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Leigh Steinberg Blog: The World Series–America’s Sports Highlight No Longer

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Pool Photo-USA TODAY Sports

Pool Photo-USA TODAY Sports

Major League Baseball‘s crowning event, The World Series, was the most heralded, dynamic sports attraction of the 20th Century. It was the epochal definition of sports greatness and achievement. That has dramatically changed. The first six games of the San Francisco Giants vs. Kansas City Royals contest this year had a cumulative average of twelve million viewers. Game 7 was watched by 23 million fans and saved the Series from having the lowest ratings in television history.

Back in 1959, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox to win the Championship. I remember sitting in my elementary school classroom when they wheeled a television set in to watch the games. They were played in the daytime and still transfixed the country. People stayed home from work to watch the games. It was like a holiday had been declared in Los Angeles. Every water cooler or beauty shop discussion centered on the chances of the Dodgers. We watched Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale mow down the Sox with Maury Wills running wild on the base paths, instead of studying.

Baseball was the national pastime for years. But time has caught up with the sport. Major League Baseball has quadrupled its gross receipts over the last twenty years. Its aggressive marketing program has seen new classic stadia with good attendance, expanded television, clever social media, memorabilia and fantasy sports development. Local television packages like the Dodgers’ $2 billion deal with Time Warner are fueled by strong local viewership.  There are plenty of youngsters in attendance during the year, but the World Series faces a demographic problem. In 1980, the same Royals played the Philadelphia Phillies and that Series was watched by 50 million people.

The average age of a viewer of this last World Series was 54. And that average age has continued to rise. Children aged up to age 16 comprised less than 4% of the viewing audience, which does not augur well for the future. When the expanded playoffs led to a World Series many weeks later than its prior scheduling, it ran up against formidable sports competition.

The NFL has achieved market dominance in the last twenty years. The seven top rated Nielsen television shows several weeks ago were all NFL prime time games. Games are now played Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights, and of course, Sunday afternoon is NFL time. College football ranks second in popularity and their games have expanded to Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and all day Saturday. The NHL and NBA are starting their seasons in early November and playing pre-season games through October.

Baseball’s playoffs are played on so many different networks, it becomes difficult to keep up. Major League Baseball needs to consider shortening the season, or the playoffs and moving the World Series earlier in the Fall as it was before. They need an aggressive marketing approach to keep younger fans engaged. It is sad to see this premiere event treated almost like an afterthought.

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