Japanese baseball players set to strike

[Cowperson]

Japanese baseball players are set to strike over owner plans to reduce the number of teams, thus costing jobs.

Obviously, an eerie issue when one considers a lengthy NHL lockout might cost the league some teams.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...BNStory/Sports/ (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040906.wjapa0906/BNStory/Sports/)

Cowperson

[Resolute 14]

Interesting.

As something of a tangent on this issue, Calgary's Northern League entry is owned by a couple of Japanese buisnessmen whom, I believe, are looking at and learning from the Northern League to determine if it is possible to start up a similar independant baseball league in Japan.

[TheCommodoreAfro]

The problems with the Japanese major leagues are eerily similar to those of the NHL. You have three huge tiers - the Tokyo Giants and Hanshin (Osaka) Tigers, who are far and away the money makers in the league with lucrative tv deals (Tokyo and Osaka are on TV just about every night). The next tier is the three regional strong teams - in Nagoya, Yokohama, Hiroshima and (sorta) Fukuoka and Sapporo. They have strong local coverage, but not a national following. The other 6 teams have low attendance, low revenue potential due to the focus of concetration, and (here's where there is some discrepancy) some bizzare geographic concentration in the other team's markets (Tokyo has a couple of teams other than the Giants who have Expo Like fan bases). Or markets are split between two cities Essentially, the league, with no formal constraints on anything other than foreign player content is typically a four horse race, making the "other" teams in the league having to scratch and claw. Without a cap or some reasonalbe alignment of the teams so they all have a crack at success, the league is doomed.