Major League Baseball considers going across the pond

 

 

By Ryan Blevins

Major American sports leagues have been attempting to build a new audience across the pond and more leagues are jumping on board.

On Jan. 26 MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said, in an interview with The Associated Press, that the league is looking into playing regular season baseball games in London as early as 2017. Manfred suggested the MLB was looking at the Olympic Stadium in London as a possible venue for the games but would not speculate on which team would potentially make the trip to Europe.

Major League Baseball has history of playing games overseas against international opponents. In 1986 a team of the league’s best players from both the American and National Leagues was assembled to make a trip to Japan to play Nippon Professional Baseball All Stars following the MLB season. Two MLB teams have not played a regular season game overseas since 2014 when the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers began their season in Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Toronto Blue Jays play-by-play radio announcer and Windsorite Joe Siddall has growing concerns about the travel schedule that comes with international play.

“Travel is already a grind in baseball and 12 plus hours on a plane probably isn’t the best,” said Siddall. “Remember (Clayton) Kershaw I believe came home from the Australia game injured.”

Kershaw did in fact return to the U.S. experiencing lower back pain that eventually landed him on the disabled list for the first time in his career. While the MLB season stretches over six months and lasts 162 regular season games other leagues do not have as many games to spare.

The NFL and NBA have both played regular season games in London with more scheduled for the future. In an attempt to build an international brand NBA commissioner Adam Silver scheduled international exhibition games in four countries including Germany, Turkey, Brazil and China. Earlier this season Canada’s own Toronto Raptors defeated the Orlando Magic in a regular season matchup at the O2 Arena in London. The NFL began playing one annual game at London’s Wembley Stadium beginning in 2007 and multiple games per season in 2013. While commissioner Roger Goodell has attempted to send at teams such as the Jacksonville Jaguars to London annually, not all NFL players are excited when they find out they will be playing in London.

Tyrone Crawford, Catholic Central High School graduate and Dallas Cowboys defensive end said his teammates had a mixed reception about their 2014 trip to London.

“There were definitely some guys that were excited but there were also some guys that saw it as a drag. Not going to name any names but some guys complained the whole week and some guys made the best out of it,” said Crawford

The product is on the field but it is unclear the popularity these games have with the people of London. Tickets for the 2007 and 2008 installments of the NFL in London sold out nine months in advance. Every NFL game played in London has sold no less than 83,000 tickets other than the 2011 matchup between the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers which drew roughly 76, 000 fans. According to the NFL, 22 per cent of fans attending NFL London games are from the city of London and 60 per cent come from elsewhere in Britain.

University of Windsor student Jack Sargent was born in Liverpool, England and says he sees the market for American major sports games in the U.K.

“There’s a growing interest in the NFL and NBA but football, cricket and golf and the most popular here,” said Sargent “I think these sports (NFL, NBA) are seen as a novelty here and because England is a sporting country I think people go. Even if a baseball game went there I think it would be popular because of baseball’s similarities to cricket.”

Baseball does have glaring similarities to the game of cricket yet only 33 natives of the U.K. have played in the MLB. The World Baseball Classic, Major League Baseball’s version of the FIFA World Cup, is a tournament that takes place every four years and allows every nation to qualify to compete for the title of World Champion. The United Kingdom has never participated in the tournament after failing to qualify in 2013.

The MLB will now look to build an international brand just as the NFL and NBA have over the years.