Selig Serious About Expanding Playoffs

I suppose if I mention that the Wolrd Series outdrew the NFL Sunday night, OOP will all me an apologist for stating facts:

FOX took the lead for the night, drawing in 16.7 million viewers and a 9.7 rating/16 share in households. NBC also had a hefty 13.2 million tuning in and a 7.9/13, followed by CBS (10.1 million, 6.2/10) and ABC (7.9 million, 5.1/8).

NBC and FOX tied, however, in the 18-49 demo with a 5.2 rating apiece

 

I read it that the NFL outdrew the World Series Sunday night.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/thehuddle/post/2010/11/nfls-steelers-saints-beats-mlbs-world-series-in-tv-ratings/1

 

Can someone please explain to me what bearing this has on baseball as a business, a business that is headed for record profits yet again? That is the purpose of those ratings, after all, to determine advertising rates and hence the amount of money a particular entity makes.

 

Less and less people are watching your showcase product.

 

Can't see them shortening the regular season and giving up that game revenue.

Better option would be to shorten or move up spring training. Start the season earlier and mostly with inter-divisional matchups--deal with the March weather where you can schedule day night doubleheaders for postponements.

But, instead they'll probably just add on to the end where we'll be looking at a mid-November Minnesota/Detroit/Boston v. Philly/Chicago/Milwaukee series that will get caught in an epic snowstorm that will delay the series several days or a week, require trucks to haul off snow from the stadium, play the finish amid snow drifts and 20 degree weather, and at that point, MLB will figure they need to come up with a contingency plan to deal for that type of scenario in the future.

 

First, I don't think baseball and Dancing With the Stars are competing for the same audience.

And second, adding *more* games isn't going to fix baseball's "TV problem."

Regardless of TV numbers, baseball is the one sport that gets the playoffs right. There's no reason that a team that isn't among the eight best in the league, especially after 162 games, should be in the playoffs. None at all.

 

Darn facts.

 

Facts from ratings site, that don't agree with NFL synchophant's view:


FOX took the lead for the night, drawing in 16.7 million viewers and a 9.7 rating/16 share in households. NBC also had a hefty 13.2 million tuning in and a 7.9/13, followed by CBS (10.1 million, 6.2/10) and ABC (7.9 million, 5.1/8).

NBC and FOX tied, however, in the 18-49 demo with a 5.2 rating apiece

 

Oh great. Another baseball v. football pissing match that includes TV ratings -- numbers that don't have any bearing on any of us or any other fans.

If you don't like baseball, don't watch it. Simple enough. I don't like the NFL...so I don't watch it. Works well enough for me.

 

You are missing the point. If I didn't like baseball, I wouldn't care. But I do. I want to see it become something better than what it is now.

 

I like baseball. I like football. Baseball is on the verge of becoming irrelevant. I think its a big deal.