Victor Matheson, professor of economics. Photo by Tom Rettig
As Major League Baseball is preparing for Opening Day this week and fans are looking forward to a return to regular-season games for the first time in 18 months, economists are wondering if MLB will be able to bounce back from the revenue loss of the past two seasons due to coronavirus.
Victor Matheson, professor of economics at Holy Cross and one of the foremost sports economists in the country, was asked by Reuters to weigh in on the complex issue.
“Sports operate on the entire idea of getting people addicted to their product,” Matheson said. “The question is whether, you know, a year or 18 months or two years has allowed you to kick that addiction, and whether people actually say, ‘Yeah, you know what? I’m not sure I’m ever going back in the same way I did before.'”
According to Matheson, this is a “critical point” for MLB, which fared worse than the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and the National Football League over the last 12 months, with MLB’s revenue plummeting by more than $6 billion between 2019 and 2020.
To read the full article, go to Reuters.com.