The CBL is shutting down for the year, with plans to re-emerge in 2004. You can read the full details from the CBC. The league will shut down following the All-Star game on July 23 in Calgary.
Most of the talk surrounding this story has centered on what is perceived as the CBL's "flawed business plan". Now I am not the foremost expert on the business of baseball, but it strikes me that the business plan wasn't necessarily flawed... the local/national strategy apears to me to be the right one. What really struck me, though, was that the league did not plan this season well (too much was done at the last second) and not enough was done to ensure that the league passed the "smell test" with the public.
The Montreal Royales situation was a complete disaster. There is simply no way that the public was going to take the CBL seriously once they found out that the Royales didn't have a home ballpark and were going to play all their "home games" on the road. That screams not just "bush league", but "dead man walking"... and it seemed as if the CBL were oblivious to the situation.
The other main problem was with the league's roster of players. Passing out the players like Hallowe'en candy two weeks before the season sent the wrong message, and when it became obvious that the CBL's players were guys who couldn't get a spot in one of the U.S. indy leagues, it started to look really ugly. If the CBL had allowed its franchises to go out and sign talent themselves, early enough in the offseason that they could make attractive contract offers and get them accepted, then the story might have been different.
A small problem associated with the others was that the TV broadcasts on The Score looked like crap; very poorly produced, and the stadia looked awful on TV, like community parks that had been suffering from 15 years of municipal budget neglect... something common across the country.
When the CBL comes back, if it does, I hope that the league's owners can find it within themselves to deliver a product that looks like a good product. I am convinced that you can sell baseball in Canada, if you sell the sizzle.
Most of the talk surrounding this story has centered on what is perceived as the CBL's "flawed business plan". Now I am not the foremost expert on the business of baseball, but it strikes me that the business plan wasn't necessarily flawed... the local/national strategy apears to me to be the right one. What really struck me, though, was that the league did not plan this season well (too much was done at the last second) and not enough was done to ensure that the league passed the "smell test" with the public.
The Montreal Royales situation was a complete disaster. There is simply no way that the public was going to take the CBL seriously once they found out that the Royales didn't have a home ballpark and were going to play all their "home games" on the road. That screams not just "bush league", but "dead man walking"... and it seemed as if the CBL were oblivious to the situation.
The other main problem was with the league's roster of players. Passing out the players like Hallowe'en candy two weeks before the season sent the wrong message, and when it became obvious that the CBL's players were guys who couldn't get a spot in one of the U.S. indy leagues, it started to look really ugly. If the CBL had allowed its franchises to go out and sign talent themselves, early enough in the offseason that they could make attractive contract offers and get them accepted, then the story might have been different.
A small problem associated with the others was that the TV broadcasts on The Score looked like crap; very poorly produced, and the stadia looked awful on TV, like community parks that had been suffering from 15 years of municipal budget neglect... something common across the country.
When the CBL comes back, if it does, I hope that the league's owners can find it within themselves to deliver a product that looks like a good product. I am convinced that you can sell baseball in Canada, if you sell the sizzle.
