Roundtable Discussion: How Will MLB Recover From This Lockout?
Major League Baseball is not heading in a good direction. This lockout is proving to be quite the hurdle to jump over, but not just for players/staff or owners. Fans make the baseball world continuously spin. How they will be able to get up the courage to go back to games will be the greatest hurdle of all.
The sad and pessimistic truth of the current lockout is that there is absolutely no timetable for when baseball will be back. According to many, a delay of Spring Training games is imminent. Now, there is real fear regular-season games will take the brunt too.
Once teams are back to playing, what will be the result of Major League baseball? Fans already despise Rob Manfred, so he will have to implement something to get people back on his side.
Following the 1994 strike, the league rebounded in a big way with steroids. Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds brought people back to the stadium breaking all sorts of home run records. Weirdly, Major League Baseball recently announced they won’t test for steroids after 20 years.
Is this an indication that they want to repeat history? I guess this is one way that MLB can recover in terms of its public image. What will be important is the advertisement aspect. The league will have to accelerate its marking campaign more than ever before.
Baseball’s popularity will take a hit from the lockout. They must make it more reachable and accessible for everyone. I’d say a great marketing strategy would be to really eliminate blackouts and enable everyone to have MLB.TV. If Manfred has any sort of decency, he would give back.
Here’s what my colleagues at Vendetta think.
“How will the MLB recover from the lockout? There will be baseball, the question is when, but there certainly will be. However, this lockout has done so much to hurt a game that’s already struggling to draw in a younger crowd. Fans who were invested before, are either still invested or have said “screw this” to MLB as a whole. Those who were on the fence about the sport probably have a negative perception of it now. The MLB is a joke. We’ve always known owners for the most part operate it as a business and look for a profit, and if your team wins a world series than it’s just the cherry on top. I’m almost at the point where I could care less. I obviously don’t sympathize with the owners, but the players making millions I find hard to sympathize with either (if you want to talk MiLB and how neglected minor league players are, that minor league players are, that’s another conversation). I sound conceited Fans are getting hurt by this too. Many who gave a shit about stuff like this will find themselves not giving a shit anymore.” – Evan Kinsay @EvanKinsay
“I’m just not sure any of it matters until Rob Manfred is replaced. He’s killing the game. He’s the dumbest commissioner in sports. Until he’s gone, baseball will continue to slowly die, which is a damn shame. Everyone should love baseball.” – Trey Daubert @treydaubert
