Look away, Rob Manfred.
Former NFL quarterback-turned-media character Cam Newton has learn the room and forecasts that, twenty years from now, the WNBA will likely be extra common than Main League Baseball.
“Who’s really paying attention to baseball — especially paying attention to baseball in the regular season?” Newton requested throughout a latest episode of his “4th&1 podcast.” “Baseball is like a — I hate to say it — a dying sport. I think baseball will be surpassed by the WNBA in 20 years.”
“4th&1” podcast. YouTube / 4th&1 With Cam Newton
The three-time Professional Bowler throws round numerous claims about sports activities he by no means performed within the episode, launched Dec. 19, and a few are extra substantiated than others.
Whether or not MLB’s season is just too lengthy is a good query — albeit one which’s in all probability truthful to ask of any of the main North American sports activities.
However the query of whether or not the game of baseball is dying — most frequently harped on by those that declare Manfred and league officers are wholly unable to seize the curiosity and a focus of the youthful technology — is a completely totally different one.
The narrative has garnered no scarcity of headlines lately, however the numbers point out it’s not completely true.
In accordance with MLB.com, ticket patrons aged 18-35 elevated 9.8% between 2014-19.
And in a separate report, the league introduced that tv companions registered double-digit progress within the ‘Adult 18-34’ class throughout 2024.
A yr prior, after the fruits of the 2023 season — the primary through which new guidelines have been applied to shorten video games and take away useless time — information collected by a advertising and expertise firm impartial from the league concluded that 70% of MLB followers started following their favourite workforce at or earlier than age 17.
That was the best mark among the many 4 main North American leagues, with the NFL coming in at 66%, the NBA at 60% and the NHL at 48%.
Comparable figures for the WNBA weren’t offered within the research.
Even nonetheless, the baseball-is-dying narrative is certain to have its advocates.
The ascension of the WNBA, however, is unarguable.
Simply two months in the past, the league concluded its finest season ever.
Data have been set each on the court docket and off — together with in tv scores, on the field workplace, and in sponsorship and merchandising income.
Led by rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, expectations for the 2025 season are, justifiably, by means of the roof.
The identical ought to be stated for 2026.
And 2027.
On and on.
As for 2045 — the yr Newton’s circled in his outsized calendar — if these legends-in-the-making are nonetheless operating by then, sharing the court docket with their very own kids, LeBron-style, effectively, the previous NFLer simply could be proper: extra folks might be watching the WNBA than MLB.
