Sports Management – Decreasing MLB TV Ratings
Introduction
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a major sports event in the US. Its largest ever rating was in the
year 1986 when it registered 55% of all the televisions that were in at the time in the US. This
was a game between the New York Mets and the dominant Boston Red Sox in New York. The
Mets won the match.
In New York, America’s biggest base ball market saw a decrease in its ratings by about 30% just
after the disappointing failure of their local teams to reach the final playoffs. Since the year 2007,
the New York Yankees TV ratings have dropped by 44%. In Chicago, also one of the largest
markets for base ball fans saw its ratings by White Sox drop also by 45% while Philadelphia and
Dallas registered 39% and 21% drop respectively. Astros high profile games on Houston’s CSN
registered the worst ratings at 60% while Los Angeles is the only large market that registered an
increase of 40% despite a disappointing performance in the field. The Angels managed 1%
increase in its ratings. The tigers from Detroit managed a rating of 9.6. The others i.e. the
Cardinals, Pirates, the Red Sox and the Reds rounded out the major top five in the MLB league.
(Nielsen, 2008) www.MLB World Series
The dropping TV ratings of the MLB coverage is a major concern to the management of the US
giant base ball league. Since the earlier years of the 1990’s, the performance of the MLB TV
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ratings has been dismal. The decrease in these ratings is associated with the team’s poor
performance in the field. Five of the big-market and top rated teams saw their ratings drop by
almost 20% in the current season.
The management of MLB need to restrategize and come up with a way of promoting competitive
environment where even the losers are still attracted to the qualifying matches together with their
fans in order to sustain the interest in the MLB league and TV coverage and ratings. (Doole and
Lowe, 2008, pp. 1)
To conclude, the performance of the teams directly affects their rating which is a major concern
to the management of MLB. The teams should be encouraged to intensify their trainings and
promote the sports so as to recapture and regain its outstanding performance that it once enjoyed.
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Reference
Doole, I. and Lowe, R. (2008) International Marketing Strategy. London. Seng lee Press pp 1
Nielsen (2008) MLB World Series Preview: Historical U.S. TV Ratings” . Nielsen Wire. October
