Tag: Major League Baseball

sports

Check my math

FIFA, the highest governing body of the game called association football (AKA soccer), is apparently full of crooks. As a thing, soccer is barely on the periphery of my perception because, hello, American, but I know two things about it. One, FIFA is well-known to be full of crooks. And two, it’s “the world’s most popular sport.” According to the Wikipedia, it’s played (played!) by 250 million people worldwide. Crazy.

What struck me about the story linked to above were the financial numbers. FIFA is the world body for soccer. I know just enough to be dangerous here (for example, there’s other big football organizations like the British Premier League), but this most popular sport in the world is surprisingly inefficient as a business when compared to other sports like baseball and American football. 

According the Times story, FIFA reported $5.7 billion in revenue from 2011 to 2014. Business Insider reported the Brazil World Cup in 2014 made up 85% of that, or $4.8 billion. Those numbers more or less agree. So in non-World Cup years, FIFA had, on average, $900 million in revenue annually. The BBC says the Premier League generated $4.6 billion over the 2013-14 season. There’s a crazy number of association football leagues in the world and I don’t have the time to add up all their revenues, though I did find that the United States Soccer Federation raked in a cool $65 million (no “b”) in 2013.

In 2014, Major League Baseball’s revenue was about $9 billion. The National Football League sees about $9.5 billion. And that’s just in the United States (plus Toronto). 

So yeah, world’s most popular sport by far, but the main U.S. sports (I didn’t even look at basketball) generate way, way more revenue per fan. If soccer ever gets a foothold in the U.S., it could easily eclipse the Premier League’s revenues (which, I assume, are the highest of all football leagues). But how many sports can one population of people care about and which of the “big three” in the U.S. (not even counting something like NASCAR) can a game that routinely ends in a tie and doesn’t have logical gaps into which commercials can be fitted knock off?

baseball sports

All-Star ruminations

rainbow believer

Why the hell does this game determine World Series home-field advantage? It’s a joke of a game and it’s not played to win (even when it “counts”). I will look past the fact that Clayton Kershaw didn’t start for the National League because maybe, if you squint your eyes and cock your head and take a half-dozen shots and wear a red uniform, you could make an argument that he’s not the most dominant pitcher in the MLB right this specific moment, but to pull him after a single inning of 1-2-3 work if you’re trying to win is crazy. Same for Greinke. Really good and and even better inning than Kersh’s and only up there for three outs. Insanity.

I don’t have a problem with the fans picking the team. I don’t have a problem with every team getting representation. Because, even so, that leaves you with a couple of pretty awesome f’n baseball teams. More than enough to have a hell of a game. IF YOU’RE TRYING TO WIN. Which, of course, they aren’t. Clearly.

Home-field advantage should go to the team with the best record in the regular season, just as it is during the playoffs. Either that or the team with the best playoff record. Something based on actual accomplishment rather than making sure as many guys as possible get to be seen by their hometown fans on the TV.

Regarding the Home Run Derby, I think they should stop messing with the number of outs each guy gets and restrict them to 20 pitches. You could have twice the number of guys participate and it would last just as long and it would be more exciting. Knowing that each pitch really mattered would add drama to each thrown. Also, just have it be the HR leaders from each league. No picking. No politics. Should Yasiel Puig have been there? No, probably not. He hasn’t hit a homer since May. How about the top ten from each league, twenty pitches a piece? Sounds pretty fun to me. Probably more fun than how we do it now.