2023 World Baseball Classic

[GirlySports]

Now imagine if the MLB after 5 versions of the WBC decided to ditch it, stop their season in July, and go to the Olympics halfway around the world.

Originally Posted by transplant99

Yeah...well it is right in the middle of the NHL season.

And why shouldn't the NHL be in control? The vast majority of those playing in it are under contract to them.

It all comes down to $$. The NHL runs it, the players make money as it constitutes HRR. The IIHF runs it, no money for the NHL players nor the owners, yet they are the ones taking the financial hit by shutting down the season...plus the ever looming injury to star players concern.

Im still not sure why they wont hold it in September myself. NHL training camps can still proceed while the WC is ongoing, they will just be without their star players for a couple weeks, but when they do re-join their clubs, would be in midseason form. They keep their schedule in tact, and have a buzz going into the start of the year.

The NHL is too afraid now. They had a Canada/World Cup, lost it. Then they had the Olympics, lost that too. So to try to reboot an event AND guarantee it'll be a success would be very difficult. And there is still this back and forth about the olympics. If they're planning a 2025 world cup then they definitely are not going to the olympics. I can't see the Russia being able to play in 25 or 26 anyways. So is best-on-best done forever? Do we have to showcase Russians?

And then what if the Olympics return to North America in 2030 or 2034. Do you ditch your World Cup event and go back IOC. None of this make any sense? You can't have everything.

[Scornfire]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

No you don't, you can establish different powers. Why not Germany for example?

And what's the excuse the last 20 years? War only broke out last year.
The NHL is not serious. Team Europe? TNA-23?

Why not Germany? For a compelling Hockey rivalry?

Germany?

Really?

Germany?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Scornfire

Why not Germany? For a compelling Hockey rivalry?

Germany?

Really?

Germany?

This is why hockey is stuck, not thinking outside the box.

Would you not want Draisaitl and Stutzle in a tournament?
Or the recent Swiss first rounders, or the recent Slovak first rounders?
You want upset possibilities don't you?

Hockey needs an actual World Cup with actual qualifying tournaments to draw in more countries, not put a bunch of NHLPA stars together for a tournament.

I'm going to post in the curling thread in a second, Turkey, TURKEY! is 5-5. They could knock Canada out of the tournament tomorrow.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Like most people I pretty much ignored this, but after seeing some of the insane ratings from Japan I mostly came away wondering how long before we have MLB expansion into Japan. It's obviously a declining sport in North America, so the long term growth prospects here are bleak, but if you're getting 50 million people in Japan to watch glorified spring training, how many could you get for a Yomiuri Giants/New York Yankees playoff game? How much gate money could you get from that?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Like most people I pretty much ignored this, but after seeing some of the insane ratings from Japan I mostly came away wondering how long before we have MLB expansion into Japan. It's obviously a declining sport in North America, so the long term growth prospects here are bleak, but if you're getting 50 million people in Japan to watch glorified spring training, how many could you get for a Yomiuri Giants/New York Yankees playoff game? How much gate money could you get from that?

They would expand into Latin America first. Japan is just not feasible being 12 hours away.

[Scornfire]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Like most people I pretty much ignored this, but after seeing some of the insane ratings from Japan I mostly came away wondering how long before we have MLB expansion into Japan. It's obviously a declining sport in North America, so the long term growth prospects here are bleak, but if you're getting 50 million people in Japan to watch glorified spring training, how many could you get for a Yomiuri Giants/New York Yankees playoff game? How much gate money could you get from that?

Maybe an invitational tournament yearly between the WS winner and the respective winners of a sub tournament for Asia, South America and Europe? Expanded Memorial cup style. I don't think you could just plop 1 or 2 MLB teams into Japan, that'd be deadly travel on an MLB schedule

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Scornfire

Maybe an invitational tournament yearly between the WS winner and the respective winners of a sub tournament for Asia, South America and Europe? Expanded Memorial cup style. I don't think you could just plop 1 or 2 MLB teams into Japan, that'd be deadly travel on an MLB schedule

Would be cool but I think the issue with baseball is pitchers. I don't think they can be playing invitationals past November or in March. And also, there's nothing in it for the WS Champs. If they win, they're supposed to and if they don't, they'll get roasted.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I think if you had one team in Japan it would be difficult to justify the travel, but if you had a division of five teams then a trip over there could be for a several weeks where you played each team and it becomes more palatable. But as MLB continues to try and throw things at the growth wall to chase the mythical new fan in North America, there's a massive, ready made, basically risk-free market waiting to be exploited. Might still be another 20 years from now before it is even considered, but the care level for baseball in Japan is clearly several levels higher than here, at some point I imagine it'll be explored.

[transplant99]

The final of the World Baseball Classic — with the once-in-a-lifetime ending — didn’t do huge business in Canada. The ratings on Sportsnet were about equal to an average CFL game

A little surprising IMO.


https://torontosun.com/sports/simmon...box=1679834481