Tom Werner ran to succeed Bud Selig as MLB commissioner in 2014, and had developed support from a group of owners, led by White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
Werner’s support was driven in part by a belief that the next commissioner should come from team ownership, and his supporters also liked his marketing and media-oriented vision. During the owners meeting in August 2014, there were six rounds of voting, and when Werner was unable to expand his base of support, he withdrew and supported Rob Manfred, who became MLB’s 10th commissioner. But Werner believes his ideas were heard.
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Werner was not elected commissioner of MLB, but he believes his ideas about keeping the sport relevant were heard.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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“Sure, I wanted to be commissioner,” he said. “But it was also about running on a platform. And there was enthusiastic response to the ideas on the pace of game and reaching youth. Baseball is very healthy, but I want to push to do more to keep people engaged all season, even if their team is not playing in the postseason.”
A key part of his presentation that day in Baltimore was that the sport remain relevant. “I started by saying, ‘We think of ourselves as a brand,’” he said. “I then put up a slide of Kodak and said, ‘Here was a company that was over 100 years old, and a brand that was ubiquitous in America. Everybody had a camera. Everyone used Kodak to show the images that they shot. Kodak was part of your life. But it’s not anymore because it didn’t transform itself.’
“Then I put up the logo of Disney and said, ‘Here is a company that continues to follow the mission statement of its founder, Roy Disney. But it’s not about Mickey Mouse and Snow White, it’s about Pixar, ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel and ‘Frozen.’ Here is a company that is continually transforming itself and staying relevant, while staying true to its mission statement.’
“I said baseball is at an exciting juncture, because we know our audience is demographically changing, we know we have a great sport. Our challenge is to figure out a way to make our sport exciting and relevant to a new generation of fans, in a world in which their attention span is getting shorter and shorter. One of the things that I have become very focused on was the pace of the game. We need to take away a lot of the dead time in the game. That’s important to make the sport more exciting and entertaining.”
— Abraham D. Madkour