https://totallytigers.wordpress.com/2020/03/24/missed-the-call-and-dropped-the-ball/
MISSED THE CALL AND DROPPED THE BALL.
Totally Tigers
It?s getting to be so predictable. MLB is making another bonehead move when they could, in fact, be making decisions that could build their fanbase.....
The fact that the fanbase is the oldest among professional sports and only getting older. The fact that attendance has been declining yearly for 12 years now.
Yet the owners are only getting richer. And it?s because they are selling assets (primarily technology) and marketing rights. Not because they are promoting the game.
Witness also their priority over cutting costs instead of building fan interest. Currently on the table are two proposals:
1. Paying minor leaguers something closer to a living wage. They are currently under the poverty level.
2. Eliminating 42 minor league teams in order to ?improve the game.? Essentially killing the game at the grass-roots level.
Translation: If we are going to have to pay players more, then we?re going to cut some teams and effectively continue to keep our expenses at the same level. The two moves, one right after the other, are not a coincidence.
Also note that unlike previous history, the MLB Comissioner works directly at the behalf of owners. He doesn?t come up with these ideas. They do. He?s merely their mouthpiece. He has a variety of committees, all containing owners as members, who advise him on a variety of issues.
Which now brings us to how MLB is promoting the game while the sport is on hiatus.
Or I should say, what they?re not doing.
If you didn?t know, MLB owns both MLB TV and MLB Radio (in conjunction with Sirius XM).
If you watch the former, there is zero new content. The regular shows are AWOL. So are the hosts. They are rerunning old games and programs. And undoubtedly, one of the reasons is that it costs a lot of money to run tv studios and pay the analysts. Instead, they have laid off hundreds of employees who assemble the shows. It is now a skeleton crew in charge of loading previously-recorded programs into the system.
Remember when Rob Manfred criticized Mike Trout for not promoting the game more? Maybe the Commissioner should be green-lighting shows that allow fans to get to know him better.
These players have nothing else to do right now. Why can?t MLB do in-depth interviews with them? What?s preventing them?
Wouldn?t you like to listen to a program in which top players are extensively interviewed on how they see the game, how they play, or their mindset? Generally, a normal program segment runs approximately 10 minutes. Wouldn?t you like to have the host dig deeper and spend more time doing so?
Wouldn?t you like to know more about the players? personal sides? Would you like to experience how they interview, how funny they are and how they see things?
Of course, you would.
And if MLB would realize it, fanbases grow because when people develop a better sense of someone, even feel that there is a rapport or connection with a player or a team, they are much more likely to follow them. And as a result, they are also much more likely to explore the potential of watching something new.
And MLB is missing out on the golden opportunity. They have a captive audience, just ripe for the picking.
Are you listening, Rob?
Owners, what about you?
