Atlanta as a Microcosm of Baseball's Big Problem

• The average age of a fan of a Major League Baseball team is 55 years old.
• The Atlanta Braves have won 17 out of 20 games and now lead the NL East by 2 games.
• Ronald Acuna, Jr. is one of the Braves' leading hitters.  He is an exciting player, is only 20 years old and has hit more home runs at this point in his career and for his age than all but 3 players in Major League history.
• The other night the Braves drew about 6,000 for a home game during this magnificent run and with all this young hitting.
• Major League Soccer's Atlanta United team averages 51,000 per home game. 
• Major League Baseball is by far the best professional baseball league in the world.
• Major League Soccer is perhaps the 10th best professional soccer league in the world.

Commissioner Manfred, Major League baseball owners, you have a big problem on your hands.  The English Premier League has televised its matches in the United States for several years.  You also can get matches from Germany, Spain and Italy.  My guess is that the demand for MLB games abroad pales in comparison to the demand for international football games in the United States. 


We all know the problems that Major League Baseball faces -- the games are too long, pitchers and hitters dawdle after each pitch, there are too many pitching changes, the ball is not in play all that much, the hitters strike out way too much, the stats make it hard to understand the game, the strike zone, as enforced, has given pitchers too much of an edge, and all of that.  The game is a moneymaker now.  I went to the games with my father, and some of my memories of those games are among the best I have.  One of my kids likes going to an occasional game; the other is a huge soccer and basketball fan and thinks its too much of a time commitment for too little action.  Almost all of his friends think the same way.


Sports tickets are expensive.  So are cell phones and smart TVs.  There is much competition for the entertainment dollar -- restaurants, streaming services, concerts, other sports teams.  The next generations will choose wisely; it is expensive to live in this country. 


Around 1970 the most popular sports in the United States were baseball, football, basketball, boxing and horse racing.  The latter was particularly popular because the track was the only place you could make a legal bet.  Boxing fell apart after Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas "Hitman" Hearns and Marvin Hagler aged out of contention (the golden age of heavyweights was gone by the time they emerged).  MMA has eclipsed boxing, and horse racing barely hangs on.  Baseball has an action issue, football a long-term health issue (although I am concerned that soccer might have similar issues to American football, if not as pervasive, pronounced or publicized).  Basketball is going strong and seemingly getting stronger.


MLB has some serious issues that won't go away and won't get better with age.  Soccer is here, and it is gaining momentum.  Could it be at some point that the U.S. develops a fully blown hierarchy of soccer teams the way they exist in European countries, and could it be before too long that MLS aligns its schedule with that of the rest of the world's leagues -- competing for talent with the likes of teams in Western Europe.  And, if that's the case, could it be that MLS takes football and baseball head on -- and wins? 


Even if that were not to happen, the problems still remain for MLB.  The big question -- what can it do to make its product better and to lower the average age of its fan base? 


They need good and creative minds on this -- now.