This is a big part of it. I have friends that are big baseball fans and they are constantly complaining about how they can't watch any of the games when they live in market because of dumb tv contracts and blackout rules.

Also the way baseball is structured there is no incentive to be competitive. Everyone always talks about how there is no cap, but there being no salary minimum is just as bad. So many teams spend the bare minimum and still make a profit.
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Baseball is a sport made for radio. That generation is gone
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Don’t overlook the role fantasy football has played in the popularity of the NFL. It’s been around for way longer, but it really started gaining traction in the mid-90s.
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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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l think the McGuire/Sosa home run race saved baseball. It became a national story way beyond baseball fans. The fans came back the next year in their normal sizes/

Then the steroids scandals hit and football went to another level and "America's Game" was now football.
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Wellll my son is a 6th generation fan of the Cardinals. So for at least one more generation, our family has baseball fans.
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You guys are way off. Football in national surveys passed baseball in the 60s. I am inmy mid 50s and football has always been more popular. The only thing that has changed is the gap.
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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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The MLB owners are monumentally stupid. The exclusive cable deals where 50% or more the fans couldn't watch games any more, the steroids that they allowed to prop up attendance and then pretended to be against later and the payrolls that are so far apart that half the league barely competes.

They've done everything they can over the past 30+ years to suffocate the fan support.
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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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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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Yeah, this. If I remember right the hapless Indians was actually in first. SI had a cover that said "Don't do it".

Haven't watched a game since except for the Royals world series.

I understand it's a business but I'm a customer and I don't have to watch. Before anyone says "don't bitch, show them with your wallet"....that's what I did. I'd like to try again but can't seem to give a fuck anymore.

I have Patty in my life. Fuck baseball
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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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