Shadow of the Stadium: MUST-READ: Baseball Isn't Dying, It's Simply Growing Out of the Ballpark

Monday, May 18, 2015

MUST-READ: Baseball Isn't Dying, It's Simply Growing Out of the Ballpark

You've got to take three minutes to read Maury Brown's latest over on Forbes. The short, but interesting article details how more and more fans - in all baseball cities - are choosing to watch the games on TV.

An excerpt:

Wednesday was a playoff bevy for sports fans with playoffs in both the NBA and NHL, and a great baseball game nationally, but in 14 of 24 markets, it was not hockey or basketball or even that Mets-Cubs that people were watching, but Major League Baseball on their local regional sports networks.

In a sign that baseball continues to be a regional phenomenon, from Cincinnati to Seattle, Boston to Tampa Bay, Baltimore to St. Louis, and more, it was regular season baseball games that crushed all comers in their respective markets over the NBA and NHL playoffs, as well as the nationally televised MLB game on ESPN.
...
Remember, baseball isn’t dying. It’s simply becoming more of a regional draw.

Maybe the most amazing discovery in the article is that a higher percentage of Tampa Bay households were watching sports last Wednesday than households in Boston...and the Rays game drew a higher rating than the Red Sox (and many other MLB teams in their home markets).
CLARIFICATION: The Sox played at 3:05pm that day, which explains their lower-than-normal viewership.

No matter what, Brown's post is an encouraging read for a Rays fan...certainly more than Dick Vitale's sad interview on Trop attendance or all the rumormongering that will stem from next week's meeting between MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre.