Mark Madden: Baseball will lose out in battle for fans among 4 major American sports

Between owner Bob Nutting so obviously prioritizing profit over winning and attendance not permitted at PNC Park for what figures to be well over a year, the Pirates might be in a load of trouble once tickets can be sold again.

It’s hard to imagine anyone being interested.

The Pirates stunk last year and will stink again when the 2020 season begins. Their best hope is the absurd 50-game schedule proposed by owners is adopted. The Pirates were 25-25 after 50 games last season and would have missed getting the National League’s final wild-card spot in the expanded playoff by a gnat’s eyelash.

The Pirates’ payroll is MLB’s lowest in six seasons at a picayune $54 million.

There’s no grand plan behind that. Their system isn’t loaded with can’t-miss prospects. The Pirates aren’t sacrificing today for tomorrow. Nutting simply won’t forgo one iota of profit for the sake of attempting to win.

The fans have caught on.

Last year’s attendance of 1.49 million (18,419 per game) was down a million from 2015’s team-record turnout of 2.49 million. On average, just 48% of the park was filled.

But MLB’s season being delayed by the pandemic and threatened by a labor dispute have thrown a few more wrenches into the works.

All four major American sports could be in progress at once: Baseball, basketball, football and hockey.

Baseball will lose that battle, on TV and at the stadiums when tickets can be sold. The average age of a baseball fan is 57. Games take too long. Baseball is too slow. It doesn’t interest young people. Youth doesn’t understand the nuances, especially when the nuances are whittled down to strikeouts, walks and home runs.

The “three true outcomes” occurred 35.1% of the time in 2019. The ball isn’t in play enough. Infield shifts decrease offense. So does specialized bullpen use. TV commercials, pitching changes, batter’s box routines and trying to endlessly extend at-bats have decelerated the game. Baseball is strategized to a standstill.

Football has long since usurped baseball as America’s national pastime. Basketball and hockey have much more action.

The Pirates’ attraction to Pittsburgh sports fans seems tenuous. Nutting having been figured out, the main attractions of Pirates games are the amazing PNC Park and merely having something to do in the spring and summer.

If nobody can attend games at PNC Park for a year or more, ticket buyers will find alternatives. Something just as fun, likely cheaper and which won’t be imbued with the stench of futility. Hopelessness doesn’t inspire loyalty, let alone cause addiction.

It’s impossible to logically embrace the Pirates as a competitive entity. That badly decreases emotional involvement. You know they won’t win enough.

Children like baseball, maybe because it can be watched despite a poor attention span. The stopping and starting doesn’t bother kids. Intensity isn’t required. But if youth baseball and softball leagues are canceled, those kids will be less invested.

At least none of the Pirates have gone the Blake Snell route and said something stupid about the labor conflict. No Pirate is good enough to be greedy.

A perfect storm is working against the Pirates. How interested will Pittsburghers be when the season starts? What will their commitment be when tickets get sold?

Crowds could hit a record low at PNC Park. It would be shocking but average attendance could dip near (or below) 10,000. You reap what you sow. (There could be a rush at the beginning: Baseball’s back! But what if capacity is limited?)

By the way, it might not be PNC Park after 2020. Negotiations between the Pirates and PNC over naming rights have stalled. Perhaps the Pirates could invoke “The Bad News Bears” and get sponsored by Chico’s Bail Bonds. Maybe Brazzers and PornHub would be interested. Pirates performances in the near future figure to be obscene.