How to lose a fan in four months...

[UndertheHalo]

Just now, Dochalo said:

millennial, centennial whatever.  the attention span for baseball is toast.  

It’s not. 

[Justin]

30 minutes ago, Mark PT said:

You are preaching to the choir, I agree. We are purists. I was referring to the problem of attendance and how they could increase ratings. My reasons are that the continuity of history will be lost but baseball needs to do something to increase ratings to get younger people interested. This does lead to better, more talented baseball in the future. 

If baseball needs to be fundamentally altered to attract new fans, then maybe it deserves to wither on the vine.

That being said, I bet there is a lot of middle ground between the current state of the game and a season where they don't play regular season in September. Pitch clocks and maximum-replay-time to speed up games. Salary floors to ensure teams try to put out a competitive product. There have to be lots of ideas that can be tried before saying "Okay, let's have half the teams make the playoffs." 

[UndertheHalo]

Major league teams sold something like 70 million tickets last season.  “A disappointment”. But yes, let’s argue about the withering viability of Major League Baseball.  Never mind the literal billions in tv and merchandising revenue. 
 

target the cancerous vulture owners who are not interested in honoring the relationship between team and fan if you think theres a serious problem that needs to be solved. 

Edited November 7, 2019 by UndertheHalo

[Mark PT]

30 minutes ago, SoPas Angel said:

If baseball needs to be fundamentally altered to attract new fans, then maybe it deserves to wither on the vine.

That being said, I bet there is a lot of middle ground between the current state of the game and a season where they don't play regular season in September. Pitch clocks and maximum-replay-time to speed up games. Salary floors to ensure teams try to put out a competitive product. There have to be lots of ideas that can be tried before saying "Okay, let's have half the teams make the playoffs." 

Yes. I think a big part of the problem is that not alot of people play the sport and therefore cant relate to how hard and amazing the game can be. For example, several years ago a friend from graduate school and myself went to a game. This guy is a basketball player and never played the game. There was a ball hit in between short and 3rd into shallow left. Aybar ranged to his right made a backhand play, turned and threw a strike chest high to first. I was on my feet ecstatic. He was completely dumbfounded as to my excitement. Basically, he had no understanding of how difficult, next to impossible, that play was to make let alone the athletic skill required to make it. He could not relate.

[Docwaukee]

14 minutes ago, UndertheHalo said:

Major league teams sold something like 70 million tickets last season.  “A disappointment”. But yes, let’s argue about the withering viability of Major League Baseball.  Never mind the literal billions in tv and merchandising revenue. 
 

target the cancerous vulture owners who are not interested in honoring the relationship between team and fan if you think theres a serious problem that needs to be solved. 

I don't think it's all that serious.  I think fan interest will continue but in a different way than it used to and I actually do think mlb has and will continue to address that.  It's more on the generation than the sport itself.  I just see my kids and their friends and the way they want information presented to them.  Sometimes I don't blame them though for not wanting to gut out almost 4 hrs of walks, k's and hrs.   

[tdawg87]

47 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

centennial 

Good beer.

[UndertheHalo]

24 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

I don't think it's all that serious.  I think fan interest will continue but in a different way than it used to and I actually do think mlb has and will continue to address that.  It's more on the generation than the sport itself.  I just see my kids and their friends and the way they want information presented to them.  Sometimes I don't blame them though for not wanting to gut out almost 4 hrs of walks, k's and hrs.   

I mean it’s not for everyone.  I don’t care for basketball.  It’s just not my thing.  I think it’s like anything else, exciting runs to division banners.  Dramatic post seasons.  These are things that engage fans.  Baseball can be consumed in so many ways now.  I almost think that in some ways, there’s never been a better time to be a baseball fan.  IMO, there are too many teams that just slough through season after season after season.  They don’t give the fans anything.  So yea,  the stadiums are empty. 
 

I mean look at us.  The Angels have been dog shit for a decade, a good portion of that time the farm has been terrible.  For a good bit there wasn’t any reasonable reason to hope that they’d get better.  But the Angels kept their guys and every season all of us genius’s convince ourselves that they can compete.  They don’t but we’re still here.  All it took was 1 post season that they got raped in and a handful of late season hopes.  It doesn’t take a lot once you have fans that care.  Even the scaps that we’ve gotten would not have been possible without the money that Arte has spent.  A lot of teams don’t even get that. There just has to be some good faith between the fans and the team.  Like I said, too many teams just don’t have it.  And I think it’s obvious that the owners of those teams are mostly to blame. 

Edited November 8, 2019 by UndertheHalo

[Lou]

5 hours ago, Mark PT said:

The world Series has done very well for several years now

how so?

[failos]

1 hour ago, Lou said:

how so?

Have you ever asked a question here in good faith?

edit: asking for a friend

Edited November 8, 2019 by failos

[Lou]

12 minutes ago, failos said:

Have you ever asked a question here in good faith?

edit: asking for a friend

yes, this one:

1 hour ago, Lou said:

how so?

 

[failos]

5 minutes ago, Lou said:

yes, this one:

 

Lol

[Chuck]

7 hours ago, yk9001 said:

The only way I'd believe attendance numbers any less is if Donald Trump tweeted them.

Or CNN reported on it. 

[ukyah]

5 hours ago, RBM said:

Shouldn't be for Angels fans. The A's have been the Angels natural rival since they moved from KC to Oakland in 1968.

natural rivals. hilarious. more like sister city. san francisco is to oakland as los angeles is to anaheim. maybe it's just me, there are certainly many elements to fandom that i've never felt.

[John Taylor]

18 hours ago, Mark PT said:

I know baseball purists are going to hate me for this (even though I am one) but I think that baseball would do better by expanding playoffs. The world Series has done very well for several years now and teams lose attendance when their season is over by June. My idea is to eliminate the entire month of Sept and use to to expand the playoffs. I know the history of continuity will be disrupted but interest in baseball will be better served. We will also have more opportunity to see Kershaw get hammered. 

I would be in favor of this if the regular season was shortened. Even though Baseball is by far my favorite sport I think the season is too long, by the time you get to the WS almost everyone is in football mode. I think MLB should be wrapped up by early/mid October. They're "The Boys of Summer" not "The Boys of Thanksgiving" 

[Claude]

19 hours ago, yk9001 said:

The only way I'd believe attendance numbers any less is if Donald Trump tweeted them.

That said, I am glad when fans vote with their feet.  I'm a former season ticket holder, and I've gone to one game in two years because I don't like the Angels product.

I'll go to more when they deliver a better product for me.

 

The renovation of the Big A will include robotic fans that you can pay for to represent you at the games.

The stadium will be equipped with robot fans that can be controlled by real fans who cannot attend. Arte is a flipping genius.

These are going to sell out fast and will be counted as attendance. @Lou would be impressed with what these robots can do. 

https://jobbiecrew.com/hanwha-eagles-robot-fans/

[cysomeawfulpitcher]

On 11/7/2019 at 11:22 AM, Lhalo said:

“There, there, Gaetz.”

[cysomeawfulpitcher]

On 11/7/2019 at 3:18 PM, UndertheHalo said:

Billy Eillish isn’t a millennial thing.  

[cysomeawfulpitcher]

Have Matthew McConaughey be a fan of your team.

[cysomeawfulpitcher]

On 11/7/2019 at 7:03 PM, Chuckster70 said:

Or CNN reported on it. 

[Lhalo]

Cleanup on aisle 7 please. 

[Rally Gorilla]

Houston Astros.    A team that was just lousy for four season in a row  (2007-2010), then decided to intentionally tank hard for four more seasons   (2011-2014, average 100+ losses).   And now they are being held up as geniuses because they are winning?   Even f'ing Jerry Dipoto could win 100 games if he had eight straight years of very high draft picks.    I hope the MLB can figure out more effective ways to discourage tanking.    It's no fun watching 100+ loss tankers stink it up for years and it's no fun seeing those same cheats dominate for three or four season until they have exhausted their ill gotten gains.