All I heard during the baseball offseason — including the Congressional hearings in February — was howsteroids were going to bring down baseball. Meanwhile the NBA had the referee Tim Donaghy’s betting scandal — another disgrace that would rock the very core of the league.
Well, sports fans seem to be willing to forgive and forget. OK maybe not forgive, but certainly to forget the issues that were supposed to keep fans away and drive the leagues into a downward spiral.
I spoke to Ed Goren, the president of FOX Sports — home to Major League Baseball, and Jeff Behnke, Turner Sports executive producer — who has both baseball and NBA in his portfolio, about the health of these two major leagues.
“If there is backlash against baseball I have not seen it,” Goren said. “We have expanded our coverage from 16 regular-season games to a full 26-week season because we had sponsors who wanted a full season. Baseball has solid ratings with FOX and ESPN plus, now, TBS fills out a full season of baseball. In 2008 fans will be ableto see more baseball than ever because the fans and the sponsors want it.”
Just as baseball has garnered more interest this year, basketball has also showed solid improvement.
“We have seen about a 15 percent increase over last year across the board and that means not just TNT,” said Behnke, “ESPN, NBA-TV, ABC and NBA.com all showed higher ratings. The playoffs will be an awesome a lineup of teams as we have had in years. This could be a record-breaking season at the gate and on TV for the NBA. By any measure this season has been a great success.”
On the global scale, both sports have seen their games grow. The World Baseball Classic continues to cultivate the game in Asia, Central America, Canada and the Caribbean.
The NBA has established itself as the second most popular sport worldwide right behind soccer and they will have a huge playoff following from Berlin to Beijing.
So baseball and basketball fans talk a good game about the issues that plague their favorite sports. But the vast majority of fans can’t stay away and Goren is right when this country faces tough times they always turns to sports to escape for a few hours.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on www.examiner.com.
