Yup, knew I should have looked it up.
Hah, I watch way too much tennis. At this point it's probably my 2nd favorite sport after college basketball.
Baseball's revenue #'s last year is deceiving and is just a bandaid for it's problems.
I love tennis, it doesn't seem as popular as it was when I was a kid, probably due to the lack of good Americans. Fed, Nadal and Djoker are as good as it gets.
The lack of any good Americans since Sampras and Agassi has probably hurt the sport in the US, but I think the Williams sisters along with the greatness of Fed/Rafa have helped evened things out to a degree.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybr...l-sees-record-9-billion-in-revenues-for-2014/ This explains your record TV ratings.
Agreed
I doubt anyone has a vendetta against a sport, I used to love baseball but as I've gotten older I find it more boring. I don't see how some people don't recognize there are problems facing baseball. Baseball used to be America's pastime but that time has long since passed. America is crazy about football and the big four sports have always been football, baseball, basketball and hockey a way distant fourth. It's very similar to tennis with Federer, Nadal, Djokovic with Murray a way distant fourth.If baseball and the MLB are declining, then what do you consider the NHL? Yes it's been in our face the past few weeks, but the regular season is brutally boring. I watched every second of every Rangers playoff game, but watched maybe 7/82 regular season games. If you want to take your weird vendetta to a sport, don't point it at my pastime!
On the baseball/soccer argument, I grew up playing baseball, and followed the Yanks harder than anything. I missed maybe 75-100 of their ~1200 games from 2005-2013. Now, due to college and having a life/job, I catch about 60% of their games. However, soccer is quickly catching up. I discovered it in 2010, and by 2014 I was all in. It's now 3rd place, by a large margin both ways, in which sports I follow the hardest (MLB, CBB, FIFA, NFL, NBA, etc). Still, when I try to talk sports with friends, the vast majority know baseball a helluva lot better than soccer. It is no doubt on a swift rise, but maybe not with as much celerity as you'd like.
Fair enough. There are definitely issues; for every friend I can have a good conversation about baseball with, I have one that considers the game too boring to be worth their time. I for one don't see that, because I appreciate all the little nuances that are involved in every single pitch. To most people, and even the casual fan, there's just not enough action. They have tried to correct these issues, and the speed up rules this season have been a good start.
Yes, meant revenue. TV execs always pay too much for TV rights and teams are always overvalued. Just look at the TV deal the NBA signed last year for $24 billion, more than three times per year than the previous contract. Also look at Ballmer buying the Clippers for 2 billion, now every franchise sticker just went way up. As for ratings there is no denying that nationally things are declining, six of the last seven World Series have been the lowest.
As an early 20-something who grew up in Fairfield County and lives in NYC, I can say this is just patently false in my experience. Not one person I know has ever told me about going to or watching a lacrosse game and although there are quite a few friends of mine who are soccer fanatics (and tell EVERYONE about it), they're still heavily outweighed by baseball fans, though I will say that on average, the smaller number of soccer fans are much more diehard than the baseball fans. Total numbers though, it's not even in the same ballpark.