points by jmyeet 1 day ago | 0 comments
Isn't that making my point? If tickets are cheap and easy to get, doesn't that indicate lack of demand? I'm minded of the (highly entertaining) Scottish "invasion" of Boston during the World Cup recently and they did a march and just went to a game at Fenway Park. That's not something you can just do with other major sports.
I also think about how sports are portrayed or used as dressing in media. Seinfeld, for example, was from an era where people often went to baseball games and knew all the player stats. People in previous generations would take their scorecards to games [1]. None of that really exists anymore.
[1]: https://www.wuwm.com/2023-04-10/this-baseball-season-try-an-...
This is specifically the appeal of in-person MLB games; it's no problem to get a group together: school, church, friends, family, or what have you, and roll up to a game on relatively short notice and have a low-stress experience. In this way it's in the same category as a museum or theme-park sort of outing.
Is it economically optimal? Maybe not, but I also don't think the product is trying to attract the same audience that's willing to engage in a high-coordination and high-intensity event like an NFL game. I know both folks who love the spectacle and effort of the NFL experience and folks who like catching a baseball game with their group when they have a free afternoon, and they don't really overlap.