By Josh:
Fair warning I ranted some in this post. It felt good…..really good.
I’ve said it a thousand times that I love baseball. You know what I’m not in love with right now? Major League Baseball and I’m not the only one feeling this way. So for someone like me who loves baseball but is frustrated with MLB who should I blame.
It’s easy to say the owners are at fault, and I do lay some blame on them, but I also have reasons why the players and media are to be blamed.
Owners
Ticket prices are out of control at a lot (maybe all) of the Major League stadiums, parking is overly expensive and concession prices are worse than going to a nice restaurant. I have a Masters degree in business so I completely understand the need for making a profit. In fact I have no problem with MLB owners making sure that their business is making a profit. If owners were losing money every year than they would try and get out and could result in serious damage to Major League Baseball.
With that being said the cost of going to a game is excessive.
Ticket prices pretty much block me from taking my family to games. I know I’m not the only person to have this problem.
Every year the Mariners keep increasing ticket prices despite the fact that they haven’t made the playoffs in 17 years. When it costs $72 for four bleacher seats (cheapest they have) for a Wednesday game, average families can’t go. Add $30-50 for parking and food, gas and motel for those that live out of town, like my family, the costs rise quickly. $200 for a single game is not affordable for my family. Not when I can go watch minor league and college wood bat leagues for $30 (sometimes even less) with my family.
Players
I put blame on the players as well for fans being frustrated with MLB. Demanding that owners sign players to 8-10 year contracts, even after previous contracts have been shown to hurt teams over the course of the contracts.
In addition to that, players over valuing themselves is causing problems. When players are given great contract offers then refusing them because they, and their agents, think they are worth more hurts the game. Yeah Harper and Machado I’m talking to you.
I’m honestly getting tired of players going off on their rants against owners, media and even fans. I know that there are lots of great players who are doing far more good for the game, but for every 10 that do good, it only takes one to tear that all down.
Players are complaining very loudly about how there are 100 unsigned free agents as Spring Training is starting, and that isn’t getting sympathy from the fans either. I’ll be honest, these constant conspiracy theories tweets from the players is pathetic.
Could it be possible that teams don’t see the free agents available as being valuable pieces they want to add to their roster at the prices they are demanding? I as a fan don’t want my team to ever give out a 10 year albatross contract ever again. If I can see that those contracts aren’t good then so can a GM who does this for a living.
Media
This one is easy. Reporting on every rumor you hear, even ones that aren’t even in the realm of being possibly true causes frustration for the fans. Oh and reporters getting in twitter feuds with players doesn’t help anything as well.
All of this to say as much as I love baseball my support of Major League Baseball is going to be minimal. Good thing I have a lot of baseball to enjoy without ever having to go to a MLB stadium.