the chance they will have higher attendance. I'm fairly certain that teams in Salt Lake and Portland would draw just as many fans to a game as Nashville would.
I think the late night games are intriguing and I wonder how the 8 pm NBA games on Peacock will drive more leagues to look at later games as being more worthwhile than they have in years past.
 
bigbailes said:
Please bring your 'checkable facts' because all I see on here are you claiming the same thing over and over.
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You may be a diehard fan of the game….but it is hurting bad. Empty stadiums, poor regional tv contracts with horrendous ratings and simply kids not playing it in the streets anymore. Just because it’s called America’s Pastime, doesn’t mean that applies to the future. A lot of people played catch with their dads and had fond memories of going to watch the game……doesn’t mean it isn’t struggling. #DeathBed
 
THE HCP said:
You may be a diehard fan of the game….but it is hurting bad. Empty stadiums, poor regional tv contracts with horrendous ratings and simply kids not playing it in the streets anymore. Just because it’s called America’s Pastime, doesn’t mean that applies to the future. A lot of people played catch with their dads and had fond memories of going to watch the game……doesn’t mean it isn’t struggling. #DeathBed
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The LLWS sure is getting covered.
 
SharpesTriumph said:
Damn I totally forgot Simons won the thing.

Yeah the dunk contest hasn't been interesting in a long time. When Blake Griffin brought out a crappy Kia car to jump over that had been on ads for the prior 90 minutes I gave up.
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The Dwight Howard dunk contest killed it for me. What a farce. It went swiftly downhill after that.
 


They got Portland having a team..

“But with Manfred's emphasis on geography, two cities – Charlotte and Portland – would make the most sense. And with hypothetical franchises in the Queen City and the Rose City, we can ask: What would a realigned MLB look like? We’ve got an idea.”
 
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AldoTrapani said:


They got Portland having a team..

“But with Manfred's emphasis on geography, two cities – Charlotte and Portland – would make the most sense. And with hypothetical franchises in the Queen City and the Rose City, we can ask: What would a realigned MLB look like? We’ve got an idea.”
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Oh this interesting. Go to min 38:38.. MLB commish is pretty straightforward saying we NEED a western time zone team when asked about Portland. Interview was only few months ago
 
AldoTrapani said:
Damn really? NHL isn’t considered part of the big 4? NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL?
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Do you know the CBS symbol. CBS was originally a sports station. There are three balls that make the Eye. Basketball, Football and Baseball. At no point has hockey been added to the Big 3.
 
AldoTrapani said:
Oh this interesting. Go to min 38:38.. MLB commish is pretty straightforward saying we NEED a western time zone team when asked about Portland. Interview was only few months ago
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I wondered what happened to Jabari.
 
THE HCP said:
You may be a diehard fan of the game….but it is hurting bad. Empty stadiums, poor regional tv contracts with horrendous ratings and simply kids not playing it in the streets anymore. Just because it’s called America’s Pastime, doesn’t mean that applies to the future. A lot of people played catch with their dads and had fond memories of going to watch the game……doesn’t mean it isn’t struggling. #DeathBed
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Not once did I say the sport is doing great and there is nothing wrong with it, even the NFL that is far and away the most popular sport in this country has its issues that it needs to address. But you claim to have 'FACTS' that it's on it's deathbed but then come with some anecdotal tales about not seeing kids playing the sport in inner city Portland and think you've proven anything. I'm still waiting on these facts. You claim there are 'empty stadiums' when the average attendance this season is at 29k a game, about even with last year and the best the sport has had since 2017. That's even with the messed up situation for the Athletics and Rays. The revenue for MLB continues to go up, TV ratings on pretty much every stream (ESPN +22%, Fox +10%, MLB Network +13%, MLBtv +27%) are up this season and some by a lot. Yes kids might not be playing it in the street, but youth baseball participation is at it's highest level since 2008 and I'll say a big part of that is probably the Savannah Bananas. I'm not a huge fan but like them or not, they make the game new and different for the kids and that is opening their eyes to maybe the sport in general being more fun to play. Yes the RSN's was a big blow to the game as it's still mainly a regional sport, but in 3 of the last 5 years, the World Series has better ratings than the NBA Finals. They are finishing up a new media deal that will hopefully take care of the local broadcasts and bring them under some sort of the same umbrella. Again, I don't think the sport is in the greatest spot ever, but the changes seem to have worked, it's sped up the game and made it more appealing on TV. Sorry but to say it's on it's #deathbed is just moronic, it's not dying, it's not going anywhere.
 
bigbailes said:
Not once did I say the sport is doing great and there is nothing wrong with it, even the NFL that is far and away the most popular sport in this country has its issues that it needs to address. But you claim to have 'FACTS' that it's on it's deathbed but then come with some anecdotal tales about not seeing kids playing the sport in inner city Portland and think you've proven anything. I'm still waiting on these facts. You claim there are 'empty stadiums' when the average attendance this season is at 29k a game, about even with last year and the best the sport has had since 2017. That's even with the messed up situation for the Athletics and Rays. The revenue for MLB continues to go up, TV ratings on pretty much every stream (ESPN +22%, Fox +10%, MLB Network +13%, MLBtv +27%) are up this season and some by a lot. Yes kids might not be playing it in the street, but youth baseball participation is at it's highest level since 2008 and I'll say a big part of that is probably the Savannah Bananas. I'm not a huge fan but like them or not, they make the game new and different for the kids and that is opening their eyes to maybe the sport in general being more fun to play. Yes the RSN's was a big blow to the game as it's still mainly a regional sport, but in 3 of the last 5 years, the World Series has better ratings than the NBA Finals. They are finishing up a new media deal that will hopefully take care of the local broadcasts and bring them under some sort of the same umbrella. Again, I don't think the sport is in the greatest spot ever, but the changes seem to have worked, it's sped up the game and made it more appealing on TV. Sorry but to say it's on it's #deathbed is just moronic, it's not dying, it's not going anywhere.
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I agree on this. Kids don't play in the streets because of the nature of the game. Getting 18 kids all together to play a game takes coordination and playing 4 or 5 on 5 would even have it's challenges in the current neighborhood atmosphere. People simply don't let their kids at 8 years old go down the street to the park alone any longer but they do allow them to play in front of their house at a hoop set up on the street. Certainly not inner city and If they do they usually aren't looking to play an organized game of baseball.
However there are a bunch of new fields being built and I-9 youth sports programs are jam packed for both baseball and soccer as well as basketball. Don't fool yourself into thinking because 8 or 10 kids don't go play baseball on the old sand lot (which no longer exists) that baseball and softball are dead. That simply isn't the case.
 
One benefit as to why basketball is probably increasing in popularity (at least, in the scenarios spoken about above) among younger people especially is that it is the only sport you can play by yourself (easily) and also play with as little as just 1 other person.

You can't, other than "playing catch" do that with football or baseball, you can't really play soccer 1v1, you can't do hockey 1v1, and you can't play any of those sports with just a single "goal" like you can in basketball.

Hockey and soccer are probably the only other sports you can do a 3x3 type game, but even that's prohibitively expensive in hockey, ignoring the fact you have to learn how to skate to play hockey AND (unless you do roller blades) it's not really something you can just easily do in someones driveway or at a large swath of parks all across the country.
 
julius said:
One benefit as to why basketball is probably increasing in popularity (at least, in the scenarios spoken about above) among younger people especially is that it is the only sport you can play by yourself (easily) and also play with as little as just 1 other person.

You can't, other than "playing catch" do that with football or baseball, you can't really play soccer 1v1, you can't do hockey 1v1, and you can't play any of those sports with just a single "goal" like you can in basketball.

Hockey and soccer are probably the only other sports you can do a 3x3 type game, but even that's prohibitively expensive in hockey, ignoring the fact you have to learn how to skate to play hockey AND (unless you do roller blades) it's not really something you can just easily do in someones driveway or at a large swath of parks all across the country.
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The cost of equipment too. You need a ball and shoes. That's it. That's one of the main reasons why soccer has been so successful all over the world.

Baseball is very expensive.

Football is very expensive.

Hockey is very expensive.

And, as you mentioned, you can't really play the game alone.
 
julius said:
One benefit as to why basketball is probably increasing in popularity (at least, in the scenarios spoken about above) among younger people especially is that it is the only sport you can play by yourself (easily) and also play with as little as just 1 other person.

You can't, other than "playing catch" do that with football or baseball, you can't really play soccer 1v1, you can't do hockey 1v1, and you can't play any of those sports with just a single "goal" like you can in basketball.

Hockey and soccer are probably the only other sports you can do a 3x3 type game, but even that's prohibitively expensive in hockey, ignoring the fact you have to learn how to skate to play hockey AND (unless you do roller blades) it's not really something you can just easily do in someones driveway or at a large swath of parks all across the country.
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Yea the general nature of basketball will always be more popular especially for the inner cities where only need a ball and a hoop ... but there are ways you can play baseball where it's not 9v9, me and friends would play whiffle ball all the time in the street (where one house we spray painted a full diamond with bases on the asphalt), or a game we called Over The Line that could be any number of guys and all required was a ball, bat and a couple gloves, plus we luckily lived in the burbs so fields were easy to come by.
 
Natebishop3 said:
Does Fox know something we don't know?
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I think they're just going with different scenarios. I don't think Charlotte or Raleigh are realistic locations (over Nashville).
 
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