Posted by John Vrooman on Thursday, July 6, 2017 in Major League Baseball.

Interview with FOX Business.

Hoping you can send over a few thoughts via email for a quick piece comparing the World Series ratings to the NFL’s current struggles.

-Are strong World Series ratings (despite overall ratings slowdown in sports) evidence that live events are still a major draw?

Yes, MLB has found the optimal competitive balance between large and small markets (David v. Goliath) with two teams built the baseball way. Both MLB clubs ironically born in the recession of 2008-09 and most of the talent has come through their respective player development systems. There is something rejuvenating in the MLB season cycle that mimics life and now culminating in a seemingly pure contest between equally matched player managers and unspoiled fan bases.

The historical presence of both the Cubs and Indians after long post-season droughts is no doubt satisfying especially in an election season contaminated by anger and petty animosity. The opposite seems to be true for the ratings challenged NFL.

The vertically integrated NFL cartel may have effectively outsold its own product which may indeed be declining in popularity among unplugged digital media users. The demand for traditional NFL programming may have also deteriorated as a reflection or adverse reaction of internal governance failures on the recurring if not chronic issues of spousal abuse and player concussion syndromes. This is particularly true for the newest demographic of women fans.

In the name of competitive balance, the quality of the NFL game itself has also deteriorated into the random mediocrity of equally bad teams beating each other. Traditional media fan bases have suddenly shifted from devoted fans of traditional football to newer less traditional fantasy fans who could care less about the quality of the games themselves, or the performance of any team other than their own fragmented fantasy squads.

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