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A Lesson for the MLB: Know Your Audience
This is a phenomenon that I should probably put a name on (Ricochetti: open to your suggestions in the comments): When companies go against their own self-interest in order to bend to the woke mob. These companies are seemingly unaware, or perhaps indifferent, to the fact that bending to this mob means going against their own customer base, and their own bottom line. I’ve written about it previously as it pertains to the Boy Scouts and the circus, and it’s happened more times than I can count with Dick’s Sporting Goods and more.
The latest victim of their own wokeness was the NBA, with news of plummeting viewership coming this week:
Sports ratings collapsed. I resist monocausal explanations b/c such an unusual year but 11 pct say they watch more sports b/c of political messages; 35 pct say they watch less. Sport (like awards shows) used to be a break from the news. Now it isn't.https://t.co/N9b2e5Jf1V
— Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) March 30, 2021
Are the MLB about to be next?
JUST IN: @MLB announces it’ll move the All-Star Game and Draft out of Atlanta due to the state passing a new elections law last week. pic.twitter.com/rBVUQ6FMJG
— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) April 2, 2021
This is not a great sign for the future of baseball.
Published in General
You would think that big organizations would at least try to get their facts straight before diving into politics.
The stadium was moved to Cobb County because that was closer to the fans, among other things. The very people supporting baseball are the ones they are slapping in the face.
If the NBA is losing ratings by being woke, dear lord this will hurt MLB
This drama will blow over in a few years.
Just stay frosty through the short term performative temper tantrums.
Based upon my cursory analysis. Get woke go broke works in areas where there is a reasonable substitution with nothing. Like leisure activities. Less so in places where there is a real cost or largely obscure differentiation.
The reason Gillette ate it is because men don’t actually need to shave….
But who is giving up their dishwashing tabs, to stick it to unilever?
When the NBA pulled its all star game out of Charlotte over its bathroom law, I gave up the NBA. I haven’t watched a minute since. That probably frees up around a hundred hours a year.
As if being a Phillies fan for 60 years wasn’t trauma enough, now this ignorant, extra woke Rob Manfred has moved the MLB all star game over the Georgia voter law. Biden, an actual deplorable, lied about the bill. It gets repeated by the media, absorbed by some astoundingly hypocritical big companies. The story is that Biden provably lied, not the voting bill.
The younger cohort does not watch baseball to begin with. There’s an excellent chance that baseball will be relegated to second tier sports in a generation. They really shouldn’t be risking losing viewers (see NFL and NBA) for no obvious benefit.
And Coca Cola, fresh off spending some $4B on the China market is leading the stupid parade. So the PRC, which has no record of voting to speak of, is a worthy market. But it’s home state of Georgia, in its effort to ensure election integrity, is beyond the pale.
MLB – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
They are just accelerating their demise. They won’t last another generation.
Who actually cares where the snooze-fest All Star Game is held? Call it karma for the state stealing the election wins of Trump, Loeffler and Perdue. Blame Fulton County.
MLB is no better than squishy, wimpy university Presidents in kowtowing to the woke cancel culture.
This just in: Delta Airlines just piled on. I await their announcement that Delta will be boarding all flights without photo ID going forward. Just defy the 80% of Americans who favor proving who you are when you vote…
The Davos crowd is pushing this new woke capitalism – you need to look into these ESG scores for the rating of companies. The woke will destroy free enterprise in this country
“Why yes, I’m a season ticket holder, and yes, this is my luxury box. That’s why I’m sitting here. You want me to show you a ticket to prove it? But that’s racist!!!”
All of the institutions in our country are advancing a narrative that is false and immoral. Why are they doing it? The reasons are many, but I think for most it’s as simple as this: they’ve been lied to. Over and over again. The narrative is spun by the stupid, the radical, and the cynical. The right has done a terrible job of bursting the bubble and sometimes has been part of the bubble.
I submit that organizations and executives doing things like this think they’re being righteous. I mean, wouldn’t some form of boycott be legitimate if Georgia really were making some beefed up Jim Crow the law again? The question I have is this: how does the delusion persist? There are no lynchings, no Kristallnacht, no segregation, no poll tax, no police “hunting” black men. Yet this is the level of hysteria being pushed.
I’m happy to pull back from these once grand institutions, but I’m wary of retreating to some ideological or even physical ghetto. It’s Good Friday so I’ll refrain from despair and put my faith and effort into Resurrection.
Yup, did that last year.
Grew up in Massachusetts as a huge Red Sox fan. Baseball was my life from April to October. I had an MLB.TV from its inception. When I saw the MLB kneel to BLM last year I gave it up.
Was also a hockey fan & gave that up at the same time for about the same reason.
Had dropped NBA & NFL years before.
Apparently all the major sports have decided that politics & sports go together even if they lose the majority of their older more financially stable audience.
The only thing I don’t get is who MLB thinks they will replace us older fans with. The NFL at least seems to be able to replace us with young fans. Don’t think MLB has many “younger generation” fans. In the end however I truly don’t care. I have so much more time for my family and my books. Very surprised at how much I really don’t miss the sports.
There is also an infiltration of companies by woke Millennials. They don’t care about “not offending the customer”. They hate those customers, so all the better they are offended.
There is also an influence campaign by the CCP to provoke these Identity Marxists conflicts. The art of war. The Marxists just want to gain power by destroying institutions. Sports is a unifying thing and part of the American culture, therefore they must be destroyed.
I think you meant to say Proctor&Gamble, they own Gillette and control the dishwasher market with Cascade. An evil company.
Woke capitalism suck as bad as crony capitalism.
I’m canceling my MLB audio subscription. I’ll miss listening to Uecker, but not more than I’ll not miss supporting a company that’s participating in the destruction of our republic. (Enough negatives there?)
At least the NBA has the logic of pursuing their Chinese audience, which they clearly value more highly than their American audience. What is the alternative audience for baseball? Dominican Republic? Japan?
Here is hoping the Braves win the World Series – MLB won’t be able to anything about that
Even though I wasn’t a Brewers fan I loved sitting on my patio in the dark listening to Bob U call a game. He was about the last of the old time announcers once Vin Scully retired. Miss that but as you say not enough to support what MLB is becoming.
Buy Pepsi, early and often! No Coke!!!!
I can’t believe that “11% of people watch more sports because of political messages.” That sounds like something someone would say because they think they’re supposed to. i.e., “virtue signaling.”
People who watch sports are seeking entertainment, which absolutely involves not having politics interrupt. It’s sports. Keep your politics out of it. We don’t care what you privileged, overpaid and whiny babies think! #ColinKaperneckAndWannabeesSuck
It’s true that professional sport is about entertainment. However, the principles of sport apply to life in general. Having such a popular reminder and school for basic principles like competition, hard work, self improvement, economics, and effective teamwork has become a threat to the increasingly marxist establishment.
Right, they’re seeking entertainment, not politics. Which is why I question the figure/assertion that 11% of people are watching MORE sports BECAUSE OF political messages. It makes no sense.