It seems as if Major League Baseball is dying!

By Steve Moran

It seems as if Major League Baseball is dying! That is likely too strong of a statement, but . . . they really are struggling with a significant downturn in attendance and revenue.

Some additional color:

  • This season attendance is down 6.6%

  • Poor weather has been blamed for much of the downturn

  • Negative publicity has also been blamed with some teams making significant team changes

  • More blame has been placed on the lack of competitiveness from team to team; mostly meaning it is not much fun to be a fan of a losing team or watch games where the home teams lose most of the time

  • For the first time in history, there are 4 teams on track to win more than 100 games this season and 4 or 5 teams that look like to lose more than 100 games this season

  • 18 of the 30 major league teams have reported a drop in attendance with 10 teams reporting more than a 10% drop

  • There are a few select teams that are continuing to do very well with attendance and revenue including the Dodgers, the Yankees, and the Cardinals

What’s This Have to Do with Senior Living?

First, I will acknowledge maybe nothing. But then again there may be some important lessons here:

  • There is lots of speculation and blaming of external factors . . . which gets ownership and league leadership off the hook. After all, if it is the weather . . . Except that blaming either internal or external factors does nothing to fix the problem. The same with senior living.

  • In spite of dismal numbers, there are some teams that are doing just fine, thank you very much, (ditto senior living). But over time, if MLB really takes a dump, it will impact those very best teams (ditto senior living).

  • What is scariest is this: What if MLB has peaked — like Facebook, cable TV, and malls? What if it will never get better because the world has passed it by? People are simply not as interested, and may never be again . . .

    I am not saying MLB will completely disappear — because that is unlikely — but it does seem likely that it could be much smaller; such as fewer teams, maybe even smaller teams and lower salaries for players and smaller profits for owners.

When you look at malls, Facebook, cable TV, baseball and senior living . . . they all have a bright future IF they can get to the core essence of what they are doing! They each need to figure out how to expand their marketplace by creating great value for those people who are not already using their products or services. They will never win by hoping to offer something better to consumers of the competition. That kind of thinking is foolish.