Levine: Having Games Just on TV is Not Practical
No baseball fan wants to say that they do not want to have a baseball season at all. Everyone wants to have a season that features some games, even if there are no fans in the stands.
Yankees president Randy Levine does not want games to only feature the players in stadiums and no fans. In an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday, Levine said that “everything is on the table” when it comes to plans on playing baseball this summer.
The Yankees make a good chunk of their money from ticket sales, especially luxury boxes. In fact, nearly all professional sports teams heavily rely on luxury boxes for revenue sales. If no fans are in the seats, no one is going to be purchasing any tickets, including luxury seats.
From a business standpoint, it is not practical. But sports fans are desperately craving games after all teams postponed or cancelled their seasons March 11 and 12. There is a good chance that sports fans who may not follow baseball could be tuning into games if other leagues do not resume.
This is a good opportunity for baseball to gain some ratings. The league is not as popular as the NFL or NBA, but may end up seeing a major boost in ratings from many fans who normally do not watch baseball games.
Nothing under these circumstances is practical. But if we are going to see baseball this season, it is going to have to be under the most impractical guidelines. There may not be a single fan in the stands this season, or even a single baseball game period.
But if we have baseball, tv ratings are going to be absolutely crucial. If MLB cannot beat last years ratings, then they may be in big trouble.
