Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Hey Sarah here. One of the best parts of working
Speaker 2: at Bloomberg is we have teams all around the world
Speaker 2: working to bring you coverage with a truly global perspective.
Speaker 2: Today's Big Take is an example of that. It's an
Speaker 2: episode from our team in Hong Kong, hosted by my
Speaker 2: colleague Tanya Chen. It's about a globe trotting baseball superstar,
Speaker 2: an eye popping contract, and a bid to secure a
Speaker 2: bright future for America's favorite pastime by taking it to Asia.
Speaker 2: Here's Tanya.
Speaker 1: This Wednesday, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego
Speaker 1: Padres will face off in the first ever Major League
Speaker 1: Baseball game in South Korea. When tickets for the game
Speaker 1: went on sale in January, they reportedly sold out in
Speaker 1: just eight minutes.
Speaker 3: This is a huge deal in Asia and in Korea.
Speaker 1: That's my colleague Janet Paskin, a senior editor here at Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: She says there are a few reasons those tickets disappeared
Speaker 1: so fast.
Speaker 3: It features two really exciting teams. They each have notable
Speaker 3: Asian stars on their rosters, and of course everyone's here
Speaker 3: to see show. Heyo Tani.
Speaker 1: Just listen to how excited the MLB is to feature.
Speaker 3: Him clapping for show Hey who goes to the opposite field?
Speaker 3: Show Hey Otani puts on the show the Bronx.
Speaker 1: You Bet, Showtime, Me and Arlington Tonight. It never stops amazing.
Speaker 3: First show Heyo Tani is the biggest star in baseball
Speaker 3: right now. This will be show his first game for
Speaker 3: the Dodgers since they signed him to a seven hundred
Speaker 3: million dollar contract.
Speaker 1: It was the biggest sports contract in history, and for
Speaker 1: a good reason. Otani is nothing short of a baseball superstar,
Speaker 1: and his meteoric rise is central to Major League Baseball's future.
Speaker 3: Sho Hey Otani is an incredible gift to Major League Baseball,
Speaker 3: not only because he is a generational player, but because
Speaker 3: he plays directly into the league's desire to grow its
Speaker 3: audience in Asia.
Speaker 1: So can Otani help the league knock it out of
Speaker 1: the park and make baseball into Asia's favorite pastime? Today
Speaker 1: on the show, a once in a generation baseball talent
Speaker 1: meets the MLB's ambitions in Asia. This is the big
Speaker 1: take from Bloomberg News. I'm Tanya Chen. Ask any sports
Speaker 1: league and they'll tell you their fans are getting old.
Speaker 1: Young people don't watch games as much as they used
Speaker 1: to at home or in stadiums. For Major League Baseball
Speaker 1: in the US, that's a big problem.
Speaker 3: It is hard to find anybody in the United States
Speaker 3: right now who's going to be a new fan of baseball.
Speaker 3: They've sort of tapped out the domestic market. There's not
Speaker 3: a lot of room for growth there, so it overseas
Speaker 3: that they're looking to cultivate new fans to create new audiences.
Speaker 1: A few years ago, Major League Baseball started to look
Speaker 1: for new markets to break into, and Asia was a
Speaker 1: natural choice. Baseball is one of the most popular sports
Speaker 1: in both South Korea and Japan. Major League Baseball has
Speaker 1: put on games in Tokyo before, but this time its
Speaker 1: return to Asia is different. All eyes will be on
Speaker 1: one of the biggest stars baseball has ever seen, twenty
Speaker 1: nine year old Shoeo Tani.
Speaker 3: What we are seeing with shoe Heotani right now is
Speaker 3: something that has not been seen in baseball, probably since
Speaker 3: Babe Ruth. Because he is a dominant pitcher and he
Speaker 3: has a dominant hit. That's what's called a two way player.
Speaker 1: Being a two way player means you're excellent at both
Speaker 1: offense and defense. It is extremely difficult.
Speaker 3: And the reason for that is because pitchers put an
Speaker 3: incredible amount of effort into planning out their games. It's
Speaker 3: a lot of preparation, it is a ton of work.
Speaker 3: And then hitters also put a ton of preparation into
Speaker 3: facing the pictures that they're going to face. So between
Speaker 3: the physical demands, the mental demands, and the demands of preparation,
Speaker 3: he's basically working two full time jobs at the highest level.
Speaker 1: On top of that, baseball teams don't expect or even
Speaker 1: allow their players to do both. This is the main
Speaker 1: reason that Otani joined the American League fairly late in
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen. Otani was a dominant high school player in
Speaker 1: his home country of Japan, and he was interested in
Speaker 1: joining ME League Baseball right out of high school, but
Speaker 1: eventually he chose to stay.
Speaker 3: Because the team that he wanted to play for straight
Speaker 3: out of high school was not interested in allowing him
Speaker 3: to pitch and to hit, and the team that drafted
Speaker 3: him in Japan, the nippenham Fighters, they were willing to
Speaker 3: let him do both.
Speaker 1: After playing in Japan for five years, Otani joined the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Angels in twenty eighteen, and his career only
Speaker 1: shot up from there, straight up to baseball super stardom.
Speaker 3: He wins the American League Rookie of the Year award
Speaker 3: that year. The next couple of years are rocky, and
Speaker 3: then he explodes. In twenty twenty one, he is the
Speaker 3: first player in the history of baseball to hit more
Speaker 3: than ten home runs, steal more than twenty bases as
Speaker 3: a hitter, and strike out more than one hundred in.
Speaker 1: The same season.
Speaker 3: So he gets to the AL MVP that year. The
Speaker 3: next year he's on the leader boards for hitting and pitching,
Speaker 3: and then the year after that he's the MVP again.
Speaker 1: To put it lightly, Otani was on fire. One of
Speaker 1: the biggest highlights during that time was the finals at
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty three World Baseball Classic.
Speaker 3: So this is like a World Cup of Baseball. It's
Speaker 3: Japan versus the US.
Speaker 2: Show.
Speaker 3: Heyo Tani's playing for Japan, his Angels teammate Mike Trout,
Speaker 3: also a phenomenal baseball player, is playing for the US.
Speaker 1: Here's MLB's live commentary on the game. Just listen to
Speaker 1: the announcer's excitement.
Speaker 3: The dream matt show, Otani, Trout so it's three to two,
Speaker 3: two outs, Shoho Tani gets one more out and Japan
Speaker 3: wins the World Baseball Classic. Otani's ready, Trout's ready, and
Speaker 3: sho Heo Tani gets Trout to swing at a slider
Speaker 3: to strike him out.
Speaker 1: Hey strokes him out. Otani strikes out Trout and squat
Speaker 1: on top of the baseball world.
Speaker 3: And everybody goes insane. Right, It's exactly what you want
Speaker 3: as a sports fan in those crucial moments. You want
Speaker 3: to see the best players face off, and that's what
Speaker 3: they got.
Speaker 1: The game was monumental, and not too long after that match,
Speaker 1: Otani shocked the baseball world again by signing a ten year,
Speaker 1: seven hundred million dollar contract with the LA Dodgers. It
Speaker 1: is the biggest player contract in sports history, and I
Speaker 1: mean all of sports, Bigger than football quarterback Patrick Mahomes,
Speaker 1: bigger than soccer star Lionel Messi, and it's structured in
Speaker 1: this really unique way.
Speaker 3: You might think seven hundred million dollars, ten years, seventy
Speaker 3: million dollars a year. No, he's getting two million dollars
Speaker 3: a year for the first ten years and then when
Speaker 3: the contract expires. At that point, though, he starts to
Speaker 3: collect sixty eight million dollars a year for the subsequent
Speaker 3: ten years.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of money, but Otani's value spans far
Speaker 1: beyond the field, and that's exactly what MLB needs right now.
Speaker 3: His fame and his talent and this incredible feat that
Speaker 3: he is accomplishing on the field. They want to leverage
Speaker 3: that into new enthusiasm for fans in the United States
Speaker 3: and all over the world.
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball has a bigger plan. Can Otani help
Speaker 1: them achieve that. Last December, the La Dodgers signed a
Speaker 1: record seven hundred million dollar deal with baseball star shohe Otani.
Speaker 1: My colleague Janet says the deal was a historic bet
Speaker 1: on Otani's talent, but also on his to inspire that
Speaker 1: kind of deep fandom that brings a new and younger fans.
Speaker 3: You know, my son plays baseball, he and his friends.
Speaker 3: We're taping this in Hong Kong, so a lot of
Speaker 3: the kids who play baseball here are Asian. The affection
Speaker 3: in the identification that they feel with Shoheo Tani is
Speaker 3: really strong.
Speaker 1: The games in Soul this Wednesday will solidify the league's
Speaker 1: presence in Asia and the lineup Dodgers versus the Padres
Speaker 1: aren't random picks either, coming from California. Both teams have
Speaker 1: a high portion of Asian fans in the US and
Speaker 1: a huge fan base in Asia as well.
Speaker 3: Major League Baseball plans out it's international games years in advance,
Speaker 3: and this particular matchup in Seoul was set before the
Speaker 3: Dodgers signed Shoho Tani, before the Dodgers signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto,
Speaker 3: a phenomenal Japanese pitcher that everybody expects great things from.
Speaker 3: So now this matchup that they established several years ago,
Speaker 3: you will have two teams coming into Korea with six
Speaker 3: Asian players between them, including two of the biggest offseason signings.
Speaker 1: Janet says that having Otani and other Asian players in
Speaker 1: the league is more than a push forward for representation
Speaker 1: in the sport, plain and simple. It's a business move.
Speaker 3: I mean, the uber example of this is Yao Ming, obviously,
Speaker 3: the basketball player who was from China, and I don't
Speaker 3: even need to say who he is, right but he
Speaker 3: almost single handedly made NBA basketball into the most popular
Speaker 3: sport in China. And beyond that, I think a big
Speaker 3: thing that sports sells to its fans is a sense
Speaker 3: of drama and character and narrative, and when fans can
Speaker 3: attach themselves to stars and players and personalities, they are
Speaker 3: more invested in the narrative. They feel a stronger sense
Speaker 3: of identification.
Speaker 1: Even back in the States, where there's little room to
Speaker 1: grow more baseball fans, having Asian players on the team helped.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 3: Major League Baseball says that in the last couple of
Speaker 3: years its Asian American fan base is up about eighteen percent,
Speaker 3: and that was driven by a handful of teams who
Speaker 3: had Asian players, including the Angels and the Padres.
Speaker 1: And all of that means more business opportunities. These days,
Speaker 1: sports teams make most of their money in three ways,
Speaker 1: media rights, ticket sales, and licensing among them. Media rights
Speaker 1: is the lion's share, and MLB could really work on that.
Speaker 1: One way to look at this is to compare it
Speaker 1: with one of the world's most successful sports leagues, the
Speaker 1: English Premier League.
Speaker 3: So for the Premier League at this point, the money
Speaker 3: that they earn from international media rights is greater than
Speaker 3: the money that they earn from domestic media rights. It's
Speaker 3: around fifty to fifty, but with a little bit more
Speaker 3: coming globally, that's huge. You know, there's no single global
Speaker 3: league that it's worth more to the premier league than
Speaker 3: the UK, But taken together, the global audience is more
Speaker 3: valuable than the domestic audience, at least in terms of
Speaker 3: media rights.
Speaker 1: Now, taking that as a benchmark, it's estimated that Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball gets only about ten percent of its media
Speaker 1: rights revenue overseas, way behind the premier league's share. So
Speaker 1: that's the number that they're trying to move. And going
Speaker 1: global could also bring in more sponsorship deals for MLB teams, and.
Speaker 3: The Dodgers or the Padres can charge more for that
Speaker 3: because now they're saying, oh, and we're delivering to you
Speaker 3: this audience overseas.
Speaker 1: But these potential revenue streams won't come without challenges. To start,
Speaker 1: there's the time zone difference.
Speaker 3: So that's a real headwind when games are played in
Speaker 3: the United States, and what that translates to you in
Speaker 3: Korea or in Japan, you're looking at games that are
Speaker 3: in the middle of the night at seven am, you know,
Speaker 3: on a weekday. So the natural kind of sports viewing
Speaker 3: or sports as live event that Americans are used to
Speaker 3: and that American leagues and brands really rely on that
Speaker 3: doesn't exist in quite the same ways.
Speaker 1: Also, there just aren't enough games played in Asia.
Speaker 3: If you live in Japan or you live in Korea
Speaker 3: and you're super lucky, maybe you'll go to like a
Speaker 3: couple games a year. There's no casual like, oh, I
Speaker 3: don't have plans on Saturday. Let's see what the tickets
Speaker 3: to baseball cost.
Speaker 1: The Dodgers predict they'll generate as much as one hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars a year in new revenue thanks to Otani.
Speaker 1: And that's why the Soul games this week are so important.
Speaker 3: That's partly why they're playing these games in Seoul. It
Speaker 3: is a way to engage with fans, try to really
Speaker 3: solidify some of those relationships, because the other thing Major
Speaker 3: League Baseball can't do is they can't play games once
Speaker 3: the season really gets underway again because of the time
Speaker 3: change and the schedule's so packed. So it's really this
Speaker 3: season opening moment where they can have these games in
Speaker 3: Asia in particular.
Speaker 1: This is a big take from Bloomberg News. I'm Tanya Chen.
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Young Young and Naomi, with
Speaker 1: additional reporting from Jenny Sunman Lee and so He Kim.
Speaker 1: It was edited by Aaron Edwards and mixed by Young
Speaker 1: Young and Alex Sugula. Our senior producers are Naomi Shaven
Speaker 1: and Elizabeth Ponzo. Nicole Beemster Bauer is our executive producer,
Speaker 1: and Stage Bauman is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to the Big Take. We'll be back tomorrow.