The Mexican Baseball League will have 7-inning games as a measure to attract more fans
By: EFE Updated 22 Apr 2022, 10: 30 am EDT
The Mexican Baseball League (LMB) will cut the duration of the games from nine to seven innings in two games per week.
“The sport that is not a more attractive product for television in the future is a sport that will die”, explained this Friday the president of the LMB, Horacio de la Vega, a Mexican Olympic pentathlon athlete in Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.
The new measure was announced on April 6 and consists of the games on Tuesdays and Wednesday, in which there is less attendance in the stadiums, only seven tickets are played . De la Vega considered this new stipulation as an “experiment” to see if the fans get used to it and it remains a permanent measure.
The head of the summer baseball circuit in Mexico recognized that “ there is no way” that a sport today lasts more than three hours not only because it complicates its broadcast, but also makes the younger audiences not interested; A large part of the LMB fans are between 45 and 55 years.
Among the measures that have been applied in its management are limiting the visits of the ‘coaches’ to the mound and that pitchers must face at least three batters before leaving the game, but none had been so criticized by players and fans as the reduction of chapters.