# Baseball/Softball Out Of the Olympics: What's the Real Reason? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 8, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653 "2005-07-08T20:47:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/81 "2005-07-22T15:30:29Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > What an oddly narrow definition of “biggest”. You measure popularity only in attendance figures? > > NASCAR draws (or will soon draw) higher television ratings than MLB, and ratings are measured in the millions, so attendance figures are all but trivial in comparison. (Unlike, say, the NHL, where attendance may actually be higher than viewership. So sad.) > > You wouldn’t have a link to that thread, would you? Obviously there is nuance that I’m missing, and rather than rehash it here, I could just read (and possibly bump) the thread devoted to it. > > My comment was based on a SI bar graph comparing the ratings of the NFL, NASCAR, MLB, and the NBA. The numbers were (roughly, from memory): > > NBA: 2.? > MLB: 5.? > NASCAR: 5.? > NFL: 12.? > > One unrelated interesting note (not from the article) is the comparison of attendance for the NHL/NBA and the NFL. If you vastly simplify things, you could say that the NBA/NHL attendance is 40 home games of 16,000 people, while the NFL is 8 home games of 80,000 people, which gives the same (potential) attendance figure for all three: 640,000. To continue the hijack of Nascar vs. MLB TV ratings, the problem is that there isn’t an apples to apples comparison. Baseball has 30 local telecasts 6-7 days per week for half the year, plus two national broadcasts each week (Fox and ESPN), while stock car racing has 1 or two national broadcasts each week for about 9 months. Its unfair for the car racing supporters to say that because their 1-2 national broadcasts get a bit higher ratings than baseball’s national broadcasts that racing is more popular, because that disregards baseball’s enormous local broadcast popularity vis a vis NASCAR’s nonexistent local broadcasts. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/82 "2005-07-22T15:53:36Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The stadium sold out every game and they didn’t change the number of seats every day. Shouldn’t it be the same number? Beats the hell outta me. They count standing-room tickets sold the day of the game, for one thing. For another, they count only the actual bodies in the luxury boxes, not the total number of seats. Companies that buy those boxes can distribute the tickets however they like, and that doesn’t always mean filling every seat every game. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/83 "2005-07-22T19:52:25Z")
Baseball now counts its attendance by the number of tickets sold for a game. The attendance will vary because teams may give away seats to more people some days than others. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/84 "2005-07-22T23:23:20Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > To continue the hijack of Nascar vs. MLB TV ratings, the problem is that there isn’t an apples to apples comparison. Baseball has 30 local telecasts 6-7 days per week for half the year, plus two national broadcasts each week (Fox and ESPN), while stock car racing has 1 or two national broadcasts each week for about 9 months. Its unfair for the car racing supporters to say that because their 1-2 national broadcasts get a bit higher ratings than baseball’s national broadcasts that racing is more popular, because that disregards baseball’s enormous local broadcast popularity vis a vis NASCAR’s nonexistent local broadcasts. Exactly right. What I’d really like to see, but have given up hope, is a list of the viewership for all those 30 local broadcasts per week plus the viewership of all the national games, then add in all the playoffs games, and then compare that total to the total of the viewership for all NASCAR races in a season. At this point, I’d wager that MLB has NASCAR beat in that (unknown) comparison by a factor of at least 5. Shit, the Yankees _alone_ might give NASCAR a run for it’s money. (The Yankees alone sell roughly a third of the tickets that NASCAR does!) ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/85 "2005-07-22T23:24:34Z")
And let’s not forget radio… ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/86 "2005-07-22T23:45:26Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > Baseball now counts its attendance by the number of tickets sold for a game. The attendance will vary because teams may give away seats to more people some days than others. That, or say you buy season tickets. You’re counted in attendance for every single game that season, even if you don’t go to a particular game. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/87 "2005-07-23T04:06:38Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > Exactly right. What I’d really like to see, but have given up hope, is a list of the viewership for all those 30 local broadcasts per week plus the viewership of all the national games, then add in all the playoffs games, and then compare that total to the total of the viewership for all NASCAR races in a season. Actually, that’s doable. You could figure it out. But frankly, you’d have to pay me to do it. It would take weeks. I will say this; the Blue Jays, whose fan base has dwindled after 12 years of ineptitude, supposedly draw something like 400,000 TV viewers a game. For 81 games. That’s a lot of people - and you can safely multiply that by 30. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/88 "2005-07-23T11:30:41Z")
There was also an opinion that dropping baseball/softball obviates the need to build a white elephant stadium - though surely some other sort of field could be adapted. ---
**Author:** ![stop-1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@stop-1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stop-1)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/89 "2005-07-24T06:56:28Z")
I am amazed at this. Really, baseball/softball out of the olympics? What about the women’s beachball thing? What is truly amazing is the worship shown to the whole olympic thing, when it is so corrupt and so nationalistic and so segretated (in this world of non-sexism - oh the infinite contradiction of it all). In short, the olympic ‘ideal’ is so rotten to the core that it should be rubbished at every concievable oppurtunity, like now! ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/90 "2005-07-24T07:24:35Z")
> [@Cugel](#): > > There was also an opinion that dropping baseball/softball obviates the need to build a white elephant stadium - though surely some other sort of field could be adapted. The London plans were for a temporary stadium to be built in a park. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/91 "2005-07-24T07:28:03Z")
> [@stop-1](#): > > I am amazed at this. Really, baseball/softball out of the olympics? What about the women’s beachball thing? The beach volleyball competitions exist for both genders. If you’ve only ever seen the womens’ game covered, perhaps it’s the sexism of your local broadcaster you should be questioning? ---
**Author:** ![stop-1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@stop-1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stop-1)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/92 "2005-07-24T08:46:46Z")
fair enough, I stand corrected about the beach-vollyball thing. I presume there is a non-beach vollyball event in the olympics? Men and women seperate events? What about golf? What about cricket and tiddlywinks? I demand for the sake of equality and the olympic ideal that all sports be equally represented, all non-professionally of course, without big money. No nationalism. I’m being ironic of course, for it is all so profoundly crap anyway. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/93 "2005-07-24T15:19:42Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > Exactly right. What I’d really like to see, but have given up hope, is a list of the viewership for all those 30 local broadcasts per week plus the viewership of all the national games, then add in all the playoffs games, and then compare that total to the total of the viewership for all NASCAR races in a season. > > At this point, I’d wager that MLB has NASCAR beat in that (unknown) comparison by a factor of at least 5. Shit, the Yankees _alone_ might give NASCAR a run for it’s money. (The Yankees alone sell roughly a third of the tickets that NASCAR does!) According to Jeff MacGregor, author of the book _Sunday Money: A Hot Lap Around America With NASCAR_ as quoted on NPR’s “Only A Game” show aired on July 23, 2005, MLB’s total weekly TV audience is about 30 million people while NASCAR’s is about 7 million. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2005, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/94 "2005-07-26T23:41:47Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > Baseball now counts its attendance by the number of tickets sold for a game. The attendance will vary because teams may give away seats to more people some days than others. They scan your ticket when you enter the stadium, though. Why not report the number of people who entered the stadium with tickets as the attendance figure? ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2005, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653/95 "2005-07-27T05:17:19Z")
> [@iamthewalrus(:3=](#): > > They scan your ticket when you enter the stadium, though. Why not report the number of people who entered the stadium with tickets as the attendance figure? Because you’d get fired from your PR job with the team. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-softball-out-of-the-olympics-whats-the-real-reason/311653.md?page=4)