London Series: Is There Potential, or Should MLB ‘Let it Be’?

MLB London Series 2019

Is There a Market for MLB in Europe?

The seats of London Stadium, normally reserved for watching English football, were packed for the London Series. And although it is possible that a fair amount of the paying customers were Americans belonging to the two most loyal fanbases in baseball who flew across the pond to root on their boys, the foreign sport undoubtedly piqued the interest of the locals as well.

In addition to Fox and ESPN back in the states, the telecasts were also carried on the BBC in England, where Brits without an inkling of experience around baseball were given the opportunity to check it out for the first time.

Additionally, hardcore baseball fanatics and even players living in the UK, many of whom never have even been to the United States, could finally take in their beloved sport as it occurred on their home turf and not in some distant land.

But despite the publicity and to-do that has surrounded MLB’s London Series, the question must be posed: does baseball possess legitimate aspirations to move into the European market, or is this simply Major League Baseball’s attempt at a cash grab and image restoration?

Although I’m far from the most qualified person to inform the masses of what’s to come of this MLB-England partnership, if anything, allow me, a dumb, lazy, out-of-shape American, to give my two cents, or pence, on the subject.

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

From where I stand, it seems to me that MLB branching off to the European continent, while not utterly undoable, would prove to be less fruitful of an undertaking than expansion into, say, a more baseball-rich nation.

Hardly any pro baseball players playing in any American league hail from the Old World, and even less have made it to the bigs. This is not to say that, were MLB to establish itself in Europe, that in 30 years, more baseball fans wouldn’t exist. In fact, it is very likely that they would.

A move into a place where more current big league players grew up though, like the Dominican Republic or Cuba, for example, would surely net MLB more revenue and more money immediately than one to England, where the fanbase is much less built up. Young boys in Puerto Rico already grow up idolizing stars like Francisco Lindor and working to follow in his footsteps. Conversely, there is nothing even close to that in the United Kingdom, or anywhere in Europe, for that matter.

Speaking of Lindor, he and the Cleveland Indians ventured to Puerto Rico at the beginning of last season to face off with the Minnesota Twins in a series played on foreign soil just like this current one in London.

If I’m the MLB, I would focus on doing more of that and less of this Europe nonsense. I don’t mean to make anyone think that MLB in Europe wouldn’t work. With enough effort, it definitely could. But what I’m saying is that if baseball wants to go anywhere outside of America and Canada, Latin America would be a much more fiscally responsible place to start.

There are folks in those developing countries who’d give anything to catch their hometown heroes playing on the biggest stage, but due to the financial hardships within their country, have no choice but to miss out.

And as live sports consumption trends in the direction of mobile streaming, in addition to bringing a few games a year to these people to watch in-person, perhaps MLB should also look into giving citizens of those countries easier access to the games online and at a lower rate. With the number of fans in that part of the world and the passion with which they follow baseball, this investment by MLB would be anything but risky.

But the same cannot be said for Major League Baseball in Europe. Maybe one day, the kind of attention baseball gets in England will rival that in Latin America. For now, though, the safest option for MLB is to concentrate its efforts on the DR, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Save the UK expansion for a time when baseball’s popularity is a little greater and its image is a little better.

So as the Yankees and Red Sox board their planes to head back to the familiar grounds of North America, I hope you enjoyed baseball’s London Series (after all, the Cubs and Cardinals will partake in it next year).

At the same time though, keep everything in perspective. If MLB integrated itself more into Europe, that would be awesome. But in the pecking order of markets to move into, it’s far from the top.