re: Is Banana Ball More Popular Than College Baseball?

Did you not read the next sentence? That seems common here, people reply without reading what they are replying to. Here is what was posted.

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Baseball in general is competing against apples, oranges, watermelons, spring break, summer break and a whole host of other activities for viewers.

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But to answer your question,

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Are you telling me you're not going to attend any Alabama or Auburn games because of that game in March in Montgomery... or the one in Birmingham that isn't until September?

Saying you won't attend ANY games for your college team because of banana ball is like saying you wouldn't go see any movies because you went to ComicCon.

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I never said someone would never attend another college baseball game because of banana ball. Not sure where you got that from. But it absolutely could have a minor negative impact on attendance. If someone is on a budget, whether money or vacation days, or both, they very well might not go to some movies if they went to ComicCon. If they are on a budget and the kids are dying to go to a Banana game, dad might decide to do that and skip a weekend college baseball series.

People make decisions every day on how they will spend their time and money. For most of us neither is unlimited. I can tell you for a fact that retail sales of non-essential discretionary items have taken it on the chin the past few months because of $3.50-5 a gallon gas. If a family normally has $5000 a year for discretionary spending - baseball games, Disney, beach vacations - and suddenly they are spending it on higher gas, higher insurance, higher interest rates on credit card debt, higher grocery prices, etc. that comes at the expense of something. Again, people make decisions on how they spend their time and money.

Baseball is generally much less expensive than a football game. But for a family of 4 an out of town weekend series can easily cost $500-1000 once you figure in all travel costs.

So yes, what you said could very easily impact attendance. As could 10,000 other things. While football has skyrocketed in popularity, baseball has declined. I think there are a number of reasons behind that, the bananas are just one more threat.

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I think you’re overthinking this.

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Guilty.

I do find the decline in popularity of America’s Pastime to be fascinating because it is so complex.

But then you have banana ball -gimmicky but faster paced, shorter games - surging in popularity.

I have only ever watched parts of two banana games on tv. I personally abhor the trick plays, dancing, showboating, etc. But baseball might want to at least take a hard look at what they are doing so they can understand why it has become so popular so fast.

Diehard baseball fans will downvote this to death, but baseball fans are dying off.

Kids today aren’t playing little league baseball like they were 30+ years ago. This is an issue for baseball.

College baseball is the highest most purified distillation of travel ball culture

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If they are on a budget and the kids are dying to go to a Banana game, dad might decide to do that and skip a weekend college baseball series.

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A family on a budget isn’t buying banana ball tickets on the secondary market. For the vast majority of college baseball games, tickets are dirt cheap

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It seems bigger just because it is so much more out there with travel ball and parents that take it way too serious.

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It seems bigger because there are 300+ kids in our local rec league just in 7U and 8U, compared to about 100 kids 30 years ago.

Obviously I don’t expect the rest of the country to have those same numbers.