Major League Baseball is the oldest sports league in the United States, created in 1903. With such an illustrious past, it makes sense that there would be a slight falloff. Keeping viewer and audience retention rates high for 120 years is rather tricky.
Basketball and football are much faster-paced, so it makes sense for those sports to have higher audience ratings, considering modern society’s attention levels. However, the question must be asked: Why has MLLB’s falloff happened, and how can they combat it? Let’sLet’s explore.
The NFL and the NBA are numbers one and two in popularity and viewership in our country. The 2024 Super Bowl had 123 Million viewers alone this year, making it the most-watched sporting event in the history of our country. It is difficult for baseball to keep up with these sports, as their audiences only grow.
Baseball tries to keep up with these other sports by introducing different rules to the game to spice it up. They have changed extra innings rules and added a pitch clock, which we will dive more into briefly. However, baseball has been the same game for decades, and now, they are trying to keep up by making baseball faster-paced. The rule changes almost alienate diehard baseball fans. Let’s dive into some of these changes.
The MLB has implemented significant changes to the game in recent years, aiming to enhance the excitement for both players and fans. The introduction of a pitch clock, for instance, has not only sped up at-bats but also potentially increased the game’s action. While these changes haven’t yet translated into a boost in ratings, they hold promise for the future.
Another addition to baseball is the new extra-innings update. Anytime the game goes more than nine innings, the next half-inning always starts with a runner on second base. This change was added to decrease the likelihood of more innings being needed. These changes were made for one purpose: to speed up the game. Speeding up the games has not provided the ratings boost MLB expected. Now, new fans are not tuning in, and older fans are not watching anymore.
Another major issue with the MLB is that there needs to be a salary cap. The teams that make the most money will always have the best players, like the Yankees and the Dodgers. Then you have teams on the other end of the financial spectrum, such as the Oakland A’s, where the team makes so little money that they cannot afford good players.
This leads to a feeling of repetition and a lack of urge to tune in because the same teams are always on top. Other sports leagues, like the NBA and the NFL, have a base salary cap. This means that any team (barring poor financial decisions) can pick any player they have the means of paying. Bringing in star players has nothing to do with how much money the team makes but rather how popular the team is.
The changes I have previously mentioned need to be revised. The MLB is throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. These changes have no possible positive outcome because they are small enough to provide nothing but tedious enough to worsen the views on baseball.
To finish, I will always have a love for the game of baseball. I played baseball for 10 years and loved every second of it. I’m writing this article not to criticize but to endorse that I want baseball to improve. It lost my viewing attention multiple years ago, and it has only got worse. The changes have been unnecessary, and it has led viewers astray. If the MLB makes changes soon, viewership will continue to grow.
