2003-01-18 09:12:42braveheart
Will TW's Pro. Baseball Survive?
This month, Taiwan’s two major professional baseball leagues compromised with each other for merged. The new baseball season will start with only six baseball teams, but with many hopes from stakeholders and a lot of fans.
Back to 1996, when the new league (NALUWAN) started, it was a golden era of Taiwan baseball. But there also came some problems soon, like the conflicts of interest between the leagues--- players trading, box office receipts, and the lack of the fundamental construction of ballparks. Besides, the gambling on games hurt this sport very much. Gamble scandal made the two leagues lose fans’ trust, and people went away from the courts. The next few years, in my opinion, the two leagues still didn’t work hard to promote themselves, so Taiwan professional baseball went from bad to worse.
Will Taiwan’s baseball market recover? Can we see this business going up? It depends! It depends on whether the head of this new league can plan out for a long term developing schedule. The managerial authority should make more marketing efforts to call fans back. I think the league should train up some baseball stars to promote their teams and the coming season. Professional sports really need stars to appeal to fans. By the way, they (the stars) can attract the press to report all the baseball stuff, which will catch audience’s eyes. Second, if the authorities really want to make profits, they should encourage every team to hire more famous (at least experienced) foreign players to play or to coach, instead of those who just can play on the court. It will prove the new league does something to uplift the class of Taiwan baseball. Then all marketing events make sense, and fans can believe those games are worthy to watch live. Third, new league has to pay attention to run the baseball related commodity business. It’s a niche market for every team to get some rewards there, if they know more about fans’ needs. The related commodity is a meaningful extension of the feeling to baseball, to favorite team, and to star players.
Let bygones be bygones! Just let what hurt our “Taiwan honor” (baseball) go away, and create a new milestone in the new era. Taiwan Major League Baseball really need more people to support, from heart. Will the audience give them one more chance? It ALL depends on what the new authorities do. If they have learned a lesson from before, I think it will be optimistic, otherwise, all efforts in vain.
(參考新聞：
http://udn.com/NEWS/SPORTS/SPOS1/1159676.shtml
http://udn.com/NEWS/SPORTS/SPOS1/1159681.shtml
http://udn.com/NEWS/SPORTS/SPOS1/1159684.shtml )
Back to 1996, when the new league (NALUWAN) started, it was a golden era of Taiwan baseball. But there also came some problems soon, like the conflicts of interest between the leagues--- players trading, box office receipts, and the lack of the fundamental construction of ballparks. Besides, the gambling on games hurt this sport very much. Gamble scandal made the two leagues lose fans’ trust, and people went away from the courts. The next few years, in my opinion, the two leagues still didn’t work hard to promote themselves, so Taiwan professional baseball went from bad to worse.
Will Taiwan’s baseball market recover? Can we see this business going up? It depends! It depends on whether the head of this new league can plan out for a long term developing schedule. The managerial authority should make more marketing efforts to call fans back. I think the league should train up some baseball stars to promote their teams and the coming season. Professional sports really need stars to appeal to fans. By the way, they (the stars) can attract the press to report all the baseball stuff, which will catch audience’s eyes. Second, if the authorities really want to make profits, they should encourage every team to hire more famous (at least experienced) foreign players to play or to coach, instead of those who just can play on the court. It will prove the new league does something to uplift the class of Taiwan baseball. Then all marketing events make sense, and fans can believe those games are worthy to watch live. Third, new league has to pay attention to run the baseball related commodity business. It’s a niche market for every team to get some rewards there, if they know more about fans’ needs. The related commodity is a meaningful extension of the feeling to baseball, to favorite team, and to star players.
Let bygones be bygones! Just let what hurt our “Taiwan honor” (baseball) go away, and create a new milestone in the new era. Taiwan Major League Baseball really need more people to support, from heart. Will the audience give them one more chance? It ALL depends on what the new authorities do. If they have learned a lesson from before, I think it will be optimistic, otherwise, all efforts in vain.
(參考新聞：
http://udn.com/NEWS/SPORTS/SPOS1/1159676.shtml
http://udn.com/NEWS/SPORTS/SPOS1/1159681.shtml
http://udn.com/NEWS/SPORTS/SPOS1/1159684.shtml )