Anyone know the level of interest in the WBC in the UK?
Never heard of it (and I’m pretty well acquainted with many UK sports). Can’t imagine there is much interest at all. Baseball is a very niche sport over here.
I live in the UK and watch a lot of our sports coverage.
One channel regularly covers American Football (I remember John Riggins scoring for Washington and ‘The Fridge’ for Chicago), but I have literally never seen any baseball on TV here.
I lived in the UK from 2017 to 2022 and watched the playoffs and WS every year. It was included in a BT sports package that cost around 5 pounds extra per month. The American commercials weren’t included so there was just silence between innings. Blissful. They also carried regular season games on BT, but not all of them.
A more than respectable showing by the GB team against USA yesterday. Of course, only 6 of the 37 players on the roster were born in the UK, so it’s a bit of a farce in that regard.
I follow BaseballBrit on Twitter. He’s from the UK and is a big baseball fan. He occasionally posts links to MLB fan pages based out of the UK. I get the impression that the fandom is extremely niche, but pretty passionate.
The Brits played USA last night. While overmatched, they were quite respectable. However, and unlike the other teams in the WBC, their uniforms were dull.
As described in this Reddit thread: “Great Britain’s WBC uniforms tonight look like they ordered them rush from VistaPrint.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/11p2vpo/great_britains_wbc_uniforms_tonight_look_like/
Ah, that explains it. I only watch the free UK channels.
My WAG is that it probably compares with the US level of interest in cricket
Well as a seriously niche sport with zero funding, I’m not exactly surprised they have no money for branding.
True, though now I think they need to see about getting a refund from VistaPrint:
Don’t pitch a dirt ball to them - they’ll hit it every time.