Yeah - maybe this oughta go in the links section, but it seems like good fodder for discussion here. Today's Washington Post has an article on the problems in the NBA, plus another one on the dismal ratings for this year's World Series. NBA Troubles Low Ratings
O.K. The article makes clear that baseball will be asked to avoid Saturday games for future World Series. Pay attention MLS. Soccer Saturday. It just became a little bit more soccer. Schedule MLS Cup on a Saturday.
<MLS' troubles not so bad...> Spoke like a true dude who is not footing the bill for the love child that is MLS... I'm sure Anschutz et al didn't get where they are thinking, "man, this business model ain't workin' yet, but hey, the guys we are trying to emulate are not doing so hot, so woohoo"........ I think other sports' problems are as potentially dangerous to MLS as they are possibly of benefit...
You miss the point jri. MLS has held steady. Some may call it stagnation, but I'd prefer to call it steadiness. Baseball suffers from a palpable decline in fan interest and the NBA has never recovered from Jordan's second retirement. You're right that the problems other sports present danger as well as opportunity for MLS. But my main point here is that MLS has held steady even as other sports slip a little. Sachin
Where do you propose it be shwon on TV? Before you say ABC or ESPN or ESPN2, remember what they show almost non-stop on Saturdays from September to early December.
Actually, it specifies that Fox wants baseball to avoid Saturday nights, which for all sports is traditionally a bad time on the major networks. They would be better playing at least a few afternoon games, in all likelihood. I wonder if Fox has figured out that they've played a roll in alienating both long-time baseball fans, and casual fans who don't like setting through those commercial-bloated marathons that are modern World Series games. As to the NBA article, what that tells me is that MLS needs street cred, so we need go get more small-time felons involved in the league.
I'm not surprised that the Fox spokesman lays the blame entirely on MLB, but Fox should consider its production of the World Series. I really tried to watch the WS, but It's hard to feel any "passion" for the games if you're subjected to endless commercials and Fox TV promos. And maybe they'd get a few more younger viewers if the games ended before midnight. Of course, that's just my east coast bias. And those thudersticks. Ugh!
At some point people are going rediscover that sports in general (much like the .coms) is about losing money. In the US, sports are all about big egos with large sums of money to burn simply for the pleasure of saying "I spent $100 million on my team and we won the championship. Therefor I am better than you!" George Steinbrenner used to be the rule and not the exception of people involved in sports. Somewhere along the line companies like Disney thought they could "cross-sell" and build "synergies" through ownership of sports teams and actually make money. This is a lie and a lot of people bought into it, from governments that splashed out large sums of taxpayer money to lure teams to TV networks who splashed out large sums of money for the rights to broadcast the games. In the end the fans will have to pay for all this excess - from increased taxes or lost services due to governmental sweatheart deals to loss of a team because the corporate owner believes the mirage that some other city will actually generate a profit for their shareholders.
Hmmm. We need to do better than a guy with the charisma (and for that matter, the work rate) of a professional bowler. Double
"Next, on American Sportsman: Barry Bonds joins our crew of celebrity hunters as we travel to the wilds of Anaheim in search of the deadly, and annoying, Rally Monkey." [/staff announcer voice]
They will have a very tough time finding a time slot to air this game and may be stuck buying time on ESPN2 for their championship game. Andy
I like to give MLS's situation an even more positive spin: "consolidation." Not as clever as the term I just came up with for my dis, "Little Magazine Modernism," a few minutes ago, but not too chabby. Time to go drink to "Little Magazine Modernism."