Two sports leagues made themselves into political beacons. The NBA has seen its ratings continue to crater. Major League Baseball appears to be doing just fine. So what explains the difference?
The NBA’s long ratings decline is well documented. It preceded politics, with the league seeing its prime-time ABC ratings drop going all the way back to the 2011-2012 season. But there is still no denying that politics played a role in the decline, as the league’s most precipitous drop in ratings came during the 2019-2020 season, after the league’s hypocrisy on China was pushed to the forefront of public discussion.
That decline has continued into this year. While NBA boosters pointed to the unusual schedule for last year’s pandemic-interrupted “bubble” season, this season is seeing its prime-time games once again headed in the wrong direction. In April, as the season was coming down the stretch, ESPN’s NBA doubleheader was beaten out by pro wrestling. No, not World Wrestling Entertainment, the popular Vince McMahon-led product — the NBA lost out to All Elite Wrestling, a Johnny-come-lately brand founded in 2019.
The story for Major League Baseball appears to be different so far. After moving its All-Star Game festivities out of Georgia based on Democrats’ lies about the state’s new voting law, conservative talk of a boycott began. But MLB ratings have started strong this season. ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball is up 38% over last year’s pandemic-shortened season and also up 7% over the 2019 season. Streaming numbers are up as well.
The full picture for MLB likely won’t be clear until the end of the season, but there are a few differences that could explain this phenomenon. For starters, while the NBA has let Black Lives Matter talking points marinate for years, MLB players only really embraced it last season in the immediate aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. The toxic nature of the movement and its biggest names, such as LeBron James, simply hasn’t overwhelmed MLB viewers as it has NBA viewers.
MLB’s political venture, while repulsively partisan and unmoored from reality, was a one-off event pushed almost exclusively by Commissioner Rob Manfred. It isn’t a constant harangue being forced down the throats of a viewing audience.
If you didn’t know the All-Star Game was supposed to be in Georgia, you could watch multiple MLB broadcasts without realizing it had ever been moved. It’s inside baseball, so to speak, whereas NBA broadcasts had become a more-or-less constant display of stars and their performative wokeness, pushing obnoxious, incorrect political narratives. The NBA wanted to make sure you knew just how partisan it really is, including with its uniform choices and its post-game interviews. That impression sticks whenever James is on the screen. Baseball fans, in contrast, could go all season without seeing Manfred’s face.
If MLB’s open partisanship extends only to a dispute over a voting law, then the league might continue to avoid the downward spiral in which the ever-more-politicized NBA has found itself. Avoiding making everything political has given the league the capital to excuse its ridiculous decision to punish Georgia. MLB would be wise to quit while it’s ahead.
