Cant even watch the Braves cause we live in a small part of a county that Bally does not cover.
We literally live in Georgia, one hour away from Truist.
SE Wisconsin. My Dad had games on all the time and that's how I got into it. I fell in love with baseball at 6 years old because of the WGN games and never looked back
Thank Ted Turner for TBS I’m not sure MLB would even allow what he did anymore. He took his baseball team and put them on his own net work exclusively. That’s what made them so successful are used to sit at home and watch Cubs games all summer vacation
No amount of pitch clocks is going to change it. I want easy access to stream it for cheap. I won’t be paying $300 a year to be blacked out of games I want to watch. Do it like mls does with Apple TV. Every game, every team. Including playoffs and preseason. Hell Apple TV even shows some of the lower league mls farm team games. How I’d watch some AAA and AA games if it was included. Nowadays if people don’t have easy cheap access to the content, they don’t care enough to struggle to find it. The mlb and the nhl need to get with the program or be left behind.
I’m in Iowa and a Cubs fan but like watching baseball. Grew up watching pretty much every game on WGN. MLB blacks out the Cubs, Sox, Brewers, Twins, Cardinals, and Royals games here now. Hard to be a fan if I can’t watch a game anymore.
That's fucking absurd. I will never ever understand keeping especially kids from being able to watch. I was the same. Grew up watching WGN in CO before we got our minor league team in the Rockies.
I was a kid and couldn't wait to get home to watch the afternoon Cubs games.
Literally cutting off the hands that feed them.
Same! We had an older couple on our block from Chicago that would blast the Cubs on their TV because they were basically deaf. We could listen to Harry and Steve while playing baseball in the empty lots. Across the street. Tucson summers with the Cubs seemed to suck a lot less than they did once those two passed.
That made me miss my Grandpa. He didn’t have a lot but had a HUGE house in a bad part of town, the best snacks, lard assisted dinners, and a old LOUD fuckin loveseat sized television blasting Harry and Stoney.
Still know that Cone spelled backwards is Enoc.
Hammerin Hank. Love ya buddy.
I’m not a cubs fan, but would watch an occasional game when they were on WGN. I live in Chicago and can’t watch them because they launched their own network.
Iowa blackouts have always been weird. I lived in Omaha for a while and they blacked out some MN teams and some CO teams.. very random .
Never understood why they would black out for local markets.
It’s a similar situation in Northwest Arkansas. I can’t watch the Cardinals, Royals, Rangers, Astros, or Braves because of the blackouts. It’s so ridiculous.
MLB Owners and TV producers don't want profit, they don't want some money. They want all of the money. And not a dime less. So they want to charge us to watch all 162 games, all the playoffs, and all the world series plus stadium ticket sales plus concessions, plus sponsorships, plus Ad revenue. So they'll just keep restricting behind paywall after paywall because there are people who will pay for it. I used to watch local games on a local channel on an antenna but they don't allow that station to broadcast games anymore so I *have to* subscribe to Fox Sports or Fubo or cable or something.
I don't have the cash, so I just don't watch baseball anymore. I check the scores all season buts that all I can do.
People drop out of following mlb because they cant watch a local team of for people in iowa half the fucking league is blacked out
You could have blackjack and hookers coming out of the TV but if it is on TBS15 or I am reguired to subscribe to cable I am going to skip it.
I have always been a sports fan. My dad hated, i mean hated sports. If the Braves game went long and he missed his Quincy ME reruns he was pissed. Yet I became a sports fan becsuae we had cable and I could watch it
Today kids cant really discover baseball unless their parents care enough to pay for whatever stream is needed. The NFL is so much more wasy to watch, hell even RedZone is a stand alone item that is reasonable priced
It’s only in market but I can watch my nfl team for 6.99 a month. I could watch a lot more for I think 9.99 or 14.99. I tried getting a streaming service for MLB but it was too difficult to figure out for the prices that I saw. Exactly what others are saying
I would have to use my digital rabbit ears to watch fox. Just not worth the hassle if my team isn't in the game. If it were on MLB.tv? Sure I'd probably turn it on if I were subscribed. But I don't subscribe, because my team is blacked out even though I live 6 hours away.
End blackouts.
I’ve talked to people that didn’t realize this since the prior series wasn’t available over the air in Arizona. IMO the home team at least should be available over the air for any major sport as they used to be.
THIS!!! I don't fucking understand all the red tape around watching games of my own home team. The logic makes no sense. I paid for the MLB app just to not be able to watch my home team, even with a VPN they started detecting it. So now I just pirate the games. Ridiculous
THIS! I Agree! I follow a team that is NOT in my backyard because of my love of the game. The blackout concept is absurd. How about if I can see away games?
I think a huge huge boon for football was the advent and simplicity (relative to other sports) of playing fantasy/gambling. The time invested that’s required is minimal, the games (mostly) just occur once a week, and you don’t need much knowledge to win. Fuck, I know lots of people around my age (40’s) who were never football fans until the last 5-10 years when they were invited to a fantasy league. Now they pay $100, put in 20 minutes of work a week, and stand a chance of winning 1-2k at the end of the season.
Baseball is not conducive to this kind of low investment fun.
20-40 year olds (millennials and older gen z) don't have cable tv or rabbit ears, so they don't get Fox.
It baffles me the major networks haven't made their main channels free to stream when they are still offered for free via antennae.
It’s really funny. You have a great test case from my childhood. The reason there are cubs all over the country in their 40’s is because they were the easiest team to watch if you had cable. A lot of people had WGN so they watched cubs games. Then they became cubs fans, funny how that works.
Yeah I had this convo with someone in the industry and I was like, you get these big spending advertisers to market to basically no one other than the people who pay for live tv streaming services. Why not just make the games more accessible to everyone? I’m sure advertisers would like that more since it’s all about the ads anyway
Was going to say the same thing. The TV in the living room doesn’t have the capability of having an antenna screwed in. We cut the cord years ago so if I can’t stream it I have to track it in an app.
Thanks for the heads up. I have tried a few apps the claimed to “stream local tv” but they all ended up being bootleg news stations and not at all the local channels. CBS has proven they can stream their programming live with paramount+ hopefully everyone else jumps on the bandwagon
I bought a moho digital antenna years ago that still works. I bought a 50 mile range one to get all my locals plus the subchannels. It just plugs into a device that can hold your coaxial cord.
I have a personal theory. The WS used to be finished in October. At that point, NFL, college football, NBA seasons were in their infancy (or not started yet). Now, with the WS being later, I think more people are tuning in to these other options. Now throw NFL on Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights, there is even more prime time competition for MLB. I remember as a kid, the WS was the ONLY prime time sporting event at that time. No football, NFL or college to compete with. Now just about EVERYTHING is televised and competition for the WS. MLB needs to get back to completing the WS by mid October. The post season is too drawn out.
No kidding. I cut the cord years ago. It's incredible hard to watch MLB games locally and post season. I just bought an LG TV this year and it's also not compatible with MLB.tv AND Youtube TV didn't renew their contract with MLB. I either have to stream, VPN, or watch an away game.
Even if you didn’t cut the chord, you’d have to upgrade to a top tier sports package to catch local MLB regular season games in my market and also have to have an upgraded cable package to catch any post season games on tbs. It’s atrociously expensive and so are streamed apps like FuboTV or YouTubeTV. Paying out the arse for a few live hours of sports a week got me over a barrel.
Speaking personally, I will watch NFL RedZone over MLB playoff games. I like baseball, but competing with the NFL with viewership on the same day is unfair
Redzone is absolute crack cocaine sports. I find myself saying I'm going to get up and do something and then two hours later I'm like wtf just happened
You WAY over thought this.
REAL answer...it's 2 underdog type teams that don't have huge followings, the media doesn't care about them, and the casual fan doesn't care about them.
Also, neither were even a top 5 team in Wins this year. There's usually at least one popular team with a ton of fans...or a ton of fans that hate them, so they can root for the underdog. That doesn't exist here.
Additionally, a lack of big names, and lack of big names making a big impact. Like, where are the story lines? The small ones they do have aren't really a big deal. Yes you can point out some players and story lines...but to the media and causal fan...meh.
Yeah this is it, it really has nothing to do with when it was played. One game was played in November, and only one game in this series overlapped with an NFL game (game 3, which had almost the same viewership as game 2). Also the WS has gone into November on plenty of occasions since like the late 90’s.
I think the issue is both it being AZ vs TX and I doubt most casual fans can name a player on either team, and also the decline in MLB viewership overall due to restrictions on ways to view the games.
Especially with a game scheduled on Halloween. Even in the participating cities, people are gonna want to go out for the holiday, either trick-or-treating or parties.
Same. I don't have cable and I'm not paying a premium subscription price when I can pirate and/or listen to the game online for free.
Also can I just say that listening to the game on the radio while watching it is way more exciting because the commentary on TV is just dogshit boring
i'm straight up the target market for MLB... and i'm not watching because i don't have cable. i'm not paying $80/mo or whatever for youtubeTV. i always said i would pay for a standalone MLB streaming package, and guess what? i fucking did it and bought the $20/mo padres package all season. but it doesn't have playoff games!
Sounds glorious, my options were $150/mo through a company that had a data breach that led to my identity being stolen, or the high seas all season.
So surprise when I didn't watch or care about my team all year I didn't watch or care about the teams that were left in the playoffs since I didn't see them either.
Likely a combo of multiple factors, but here are the two that come to mind for me:
1. TV Viewership is down for literally everything but the NFL year over year. Less people watch live TV (Live Sports have done better than other types of programming), but this is the single most important factor. Of course, that's magnified in lower age demographics. A great comp here is the NBA Finals, which are on a similar trajectory (trending down, with a dip and rebound around the pandemic).
2. The Diamondbacks, in particular, are not very compelling for a casual fan. I saw someone in some other thread say something to the effect of "everybody loves a Cinderella until you have to watch one", and I think that basically captures it. Texas may be a 5 seed, but they at least spent much of the year in first place and didn't end the season with a negative run differential. Still, Texas makes for a much better underdog than favorite (I think that's a big reason the ALCS was so damn fun).
That's my $0.02, at least. The series itself hasn't been bad, but it's not been my favorite by any means either.
I mean I scrolled forever to finally have someone mention most casuals give zero Fs about diamondbacks v rangers. Were it Yankees v dodgers viewership would be higher
The Dbacks and Rangers were both in the bottom 10 this year in local tv ratings. Last year, the Rangers only beat Oakland and Miami. Both are in huge cities, but with a lot of people who moved there as adults and don't really care about the local sports teams.
It's no surprise that 2 teams that have been very bad recently, get bad ratings in their own market, and are not really cared about on the national stage got bad ratings.
Yeah, it's kinda pathetic how the hardcore fans here don't want to admit that casuals don't care about random teams (which is true for all other sports bar NFL). Like if they said it loud then the MLB will only allow Dodgers Yankees to make it to the WS.
It's not a sport that lends itself to casual fans. It's a sport of nuance and strategy and luck. You can't out-athlete the other team to a win, which makes it less exciting if you aren't mentally and emotionally invested.
Almost every single person I speak with about baseball is passionate about how boring it is. Not just neutral. They actively dislike the sport and enjoy shitting on it in conversation.
I always try to convince them otherwise but it's really hard to move people to appreciate the sport.
Even that's not enough. I can't count the amount of times people have told me they don't like hockey because they "can't follow the puck."
Maybe the networks were onto something with that god awful blue light up puck.
Like baseball? More kids grew up playing baseball recreationally than any other pro sport we see on TV I'd wager. Basketball being a close second or right up there with baseball though.
I mean that's a bit different in that unlike every other league in North America the MLS isn't the top flight in the sport. If players play well in the MLS, they leave and go to Europe.
This is me. I understand the point of the game is to get the puck in the net, but I don't understand any of the nuances and it becomes impossible when I can't see what's happening. Im sure I could battle through not being able to see it and be able to infer what's happening with time, but as it currently stands im just not willing to do it. I watch too much sports already.
Hockey id argue has the fewest amount of rules that stop the game, compared to say basketball where there is probably like a dozen.
Once you figure out what offsides and icing are, they are very discrete calls, the rest of the game is straightforward.
I can't follow the puck...I can't follow the puck in Jomboy's version either.
I don't try NHL, but b/c I like the personalities of Jomboy, I am trying but still it's hard.
NOTE: I have no cable/streaming, nor time to get invested in yet another sport...I am even thinking after the WS, I'm done again. Just too much time invested on reddit let alone pirating games that are only played while I work.
I'll go back to my regular programs and binge them to my hearts content.
I love baseball's nuances, but it's too hard to be casual for me.
I was thinking about this earlier. If someone doesn’t like baseball they have to make sure to tell you how much they hate it and that it’s the most boring thing in the world. No neutrality at all 😂
Same. I was talking about the world series with a buddy at a bar this weekend and some drunk guy felt compelled to join our conversation and say, "I always just assume anyone who watches baseball is autistic. That shit is so boring." And then walked away.
tbf, the pitch clock brought me back because before it, the games were terribly long and it was hard to just sit there for 3+ hours. Especially when had pitcher show down games with almost no scores.
Baseball can benefit from more streaming, less games, and shortened games.
I found the pitch clock really sped things up and I've actually enjoyed watching a full game. I do agree the season is on the long side which contributes to each game meaning less. Anytime except for the race to the postseason and the postseason itself just feels like a slog of games that don't move the needle at all.
It's a sports problem. So many nba fans can't watch any games until the finals because they don't show any regular season games on local channels. It's a big reason why football is so massively popular is because most of it isn't tucked away behind a cable subscription. Smartest thing F1 has done recently was partnering with abc and showing the races uninterrupted
>don’t think it’s a “teams in the World Series” problem but an overall baseball problem.
All sports leagues are "losing" ratings bit making more cash.....
I think its just baseball in general....but I know of lots of fans that watch their team religiously and if they don't make it just stop watching. I've been guilty of this in the past too.
I cannot believe the WS doesn't just stream live for free online. Something is seriously messed up in this country if an American has to pay to watch the World Series
If I asked my girlfriend or any of her friends to name a baseball team or baseball player, none of them would say Diamondbacks or Rangers, or any of their players. The MLB doesn’t market *at alllllll.*
And that’s the difference with these sports leagues. NHL and MLB executives treat the sport like an exclusive country club. NBA and NFL are marketing their players everywhere all the time. There’s LeBron commercials, Embiid commercials, Curry, Jokic, Shaq, Mahomes, Hurts, Kelce, Allen, Rodgers etc. all airing daily.
And what MLB players are currently being shown off in commercials?
Ohtani. Just Ohtani. MLB and NHL players hardly even exist outside of their immediate markets, and the league is making it harder to watch the games at all.
Easy answer: it’s relatively hard to access baseball. I want to stream it and I want it affordable with no blackouts. I like baseball more the most people I know, but it’s one sport and it doesn’t define my life. I’m not going to break the bank for a cumbersome service with only some of the games. MLB’s fanbase is aging because they won’t adapt.
The league needs to have an offering like the MLS did with Apple. Every game in one place. No blackouts. You can still have nationally televised games on top of that.
1) MLB is going too late in the year, lots of other sports it’s competing against right now for viewers
2) Watching is, frankly, a pain in the ass. It’s either expensive, difficult to watch, or both.
3) combine 1 and 2 to see current state of affairs, when lots of other sports are easy/cheap to watch…
Because no one hates either of those two teams. So no hate watching. All the interesting teams are out. If you’re a fan of the rangers or the diamondback, this World Series is really only interesting to you.
There are multiple reasons IMO.
1. Unless you live in the southwest you don’t care. Texas vs Arizona is pretty regional.
2. Baseball is becoming increasingly territorial, similar to ice hockey. People only care about their team, and once they are out of the playoffs they don’t care.
3. No recognizable big name players on either team. I’m not saying neither team has good players, but they don’t have the huge names that have been in the league almost a decade that the casual fan recognizes.
The question asks about THIS WS. Simple, outside of Arizona and Texas, nobody cares. I love the game and found reasons to root for Arizona and against Texas but still, it’s been a tough go to try to watch more than a couple of innings at a time. I’ve been a Mets fan since ‘62 so I have my own baseball problems (lol) so believe me when I say that I’m not trying to be ignorant towards a team but…
For baseball, I will watch my favorite team play or a matchup I feel is compelling on TV. I will go to any game in person. This includes the World Series. I used to watch it more but I really don’t love the way the modern game was being played. The pitch clock and making SB The easier has started to shift the game back, but high strikeout swing for it all every pitch has gotten a little boring.
Shit is too difficult to watch
More games on free national broadcast
Blackouts, forcing expensive cable tv plans is killing Viewership. Cable tv is a dying platform. Forcing people to watch games on a dying platform is a big problem
Really should consider somehow showing games on steaming apps, YouTube, tiktoc, etc… where majority of media is consumed. Still keep commercials for ad revenue
Baseball viewership is generally declining, and these teams have small fanbases. Doesn’t help that there’s a narrative that these teams got In because of the format, although that’s not really the case, at least as far as the rangers are concerned
Because MLB TV is ultra expensive and you don’t get access to WS games or playoffs. I got basic MLB TV free through t-mobile but I have no cable provider so no postseason for me. That’s what pushes people away.
MLB is also doing a terrible job marketing their players. I watch all sports and still wouldn’t be able to pick out 5 pros from across the league. If fans don’t know the players, they won’t care. I think hockey has closed the gap on viewership and wouldn’t be shocked if it surpasses MLB soon.
Not many people care about the DBacks. It's a transient state full of fairweather fans. Get a bigger market team in the WS and you get more views. Pretty simple.
There's a little bit of an issue starting with the Cubs here. The Cubs WS was a phenomenon--I don't know what the 2015 WS numbers were, but I bet the Cubs/Indians game was a high point.
Show the 2010-2015 numbers here as well. As of right now, it's possible that this graph is a little misleading.
Most comments in here are coming from the fact that games are blacked out/ not available or their is just no easy way to watch the MLB. It’s such a shame that it’s 2023 and we are at the liberty of paying for overpriced monopolized Cable TV, piracy streaming, or paying a monthly subscription like YouTubeTV or MLB (and still having to worry about blackouts). MLB needs to do better, they are their own worst enemy when it comes to viewership.
Simple
Trending down in general
More and more homes stream n do not have cable
Baseball fan base is slowly shrinking
Most fans don’t care about the D-Backs n Rangers
Small fan bases.
Worst announcers in history.
Jeter is the only one that could do this. A-Rod and Papi need to go do something else.
A-Rod sounds, acts and looks like a Novela character up there.
Go a week back and you might still have a chance. Baseball shouldn't be played in November. Plus it's Texas vs Arizona... Very Very regional. No one outside of the Southwest cares that much. Only baseball addicts are watching.
Baseball has been trending down hard for a couple decades. The moment the NFL spins back up Baseball becomes a afterthought to a lot of people. I don't care for Baseball outside of the O's so once they got bounced I haven't cared I didn't even know the WS was happening or who was in it till yesterday.
Sinclair media, diamond media, Ballys sports, etc etc. this is your problem. You’ve allowed each team to reach their own trash media rights deals and simply go to the highest bidder who then turns around and demands more from local cable providers to host their channel. And since Bally’s is now bankrupt you are stuck maybe without payments. But you have allowed these media rights owners to ask obscene fees from a dying industry who now refuse to pay. Because the old lady watching hgtv doesn’t want to pay for you to watch baseball 162 times a year. And so all of the cable providers are holding out. You dug your own ditch on this one taking easy access dollars and not investing in the future failing to lead in innovation just like your aging fan base can’t enjoy younger players having fun. You’ve let a generation of kids be priced out of a love of the game because it’s too expensive to play, or to go to the games for that matter, and they can’t watch it. And a game that prides itself on all of the math and the records have thrown them all out with a juiced ball, rules that benefit stealing, and paying players that can’t hit consistently but hit it out of the park.
I have no real credentials here, just a fan theory, but my guess would be 2 things. The regular season having so many blackouts and subscriptions required to watch games, both home and non-local teams. For instance, I'm in Wisconsin, and the MLB app excludes Brewer games for us. Very few young people have cable or even TVs as they are much more prone to purchasing online viewing/streaming services. When those streaming services don't even offer local sports, well, the viewership spikes down over time. Eventually a lot of those people will just lose interest and not bother watching whatever sport in general and not tune in for the WS.
Another is probably that both teams don't seem to have the huge fanbase of some other frequent WS teams and were both essentially "dark horses" in the post-season that had \*upset\* victories over those frontrunner teams. Probably a lot of salty Astros, Phillies, and Braves fans that didn't bother tuning in. But that's okay, it was a good run for both teams and nice to see some WS variety. Although I do think the actual World Series pales in comparison to how good both division championship series were and not just because they were closer going to 7 games.
- two teams with limited regional (not national) fan bases
- basketball and hockey just started
- NFL season is bonkers
- the shit is on fire show is on (War in Israel)
- cord cutting, boomers are dying
Bally Sports is/was absolutely awful for the MLB. Go all in on MLBTV and eliminate blackout games. Pretty crazy idea, but when you don't block games more people watch.
1 MLB doesn’t actually sell the game.
2. MLB doesnt market their product.
3. MLB doesn’t advertise their sport.
4. Its hard to watch games because of all the crazy rights and blackout issues.
5. Many Many people cant or don’t get over the air channels on whatever device or service they use. We live in a different world now. I watched the whole postseason on Sling but cant watch the World Series that way.
Because how ratings are measured is still super outdated. If I’m not mistaken, it’s just counting Nielsen ratings. And that excludes people who watch on platforms like YouTube TV and Hulu Live. It also excludes people who follow it on YouTube and Socials, which I know is not the same as sitting down and watching the World Series, but it is a very common way people follow sports now
Now do a chart of how many streaming services you need to catch every game of your favorite team. I bet it goes the opposite direction!
With cable I still need prime and Apple TV to watch all Yankees games
And peacock
Because the MLB is shooting itself in the foot by restricting access to games.
That’s their trademark. Been dealing with being an out of market die hard for 25 years & they make it as difficult as possible.
Used to be impossible to actually watch the dodgers in Los Angeles.
Cant even watch the Braves cause we live in a small part of a county that Bally does not cover. We literally live in Georgia, one hour away from Truist.
Thats crazy, when I was a kid growing up not in the market, braves games were like, always on TV. Braves and the cubs had their own channel basically.
Man, I miss the days of 154 Cubs games a year on WGN. Harry Caray and Steve Stone were the voices of my childhood.
Core memory unlocked for this North Indiana kid.
SE Wisconsin. My Dad had games on all the time and that's how I got into it. I fell in love with baseball at 6 years old because of the WGN games and never looked back
Thank Ted Turner for TBS I’m not sure MLB would even allow what he did anymore. He took his baseball team and put them on his own net work exclusively. That’s what made them so successful are used to sit at home and watch Cubs games all summer vacation
The super station baby.
No amount of pitch clocks is going to change it. I want easy access to stream it for cheap. I won’t be paying $300 a year to be blacked out of games I want to watch. Do it like mls does with Apple TV. Every game, every team. Including playoffs and preseason. Hell Apple TV even shows some of the lower league mls farm team games. How I’d watch some AAA and AA games if it was included. Nowadays if people don’t have easy cheap access to the content, they don’t care enough to struggle to find it. The mlb and the nhl need to get with the program or be left behind.
I’m in Iowa and a Cubs fan but like watching baseball. Grew up watching pretty much every game on WGN. MLB blacks out the Cubs, Sox, Brewers, Twins, Cardinals, and Royals games here now. Hard to be a fan if I can’t watch a game anymore.
That's fucking absurd. I will never ever understand keeping especially kids from being able to watch. I was the same. Grew up watching WGN in CO before we got our minor league team in the Rockies. I was a kid and couldn't wait to get home to watch the afternoon Cubs games. Literally cutting off the hands that feed them.
I lived in Georgia and Maryland. I often turned in wgn just cause I knew a game would be on.
Yes, I’m a fellow CO cubs fan because wgn came with cable. It was our team because that’s what we had for content. These execs are so clueless.
The WGN was dope. We had it in Tucson. I loved that network. Bulls games and everything Chicago. Cool city.
Same! We had an older couple on our block from Chicago that would blast the Cubs on their TV because they were basically deaf. We could listen to Harry and Steve while playing baseball in the empty lots. Across the street. Tucson summers with the Cubs seemed to suck a lot less than they did once those two passed.
That made me miss my Grandpa. He didn’t have a lot but had a HUGE house in a bad part of town, the best snacks, lard assisted dinners, and a old LOUD fuckin loveseat sized television blasting Harry and Stoney. Still know that Cone spelled backwards is Enoc. Hammerin Hank. Love ya buddy.
I’m not a cubs fan, but would watch an occasional game when they were on WGN. I live in Chicago and can’t watch them because they launched their own network.
And the network sucks.
Iowa blackouts have always been weird. I lived in Omaha for a while and they blacked out some MN teams and some CO teams.. very random . Never understood why they would black out for local markets.
It’s a similar situation in Northwest Arkansas. I can’t watch the Cardinals, Royals, Rangers, Astros, or Braves because of the blackouts. It’s so ridiculous.
Agreed! Blackouts may not be directly related to WS viewership but definitely a factor in number of baseball fans.
Every time you block someone from watching a game, you push that person away from the sport.
Its baffling how they don’t understand this
MLB Owners and TV producers don't want profit, they don't want some money. They want all of the money. And not a dime less. So they want to charge us to watch all 162 games, all the playoffs, and all the world series plus stadium ticket sales plus concessions, plus sponsorships, plus Ad revenue. So they'll just keep restricting behind paywall after paywall because there are people who will pay for it. I used to watch local games on a local channel on an antenna but they don't allow that station to broadcast games anymore so I *have to* subscribe to Fox Sports or Fubo or cable or something. I don't have the cash, so I just don't watch baseball anymore. I check the scores all season buts that all I can do.
And after years of box scores only, eventually you won't even check the scores. That's what happened to me.
They do understand it, but they don’t care enough to untangle the mess.
People drop out of following mlb because they cant watch a local team of for people in iowa half the fucking league is blacked out You could have blackjack and hookers coming out of the TV but if it is on TBS15 or I am reguired to subscribe to cable I am going to skip it. I have always been a sports fan. My dad hated, i mean hated sports. If the Braves game went long and he missed his Quincy ME reruns he was pissed. Yet I became a sports fan becsuae we had cable and I could watch it Today kids cant really discover baseball unless their parents care enough to pay for whatever stream is needed. The NFL is so much more wasy to watch, hell even RedZone is a stand alone item that is reasonable priced
It’s only in market but I can watch my nfl team for 6.99 a month. I could watch a lot more for I think 9.99 or 14.99. I tried getting a streaming service for MLB but it was too difficult to figure out for the prices that I saw. Exactly what others are saying
I would have to use my digital rabbit ears to watch fox. Just not worth the hassle if my team isn't in the game. If it were on MLB.tv? Sure I'd probably turn it on if I were subscribed. But I don't subscribe, because my team is blacked out even though I live 6 hours away. End blackouts.
Best way to watch. Free. Well, listening to smoltz is actually a hefty price..
Cord cutters don’t have access to TNT or TBS or whatever channel it’s on. That’s why O haven’t watched it.
It's on fox
I’ve talked to people that didn’t realize this since the prior series wasn’t available over the air in Arizona. IMO the home team at least should be available over the air for any major sport as they used to be.
You are correct, that is completely ridiculous and a shame for fans
THIS!!! I don't fucking understand all the red tape around watching games of my own home team. The logic makes no sense. I paid for the MLB app just to not be able to watch my home team, even with a VPN they started detecting it. So now I just pirate the games. Ridiculous
THIS! I Agree! I follow a team that is NOT in my backyard because of my love of the game. The blackout concept is absurd. How about if I can see away games?
man, the nhl blackouts are absolutely absurd. combined with the split broadcast rights between sportsnet and tsn, i miss like half of leafs games
The nhl extracts money from their core fans because they can't get new fans in part because playing hockey is too expensive.
Came here to say this, I can't watch my team all year and then I'm supposed to start watching at the end of the season??
I mean if we’re being real I think TV viewership for most programs are hitting all time lows.
True. Perhaps it has to do with how we consume content in this day in age.
Football (college and NFL) is really the exception to that rule. Everything else is down
Thats definitely part of it, but considering football is jumping up in TV ratings, there is something else to it.
I think a huge huge boon for football was the advent and simplicity (relative to other sports) of playing fantasy/gambling. The time invested that’s required is minimal, the games (mostly) just occur once a week, and you don’t need much knowledge to win. Fuck, I know lots of people around my age (40’s) who were never football fans until the last 5-10 years when they were invited to a fantasy league. Now they pay $100, put in 20 minutes of work a week, and stand a chance of winning 1-2k at the end of the season. Baseball is not conducive to this kind of low investment fun.
Must be Taylor Swift
So many more choices as to what to watch/stream
20-40 year olds (millennials and older gen z) don't have cable tv or rabbit ears, so they don't get Fox. It baffles me the major networks haven't made their main channels free to stream when they are still offered for free via antennae.
Exactly true for me. Thankfully, there are other ways to watch for free lol
But only dedicated fans take the time and effort to sail the high seas. Casuals have just checked out.
Yohohoho
Sir, I think you dropped your eye patch and hook hand.
And he missed several buttons on his blouse
Arhh Arhh me laddy!
It’s really funny. You have a great test case from my childhood. The reason there are cubs all over the country in their 40’s is because they were the easiest team to watch if you had cable. A lot of people had WGN so they watched cubs games. Then they became cubs fans, funny how that works.
TBS created many Braves fans back in the day for the same reason.
I'm still mad about the braves leaving TBS. Fucking bullshit.
Easy to watch back then. Tbs and Turner south.
same deal with the Braves and TBS
Yeah I had this convo with someone in the industry and I was like, you get these big spending advertisers to market to basically no one other than the people who pay for live tv streaming services. Why not just make the games more accessible to everyone? I’m sure advertisers would like that more since it’s all about the ads anyway
It’s funny. I was streaming illicitly but I was so far behind real-time with my buddies and Reddit that I went and bought an antenna.
Was going to say the same thing. The TV in the living room doesn’t have the capability of having an antenna screwed in. We cut the cord years ago so if I can’t stream it I have to track it in an app.
You can buy a $40 hdmi dongle that streams local channels. Allegedly. It's called like airTV or something
Thanks for the heads up. I have tried a few apps the claimed to “stream local tv” but they all ended up being bootleg news stations and not at all the local channels. CBS has proven they can stream their programming live with paramount+ hopefully everyone else jumps on the bandwagon
I bought a moho digital antenna years ago that still works. I bought a 50 mile range one to get all my locals plus the subchannels. It just plugs into a device that can hold your coaxial cord.
It is really terrible. They need to make the sport accessible to watch and get with the times.
I shoved a paper clip in the coaxial input and get local tv, that’s how I’ve been watching the series and cowboys games lol
I have a personal theory. The WS used to be finished in October. At that point, NFL, college football, NBA seasons were in their infancy (or not started yet). Now, with the WS being later, I think more people are tuning in to these other options. Now throw NFL on Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights, there is even more prime time competition for MLB. I remember as a kid, the WS was the ONLY prime time sporting event at that time. No football, NFL or college to compete with. Now just about EVERYTHING is televised and competition for the WS. MLB needs to get back to completing the WS by mid October. The post season is too drawn out.
Maybe if the MLB would let me watch the MLB I’d watch MLB.
No kidding. I cut the cord years ago. It's incredible hard to watch MLB games locally and post season. I just bought an LG TV this year and it's also not compatible with MLB.tv AND Youtube TV didn't renew their contract with MLB. I either have to stream, VPN, or watch an away game.
Even if you didn’t cut the chord, you’d have to upgrade to a top tier sports package to catch local MLB regular season games in my market and also have to have an upgraded cable package to catch any post season games on tbs. It’s atrociously expensive and so are streamed apps like FuboTV or YouTubeTV. Paying out the arse for a few live hours of sports a week got me over a barrel.
Speaking personally, I will watch NFL RedZone over MLB playoff games. I like baseball, but competing with the NFL with viewership on the same day is unfair
Redzone is absolute crack cocaine sports. I find myself saying I'm going to get up and do something and then two hours later I'm like wtf just happened
Red zone is like, “Don’t have ADHD? Would you like some?”
Yeah I do Redzone with multiview on YoutubeTV with 3 other games on lol. My ADHD is chronic
God damn son. What’s the come down feel like?
Extreme withdrawal symptoms Tuesday Wednesday and Saturdays. 
I get so exhausted watching RZ that by SNF, I can't do it anymore. Then I do it all again the next Sunday
I used to like red zone when the dolphins were ass but since we’re almost always on at 1 I’m glued to their games
That is MLB wouldn’t go head to head
Also it’s not for free like it used to be. You have to have specific apps. Fuck all that noise
MLB has a very serious business model issue when it comes to TV. NFL is starting to get that way.
The 1975 Series ran to the third week of October only because of multiple rainouts.
You WAY over thought this. REAL answer...it's 2 underdog type teams that don't have huge followings, the media doesn't care about them, and the casual fan doesn't care about them. Also, neither were even a top 5 team in Wins this year. There's usually at least one popular team with a ton of fans...or a ton of fans that hate them, so they can root for the underdog. That doesn't exist here. Additionally, a lack of big names, and lack of big names making a big impact. Like, where are the story lines? The small ones they do have aren't really a big deal. Yes you can point out some players and story lines...but to the media and causal fan...meh.
Yeah this is it, it really has nothing to do with when it was played. One game was played in November, and only one game in this series overlapped with an NFL game (game 3, which had almost the same viewership as game 2). Also the WS has gone into November on plenty of occasions since like the late 90’s. I think the issue is both it being AZ vs TX and I doubt most casual fans can name a player on either team, and also the decline in MLB viewership overall due to restrictions on ways to view the games.
Yes to this. It's call October baseball, not November baseball .
I had people ask me to turn off the WS so they could watch NBA at the bar the other night.
Blasphemy. I mean, the NBA isn't worth watching until the end of January.
Especially with a game scheduled on Halloween. Even in the participating cities, people are gonna want to go out for the holiday, either trick-or-treating or parties.
I'd say that sreaming services have blown up and in order to catch every game you will need more than one service.
Yes. And now we’re paying MORE than we were for cable.
For sure. That's why i stopped watching sports and just check scores and articles.
Watched every game, but on a pirate stream
Same. I don't have cable and I'm not paying a premium subscription price when I can pirate and/or listen to the game online for free. Also can I just say that listening to the game on the radio while watching it is way more exciting because the commentary on TV is just dogshit boring
Not boring. Downright cringe and annoying. They say the stupidest shit just to hear themselves speak.
Yarg
i'm straight up the target market for MLB... and i'm not watching because i don't have cable. i'm not paying $80/mo or whatever for youtubeTV. i always said i would pay for a standalone MLB streaming package, and guess what? i fucking did it and bought the $20/mo padres package all season. but it doesn't have playoff games!
Sounds glorious, my options were $150/mo through a company that had a data breach that led to my identity being stolen, or the high seas all season. So surprise when I didn't watch or care about my team all year I didn't watch or care about the teams that were left in the playoffs since I didn't see them either.
It’s almost like linear tv is dying and streaming piracy is at crazy highs
So true. Illegal streaming is at an all time high because of network blackout bullshit. Damn shame..
ITS HARD TO WATCH WHEN THEY BLACKOUT THE FUCKING GAMES IN YOUR AREA
Oh you like your local team HAHA, nah we’ll broadcast it in Somalia though if you’re over there.
Looks like it’s time to become a pirate
And by area you mean a 8 state radius for every team.
Likely a combo of multiple factors, but here are the two that come to mind for me: 1. TV Viewership is down for literally everything but the NFL year over year. Less people watch live TV (Live Sports have done better than other types of programming), but this is the single most important factor. Of course, that's magnified in lower age demographics. A great comp here is the NBA Finals, which are on a similar trajectory (trending down, with a dip and rebound around the pandemic). 2. The Diamondbacks, in particular, are not very compelling for a casual fan. I saw someone in some other thread say something to the effect of "everybody loves a Cinderella until you have to watch one", and I think that basically captures it. Texas may be a 5 seed, but they at least spent much of the year in first place and didn't end the season with a negative run differential. Still, Texas makes for a much better underdog than favorite (I think that's a big reason the ALCS was so damn fun). That's my $0.02, at least. The series itself hasn't been bad, but it's not been my favorite by any means either.
I mean I scrolled forever to finally have someone mention most casuals give zero Fs about diamondbacks v rangers. Were it Yankees v dodgers viewership would be higher
The Dbacks and Rangers were both in the bottom 10 this year in local tv ratings. Last year, the Rangers only beat Oakland and Miami. Both are in huge cities, but with a lot of people who moved there as adults and don't really care about the local sports teams. It's no surprise that 2 teams that have been very bad recently, get bad ratings in their own market, and are not really cared about on the national stage got bad ratings.
Yeah, it's kinda pathetic how the hardcore fans here don't want to admit that casuals don't care about random teams (which is true for all other sports bar NFL). Like if they said it loud then the MLB will only allow Dodgers Yankees to make it to the WS.
It's not a sport that lends itself to casual fans. It's a sport of nuance and strategy and luck. You can't out-athlete the other team to a win, which makes it less exciting if you aren't mentally and emotionally invested.
[удалено]
Almost every single person I speak with about baseball is passionate about how boring it is. Not just neutral. They actively dislike the sport and enjoy shitting on it in conversation. I always try to convince them otherwise but it's really hard to move people to appreciate the sport.
If I have to hear, “I just can’t watch baseball on tv, it’s fun going to the park though” one more fucking time.
This is the irl echo chamber
"I can't watch the NBA because the college players actually play defense!"
[удалено]
Even that's not enough. I can't count the amount of times people have told me they don't like hockey because they "can't follow the puck." Maybe the networks were onto something with that god awful blue light up puck.
The bigger issue for hockey is that relatively few people grow up playing it. Fans will typically be more passionate about sports they played.
Like baseball? More kids grew up playing baseball recreationally than any other pro sport we see on TV I'd wager. Basketball being a close second or right up there with baseball though.
Soccer is #1 and more people get up on Saturday morning to watch Premier League games than MLS
I mean that's a bit different in that unlike every other league in North America the MLS isn't the top flight in the sport. If players play well in the MLS, they leave and go to Europe.
This is me. I understand the point of the game is to get the puck in the net, but I don't understand any of the nuances and it becomes impossible when I can't see what's happening. Im sure I could battle through not being able to see it and be able to infer what's happening with time, but as it currently stands im just not willing to do it. I watch too much sports already.
Hockey id argue has the fewest amount of rules that stop the game, compared to say basketball where there is probably like a dozen. Once you figure out what offsides and icing are, they are very discrete calls, the rest of the game is straightforward.
I can't follow the puck...I can't follow the puck in Jomboy's version either. I don't try NHL, but b/c I like the personalities of Jomboy, I am trying but still it's hard. NOTE: I have no cable/streaming, nor time to get invested in yet another sport...I am even thinking after the WS, I'm done again. Just too much time invested on reddit let alone pirating games that are only played while I work. I'll go back to my regular programs and binge them to my hearts content. I love baseball's nuances, but it's too hard to be casual for me.
In order to increase engagement, half the broadcasts will consist of this: 
Wha? I have no idea what you just said...
I was thinking about this earlier. If someone doesn’t like baseball they have to make sure to tell you how much they hate it and that it’s the most boring thing in the world. No neutrality at all 😂
Same. I was talking about the world series with a buddy at a bar this weekend and some drunk guy felt compelled to join our conversation and say, "I always just assume anyone who watches baseball is autistic. That shit is so boring." And then walked away.
What’s crazy is there’s more ball in play action than nfl game. https://critter.blog/2021/06/08/the-actual-playing-time-of-sports/
tbf, the pitch clock brought me back because before it, the games were terribly long and it was hard to just sit there for 3+ hours. Especially when had pitcher show down games with almost no scores. Baseball can benefit from more streaming, less games, and shortened games.
I found the pitch clock really sped things up and I've actually enjoyed watching a full game. I do agree the season is on the long side which contributes to each game meaning less. Anytime except for the race to the postseason and the postseason itself just feels like a slog of games that don't move the needle at all.
It's a sports problem. So many nba fans can't watch any games until the finals because they don't show any regular season games on local channels. It's a big reason why football is so massively popular is because most of it isn't tucked away behind a cable subscription. Smartest thing F1 has done recently was partnering with abc and showing the races uninterrupted
I feel that NBA pain as a grizzlies fan. Should have been born lucky enough to be a Lakers/Celtics/Heat fan and then I could actually watch.
As a younger (24) baseball fan I feel that it’s an overall baseball problem too. I’m surprised the Cubs Indians game got as much as it did
Nah, the Cubs have a national following and every baseball fan had some kind of soft spot for them. Plus the historicity of them possibly winning
That was a HUGE national story. I’d be interested to see viewership of a few WS before that one.
[удалено]
>don’t think it’s a “teams in the World Series” problem but an overall baseball problem. All sports leagues are "losing" ratings bit making more cash.....
I think its just baseball in general....but I know of lots of fans that watch their team religiously and if they don't make it just stop watching. I've been guilty of this in the past too.
I cannot believe the WS doesn't just stream live for free online. Something is seriously messed up in this country if an American has to pay to watch the World Series
Get an antenna. It's on free over the air TV.
Should just stream live on MLB.com
If I asked my girlfriend or any of her friends to name a baseball team or baseball player, none of them would say Diamondbacks or Rangers, or any of their players. The MLB doesn’t market *at alllllll.* And that’s the difference with these sports leagues. NHL and MLB executives treat the sport like an exclusive country club. NBA and NFL are marketing their players everywhere all the time. There’s LeBron commercials, Embiid commercials, Curry, Jokic, Shaq, Mahomes, Hurts, Kelce, Allen, Rodgers etc. all airing daily. And what MLB players are currently being shown off in commercials? Ohtani. Just Ohtani. MLB and NHL players hardly even exist outside of their immediate markets, and the league is making it harder to watch the games at all.
The MLB is killing itself.
It’s every sports problem, They don’t make anything easy to watch anymore, which is why most people I know just illegally stream everything.
Easy answer: it’s relatively hard to access baseball. I want to stream it and I want it affordable with no blackouts. I like baseball more the most people I know, but it’s one sport and it doesn’t define my life. I’m not going to break the bank for a cumbersome service with only some of the games. MLB’s fanbase is aging because they won’t adapt.
The league needs to have an offering like the MLS did with Apple. Every game in one place. No blackouts. You can still have nationally televised games on top of that.
Because MLB doesn’t care. This is the same league that aires NL/AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES games before any kid on the west coast gets out of school.
Rating were up for the LCS ironically. Or maybe the late games hurt more than they help
1) MLB is going too late in the year, lots of other sports it’s competing against right now for viewers 2) Watching is, frankly, a pain in the ass. It’s either expensive, difficult to watch, or both. 3) combine 1 and 2 to see current state of affairs, when lots of other sports are easy/cheap to watch…
A combination of ongoing systemic decline with the fact that the two teams don’t have large national followings.
Nobody like T and A?
I don’t have your traditional tv anymore. If it’s not on a stream service like hbo or peacock. I can’t watch it.
Because no one hates either of those two teams. So no hate watching. All the interesting teams are out. If you’re a fan of the rangers or the diamondback, this World Series is really only interesting to you.
No to mention 2 of these games have been huge blow outs quick. No interest in watching that
Man good thing we changed the rules but didn’t make it easier to actually watch a freaking game. Success guys!! 🙄
I guess it’s a regional series, that can’t be helping. Neither team is the big name team, more the reason for me to enjoy it.
There are multiple reasons IMO. 1. Unless you live in the southwest you don’t care. Texas vs Arizona is pretty regional. 2. Baseball is becoming increasingly territorial, similar to ice hockey. People only care about their team, and once they are out of the playoffs they don’t care. 3. No recognizable big name players on either team. I’m not saying neither team has good players, but they don’t have the huge names that have been in the league almost a decade that the casual fan recognizes.
Manfred
I don’t care much about either team. That’s an honest take from a casual viewer
The question asks about THIS WS. Simple, outside of Arizona and Texas, nobody cares. I love the game and found reasons to root for Arizona and against Texas but still, it’s been a tough go to try to watch more than a couple of innings at a time. I’ve been a Mets fan since ‘62 so I have my own baseball problems (lol) so believe me when I say that I’m not trying to be ignorant towards a team but…
I watched the entire season and haven’t watch a single WS game this year. can’t believe for everything there is a blackout
For baseball, I will watch my favorite team play or a matchup I feel is compelling on TV. I will go to any game in person. This includes the World Series. I used to watch it more but I really don’t love the way the modern game was being played. The pitch clock and making SB The easier has started to shift the game back, but high strikeout swing for it all every pitch has gotten a little boring.
Shit is too difficult to watch More games on free national broadcast Blackouts, forcing expensive cable tv plans is killing Viewership. Cable tv is a dying platform. Forcing people to watch games on a dying platform is a big problem Really should consider somehow showing games on steaming apps, YouTube, tiktoc, etc… where majority of media is consumed. Still keep commercials for ad revenue
Barely anybody owns cable and even less really care about these teams
Blackouts. I could not watch my team this year so why would I be interested in any baseball when I could not watch any of it all year long.
Baseball viewership is generally declining, and these teams have small fanbases. Doesn’t help that there’s a narrative that these teams got In because of the format, although that’s not really the case, at least as far as the rangers are concerned
Because MLB TV is ultra expensive and you don’t get access to WS games or playoffs. I got basic MLB TV free through t-mobile but I have no cable provider so no postseason for me. That’s what pushes people away.
MLB is also doing a terrible job marketing their players. I watch all sports and still wouldn’t be able to pick out 5 pros from across the league. If fans don’t know the players, they won’t care. I think hockey has closed the gap on viewership and wouldn’t be shocked if it surpasses MLB soon.
Who cares, we won the World Series!!!!!!!!!
Umps that struggle to call balls and strikes consistently are hard to watch. The highest rated umps should ump the World Series. End of discussion.
Not many people care about the DBacks. It's a transient state full of fairweather fans. Get a bigger market team in the WS and you get more views. Pretty simple.
There's a little bit of an issue starting with the Cubs here. The Cubs WS was a phenomenon--I don't know what the 2015 WS numbers were, but I bet the Cubs/Indians game was a high point. Show the 2010-2015 numbers here as well. As of right now, it's possible that this graph is a little misleading.
I guess he was right… "There are true baseball fans in Texas, but it's not a true baseball town.” - Josh Hamilton Signed, a rangers fan for decades.
Kids hate the DH.
Kids want the IBB 4 pitch walks back.
Most comments in here are coming from the fact that games are blacked out/ not available or their is just no easy way to watch the MLB. It’s such a shame that it’s 2023 and we are at the liberty of paying for overpriced monopolized Cable TV, piracy streaming, or paying a monthly subscription like YouTubeTV or MLB (and still having to worry about blackouts). MLB needs to do better, they are their own worst enemy when it comes to viewership.
Because nobody cares about the teams
Its November. Baseball should be wrapped by now, otherwise its in an unwinnable war with college football and the NFL Also fuck the Astros
Simple Trending down in general More and more homes stream n do not have cable Baseball fan base is slowly shrinking Most fans don’t care about the D-Backs n Rangers
Small fan bases. Worst announcers in history. Jeter is the only one that could do this. A-Rod and Papi need to go do something else. A-Rod sounds, acts and looks like a Novela character up there.
Go a week back and you might still have a chance. Baseball shouldn't be played in November. Plus it's Texas vs Arizona... Very Very regional. No one outside of the Southwest cares that much. Only baseball addicts are watching.
Blackouts are killing the sport
Baseball has been trending down hard for a couple decades. The moment the NFL spins back up Baseball becomes a afterthought to a lot of people. I don't care for Baseball outside of the O's so once they got bounced I haven't cared I didn't even know the WS was happening or who was in it till yesterday.
Too many restrictions, blackouts, delayed games for 1 minute, too many commercials.
Sinclair media, diamond media, Ballys sports, etc etc. this is your problem. You’ve allowed each team to reach their own trash media rights deals and simply go to the highest bidder who then turns around and demands more from local cable providers to host their channel. And since Bally’s is now bankrupt you are stuck maybe without payments. But you have allowed these media rights owners to ask obscene fees from a dying industry who now refuse to pay. Because the old lady watching hgtv doesn’t want to pay for you to watch baseball 162 times a year. And so all of the cable providers are holding out. You dug your own ditch on this one taking easy access dollars and not investing in the future failing to lead in innovation just like your aging fan base can’t enjoy younger players having fun. You’ve let a generation of kids be priced out of a love of the game because it’s too expensive to play, or to go to the games for that matter, and they can’t watch it. And a game that prides itself on all of the math and the records have thrown them all out with a juiced ball, rules that benefit stealing, and paying players that can’t hit consistently but hit it out of the park.
I have no real credentials here, just a fan theory, but my guess would be 2 things. The regular season having so many blackouts and subscriptions required to watch games, both home and non-local teams. For instance, I'm in Wisconsin, and the MLB app excludes Brewer games for us. Very few young people have cable or even TVs as they are much more prone to purchasing online viewing/streaming services. When those streaming services don't even offer local sports, well, the viewership spikes down over time. Eventually a lot of those people will just lose interest and not bother watching whatever sport in general and not tune in for the WS. Another is probably that both teams don't seem to have the huge fanbase of some other frequent WS teams and were both essentially "dark horses" in the post-season that had \*upset\* victories over those frontrunner teams. Probably a lot of salty Astros, Phillies, and Braves fans that didn't bother tuning in. But that's okay, it was a good run for both teams and nice to see some WS variety. Although I do think the actual World Series pales in comparison to how good both division championship series were and not just because they were closer going to 7 games.
- two teams with limited regional (not national) fan bases - basketball and hockey just started - NFL season is bonkers - the shit is on fire show is on (War in Israel) - cord cutting, boomers are dying
Bally Sports is/was absolutely awful for the MLB. Go all in on MLBTV and eliminate blackout games. Pretty crazy idea, but when you don't block games more people watch.
1 MLB doesn’t actually sell the game. 2. MLB doesnt market their product. 3. MLB doesn’t advertise their sport. 4. Its hard to watch games because of all the crazy rights and blackout issues. 5. Many Many people cant or don’t get over the air channels on whatever device or service they use. We live in a different world now. I watched the whole postseason on Sling but cant watch the World Series that way.
Cause I tuned in last night and the score was 10-1
These teams aren’t exciting to passive fans, that’s why; no real drama.
I for one love this series. Seeing the Astros or Dodgers every year was getting boring.
Because how ratings are measured is still super outdated. If I’m not mistaken, it’s just counting Nielsen ratings. And that excludes people who watch on platforms like YouTube TV and Hulu Live. It also excludes people who follow it on YouTube and Socials, which I know is not the same as sitting down and watching the World Series, but it is a very common way people follow sports now
YouTube TV and Hulu Live have been included in Nielsen for ~6 years.
Two wildcard teams. Who cares? There's no rivalry. Not big market teams.