Bobby Burack
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This is an ugly number.
The 2021 MLB All-Star Game drew an 8.2 million viewership average, the second-lowest of all time, up only 1% from 2019’s record-low.
Injecting politics into sports is bad business. A recent poll found nearly half of American viewers changed their sports viewing habits once political and social messaging spread across the leagues.
When NFL players knelt, viewers changed their Sunday habits. As LeBron James and other NBA players told Americans that white people were racist and that police were actively hunting black people (what an absurd statement, by the way), the NBA lost nearly half of its audience. MLB, late to the party, joined in by pulling the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in response to accusations that Georgia’s new voting law is Jim Crow 2.0 (or Jim Eagle or Jim Crow on Steroids).
MLB’s decision to move the event out of Atlanta wasn’t just political, it was idiotic. MLB moved the game after the Left claimed that Georgia’s law made it hard to cast a ballot, particularly for black voters. So, what did MLB do? It moved the game to Colorado, a state with voting laws more stringent than Georgia’s. Hilariously, MLB made this decision while based in New York, another state with more restrictive voting laws than Georgia.
Politics and idiocy aren’t the only reason MLB’s All-Star Game is now dead-man walking. In 1980, the event drew more than 36 million people. There are several reasons for its demise, including cord-cutting and the rise in social media. However, like in the case of the NBA, imposing partisan politics on an already declining product has resulted in historical lows.
Notice that while mostly all TV events, shows, channels, and games are down from past years, only those that condemn half of the country have cratered.
Sitcoms, the NFL, college football, boxing, and cartoons are down from 2019. However, the NBA, the Oscars, the ESPYs, the Emmys, and the NBA have each drawn record lows over the past two years. There’s a difference.
This year, Major League Baseball joined that second group when it caved and moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta.
Didn’t watch not gunna watch
I think it’s a shameful thing mlb did ripping the game out of Atlanta, so they can reap the reward. These company leaders need to drop all the social activism, because they’re terrible at it. Leagues are far better off sticking to sports, but it seems they have chosen to be part of a special interest propaganda campaign that’s completely out of control. All they have to do is literally shut up but can’t.
This is the first all star game that I have missed since 1959 when they played 2 of them for a few years. Went to Caesar’s for years to watch and bet the exotics. It was a lot of fun. When MLB went woke they became dead to me. I traveled every summer to ballparks all over America. Those days are gone.
Sold my white Sox season tickets the day after MLB moved the game. Ended up being both a smart decision financially and for safety. Chicago is a warzone.
Will gladly never support major league sports again as long as they sat political. Much nicer going to local minor league games with decent folks and not spoiled activists.
Nice work, Rob!
Won’t watch the woke professionals in any sport. I hope they all go down.
I watched Hogan’s Heroes instead. Rob Manfred should repeat Sgt. Schultz’s famous line: “I know nothing! Nothing!”
When are these dullards going to figure out that leftists don’t watch sports, other than perhaps gymnastics and figure skating? This whole “protest” was never about voting rights, it was about trying to prevent the vote fraud in Georgia from being exposed and keeping 2020’s corrupt practices in place where the Dims otherwise have no prayer of winning.
100% Chris ^
There are zero hyper progressive activists in Portland, Brooklyn or Silicon Valley who weren’t watching sports who suddenly are now* due to the stupid moving of the game. It just disenfranchised the fans that already exist
Did I miss the All-Star game?
You didn’t miss anything. I watched Hogan’s Heroes reruns instead. At least Hogan and his Heroes fight the Nazis, unlike MLB who placate them.