OKC Redhawks will have a new Triple A Affiliate next year

[Richard at Remax]

Even as bad as the Rockies have been in recent years they are still among the top of MLB in attendance and the majority of the people attending games here is twentysomethings. Some go for the baseball (including some of my co-workers) and many go for the party deck or go to enjoy a nice summer night out at the ballpark with beer and friends for a relatively cheap price. There are also a lot of kids with families at the games. A lot of those that go to games aren't watching the Fox or ESPN Game of the Week broadcasts but they enjoy the ballpark experience. Baseball is very regional, 81 home games and local TV contracts drives a lot of that and people follow a team or teams and not the whole sport itself. With some local TV contracts dwarfing national TV contracts it is definitely a regional sport. Most of those with the huge contracts also tend to have close to full stadiums. The NFL is built on an entirely different model because all of the TV contracts are through the league office (except preseason).

I have some friends in the Denver area and they have used groupon over the years with Rockies tickets. I dunno if they still do that or not but its not a bad way to get younger people into the ballpark for the experience.

[shawnw]

There's a George Will (renowned baseball fan and writer) interview by Charlie Rose (PBS) that took place in the last year, preceding a new George Will book about baseball I believe, that is very insightful about baseball fans and popularity vs other sports. If you're interested in this topic I highly recommend you find and watch it. The short of it is, he said something like (complete paraphrase, sorry)...

80% of NFL fans have never even been to an NFL football game, but they don't need to because TV is what makes an NFL fan... TV doesn't make baseball fans, being at the ballpark makes baseball fans.

I'm certain I chopped that up severely. Seriously, go find that interview for the much better version.

[SoonerDave]

There's a George Will (renowned baseball fan and writer) interview by Charlie Rose (PBS) that took place in the last year, preceding a new George Will book about baseball I believe, that is very insightful about baseball fans and popularity vs other sports. If you're interested in this topic I highly recommend you find and watch it. The short of it is, he said something like (complete paraphrase, sorry)...

80% of NFL fans have never even been to an NFL football game, but they don't need to because TV is what makes an NFL fan... TV doesn't make baseball fans, being at the ballpark makes baseball fans.

I'm certain I chopped that up severely. Seriously, go find that interview for the much better version.

One of the things that I've always thought put baseball behind the proverbial 8-ball in terms of television was that, by it's nature, baseball doesn't translate to TV very well. The odd field shape, the odd angles, the long stretches of limited or no activity, Watching baseball on TV is a bit of a square-peg-round-hole proposition. Football, on the other hand, is virtually MADE for television even though the game predates TV by decades. The rectangular field, the focal area of play, the predictable cycle of action, etc. Heck, that natural translation of the game to TV is what (just as the note above points out) has made it so successful and, in turn, even hurt in-game attendance in some cases - certainly the college game is starting to feel this.

The other thing to me is that no *one* baseball game means very much - I mean, its ordinarily just 1 of 162. But each week in the 13-week (or so) college season or 18-plus-playoff-weeks in the NFL season is important in its own right, setting aside the one or two patsies on each schedule. Each game is an event. Attending a baseball game is almost incidental to itself. I remember going to 89er games back in the day to girl watch as much as watch the games themselves...unfortunately they never returned the favor LOL

I don't know that baseball can overcome this particular problem. It is what it is - but I think they can do something about the length of their season. That number of games is..well...a *lot*

[bluedogok]

Football is built for the short attention span society.

Baseball games (in markets other than NYC, Boston or Chicago) can be cheap, Rockpile tickets at Coors Field are something like $5.00. The cheapest Broncos ticket is around $100.00, 8 home games versus 81.

[SoonerDave]

Football is built for the short attention span society.

Very shortsided, broad stroke. Obviously disagree completely. It would be just as ridiculous to say baseball is for the OCD crowd who wants to keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over.

Baseball games (in markets other than NYC, Boston or Chicago) can be cheap, Rockpile tickets at Coors Field are something like $5.00. The cheapest Broncos ticket is around $100.00, 8 home games versus 81.

Again, reinforces the point about the pointlessly excessive length of the MLB season, where arguably the only reason to have so many games is to sell $5 tickets. Unfortunately, the NFL does something similar by generally forcing season ticket holders to buy equally worthless "pre-season" tickets as part of most season ticket packages.