On March 10, the MLB Players Association voted 26-12 to accept a new collective bargaining agreement with Major League Baseball. Avoiding what could’ve been a prolonged work stoppage resulting in a shorter season.
With opening day set for April 7, baseball fans around the country are gearing up for another great season of America’s pastime. However even as a loyal Cubs fan it’s hard to feel excited about the upcoming season, and it’s not just because this’ll be the first season in over ten years where I can’t name a single player.
Ever since the Cubs left WGN in 2019, the only Cubs games available over-the-air are the occasional Saturday games that air on FOX. Certainly not enough to quench the average fan. If, like me, you don’t have cable, your only option for watching The Cubs play in 2022, is to pay for some expensive monthly streaming plans that are typically $35 or more a month.
Major League Baseball is well aware of the fact that their viewership has been steadily declining for the last few years and is constantly thinking of ways to reverse this trend.
Many different ideas have been pitched (pun intended) to try and shorten games in hopes that more viewers stay tuned in. Ideas such as implementing a pitch clock, allowing pitchers to intentionally walk a batter with one pitch rather than four, and preventing batters from stepping outside the batter’s box between pitches.
Although shortening games is a good idea when it comes to keeping existing viewers’ attention, I think baseball’s viewership problem has less to do with the length of games, and more to do with the fact that the game is just not as accessible to the working class as it once was.
A Dec. 2021, poll conducted by Seton Hall University found that of 1570 respondents, 44 percent of respondents who’d describe themselves as “avid baseball fans” did not feel excited about the upcoming season. Even more troubling was that 54 percent of respondents simply had no interest in Major League Baseball whatsoever.
As more teams move exclusively to cable and paid subscription platforms fewer people can afford to tune into games as regularly as they once could. Returning the game to its previous level of over-the-air watchability should be high up on MLB’s list of ideas for increasing viewership. Yet it seems they may be going in the opposite direction.
I will freely admit that I’m not a business minded person. However, if 54 percent of the public said they had no interest in my product, my first thought would not be, “maybe I should make it more expensive.”
If MLB wants to regrow their viewership they need to remind people why they fell in love with baseball in the first place. To so many people baseball is more than just a sport. It’s a tradition, a family bonding activity, and a symbol of America’s greatness.
I fell in love with baseball in 2006, after my father passed away. Watching Cubs games during that difficult time in my life was incredibly therapeutic. They became a fun three hour respite from a world that no longer made sense to me. Sure The Cubs lost 96 games that season but it was still good to know that I had something to look forward to every Sunday afternoon.
Watching baseball brings joy to so many people, and everybody deserves to feel that level of joy regardless of whether or not they can afford another monthly bill. If MLB wants to increase their viewership, return baseball back to the public airwaves and let people fall in love again.
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