MLB Paradox: Attendance Up, Popularity Down

Major League Baseball often prides itself on its increasing attendance record year after year.  

But MLB's main mistake is that they see increasing attendance as increasing popularity, which is not the case at all.

Fifty years ago, you would drive down the streets of New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia and see sandlot baseball being played.  Kids of all ages loved baseball and baseball quickly grew to be America's past time.   

Those kids that were playing that sandlot baseball are today's fans. 

They are bringing their families to the ballpark everyday and increasing the attendance. 

What MLB is not realizing though is that today's youth are not liking baseball as much as their parents.

A recent study conducted by MLBAmerica.com showed that baseball did not rank number one on the list of favorite sports for 13- to 17-year-olds. 

It didn't rank second either.  Or third.  Or fourth.  It is ranked fifth. 

Behind basketball, football, soccer, and hockey respectively, baseball is slowly but surely falling behind in the ranks of other sports and with lacrosse quickly ascending.

Sixty-eight percent of youth said that the main reason they don't like baseball is because it’s boring. 

What a surprise.

If this rate continues, the youth of today aren't going to bring their kids to the ballpark fifty years from today, and attendance will surely drop.

Who knows where baseball will be in 50 years?

One thing that we do know is that if MLB doesn't step in and make the game more appealing to today's youth, baseball will slowly fall down the totem poll of sports until there are as many people watch baseball as there are ESPN bowling.