Marlins TV Ratings Take a Dive

[THE_REAL_MIBS]

It used to be that no matter how mediocre the Marlins were, TV ratings pretty much held their own. Bad baseball is still baseball, after all. But that isn't the case with this year's team, which fans have figured out rather quickly is both bad and boring. Attendance is down. Way down. And so are the ratings

From our own Barry Jackson:
Marlins TV ratings have been dreadful, with the first two home games this week generating a 1.8 and 1.5 – numbers comparable to daytime game shows – followed by Wednesday’s embarrassing 0.8 – equaling .8 percent of Dade/Broward homes with TV sets. Conversely, opposing Heat games on Tuesday and Wednesday drew a 9.4 and 6.7...
Watching grass grow is more interesting than watching the Marlins' anemic lineup hang up zeroes, inning after inning. If the Marilns are shut out again tonight, they'll set a major league record for most blankings -- five -- in a team's first 10 games (at least since 1916, according to baseballreference.com).
My guess is rookie sensation Jose Fernandez, who takes the mound again on Saturday for his second big-league start, will nudge the ratings meter up a hair every five days. But if the hitless wonders continue flailing the way they have been, there could be a lot of empty screens in South Florida homes this summer whenever the Marlins are playing.

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/fish_...#storylink=cpy

[emkayseven]

Awesome

They're going to (eventually) be hemorrhaging money. That's my guess, at least, and that's when they'll sell.

[dgriot]

Thanks to MLB.TV, my overall baseball watching consumption hasn't changed, it's just fewer Marlins games in full.

[Big Z]

I want to go tonight but the tickets on Stubhub are so expensive. There is not enough supply for them to drop down.

[Ralph]

haven't watched a game.

[Todd]

My local cable access show "Cooking Bacon Naked With Todd" draws in solid 1.0s. The Marlins should be ashamed.

[Jay]

I like how they don't compare it to previous years statistics.

MK7, do you think they would lose money with all the income that is shared in the league while fielding low salary teams like this one?

[emkayseven]

I don't know. They claim they've lost money already but I don't buy that. As festa posted they could actually lose money on the parking spaces. They have a shitty tv deal. Obviously I don't know all the costs of shit, but lets say they sell 1.2 million tickets (about 15k a game) at $30 average a pop. That's 36 million. That covers payroll. But then there are all the employees, advertising, ballpark operating costs, team operating costs, etc. plus draft signing bonuses and so on. Do they make enough on their concessions, shitty tv deal, corporate sponsorships, etc to cover that?
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Obviously that's fuzzy math and unscientific and I have no idea what actually goes into operating a baseball team. Just some thoughts.

[Beef]

Revenue stealing

[Jay]

I know its unscientific and a lot of speculation but aren't purchases from the mlb.com store, mlb.tv subscriptions, and mlb network resulting in a large amount of money for each club. And aren't these income sources split equally throughout the league?

I wasn't even thinking about incorporating the revenue stealing in this estimation. I just find it hard to believe with all the shared income sources they won't turn a profit. They can after all minimize operating expenses in relation to attendance. For example, they need 50 drink vendors when the stadium is at maximum capacity but they only need 10 when they have 8000 people at the ballpark.

[Bobbob1313]

The revenue stealing thing is a joke, right?

[Beef]

From me, yes.

I hope the people who use that as a reason that the marlins have been making all this money all along dont stop using it.

[Bobbob1313]

I mean, it's one big business, right? There's kind of no reason they shouldn't share revenue, right?

[Beef]

You're a communist

[Bobbob1313]

Well, yeah.