Forbes - "MLB sees record growth in 2016"

[IllmaticDelta]

I'm a huge baseball fan, but unless they start getting the younger fans, this sport will be like boxing.

Of course the WS did numbers, but it's no way next years WS comes close to Cubs Indians as far as ratings go.

correct 100%

MLB is hanging on from old white men. The younger generation is moving on



MLB Struggling To Attract One Key Demographic

Fresh off a thrilling World Series in which TV ratings were up from last year, not everything is look good for Major League Baseball.

One key demographic -- children ages 6 to 17 -- is conspicuously losing interest in the sport. According to the Wall Street Journal, kids accounted for 4.3 percent of the average audience for the ALCS and NLCS this year, down from 7.4 percent one decade ago. Kids made up about 4.6 percent of the World Series audience. That figure is lower than the number of kids in the 6-17 range who watch the NFL, NBA, NHL and the English Premier League.

Making the situation more troublesome for MLB is that fewer kids are playing Little League. Matthew Futterman of the Wall Street Journal notes that 2.1 million children played Little League baseball last year, down from 2.6 million in 1997.

The problem with the national pastime isn't just that it's past bedtime. More likely it is that baseball is slower and less action-packed than most other sports.

There is at least one positive sign for baseball. Bob Bowman, chief executive of MLB Advanced Media, told the Wall Street Journal that fans downloaded 10 million copies of MLB.com's mobile app this season. That's an increase of 3.3 million from last season. Many of those downloads are likely coming from kids.

"We know that with kids today, that is the best way to reach them," Bowman said. "And in some cases that's the only way to reach them."

Still, this downward trend feels ominous for many baseball enthusiasts. If fewer kids are following the sport now, what will viewership be like in 10, 20, 30 and 40 years?

Feb 10 2014


Which Sports Have the Whitest/Richest/Oldest Fans?

The most-watched television event in U.S. history was this year's Super Bowl. The same was true of the Super Bowl in 2012. And in 2011. And in 2010.

But the supermassive audience of the final game is just the capstone on football's monopoly of the little screen. NFL games accounted for 34 of the 35 most-watched TV shows last fall, according to TV by the Numbers. Football dominates the world of sports, and live sports dominates the world of television. It's no wonder, then, that the Super Bowl stands apart from the rest of television like a Petronas Tower airlifted into a suburb.

Although sports account for just barely 1 percent of all TV programming, it accounts for 7 percent of the total cost of pay-TV, and 50 percent of the of Tweets about television, according to Nielsen's 2013 Year in Sports Media Report. We can go on and on about how sports programming has become central to the business model of live cable TV (and therefore a central driver of the cost of cable), but that's for another day.

Today, let's look at TV demographics. Yes, the NFL is the most-watched sport. But which sport's audience is richest? Whitest? Youngest? Fortunately, Nielsen tracks that data, too. First some highlights, then the graphs. (Note: Nielsen's survey figures are heavy on older, whiter audiences, since they're more likely to own a television and pay for cable.)

• The NBA has the youngest audience, with 45 percent of its viewers under 35. It also has the highest share of black viewers, at 45 percent—three times higher than the NFL or NCAA basketball.
  
• Major League Baseball shares the most male-heavy audience, at 70 percent, with the NBA.
  
• The NHL audience is the richest of all professional sports. One-third of its viewers make more than $100k, compared to about 19 percent of the general population.
  
• Nascar's audience has the highest share of women (37 percent) and highest share of white people (94 percent).
  
• The Professional Golfers Association has the oldest audience by multiple measures: smallest share of teenagers; smallest share of 20- and early 30-somethings; and highest share of 55+ (twice as high, in the oldest demo, as the NBA or Major League Soccer).
  
• Major League Soccer has the highest share of Hispanics by far (34 percent; second is the NBA at 12 percent) and the lowest income of any major sports audience. Nearly 40 percent of its fans make less than $40k.
  
• The NCAA demographics for football and basketball are practically identical but they are surprising old (about 40% over 55+) and surprisingly white (about 80%), which clearly has as much to do with who owns a TV rather than who follows the sports.

To close with a random but delightful stat from the report: Denmark's Handball Men’s Championship on DR1 was watched by nearly 80 percent of the country's TVs.


The graph confirms

1.NFL
2.NBA
3.MLB
4.NHL

 

[IllmaticDelta]

double the revenue of the NBA

bigger stadiums and 2x the amount of games...this is only logical

 

[Insun Park]

@IllmaticDelta you can also go to google and find a bunch of polls that say Trump wouldn't be president, you can't trust these shyts

 

[#StarkSet]

I don't have a problem with baseball, the athletes are well paid and don't end up with dementia. How the NBA lose when players have the power, meanwhile you enjoy a sport with plantation mentality, not surprising since your state voted Trump....you probably did too

You trying to play it off like u don't care

But u thought the nba was on the come up



And I didn't vote at all

 

[MikelArteta]

Baseball demographics are 45 plus cacs

 

[Insun Park]

Baseball demographics are 45 plus cacs

Well America is a predominantly white country and our population is aging due to a lower birth rate so

Any nikka in the states can tell you how popular baseball is year round

 

[Malta]

You trying to play it off like u don't care

But u thought the nba was on the come up



And I didn't vote at all

The NBA just doubled it's revenue since their last CBA, it doesn't bother me because the NBA is growing at a fast rate. This is a marathon, and the NBA has other international markets it can spread out to, MLB has other international markets as well, the NFL doesn't and the only place it can go is down


I know the CTE is affecting your thought process, but look at what the NBA had a few years ago, now the average team is worth a billion....yet it's not on the come up?

 

[IllmaticDelta]

@IllmaticDelta you can also go to google and find a bunch of polls that say Trump wouldn't be president, you can't trust these shyts

stop it......MLB had a perfect storm type world series dude to historical reasons but they wont be able to sustain it for obvious reasons while the NBA's is more likely to keep trickling up

 

[Big Boss]

Baseball money

 

[Insun Park]

stop it......MLB had a perfect storm type world series dude to historical reasons but they wont be able to sustain it for obvious reasons while the NBA's is more likely to keep trickling up

Take LeBron away and the NBAs growth won't look so promising

 

[#StarkSet]

The NBA just doubled it's revenue since their last CBA, it doesn't bother me because the NBA is growing at a fast rate. This is a marathon, and the NBA has other international markets it can spread out to, MLB has other international markets as well, the NFL doesn't and the only place it can go is down


I know the CTE is affecting your thought process, but look at what the NBA had a few years ago, now the average team is worth a billion....yet it's not on the come up?

U been saying NBA would be #1 forever now and no I ain't looking for quotes


You stay relegated at 3


NFL markets are slowly starting to open up all over the world


China just started its own professional league



We global

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Take LeBron away and the NBAs growth won't look so promising

take away lebron and they would just market curry who last season was all the talk

 

[FakeNews]

Well America is a predominantly white country and our population is aging due to a lower birth rate so

Any nikka in the states can tell you how popular baseball is year round

You're a cac?

 

[Malta]

U been saying NBA would be #1 forever now and no I ain't look for quotes


You stay relegated at 3


NFL markets are slowly starting to open up all over the world


China just started its own professional



We global

I've never said the NBA would be number 1 in the US, your concussions are getting to you breh . I know how racist this country is and a sport with highly visible black men with tats making a quarter of a billion dollars wont ever be #1.

The NBA however will be a global sport, unlike the NFL, because it's a sport poor people can play. Nobody outside North America gives a fukk about Handegg, as seen by the fact the superbowl is broadcasted to "1 billion people" yet 99% of the viewers are US, Canada and Mexico China just started their own professional league? Word? Stephon Marbury has a statue there

 

[Insun Park]

You're a cac?

Nope. But America is a predominantly white nation, is that not a fact?