As a baseball fan, I’ve long been a proponent of implementing instant replay in Major League Baseball, and last year’s postseason more than solidified my position. Every playoff game was seemingly plagued with poor officiating. When umpires make bad calls, the players no longer determine outcomes. Every major sport has fully adopted the use of instant replay except for baseball.
As spring training gets into full swing this week, it is time to renew the call for expanded instant replay in MLB. Not only would it get more calls right, but it also would enhance the viewing experience for fans. Because baseball, like any sport, is fan-driven, anything that meets the demands of the fan base is worth considering.
I have yet to hear discussion about the business implications of employing such a system. With the availability of high-definition cameras providing perfect angles for every play coupled with the prevalence of profitable on-air advertising, MLB has no excuse for failing to adapt to 21st century trends.
Contrary to conventional thought, implementing expanded instant replay would have no physical cost. The technology currently exists and is used, but in limited situations. Moreover, instant replay could become a massive moneymaker for MLB.
Advertising and television contract revenue generates the largest percentage of money for sports leagues. With declining stadium attendance, more fans choose to watch games on TV. This makes incorporating ads into the at-home viewing experience a necessity for boosting revenue. A replay system would create a much-needed additional revenue stream, as it has for other sports.
A replay system also presents partnership opportunities for MLB. This idea mirrors the way that the ATP World Tour partners with Ricoh as the official sponsor of Hawkeye technology, the tennis version of instant replay. Baseball would benefit from such a partnership considering that MLB lacks an official technology sponsor.
Because a replay system would require the umpire to temporarily leave the field, there would be a stoppage in play. But the stoppage need not be long enough to drastically lengthen the game, as challenges would need to be limited, much like in football. This stoppage gives the television provider a chance to take more commercial breaks, which allows for more advertising.
Speaking strictly about value-added for MLB, Fox charged between $225,000 and $450,000 for a 30-second ad spot during the playoffs and could do the same for another six spots per game. That amounts to $1.35 million per game, and multiply that by six games per series. That is a total of $8.1 million for just one playoff series. Think about the effect of the additional advertising revenue over the course of an entire 162-game season with 15 games per day. Granted, ad space is more costly for the playoffs, and most regular-season games are not nationally televised, but point holds.
A recent report stated that MLB earned $900 million from its national broadcast partners alone in 2010. Imagine how much more networks like Fox, TBS and ESPN would be willing to pay if each game had an extra three minutes of ad space and a major technology company as the official sponsor of instant replay.
However, fans demand fairness above all. Would fans embrace such a change? According to a June 2010 USA Today/Gallup Poll, 78 percent of fans welcome instant replay, suggesting “the game deserves the accuracy that a second look can provide.”
A major point of contention that has kept replay at a minimum is the notion that the human element of error is part of the game. Human error ruins competition, in turn compromising the integrity of the sport. Too much is at stake for tolerating inaccurate calls. Playoff fates are affected, team revenues are affected, television revenue is affected.
Baseball traditionalists can hype the human element for eternity, but when the casual fan perceives the game as illegitimate, the fan base will begin to dwindle.
Change is simply the smartest decision awaiting. The under-30 demographic is not inclined to embrace a sport that refuses to keep up with its competitors in an age of technology.
Instituting a replay system in MLB will serve to greatly enhance the business prospects of MLB because the league will be more aligned with the fan base that it is trying to reach. The result of appealing to the younger demographic, in an effort to expand the league, would provide for a better entertainment product, drawing more fans and driving television revenue.
If MLB officials truly want to align the game of baseball with cultural norms, particularly through better technology, an effective instant-replay system is the most logical next step.&;
Adam Mintz (amintz@usc.edu) is pursuing a degree in business administration from the University of Southern California.
