On December 13, the results of the 20-month investigation into the illegal use of streroids or other banned substances will be revealed in a press conference at 2 p.m. EST. Anywhere from 50 to 80 players, past and present, are going to be named as users of performance-enhancing drugs.
The question that comes to my mind is if this will be a devastating blow to Major League Baseball as it relates to people tuning into games on television.
One thing viewers want to know is if a sport is being played with integrity. They want to know they're watching competition that included a level playing field. If they're being "gamed," it gives the feel of the scripted professional wrestling bouts, where the results are predetermined.
While this doesn't go quite that far, it could be construed as a team getting a one-run lead to start the game, or a player putting up statistics - not based on hard work, but on taking banned substances.
It's possible that this could really hurt the game on television, and other platforms as well. With numbers put up by players, along with their performances not being able to be considered as real, it makes the game more of a fiction than a reality. I don't think people want sports to be a fiction, they want it to be real. If they want to watch fiction, they can turn the TV channel to something else and see it.
With some of the players to be named being some of the elite, this will be a devasting blow to Major League Baseball, and will probably hurt the viewer numbers for some time to come.
As mentioned here, part of this is Major League Baseball's fault, as they gave Barry Bonds a free pass to continue pursuing the home run record so they could generate interest and increase ratings. This isn't just a player scandal, it goes to the core of Major League Baseball itself.
If the television industry wasn't in enough trouble as it is, to have MLB allow such a scandal go on for this long will even do more harm, as people abandon the sport on television, even more than they have.
» Major League Baseball Substance Abuse Scandal and Negative Publicity from TheAlphaMarketer
The Major League Baseball substance abuse scandal is an important lesson in how not everything can handled by positive spin. The results of the 20-month investigation by former Senate majority leader George Mitchell is scheduled to be released on Decem... [Read More]
Tracked on: December 12, 2007 3:28 PM | Permalink to Trackback