In The midst of all the madness, where does baseball go from here?

Question

Are the fans being marketed right out of the picture?

Answer 1

The madness has everything to do with success. Somehow the average fan can justify in his or her mind the increase in cost to attend a game. A family of four can easily drop 4 to 5 hundred dollars for one major league game. (tickets, merchandise, food, drinks and parking if you drive). If the home team wins, the money spent doesn't seem to hurt as much. The fact is every team is sticking it to the fans and it's not right. The average baseball player makes in one game what most working people make in a month at their jobs.

Sooner or later only the rich and famous will be able to afford going to the ball park and eventually the only way we as ordinary folk will be able to watch a game on TV will be pay per view. Don't laugh, it's going to happen.

We better start checking out minor league games. They are one tenth the cost and you can have just as much fun.

Answer 2

I guess I'm in the minority here, since I don't see any of this as madness. I see it as the logical extension of what happens when you have increased revenues and a higher spending cap in the new CBA. Those two factors are, logically, going to lead to heavily inflated salaries and contracts that would have seemed preposterous only a year ago.

I doubt that fans are being marketed out of the picture. It might mean fewer games for the lower-middle class, but until most fans and react by not attending games, nothing will change - there will be no great revolution from fans, or repentance from the baseball owners. Corporate America, who buy so many tickets and pay for sponsorship, would also have to play a role.a

I'd love to see things come back to Earth, but I'm not expecting it to happen. This is the new reality of the game, at least until the money starts to dry up. Whether that ever happens is the big question.

Answer 3

I hope not but you can be right. I can't see the lower market teams being able to sustain their teams without more and more assistance from MLB or by other means like lowering the Luxury Tax threshold. The ticket prices continue to escalate and make a day at the ballgame a thing of the past. They're already marketing MLB radio/video on the Internet and your free broadcasts of your home teams are beginning to become limited. Most teams are broadcasting on Cable or Satellite and I can see in the not too distant future pay per view baseball telecasts. Its a shared blame for the madness and it doesn't appear to be getting any better and in the long run all will suffer.

Answer 4

Lack of marketing is just one of the many reasons baseball is not as popular as it should be.

When the strike canceled the World Series my devotion went w/ it.

Player salaries cause the ghastly high ticket prices. A family of four could expect to spend $100- for one game.

I prefer a minor lge. game where the players play a game, not go to work.

I wish baseball would start over w/ a restructured salary system that paid the players fairly, not inflated as it is now. Salary caps are needed.

The fans need to unite and merit a seat at the bargaining table. After all, the fans are the ones paying for baseball's existence.

Answer 5

I'm not sure what city you're in, but for us fans in Detroit we feel like we've been brought back again. After years of dealin with a bottom of the run team the Detroit Tigers wowed us last year. We love our new ballpark (it's a great place to watch baseball) and now we'll just hope for another good year.

Answer 6

Ticket prices at Yankee Stadium cost more now. As they go up every year. It's really horrible. Kids today want to see their favorite team but they can't see more than like 3 games a year because it's way too much to spend. At least if you want to acutally see the game, opposed to sitting in the bleacher seats which are now around $12 I believe.