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Why altar the game? Just cut back on commercials. The time between innings should be just enough time for both teams to take their places? How about no commercial breaks until after, say, the 3rd & 7th innings.
A graph in the posted article sees a sharp incline in game times staring in the 90s. What's the difference? Commercial breaks has to be a major factor.
Sure. And the teams can make up the lost advertising revenues by charging a thousand dollars for a hot dog.
Easy fix, simply charge more for the more limuted and exclusive commercials.
Sports advertisers, which most typically are selling beer, trucks and action movies, depend upon saturation, not limited and exclusive, which is for selling high end stuff to wealthy people.
What determines how much may be charged for an ad is ratings, not "easy" or "simple" rate hikes to compensate for fewer total ads.
Have you not noticed the relentless trend in tv revenue schemes? They keep thinking of more and more ways to increase advertising , not reduce it.
I assure you that there is not the slightest chance you suggestions would get any consideration from ML teams. They are hiring Ivy League graduates to think up ways to squeeze in more advertising. Those rolling signs on the backstops, the hyping of all sorts of normal events into "That's your Jiffy Lube Pitching Change of the Game" sponsorship, hell, the names of most stadiums are advertisements.
1. 7 inning games
2. 130 games in a season
3. 6 teams from each league go to the playoffs. The six teams with the best winning percentage. This might mean some weak division winners don't go. Might be controversial.
4. All playoff series are best of 7
5. The team with the best winning percentage in the regular season, gets home field advantage in the World Series. Tiebreaker is best winning percentage of games played against teams in your league.
1. 7 inning games
2. 130 games in a season
3. 6 teams from each league go to the playoffs
4. All playoff series are best of 7
5. The team with the best winning percentage in the regular season, gets home field advantage in the World Series
Your program would result in an immense reduction of MLB's revenue streams. You have removed the receipts from 32 games for each team, removed the tv money from 32 games for each team, and reduced the revenues from the post season by shrinking the number of games.
MLB would of course instantly reject any program which gave them such a severe punch in the wallet. I cannot speak for all fans, but I suspect most would oppose the idea of a shorter season, at least I do.
and...Only one of your five points is related to the topic being discussed which is making a game go faster, not making the season go faster.
The only one I agree with, and the only one that has a remote chance of happening is all playoff series go 7 games.
7 inning games will never happen. All other leagues (even AAA) play 7 inning double headers, with MLB being the only league that plays 9 innings double headers. On day night or back-to-back double headers if MLB doesn't do 7 inning games MLB will NEVER make regularly scheduled games 7 innings.
130 games in a season: Grandstander touched on that already, but that's about 25+ home games lost per year. Good luck getting owners to sign off on that!
6 teams from each league go to playoffs: I thought this was a good idea at first but then I ran into a couple problems:
1) What would happen after the Wildcard round?? If all 3 teams play (1 vs 6, 2 vs. 5, 3 vs. 4) which team gets a bye to the world series?? If you give bye's there's this problem:
2) IF you give the division winners the top 2 seeds (which would mean knocking out the Central and going back to East vs. West) and give them bye's to the LDS, what happens if one the divisions is stronger then the other, and there's 3 teams in 1 league that have better records then the division winner in the other league?? Why should 2 of those teams play in Wildcard round while the division winner gets a bye??
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