Posted: February 26th, 2023

Question

175-250 my subject is Major league Baseball MLB  in Western Europe mainly Germany 

Identify and describe the emerging issues and opportunities of the  organization that you have chosen to focus on for your final project in  relation to the proposed target country.  

With the World Baseball Classic set to begin next month I chose my final project to be on Major League Baseball and their potential to promote baseball in Europe more specifically the Netherlands. Baseball is extremely popular in the Netherlands which has produced professional MLB baseball players such as Andruw Jones, Didi Gregorius, Jonathan Scoop and others. The Netherlands has a national team that will be representing them in the World Baseball Classic and I feel now is the time for the MLB to begin hosting pro games and to consider starting a professional baseball team in the Netherlands. The MLB took its first steps towards global expansion when one of sports greatest rivalries enter England as the Yankees and Red Sox played in 2019 and was a success. One of MLB’s weaknesses is they need to expand their international fan base to locations such as Asia and other countries in Europe.

The MLB needs to look into more creative ways to host games internationally in order to expand their audience and their revenue. This is an opportunity the league is missing out on and hopefully they will capitalize on this in the next up coming years so they will grow the game of baseball internationally. The NFL hosted 5 games in 2022 overseas and had tremendous success doing it. I feel that baseball has a larger reach internationally then the NFL since the NFL is more an American sport; The MLB must take advantage of the game’s popularity and ensure that we give our fans the opportunity to watch this game live in person.