PRO SPORTS ARE COMMITTING SUICIDE AND I DON’T CARE: MLB fans’ reaction to Jacob Blake boycotts says it all.
Fans don’t care nearly as much as they did. They’ve learned to live without sports, especially in their current diminished condition. They’ve learned that they’re taken for granted. And more and more they’ve determined that they won’t pay another dime to attend games or to watch them on TV.
Thursday’s game-time walkout in protest of police brutality may have been a sincere group action or largely based in peer pressure, but judging from the response of readers, none much cared. None were outraged or even disappointed that there wasn’t going to be a game to watch. . . .
MLB, like the NBA and NFL, has allowed its fan base — its financial blood flow — to erode.
Fans can’t help but apply Thursday’s walkout to their own realities: “Would I be allowed to simply stand up and walk out of work in protest of anything and not face suspension or termination?” And they conclude that they could not, or would not — even at a small fraction of big-league pay.
At the same time, our sports are growing desperate to reverse their downward viewership and incomes by artificial means.
Good luck with that. Just remember, the opposite of fan love isn’t fan hate. It’s fan indifference.