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In my country rugby is declining and football (soccer) is increasing in popularity. I would imagine MLB has little growth opportunity in the USA, unlike soccer,
by teruakohatu 3y ago
In my country rugby is declining and football (soccer) is increasing in popularity. I would imagine MLB has little growth opportunity in the USA, unlike soccer, so they have little incentive to improve the experience.
- atonse 3y agoI think you're right but it's also a fascinating commentary on the times where a sport that's been quintessentially American (baseball) is probably at all time lows with popularity while highly international sports (F1, Soccer) are finally seeing growth here.
- ghaff 3y agoIt's probably a complicated story. At least suburban kids play soccer rather than baseball/softball (or even American football) growing up these days. I imagine basketball is still pretty popular especially in cities. F1 vs. NASCAR? Don't really know the numbers--obviously that's a sport that most viewers never participated in. Although I played it in college, rugby has always been at least something out of the mainstream in most places.
- teruakohatu 3y agoRugby (which is actually a number of different sports: league, union, touch & sevens) is mainstream in many countries, but parents are less inclined to let their kids play a sport where concussions are rife. Rugby also does not have protective gear so there is less perception of protection (even though it is well accepted that the protective gear can make the problem worse). Woman's rugby is increasing in popularity and represents a growth opportunity.
- ghaff 3y agoFrom my tenuous connections, rugby does seem to be a sport that has some popularity among women who want a more physical sport relative to alternatives. (Which I don't mean at all negatively.) As you also say, a lot of the same brain injury concerns that apply to American football also apply to rugby to at least some degree--probably lower speed/less high impact but a lot less protective gear--and, at least at the high level of the men's sport, it's gotten faster with bigger players.
- wombat-man 3y agoBaseball was getting less and less fun to watch. MLB is trying to fix it by speeding up the game, and basically penalizing people for turning every game into marathon low hit count affairs. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/07/baseball-mlb-rule-changes-2023-pitch-clock/674291/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/07/basebal...
- SkyPuncher 3y agoI think baseball is eventually on it's way out. 162 games is far too many for any game to be meaningful and the actual games have very few exciting moments. To me, baseball is the sport that gets put on as the background noise in the bar when nothing else is on.
- wombat-man 3y agoI think it's still pretty big worldwide. There might be fewer people at the games but it's still a massive industry.
- kjkjadksj 3y agoAttendance depends heavily on the market. Dodgers fans fill the seats no matter the premium the owners put on the ticket.