* One way or another, Fenway Park will draw fans in 2024.
It won’t matter if the Red Sox seem destined for a third straight last-place finish. It won’t matter that the team did little to improve the roster this winter. People like going to Fenway, especially in the warmer summer months. They enjoy being outside, watching a game, and taking in the atmosphere. Twenty-somethings already treat it like New England’s biggest outdoor bar.
Additionally, Fenway serves as an attraction the way the old North Church does, or the Freedom Trail, or the Public Gardens. Visitors to Boston feel compelled to attend a game. And that doesn’t begin to account for the out-of-town fan bases that come to root for the visiting teams.
In short, there’s every reason to believe that the Red Sox will, for the 23rd consecutive full-length, non-Covid season, attract a minimum of 2.5 million fans. It’s tradition.
But NESN TV ratings? That’s another matter altogether.
Going to the ballpark is a night out, an outing, a group activity. Investing three hours, night after night, in front of the TV, is something else entirely. It requires dedication of time, a nightly commitment. On summer nights, there’s plenty of competition for leisure time, and for now, it’s impossible to believe that many will elect to stay glued to an uninteresting team that’s unlikely to be competitive.
Ratings have cratered in recent seasons, especially in the second half when the team has drifted into irrelevancy. While NESN telecasts once routinely pulled 8.0 or 9.0 ratings, the team last year often averaged between 2.0-3.0. Part of that can be attributed to widespread cord-cutting, as younger viewers choose streaming options over cable. But it’s still a precipitous drop, and given the expectations for this season, not one that’s going to be reversed anytime soon.
So the ticket revenue will be largely unaffected, and the beer taps will flow. But fielding a non-contending team will still hurt the Red Sox where it counts — the bottom line. Fenway Sports Group owns 80 percent of NESN — the Bruins own the remaining 20 percent — and those dwindling ratings will result in the club leaving a lot of money on the table.
So even if ownership consoles itself with a mostly full ballpark, the Red Sox are still forfeiting tens of millions more by not providing an entertaining product for their regional sports network.
* If it’s possible to humble Bill Belichick, the events of the last two weeks should have done the trick. With seven NFL teams in search of a coach, only one offered to interview him. Then, despite two interviews with the Atlanta Falcons, Belichick was passed over in the hiring process for someone with no head coaching experience.
One wonders whether Belichick is going to have to swallow his pride and give up the dream of having control of personnel. It would seem there are no owners who want to give him carte blanche.
BetMGM BET $5, GET $158! BONUS BETS
STATES: MA, KY, AZ, CO, IA, IL, IN, KS, LA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA. Visit BetMGM.com for Terms and Conditions. 21 years of age or older to wager. MA Only. New Customer Offer. All promotions are subject to qualification and eligibility requirements. Rewards issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets. Bonus bets expire 7 days from issuance. In Partnership with MGM Springfield. Play it smart from the start with GameSense. GameSenseMA.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org.
***
BET ANYTHINGGET $250 BONUSESPN BET
21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.
****
* Forget, for a minute, his obligations to ESPN and the way he left a new deal after just a few months. But why would the Milwaukee Bucks be so certain that Doc Rivers was the coach they absolutely had to have? In two coaching stops — Clippers and Sixers — since leaving the Celtics, Rivers pretty consistently yielded the same results: a 50-something win season followed by a first- or second-round postseason exit.
That wouldn’t seem to suit the Bucks, who should be championship-driven. And from here, 2008 looks like a long time ago.
* How can you not be impressed with the play-by-play work of fill-in Alex Faust on NESN’s Bruins telecasts?
* Has any coordinator ever had three separate stints with the same NFL team? Because it looks like there’s at least the possibility that Josh McDaniels could be back for Round Three.
* I cannot, in good conscience, come up a single valid reason not to vote for Adrian Beltre for the Hall of Fame. Two people I consider friends apparently did. That’s their right. But can we please stop obsessing about unanimous picks for Cooperstown? It’s happened once (Mariano Rivera) in almost 90 years. Do you think Beltre is any less satisfied because he “only” got 95.1 percent of the vote?
* On the subject of the Hall, next year’s first-timers include one absolute lock (Ichiro Suzuki) and another with a pretty good chance for first-ballot election (CC Sabathia). Oh, and one player who was on track for induction before injuries cut short his career: Dustin Pedroia.
$200 INSTANT BONUS
DRAFTKINGS MASS
BET $5, GET $200 BONUS BET
FANDUEL MASS
BET $50, GET $250 BONUS
CAESARS MASS
$1,000 FIRST-BET BONUS
BETMGM MASS
MA only. 21+. Gambling Problem? If you or a loved one is experiencing problems with gambling, please call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org for 24/7 support. LiveChat with a GameSense Advisor at GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234
MA Gambling Helpline.
* Anytime “Kristaps Porzingis” and “foot injury” appear in the same sentence, it’s time to worry. More and more, Porzingis reminds me of Bill Walton’s late-career run with the Celts — right down to the prospect of the team’s championship hopes hobbling off the court some night because of his feet.
* In the span of a few years, Tony Romo has gone from a clairvoyant presence capable of seeing into the future to an underprepared, frequently distracted voice on CBS telecasts. And there will be no escaping him any time soon, what with the AFC Championship Sunday, followed by the Super Bowl in two weeks. For my money, ESPN/ABC’s Joe Buck and Troy Aikman remain the best NFL broadcast duo.
* Not enough has been said about the play of Brad Marchand this season. Stripped of his longtime center Patrice Bergeron, Marchand hasn’t missed a beat. And no player is more clutch, as evidenced by his 19 career overtime goals, a figure bettered by exactly two players: Alexander Ovechkin (26) and Sidney Crosby (20). Pretty good company for a very good player. There’s now a decent chance that Marchand will be, before very long, the Bruins’ second all-time goal scorer.
* The Los Angeles Angels have played 486 games in the last three seasons. Anthony Rendon has played in 148 of them. Yet Rendon decided it would be a good idea to appoint himself as spokesperson of the “The Season is Too Damn Long’’ movement. Rendon thus shows himself to be as self-aware as he’s been durable.
* Between the crowd at last week’s women’s Beanpot and the interest level and support for the local PWHL franchise, women’s hockey has never been more popular across New England. And if you think that’s not significant to the dreams of plenty of aspiring young girls playing the game, I don’t know what to tell you.
* Given how the offseason has gone, there might not be much to look forward to when it comes to the Red Sox’s home opener. But the team’s plans to salute the Tim Wakefield that day will be reason to tune in or show up. Pedro Martinez’s moving tribute to Wakefield and the impact the knuckleballer had on him was unquestionably a highlight of Winter Weekend.
