FanPost

Baseball's Once in a Lifetime Opportunity to Go International

Situation: With shortened and cancelled baseball seasons around the world, leagues and teams will all lose revenue, and players will all have gas left in the tank. Japan is likely to have cancelled the Olympics but would have tons of stadiums available in October / November.

Proposal: An International Exhibition Tournament of division and league champions (minus the Astros) hosted in Japan and streamed on MLB.TV.

Then:

  • 1, MLB coordinates streaming deals with all leagues to unite international streaming viewership.
  • 2, MLB completes minor league shutdowns while compelling international leagues to sign the American MiLB players.
  • 2.2, Open lower rounds of MLB draft to international bidders for those who opt in
  • 3, Enjoy a big year of international free agency that signals a major escalation in international free agency.
  • 4, Encourage continuation of champions league tournament while withdrawing the MLB from future participation in the tournament. (Like when the US set up and then pulled out of the TPP, which the other countries maintained.)
  • 5. International Viewership of baseball expands -- especially viewership across Pacific leagues.
  • 6. This leads to increased revenue in MLB and foreign leagues.
  • 7. This would lead to increased player salaries for international teams. This would lead to even further expanded international free agency, which would lead to more American stars retiring in Asia, which would lead to more attention on Pacific leagues, which leads to more revenue, and so on
  • 8. World Baseball Classic Viewership Grows as more International Exhibition games and competitions expand

This FanPost does not express the views or opinions of Battery Power.