Football has always been bigger than bsseball for me. But as a kid, I loved playing baseball more until about Jr. High. Mainly because it was so easy to get a game going. But always loved watching football more.
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I didn’t care for baseball and still really don’t since when I was first introduced to it, there wasn’t a cap?? Maybes that’s changed now but I remember how the Yankees were spending like 10x than the Oakland A’s for example so to me it was sortve like why would I watch a sport where there’s just gonna be the same 3-5 winners every year??
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I agree it was after the baseball strike. My question is why did football not experience the same downturn when they went on strike and played with replacement players?
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I think most fans sided with the players. As they should have. The owners were fucking the players royally and pocketing the money. For whatever reason, the public in general, blamed both the baseball players and owners.
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I understand there are lots of things that get more interesting if you get into them. But for instance, bowling is never going to be a top 5 spectator sport.

My question, how was baseball ever more popular than football in the first place?
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Definitely 1994 for me. I was 10 years old and baseball was my life. I was basically one of the kids from the movie The Sandlot. I lived, breathed and slept baseball. Football was my fall sport and I loved it, but not like baseball. Then the strike, and as a 10 year old having the situation explained to me, I couldn’t even grasp it. It was a gut punch.

Didn’t really recover for a good 10 years, completely lost interest except for somewhat following how the Braves were doing. The past 5-6 as I have gotten older and my sons are both in travel ball, I’ve rediscovered my love for it but it will never surpass football now. Think there are many dudes who have this exact same story I’m sure.
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Like some people have said, I bet the numbers reflect it happening a long time ago but from an optics standpoint, the strike put baseball in a noose and the steroid scandal post 98 pulled the lever.

I am very curious to see what happens over the next 20 years or so. As older folks die out, who is gonna pick up that slack for MLB fan-ship?

The one saving grace is that there is literally nothing going on outside of baseball over the summer.
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I'd have to drink an unhealthy amount of booze to sit through a baseball game.

I can watch any level of football game anywhere, anytime.
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that is the best thing to do at a baseball game
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That period with the MLB strike and the Cowboys dynasty seems about right to me.
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yep, baseball missed its chance because it caved to the players. If they had a real salary cap in baseball where the Dodgers and the royals spend the same amount of money, it would be in way better shape.

One of the keys to the the NFL dominance is its good for TV but also KC, Green Bay etc. have just as good of a chance as the large metro areas have to win.
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Yep, this 100%. Baseball not only needs a hard cap, but also a hard salary floor.

This would help the lower revenue teams, i.e. KC Royals from being nothing more than an extended farm league for the high revenue teams.
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NBA ratings aren't that great, but they seemed to be more balanced between big market and small teams.

For decades, the big stars left for big markets as soon as they could to put together teams.

Okay LeBron went back to Cleveland after Miami but whatever.

And Toronto went all in one year and it worked out.

But now a number of small or at least, not traditional big NBA teams, are in the mix.
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For me it was 89/90 when Marty arrived. That’s when KC became a football town almost overnight.
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Pretty close to me as well. Followed the Royals more until that point.
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