Baseball has always been a big part of my life. I played baseball from a young age to my late teens. I loved other sports, but baseball has always had a special place in my heart. As the older I got, the more I realized that baseballs popularity is in a decline and will continue to plummet if something is not fixed, here are five reasons why I think MLB popularity is diminishing. MLB is still America's pastime, but with it declining in popularity it is no longer going to be America's pastime.
1. Games take too long
Baseball is a very boring sport to watch. The average MLB game in 2018 was just about three hours, but Major League Baseball is trying new ways to speed up the game. Many people don't like to sit in the hot sun for three hours to watch two teams combine for four runs. Even with adding clocks to speed up between innings, the attendance for baseball games just keeps plummeting.
2. The baseball fan base isn't diverse
Baseball's fan base is dull, but theirs always room for improvement! From many websites, it says that baseball's main demography is mainly older white men. Baseball has become a much more diverse league then it was decades ago, but it isn't diverse enough. Comparing to the fan bases of the NBA and the NFL, baseball is not diverse at all. MLB has improved the diversity in the fan base over the past decades, but it needs to change something fast.
3. There's no true icon
Baseball doesn't have a true icon like the other popular American Sports. The NBA has Lebron James, NFL has Tom Brady, and the NHL has Sidney Crosby. Who is the true icon for the MLB? Many people say Bryce Harper is or selective of players are but there's no true icon for MLB these days, there are many players that are superb in the MLB, but there is no Lebron James in the MLB. The MLB needs an icon so kids have a role model to look up to.
4. Too many games in a season
Every year, thirty MLB teams play 162 regular season games. 162 games in a season are too much. The wear and tear the players receive while playing five to six games a week spanning over six months. Plus don't forget the extra month they play for the title. Baseball should shorten the league a couple of weeks. Baseball is starting earlier then it used to, but it still is too long.
5. Ticket prices
The average MLB ticket in 2018 was around thirty-two dollars. Since 2000, the average cost of a ticket for MLB has increased by nearly fifteen dollars. The MLB ticket sales have gone down in the past few years, but at the same time, the revenue for the MLB has gone up. As the years go on, ticket sales will increase. I think ticket sales need to decrease a bit, cheap tickets will lour more people to games.
