Ryo Takahashi’s Post

Transcript

We think that the better baseball is globally, the better the business is for Major League Baseball and the better the quality of baseball will be here in the United States. And so we work really hard to grow the game outside the US. I think baseball is an emotion. It's about the memories, it's about the stories behind the players, behind the matchups. There are many different dimensions that you can connect. With the potential fan, so that we have a wide range of fans that can be drawn into the sport of baseball. The international growth story for Major League Baseball is about how we can connect with the younger fan, the younger consumer who's the next generation, who's the fan that'll be following baseball 2030 fifty years from now. And so we over index on trying to reach that fan. And if we continue to follow that pathway, we're going to have a ton of success with many of these markets outside the United States. It's important for our fans to be able to consume the game, whether it's on live broadcasts, on social media. To be able to hear the players that they like and getting to understand who they are. One of the hallmarks of our strategy in baseball for decades now is the idea that we're going to over invest in technology and use technology as a tool to connect with fans and connect with in particular younger fans. If anything, that strategy is only more effective outside the United States because you have to connect with people on different time schedules, different time zones, you have to be able to connect with people who are using different devices and all these sorts of things. And so the investment that we've made. And our technology platform has been a huge driver of growth for us outside the United States. The element of sport, the element of a hero, the element of following somebody's career is no different for a fan in the US and for a fan overseas. So for us, it's being able to bridge that gap and being able to provide different opportunities to to interact with baseball so that they can achieve that fandom. We spend a lot of time. With local scouts and other other local operators to listen to people on the ground. And that gives you a real good sense. Like do people like the game? Is participation growing? Is there more fandom? Those are the type of metrics that we look at maybe informally. It's not in a report, you know, it's, it's more qualitative rather than quantitative. You use that information to try to steer your resources in the right direction. And at the end of the day, what you want to see is you want to see long term growth, more player development prospects for local leagues. Better competition on international tournaments, the WBC C teams being stronger in those events and when you see that you know you're on the right track and you keep the momentum going. I think it's important for each regional market to have a different strategy, a different plan for the kind of content that you're feeding in in your market. For India, it's important to be educational, it's important to be exciting. The way in might be the short form content, it could be a documentary, it could be a human element, it could be a feel good story. It could be an Indian American baseball player that, you know, the market could relate to the places where we're having the most success. You can see those names in Major League Baseball really driving growth in those markets. And what we see is when those players come to the Major League Baseball and have real success, it drives interest and engagement in those local countries because it brings to life the local population. It makes it feel real for them that somebody from my town, my community can actually make it to Major League Baseball and be a big star.