Quote:
Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower
Baseball has to overcome minimal levels of youth popularity (nobody plays stickball).
Heard that Populous is projecting average MLB attendance to be under 14,000 per game in the coming years..
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High level leagues are as popular as ever. Moreover, over the last 10 years or so, baseball has actually widened the gap in youth participation over soccer according to most studies.
yes, at the super-young levels, baseball has flagged a bit (6-12ish) but that speaks to what I talked about above - it's just easier for kids to play soccer at that age. They don't have to stay focused as much.
99% of all kids that play any sort of sport are irrelevant to the health of the big league product - they almost all wash out. And elite traveling teams in baseball are thriving. There's plenty of participation among kids that are likely to actually become good ballplayers.
Now over time could that lack of participation at super-young ages lead to less interest in following it as a fan when they get older? Perhaps - but it doesn't mean that soccer's going to fill that gap.
People have been proclaiming the death of baseball for decades and it just isn't happening. And again, if anything, baseball has been gaining ground over the last 10 years or so.