Dreaming about MLB International

In an article built around an interview with the Baltimore Sun, previous commissioner of Major League Baseball Bud Selig, said the following:

After nearly 22 1/2 years that began with unprecedented labor unrest, unfolded with rapid innovation and ended with unparalleled prosperity,he predicted a future filled with more transformation, perhaps with expansion to other countries.

“My dream is for this sport to really have an international flavor,” he said Saturday during a half-hour interview with The Associated Press. “Does it need teams in other countries? … If one uses a lot of vision it could.”

It sounds exciting. But is an international division or team feasible? Of course MLB has made some international strides already with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Montreal Expos. But that was on the same continent and in the same time zones.

An international expansion to Mexico or the Dominican Republic may work when it comes to the distance and time zones. Money wise I doubt if it will work. The average Mexican and Dominican has a lot less to spend than the average American. You can wonder if those teams can fill a stadium. I don’t think so, especially when they will charge similar prices for a ticket than the current MLB clubs do. The markets in Mexico and the Dominican Republic will be big enough for TV contracts, no doubt about that. Both countries are baseball crazed so there will be plenty of fans that will watch TV thus leading to plenty of advertising income for those clubs.
Perhaps an option would be to start an international divison with teams in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. With the current schedules in which teams of the same division play most games against each other, this may be feasible. But in the past every MLB expansion was with two teams at the time, so five at once will probably never happen.

But that will be an international expansion at and near the American continent. How about an expansion to Asia or Europe?

In Asia baseball is a big thing. Japan, Korea and Taiwan have leagues at a high level. Those countries are also baseball crazed, so an expansion towards Asia may be a logical step. Money will not be the problem I think. The biggest problem will be the distance and the different time zones. You cannot expect a Japan based team to play in the AL West. So in that case an Asian division should be established. With the current schedule that I stated above it should be possible. But then again the number of expansion teams will be the biggest problem.

How about Europe?

There are plenty of baseball fans in Europe. But they are scattered over various countries. Italy and the Netherlands have the strongest leagues and national teams. But in these two countries baseball is a small sport. So a team in Amsterdam (sorry Rotterdam 😉 ) or Rome may not have a solid fanbase. Countries like the UK, France and Germany may be markets big enough to support a team but baseball is even a smaller sport there than it is in Italy and the Netherlands.
And implementing a league in Europe, just like that, will not work. I have seen this with the NFL. They have tried twice to start an international football league (the WLAF and the NFL Europe) and failed miserably both times.

Perhaps the Netherlands may be the best option. In a small country like that distances are not that big, so an MLB team in Amsterdam or Rotterdam may attract fans from all over the country. In Germany you have areas where baseball is very popular. Southern Germany for example. There are several teams from Bavaria in the highest German baseball league. So maybe a team in Munich or Regensburg may attract enough fans as well. But then again the problem will be the time difference between the US and Europe. Between Amsterdam and New York there are six time zones. Players wll have to battle jetlags.
Perhaps a European division will be the best to work with as well. But as long baseball hasn’t established itself as one of the major sports (next to soccer) I doubt if it will work.

So elaborating this article I think that Asia and Central/South America are the best options regarding a fan base. Asia on the other side may be to far away from the US mainland when only one Asian team will be an MLB franchise. Money wise South and Central America may not be the best option when it comes to general income of he fans.

I bet there will be tons of other reasons in favour or against MLB expanding internationally. I cannot mention them all. I don’t know them all.

If MLB want to expand outside the borders of the US and Canada, there will be a lot of hurdles to take.