Commissioner talks attendance boom, diversity, more

KANSAS CITY -- Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred spent a day in Kansas City on Wednesday, touring potential new downtown ballpark sites while talking to the Royals organization and community about the state of the game.

In a conversation with Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick and Royals CEO and owner John Sherman, Manfred talked for an hour about where baseball stands and where he wants it to go. The trio talked in front of a group of about 150 people at the Kansas City Urban Youth Academy in the historic 18th and Vine District of Kansas City.

Kendrick asked Manfred a variety of questions about baseball in 2023, like how the new rule changes have impacted the game. MLB attendance is up 9% this season when compared to the same number of games in 2022 -- a total increase of more than 4 million fans and an average of 2,424 per game. Several areas have contributed to the boon in attendance, like the rule changes, a balanced schedule and the new playoff format. Manfred said the World Baseball Classic in March gave baseball momentum heading into Opening Day.

“There was a lot of buzz surrounding the game,” Manfred said. “I think a lot of it did have to do with the rule changes, but it was other issues as well. We're going to be running up about 9% this year. We are within shouting distance -- we are hoping we get to 70 million fans. Knock on wood, we'll get there. We haven't been there in a long, long time. And it would be a real accomplishment for the game.”

Manfred emphasized MLB clubs’ efforts to attract young people to the ballpark, which he thinks is essential to the future of the game. Stadiums are creating stand-up areas and bar atmospheres to attract young people to a social setting, while MLB has made it an emphasis to increase youth participation in baseball across the country.

“I am somewhere in between really and wildly optimistic about the upside of baseball,” Manfred said. “I think it begins with the fundamental quality of our game, that I do believe is the greatest game in the world. … The fact of the matter is, there’s one national pastime. To me, what that phrase means is our game occupies a special place in American culture that gives you a bedrock for which you can always grow.

"We realized right at the beginning, right after I was elected [as Commissioner], that the key to fandom is youth participation. We learned when we looked at that space that baseball had slipped a little bit. We had gotten to the point where we were not the most participated sport in the [age] 12-and-under group. What do we do about that? We -- us and the clubs -- went out and invested really heavily in youth participation, particularly in underserved communities.

“We’re now once again the most-participated group in the 12-and-under group. That formative participation builds fans for the future.”

Hand in hand with participation is attracting a more diverse audience to watch and play baseball. In the 2023 Draft, Black players made up 10 of the first 50 selections (20%), while 16 of the 50 (32%) were from diverse backgrounds, including Black, Hispanic/Latino and Asian. Ten of these players are alumni of MLB Develops, a diversity-focused programming offered in part by MLB and USA Baseball.

“We feel like we’re making progress,” Manfred said. “We want to make that progress, because we don’t believe we can attract a diverse fanbase if you don’t have a diverse product on the field.”

Kendrick noted that MLB has also made a concerted effort to correct the historical record when it comes to recognizing the impact of Black players.

“I go back to December of 2020, which I think was a landmark moment in Black baseball history,” Kendrick said. “When Major League Baseball announced that it was going to recognize the Negro League for what we already knew it to be a Major League, and then roll into the annals of Major League Baseball history."

When talking about increasing diversity on the field, Manfred brought up the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Fla., where Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers used to hold Spring Training. It’s now a year-round multisports complex that was the home of the recently completed RBI World Series and hosts a variety of programs focused on offering opportunities for players from underserved communities.

“There’s a game room there that’s essentially untouched from when Jackie Robinson went to Spring Training,” Manfred said. “The idea that somehow this wasn’t going to be preserved, we were like, ‘We’ve got to figure out something to do here.’ We now call it the Jackie Robinson Training Center, and we developed an elite program for African-American kids.

“When you ask about the future of the game, to me, that story may be more important than any of the business things.”