Gallup

[ashbury]

Try going to a card show. They still exist. When you go, the demographics you see will explain why the business is dying^*. Twin Cities Sports Collectors Club: http://www.tcscc.org/ Bring a list of what you've got, and strike up a conversation with a dealer there who has time on his hands and likes to talk shop.

 

Or, click this link for a map from Google of sports collectibles stores in the Twin Cities area, and see who's near you.

 

* _{(Which ties into the spirit of the OP in this thread - I don't deny that the youth market is worrisome for baseball. But kids aren't collecting football cards either, so again it's not an absolute metric of anything except what it is.)}

[Riverbrian]

At a certain point. The Results of a poll will start to replicate. The poll size is sufficient. It is telling you something. However... You have to question whether it is telling you anything important and in my opinion. It really isn't. Baseball used to be America's Favorite Sport until the mid-60's. It isn't anymore. We all knew that. 

 

Favorite, 2nd favorite, 3rd favorite doesn't tell enough of a story. America has the ability to keep 10 sports well fed. 

 

Some other thoughts: 

 

Don't use participation as a barometer. Participation has nothing to do with viewership. Next time you go to a Rock Concert... look around you and ask yourself...How many of these people in attendance have played in a Rock Band? Head down to Talladega and logically think about the participation levels of the interesting people around you. There are people who watch the Food Network who can't cook. (I'm raising my Hand). 

 

Don't focus on the ratings decline. Rating are just plain in decline across the board. 60 Minutes is a fantastic show but it has a third of the audience size it used to. Baseball, 60 Minutes all have to understand the reality of the over flow of options and the divided attention of the nation. 

 

The thing that Baseball needs to worry about: Simple Demographics:

 

Baseball is 85% White, 70% Male and 50% over the age of 55. 

 

That is getting kind of niche-ish. 

 

Baseball will look at these numbers and immediately realize that they need to fix it. 

 

The research has been commissioned... the results have been studied and conclusions have been reached and we have been hearing about it lately: Pace of Play. 

 

When a flood of options are causing a decline. There is only one thing you can do to fix it. You have to Increase your demographic base. That means more younger viewers, more women, and more ethnic audiences. 

 

Baseball seems to be focusing on decreasing the dead time. That's a mistake in my opinion. 

 

Baseball is a slow game and they can try to speed it up incrementally with a pitch clock and other suggestions. It won't work... it will never look like Elf throwing snowballs. Baseball is what it is. 

 

What Baseball needs to focus on is: What are they doing with the inevitable dead time.

 

I love Dick and Bert but... Baseball needs to get away from that traditional presentation. Use that dead time to educate and entertain. Provide the story lines that will make the game interesting. Change the look and feel of the broadcasts... Use the relevant data available. Launch Angles, Spin Rates, Heart Rates in big moments. Human interest clips of Jose Berrios playing guitar or building sand castles or whatever. Interview the parents, tell the condensend stories of their child hood poverty upbringings, short clips of Jose Berrios visiting St. Judes and the children he encountered. Hire broadcasters who know how to take this information and entertain with it. The old white men won't like it but they'll hang through it. 

 

Use the dead time to educate and make the players stars.

 

 

The other suggestion comes from George Carlin: Randomly placed landmines in the outfield. That'll work but it is way too extreme.