re: Soccer spinnoff -- where do you see both baseball and (US) soccer in 20 years?

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People in rural areas and non major markets just aren't very interested in it.

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That's not accurate at all. Baseball is booming in the smaller markets. NFL, NCAA football, NBA, have all seen attendance decline. But not baseball in those smaller rural and non major markets, it has increased.

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Minor League Baseball™ announced today that its regular season attendance surpassed 41 million fans again this season, as it has done so for nearly a decade. The 41,553,781 fans that MiLB™ attracted in 2013 is nearly 275,000 more than last year's total. The industry also saw almost a two percent rise in average attendance, despite facing a multitude of weather issues early in the season. "To experience increases in total and average attendance is a testament to the quality of our product and the ability of our clubs to adapt to conditions, be it weather, economic or otherwise," Minor League Baseball President & CEO Pat O'Conner said. "Attracting more than 41 million fans a year for nine years has helped solidify the Minor League Baseball brand to our partners and fans."

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I didn't word that clear enough. By smaller markets I mean markets without teams that aren't just little towns.

It doesn't have to be either/or. Baseball and soccer are both huge in Latin America.

There's also the question of how you define "popularity." Attendance? Ratings? TV revenue? I think we'll see growth in all sports in the next couple of decades.

MLB needs to speed up their games desperatly. Lifelong fans don't think much of it, but the occasional viewer like myself finds it painfull. Soccer may generate only one or two goals a game, but at least the action doesn't stop.

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Baseball needs to find ways to attract a younger audience.

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Steroids and gorilla ball

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Pitch clocks would massively improve MLB.

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Speaking of which. Apparently, the official rules state that the pitcher has 12 seconds to deliver the ball to home plate. Guess that rule is never enforced.

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8.04
When the bases are unoccupied, the pitcher shall deliver the ball to the batter within 12 seconds after he receives the ball. Each time the pitcher delays the game by violating this rule, the umpire shall call ?Ball.? The 12-second timing starts when the pitcher is in possession of the ball and the batter is in the box, alert to the pitcher. The timing stops when the pitcher releases the ball.
The intent of this rule is to avoid unnecessary delays. The umpire shall insist that the catcher return the ball promptly to the pitcher, and that the pitcher take his position on the rubber promptly. Obvious delay by the pitcher should instantly be penalized by the umpire.

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LINK

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That's not accurate at all. Baseball is booming in the smaller markets. NFL, NCAA football, NBA, have all seen attendance decline. But not baseball in those smaller rural and non major markets, it has increased.

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Again, attendance figures are almost meaningless in the day of TV contracts and the ratings battles. The Jaguars are begging their fans to buy tickets and have had to lay tarps in sections of the stadium, yet every one of their games will double or triple the ratings for the World Series.

One of the Rays-Phillies World Series games in 2008 was out-rated by a Seinfeld rerun on TBS.

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MLB needs to speed up their games desperatly. Lifelong fans don't think much of it, but the occasional viewer like myself finds it painfull. Soccer may generate only one or two goals a game, but at least the action doesn't stop.

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All of this. I used to have the YES Network when I had Uverse, and they'd show old Yankees games all the time. They showed the '77 World Series a few times, and it was amazing to me how fast the games were back then. The pitcher would throw the pitch, and the batter never stepped outside the batter's box, and the pitcher would throw the next pitch within 10 seconds seemingly every time. It's funny to me that for a sport so stuck in the past, baseball players obviously have never watched an old game and taken stock of how fast they are.

Why is it that David Ortiz has to back up after every single pitch (even the balls and called strikes), readjust his batting gloves, spit in his hands and clap, take a practice swing, and step back in? Seems like every single player has some stupid little routine like this, and it's made the games absurdly long. Why aren't pitchers heaving one right down Broadway when the batters are in the middle of this charade?

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They'd make the playoffs if they started today.

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How many times did the Rangers lead the AL West before the All Star break...then completely fall apart afterwards?

I love baseball, but there is too much of it. In the effort to appease every fan base, a lot of us get every game for free. I don't get every NFL game, of which there are far fewer, without an extra package.

People will watch shitty football for football. People don't do that for baseball. That said, baseball is still lucrative. It can remain that way as long as home crowds still pay attention. But forget it being the print-money industry the NFL is.

FWIW, I think soccer will eventually encounter the same thing, at least in terms of TV.