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Analytics and the decline of Baseball's popularity?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by qtlaw, Mar 12, 2019.

  1. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Analytics have also deemphasized .300 hitters and batting average.
     
  2. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    That's why these morons have to revert to the Tide Pod challenge to get off.
     
  3. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Baseball attendance was down 3 million last year, more than 1,300 fans per game, the lowest number in 15 years. Maybe much of that can be blamed on the handful of truly awful teams, I don't know. But that's a raw number that is not good.
     
  4. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    If I turned on my TV 40 years ago, I had a choice of Laverne and Shirley on ABC, and some dreck on CBS and NBC. And something on the UHF station.

    Look at the options today.

    Same goes with sports.
     
  5. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    If I were in baseball’s marketing departments, I’d probably worry about that. But 3 million across 32 teams after a prolonged upswing doesn’t seem like something that requires an explanation for the rest of us.
     
  6. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Look at the chart. Attendance has been down every year for six straight years, and last year's was the biggest drop out of the six. That's a strong metric against your statement that baseball is "more popular than ever."
     
  7. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    Ballpark attendance has only dipped below 72 million twice since 2000 - in 2002 and ‘03 - and hasn’t gone higher than 74 million in that span. Its popularity has really been remarkably stable since it recovered from the strike.
     
  8. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    That's fair. I've been checked out of baseball for awhile, so some of my knowledge is a few years out of date.
     
  9. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Baseball today is watching math. Variances of probablilty.
     
  10. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    I think it has a lot to do with the fact that in any given year, 1/3 of the teams start out in tank mode, with another 1/3 joining in at the trade deadline.

    The game on the field needs some tweaks too.
     
  11. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    According to this article attendance dropped below 70,000,000 in 2018.

    Why MLB Attendance Dropped Below 70 Million For The First Time In 15 Years
     
  12. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    A problem that's not going away anytime soon. Compare it to the socialist NFL, which keeps every team in the hunt for at least a few weeks (OK, insert Jets joke here).
     
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