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Leagues and Governing Bodies

Selig Touts MLB's Rising Popularity In Annual MLB.com Town Hall Chat

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig yesterday held his 12th annual MLB.com Town Hall Chat, and generally stayed well away from any sensitive topics while eagerly touting the rising popularity of the sport. "Someday we'll look back at this era as the golden era of baseball, no question about it," Selig said. "They'll look at attendance numbers, revenue numbers, popularity, and say, 'Wow, for a sport many people in the last 50 or 70 years have written off, it's a great story.'" Selig said he was "very satisfied" on balance with the outcomes and performance of the league's five-year CBA to date. Moreover, he said the league's extended labor peace, guaranteed at least 21 straight years, has been a boon for the sport. "We're going to have a generation of people who aren't going to have to struggle with a work stoppage. I'm very proud of that," he said. He noted some improvement has occurred this season in enforcing rules already in the books to eliminate unnecessary delays during games. "The umpires are trying to enforce it. The managers have been better. I think we've made some progress. It's something that we need to watch," he said. Selig also was predictably bullish on the prospect of MLB sustaining the league's increase at the gate, more than 6% thus far this season.

WORLD MARKET: Selig, unsurprisingly, is expecting big results from the third iteration of the World Baseball Classic, which is co-owned and operated by the league and the MLBPA. The '13 WBC includes a new qualifying round that begins this fall. "It's grown. We're up to 28 countries, everybody wanting in," he said. "I want to go to different parts of the world that we haven't gone to. So my expectation is it's going to be huge and really meaningful." However, Selig was lukewarm on the prospect of international games, even as he wants to make further inroads in areas such as Europe. He said games at Lord's Cricket Ground in London, "would be historic, but I don't know about great."

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

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SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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