For the three questions we talked about in class Thursday, I discussed the three questions with Wiebe.
1. In the Klein article when they talk about "growing the game" the meaning behind it would be along the lines of a way to be able to measure the global consumption of a popular sport and its various accommodations to local concepts. Growing the game is the result from any positive exposure to new areas that benefit the game of the sport.
When talking about the contribution that the WBC has done for the game of baseball it has done a great job at combining various cultures into one single tournament which had never been accomplished before the creation of the World Baseball Classic. Different cultures of the game all come together to compete and show other countries their style of play which is great for the game to show how diversified baseball really is.
The WBC's contribution to the growth on baseball is similar to the effectiveness that the organization of FIFA has had on the growth on the game of soccer. FIFA how ever has had more of an impact on the game of soccer than what the WBC has done so far. However the World Baseball Classic has only played two tournaments that were recently in the past decade so future events will provide more insight on what is has to offer the growth of baseball.
2. The idea of having global competition in baseball would be a fantastic opportunity the competition in the sport of baseball. Although the difficulty of doing such would be high because of the conflict of scheduling all the teams to play each other. One simplistic way might to have leagues that are divided by geography that have leagues of teams that are on the same continent. Then implement a playoff system where the winner of each division play in the playoffs.
If a system were possible to let every team play global competition there would be many pros and cons. The side of the pros would be the level of competition would rise because you could see the global competition and players could move to any team around the world. Cons on the other hand would be high expenses such as travel and also the time commitment that would put wear and tear on the bodies of the athletes.
3. One particular effort that could help the growth of baseball would be a similar move to what the NFL does for the efforts to expand the game of football which would be to host a live game over on international soil that the game of baseball could be played in order to give exposure in a new market.
Hi Brent,
ReplyDeleteI really believe that baseball has the potention to grow enormous in the world. The rules of the game are understandable, you don't need much equipment (a bat and a ball is enough to play it for the fun) and you can play it in every park.
If baseball comes back on the Olympic Games, it would be helpful to let the sport grow.
Wiebe.
Brent,
ReplyDeleteI think you made a really good point to suggest expansion in the market by playing international games live to give more exposure to the sport. However, how would you pose the idea across time zones? If we were to broadcast a game live in Australia for example, it would play at all hours of the night/day around the globe. What about those countries that won't stay up to watch a game at 4am?
I really like the way that you and Wiebe explained the concept of 'growing the game' as a way to "measure the global consumption of a popular sport and its various accommodations to local concepts." This also seems to tie into the concept of glocalization, so I like that too.
ReplyDeleteI also like your idea of having a play-off system in different parts of the world, so that different countries advance to the next round. That seems to work in other sports, including tennis where the Davis Cup and Fed Cup use that system. I also think it would make the WBC more democratic to do it that way.