Awesome October awaits MLB while NFL struggles
BULLS OF THE WEEK
The Cleveland Indians continue to set a torrid pace atop the AL Central — which they clinched last week during the secondlongest regular-season winning streak in MLB history (22 wins). Cleveland went into Friday’s game having won 27 of 28 games; the first time that’s happened since the 1884 Providence Grays.
This week they’re joined in the headlines by several of the other most iconic heritage brands in baseball. The Indians are looking to reach the World Series for the second straight year, as are the reigning champion Chicago Cubs, sitting first in the NL Central.
Those franchises will likely be joined in the post-season by the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees out of the AL East — arguably the best rivalry in all of baseball — and the L.A. Dodgers in the NL West. Cleveland, New York, L.A., Chicago and Boston are all franchises more than a century old and the latter four play in the first-, second-, thirdand ninth-largest markets in the U.S. That makes MLB’s television, social and fan engagement prospects bright for October, especially when you add in the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals from the seventhand eighth-largest media centres in the U.S.
BEARS OF THE WEEK
When the rebuilding San Francisco 49ers and L.A. Rams are delivering your most entertaining game of the young season, you know it hasn’t been the greatest of starts for the NFL.
Yet, a less-than-compelling product on the field is just one of the myriad issues dogging the NFL heading into Week 3. Television audiences continue to be sluggish after registering an eight per cent decline last fall.
The relocations of the Rams to Memorial Coliseum and the San Diego Chargers to the StubHub Center in south L.A. have been greeted with the double-whammy of tepid local TV ratings, embarrassingly poor home game attendance at those temporary stadiums and the collapse of secondary ticket market prices.
Their situations will improve dramatically when they both move into the Rams’ new US$2.6-billion stadium in Inglewood, yet no one would have thought the Chargers would have the difficulty they’ve had getting to even 25,000 fans in a 27,000seat facility.
One or both of the Rams and Chargers will need to win before enough Angelinos pay attention.
Don’t feel sorry for either, however. According to Forbes magazine, the Rams have seen their enterprise value double to US$3 billion simply for being in the L.A. market. The Chargers are up nine per cent.
But the bearishness around the NFL transcends quality of play, TV ratings and L.A. There’s also the matter of an increasingly unpopular commissioner in Roger Goodell, discipline decisions that seem destined for court challenges, socio-political issues and the tragic storyline around concussions and CTE. Add them all up and the US$14-billion NFL is more of a mess than it’s been in years — and that’s a stunning change of plot for the U.S. TV darling of the past two decades. The Sport Market on TSN 1040 rates and debates the bulls and bears of sport business. Join Tom Mayenknecht Saturday from 7 to 11 a.m. for a behind-the-scenes look at the sport business stories that matter most to fans. Follow Tom Mayenknecht at: Twitter.com/TheSportMarket