There are few sports quite as entwined in the history and the heritage of the US as Major League Baseball. One only has to look at the list of playing legends from yesteryear like Babe Ruth and Jo DiMaggio to conjure up a sense of the huge nostalgia the game has attached to it.
But, at the same time, this focus on the past has also done a disservice to the sport. This is especially true when put into the context of other sports like basketball and football which seem very much more rooted in the present.
A sport in decline?
As recently as 2017 there were rumblings that baseball was becoming increasingly irrelevant to the sport-loving American public. In a report prepared by Horizon Media it suggested that baseball was a game followed primarily by the over-50s, with 37% of respondents aged between 18 and 34 pronouncing it a sport for people older than themselves.
So even though the sport’s big events still attract huge f interest, for example with millions of Americans closely studying World Series odds, as recently as 2021, a poll in the Washington Post found that only 11% of respondents listed baseball as their favorite sport. A very worrying situation indeed.
Going for growth
However, the last couple of years have seen a steady growth for the sport with more, and younger, fans either being attracted to it for the first time – and many others being reintroduced into the fold.
As a result, attendance figures have been on the steady rise, attaining levels last reached back in 1998.
So today it stands as the most popular sports league in the world with over 70 million attendances over the season. This, in turn, has helped the annual revenue generated by the sport to attain very nearly $10 billion.
This is largely generated by the sheer number of games played in a season. At 162 for each team, excluding play-off, it greatly outstrips the numbers played in the NFL and the NBA.
But it’s also a fine line that baseball has to tread. With many feeling that both football and basketball have become too commercialized it needs to tread carefully if it doesn’t want to join them.
Increased fans = brand success
For any brand to succeed it needs the wholehearted support of its customers and MLB is the same. So maximizing the numbers watching, live or via the media, has been crucial.
The powers that be have long been aware the slow pace of a game is a considerable turn-off for many. So some rule changes were felt to be in order to speed up play and increase the intensity of the action. The result has been a reduction in game time of an average of 30 minutes.
It’s thanks to this kind of innovative approach and a willingness to challenge the status quo that has already paid dividends in enhancing and growing the MLB brand. So much so, in fact, that it’s been found to be one of the fastest growing in the country alongside other household names like Gatorade, Meta and Office Depot.
Harnessing the power of social media
Some observers have also put much of the brand’s growth down to its increasing use of social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter).
This has helped to connect directly to younger fans and sharing MLB players’ feats on and off the field. A great example of this came when the World Series MVP and Astros short stop Jeremy Pena hit a career-first home run with his parents in the crowd. Their delighted reaction was captured on video – and shared with the world shortly afterwards.
Add to this the access to individual players’ own social media accounts and this is sure to continue attracting a larger fan-base than ever before.
Big brands attract big brands
Another sign of just how quickly and successfully MLB is growing its brand comes in the form of the sponsors and advertisers it is starting to attract. Drawn from all the sectors you might expect, many are clamoring for a piece of the action.
Under new rules covered by the Collective Bargaining Agreement helmet decals and shirt sponsors are now permitted, making the sport an even more appealing to brands who want to become involved.
With all this momentum behind it, the 2023 MLB season kicked off with the highly memorable “Baseball is something else” marketing campaign. Designed to showcase the unique sights, smells and atmosphere of the game, this is certainly a brand that’s now supremely confident of its position.
And, as success breeds success, we can surely predict that it’ll be an even stronger and more important brand that will be going into the 2024 MLB season when it comes around next spring.
