'Bout Time
MLB announced today that games for this year's World Series will start just before 8:00 pm ET, compared to recent start times which were about 40 minutes later on average.
This is a long time coming and while it might hurt revenues in the short run, it will help expand fan loyalty for years to come. We've talked about this at length, but just how, in the past, did MLB expect to get young kids interested in baseball if the first pitch was just around bedtime? Sure the West was in good shape, but the population density on the East can't be ignored.
I still think compressing all US times zones into 1 during the World Series would be far easier. Heck, let's compress all international time zones too while we are at it. Baseball is, after all, the 2nd (or 3rd) most popular sport in the US and must be in the top 15 worldwide...top 25? It has to be top 50. Come on now.
Good work MLB.
Comments
I agree that it is a positive step, but does it really make a difference? It's 40 minutes, maybe a kid gets to see some of the game instead of none of it, but a real move would have been to start one of the weekend games at 5pm Eastern time. Then you could actually show a game where kids could watch all of it.
As for your world argument, I would bet baseball is in the Top-10.
Posted by: Peter![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 18, 2009 05:59 PM
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Agreed Peter. Especially the weekend games.
But this is acknowledging that their 9pm or (8:45pm) starts were a joke and maybe it will lead to more improvements.
The NFL airs a majority of its games on Sunday 1pm or 4pm ET and they seem to be doing just fine.
Posted by: Andy | May 19, 2009 11:40 AM |
Yup, and the Super Bowl seems to get good ratings despite starting at the early hour of 6:20
Posted by: Peter![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://yankeesredsox.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 19, 2009 05:25 PM
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