The Evolution and Decline of Sports All-Star Games In this episode of the Fanalytics podcast, the host delves into the history and current state of All-Star games in sports, with a primary focus on the NBA and MLB. The discussion includes an analysis of the decline in viewership and relevance of these events. The podcast contrasts the historical significance and popularity of All-Star games with their current lackluster reception, highlighting reasons such as over-commercialization and lack of player motivation. The episode also features a deep dive into the origins of the MLB All-Star game, its cultural impact during the Great Depression, and the NBA's attempt to innovate its All-Star weekend festivities. Finally, the host examines the challenges in reviving the excitement and competitiveness of these once-iconic sports events. more at fanalytics.substack.com
00:00 Welcome to the Fanalytics Podcast
00:07 Cultural Reflections on the Super Bowl
00:31 Introduction to the NBA All-Star Game
00:41 The Concept and Appeal of All-Star Games
01:30 History and Decline of All-Star Games
03:00 Major League Baseball: The Origin of All-Star Games
07:38 The NBA All-Star Game: A Look Back
12:55 The Decline in Viewership
17:33 NBA's Attempts to Revitalize All-Star Weekend
23:59 Challenges in Motivating Modern Athletes
26:05 Conclusion and Where to Find More
Hey everyone, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Fanalytics podcast. This is the, well, we're getting to the middle of February. Super Bowl was last night, uh, eagerly awaiting to see where the TV viewership comes in. I think a bunch of interesting things happening from a cultural perspective. Donald Trump being cheered, Taylor Swift being booed.
We may well be at a Sort of a long coming cultural inflection point. Maybe a swinging back back of the PE pendulum. That's a topic for another day. Today's topic is the NBA All-Star game, sort of the next big marquee event on the sports calendar. Now, I to, I love. All Star Games, at least conceptually. The Pro Bowl, the MLB All Star Game, the NBA All Star Weekend, whatever the NHL calls theirs.
And again, I say that, I say that tongue in cheek. Because while I love All Star Games, conceptually, like the idea draws me in. I think it draws all the fans in. The idea of all the stars coming together. It should be the, the best basketball game of the year. The best baseball game of the year. The best football game Maybe flag football game of the year, right?
All the stars are there. But it doesn't tend to play out that way, right? And that's the, the current conundrum in terms of all star games, that it's not clear that these things are really working for the various sports leagues at this point. So our topic today, what I want to do is, I want to talk a little bit about the history of League of Legends.
The All Star Game, NBA, and I'll focus on NBA and MLB a little bit since the MLB is where all this started, talk a little bit about the history, talk about, as part of that, talk about the decline, because if you don't know, All these all star games are in varying degrees of decline or free fall in some cases from their historic interest in terms of fandom.
And then offer a few, well, some comments about this year. The NBA keeps trying to redesign, keeps trying to make the all star game, All Star Weekend relevant. Some comments about what they're trying this year. And then I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna offer a solution. But some general, Concepts in terms of if you wanted to move to a solution, how would you actually get there?
Topic for this week, main focus is on the NBA's All Star Weekend and what's happening in 2025. But before we get into that, I think it's worthwhile, well, and I should also say there, there will always be, on the podcast these days, there's almost always a parallel written word, uh, an article.
Probably about a thousand words most, most of the time that goes along with the podcast. And that can be found at the fanalytics. substack. com. So that's my, that's my online home at the moment for the written word and for more in depth statistical analyses. Fanalytics. substack. com. Okay, back to the point.
So, the Major League Baseball is really where the all star games started. This is the genesis, at least in terms of American sports. So to really think through why all star games matter, what they do, I think it's relevant to go back to MLB. So we'll talk about MLB and the NBA in parallel. History of MLB, current of MLB.
The NBA. So the, the, the 1933 game was the first game. Now, it's, it's interesting in a lot of respects. Uh, you got to think about where American culture was at that time, coming out of the, the Great Depression. Uh, what I'll, what I'll, what, The other thing that was happening in 1933 was Chicago's World Fair.
So the All Star Game was created as a combination of both media, uh, I think the idea, the idea is purportedly came from someone at the Chicago Tribune, the local newspaper, done in conjunction with the World's Fair, uh, a lot of support across all of the media. The reports are that, or the data, the history, the history books, suggest that.
55 newspapers took part in, in, in hyping the event by printing ballots for their local fans. So it was a major media event from the very, from the very beginning. The, the game featured the notable players. It featured, well, the game was, so the play, game was played in Chicago, Comiskey Park. So the American League team, the American League team was absolutely star studded with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Um, other, other members of the Yankees.
Not going through the rosters, but of the, of the 36 all stars. Let's check this number. 20 of the game's 36 all stars were at some point inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Okay, so that's a very brief history of the event, but some real important aspects, right? So it's a media event as much as a sports event.
55 newspapers participating. The event is held in conjunction with the Chicago World's Fair. So it's part of the Part of a larger spectacle. It is designed explicitly as a kind of a mood builder, uh, post depression. The players, 36 All stars, 20 make the eventual hall. I, I think the other thing you have to appreciate is in this era in major league baseball, there was very little interleague play.
Right? If you are a National League team, or National League baseball fan, you only really got to see the other National League teams, unless your team made it to the World Series, and then you got to see one roster from the American League. So, if there's one word that comes to mind for the All Star game, it's special.
Right? It is the best players in a special event, a unique event. You're seeing something new, and you're seeing a lot of star power. So this is, you know, truly the birth of a new part of sports, right? The, the all star game, and It's interesting when you go back and you think, well, this is done with the World's Fair.
It's done with the media. So there was always this notion of hype behind it. And the word that is always going to follow hype in modern America is marketing, right? You got hype, you got attention, you got a fan base. Well, this is a marketing opportunity. And so we go back to Major League Baseball and we think about how this, again, we'll come back to the era, 1933.
So this is a TV, this is a, sorry, a radio and newspaper era, right? So in general, the average fan was really kind of starved for content. So here was some new content and it was content that was going to be blasted out in every newspaper and reported on in every radio station. So this is really the genesis of the modern all star game event.
Major League Baseball all star game. Kind of the classic, original, all star game. Even has its own nickname, right? The Midsummer Classic. Really kind of a unique event, played during the middle of the season. Again, the stars from the various leagues coming together to play with each other and to play against each other.
Something novel and definitely an element of greatness. You know, even the sport of baseball probably really lends itself to, to, uh, to, to such an event where you don't have the risk of injury like you do in the, in the NFL. Now, our event that's happening this week is the NBA All Star Weekend. Now, when I think about the NBA All Star Game.
I actually go back to the late eighties. So again, it's pretty far back in time, a couple of generations ago, but definitely during the modern era. Let's focus on one game in particular. So the 1988 all star game. 1988. was really a pivotal time for the NBA, right? And so if we think about the history of the NBA in terms of the players, right? The, the obvious, Arc. The obvious narrative for the NBA was that this was a league that was struggling in the 1970s, right?
The, the, there was an air, there was a time when the championship was shown on tape delay, all sorts of drug scandals, uh, some violence on the court. Uh, I think Kermit Washington hitting Rudy Tomjanovich. So the, the NBA was struggling, and then a couple of guys showed up. I mean, look, there was always. You know, Julius Irving in particular in the, in the seventies, but Magic and Bird showed up in, in the, in about 1980.
And then another guy showed up in the mid eighties and Michael Jordan. And so the, and the 1988 all star game, I think is, essentially, well, the 87 and 88 All Star games, I think were when this all really came together for the league. And so the 1988 game, for example, you know, you had Magic Johnson on the court with Hakeem Olajuwon.
That's one team, right? And again, uniqueness. You don't get to see Magic playing with Olajuwon. On the other side, you had, um, And just think about this star power and again, this going back to the baseball world series of all these guys ending up in the Hall of Fame, you had Byrd, Jordan, Ewing, Barkley, Isaiah Thomas, Jordan was the MVP, but again, you had Jordan playing with Byrd and Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkley.
This is, again, something special. Right? Something special, something different. And when the players are trying, when they're still motivated to play, you're getting something that is the best basketball teams on the planet conceptually. Now the other thing that the NBA All Star Weekend did very well was the skills competitions, right?
And so the three point, the three point shooting competition dominated by Larry Bird in the early years and the Slam Dunk. Now the Slam Dunk was truly the breakthrough event, right? Because this was just made for TV for the ESPN Sports Center, right? This was the most spectacular play in basketball and now you had the best players competing.
So, when you go back to the NBA, I think the first dunk competition was 1984, won by Larry Nance. But then in 85 is really where it started to take off, because you had Dominique Wilson, the human highlight film. Then in 86 you had Spud Webb, right? And Spud Webb was, I think 5'7 right?
So this small man winning this spectacular athleticism competition. But then in, um, but then you had Jordan in 87 in 1988. And so this combination of the best athlete on the planet and you could argue well, Dominic Wilson was just as good as Michael Jordan, But the best dunkers, the best athletes in the planet going head to head in this competition for truly spectacular results combined with a game where you got to see something unique of Magic Johnson, you know, passing the ball to Elijah Wan, or, you know, Jordan driving and kicking the ball out to Larry Bird, truly elevated the NBA All Star Game.
And at the time, and this is kind of the key point, this is how you became a star. Right, so this is an era where still local media is the dominant form of media, and so to break through nationally, it was going to be these national events, and the all star game, look, can't guarantee that you're going to get to the championship just by being a great player, but you can get to the all star game, and you can break through.
And so there's layers to this story, right? This is really also the era where modern sports marketing occurred. I mean, think about what a star Michael Jordan was, both on the court and also in the marketing arena. And so you go to the late 80s, and this is really, you know, several years here, that put the, started to really elevate the NBA from, let's say, League 3 to something that was, It's going to be later in a generation later after the fandom was built in contention with Major League Baseball for being in sport position number two.
, the MLB and NBA All Star Games have rich traditions, rich histories. And to put it bluntly, they are absolutely have been significant marketing tools for the various leagues. Uh, probably, I mean, you go back to Major League Baseball, 1933, probably before they even used the words marketing in terms of sports.
Uh, 1988 is really where, again, you know, the 80s were, Key where the transition from almost natural organic fandom to fandom being like there's always been hype but to fandom being really professionally and relentlessly built through marketing is kind of this key transition point but clearly all star games have hit relative are probably in a period of are in all star games are in a period of Decline, and there's real questions about the current relevancy and the future relevancy of these games.
So if I pull up, uh, if I pull up data, and again, at the substack, fanalytics. substack. com, I've got a quick figure that shows four data points for MLB and the NBA, and you can see, you can see the decline just from a couple of, just from a few data points. Now, I didn't, I didn't bother typing in all the data to do a really thorough analysis, but that being said, the decline is, those four data points really capture what's happening.
And the four data points are from going back to 2004. So, the ratings, the viewership for every, Every five years. Now, when I pull up some data, just to, just to really kind of flesh it out, you know, currently the, uh, let's see, current last year, the NBA had viewership of 5. 5 million for the game, MLB had viewership of 7.
4.
If I go back to 1990, the Miami All Star game, the viewership was 13. 2 million. So, going back, what is that? 34 years, when the country was probably 50 million fewer people, the all star game viewership was more than double, close to, close to triple. Uh, in 1993, the viewership was 22. 9 million, 23 million, so we're at less than a quarter of that.
Um, I'm sort of just kind of cherry picking, going through a list here, looking for notable events. Now, like, Post Michael Jordan. Truly, there was something, you know, the league started to fall off a little. Uh, he had 13. 1 million, uh, in, in nine, in 2002. Uh, following that, you know, we really kind of settled into kind of a slow drop off.
So when you look at the NBA, probably about 10 million people watching this game. Maybe, maybe even less than that. So I got 8. 1 million in 2004, sort of a slow drop off losing. About 100, 000 or 150, 000 per year. Now, in the case of Major League Baseball, the drop off has been even more severe. So the figure I've put on the sub stack, uh, the Major League Baseball had Audiences of, well, if you go back to, again, the 1990s, you again had audiences of above 20 million watching the All Star Game.
2004, it was 14 million. 2009, 14. 6. Okay, so in 2009, for example, it was 14. 6 for MLB versus 7. 6 for NBA. Almost double. Last year, the MLB came in at 7. 4. So, Major League Baseball, over the last 20 years, is losing about 400, 000 viewers per year. The NBA, off of a smaller base, losing about 125, 000. So, the data's out there.
The data is totally, totally obvious. You just plot the data and you clearly see a trend of diminished increase for these all star games going back to 1990, really dropping pretty significantly and pretty consistently over time. Now, we can come up with different explanations for that. The slow death of cable television, we could talk about the growth of social media, or even the power of ESPN, making some of this a little bit less special, you can't, you get to see LeBron James every morning on ESPN, you get to see Steph Curry every day on social media, but the trends are still clear, that we've got this really significant drop off over time.
This year's NBA All Star game. And really, you can go back over the last couple of years. The NBA clearly recognizes that there's an issue with the All Star weekend. That, uh, The event lacks some luster compared to what was happening in the, in the late 1980s, and it's an important issue because this was the NBA's, one of the NBA's key events in terms of building, building brands, building stars, uh, Introducing new stars to the public.
So the 2025 event, and again I'm left kind of shaking my head at this, right? So we've, we've gone through, you know, the, the basic game used to be there was some skills competitions and then it was the East versus the West. For the last few years it seems like we've gotten into, I don't even really know how to describe it, right?
It was team LeBron versus team Giannis, right? We've, we've, we've gone through a lot. Switch started to switch things up. I think in the quest for making this more relevant to trying to meet the fans with what the fan where the where the fans are, at least mentally. Now, the 2025 All Star game, the rosters are based on and again, I'm kind of confused by what's happening.
So, there was a draft between the TNT studio guys, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kenny Smith, drafting the All Stars, and then there's a fourth team, so there's some sort of a tournament, and the fourth team is The fourth team will be the winner, I'm reading this from Bleacher Report, will be the winner of the Castrol Rising Stars, a four team tournament featuring three squads of top NBA rookies and second year players in a fourth squad of G League stars.
I don't know, right? And here's the thing, I'm not interested enough to research what's going on. I could also say this, that as soon as the fourth team is a branded team called the Castro Rising Stars, you've started to miss, you've started to lose the plot. Look, I understand the logic of this. You think about what, what, what the basic structure of the tournament.
Okay, so Shaq's first two picks were LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kennedy Smith grabbed, um, uh, Jalen Brunson and Anthony Edwards, Barclay, uh, selected Jokic and Giannis. So, It's the established stars, the big names, and now you're connecting them to, to the, the TNT studio guys who are some of the most loved guys in all of sports.
Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley. When I do fandom surveys, I find these guys both with extremely high positives and very low negatives. So, you're taking the brand equity, Something the fans love, connecting it to the stars. I understand the logic, but in terms of like, thinking through, I don't know what any of it means, right?
There's a tournament? Okay, why do I want to watch a tournament which is just a couple of exhibition games? Right, so one of the things that's hurt the NBA All Star Game over time, right, is, look, the scores seem to be 193 to 167, so there's no defense, it's just an exhibition, it's just players going through the motions, it's not even with the intensity of a practice, it appears, it's just guys showing off, so we're gonna watch it again.
Two of these, a tournament of these. And again, I come back to, as soon as you start throwing branding into these things, you've lost the plot, right? I mean, the fourth team of young guys and G League guys, again, it makes sense. We're trying to, the NBA is trying to introduce and give some exposure to guys that, that are their next generation of stars.
But this tournament, I don't know who this is going to be compelling to. It's like, oh, I can't wait to see. And look, I don't know, is, are Barkley and Shaq coaching? I don't know. I don't know. And so what the NBA seems to have gone with is novelty. Innovation, rather than, than greatness. Now, this, this general theme of innovation and novelty, this is something that, when I think about the last few editions of the NBA All Star Game, this is what comes to mind.
Uh, you know, Max McClung winning the Slam Dunk Contest. Who's this? He's a G League player that gets called up a little bit. So he's not, we're not talking about Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan anymore, We're talking about someone who isn't actually in the NBA most of the time. Uh, the three point competition last year between Steph Curry and Sabrina Ionescu.
Not sure. I'm not even sure if I'm saying her name, her name, right. And so apologies if I'm not, but it illustrates the point of you're bringing in a WNBA player to take on your greatest shooter, it's novelty. Maybe it's fun at the time, but it's a little bit of a sugar high, right? This event needs to be about greatness.
It needs to be about, you know, again, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan in the late 80s, and now we've got a WNBA player, and we've got a G League guy. It's novelty, and we've got these tournament games going on that clearly lack defensive intensity, and this is why, fundamentally, interest has dropped off.
People don't know, what are people looking for in terms of the All Star name? Keep it really simple. Greatness and something new. The All Star Game doesn't offer a lot of that. Maybe it's something new, but it's something new that the fans actually want.
Bottom line on all this is that for all star games to work, they need to be something, look, they need to be a spectacle. And as part of being a spectacle, they need to have some level of greatness, and they've got to have some level of novelty. It's got to be something that the fans haven't seen, and it has to be something that has the core elements of sport, which is competitiveness, right?
The great players, Going head to head, now the problem with all this of course is the economics of the, of the players at this point, where the players are all now, look, we have a lot of players in the NBA who are basically billion dollar. When you add up how much money these guys are going to make over the course of their career and you look at the endorsements and you look at the value of their social media presences, they are billion dollar brands.
How do you motivate billion dollar brands to take part in exhibition? Competitions, right? How do you motivate someone to take part? A young star, again, who's got a billion dollars on his horizon to get hyped up and go through a dunk contest where potentially the downside is losing to a G League player.
How do you motivate someone that isn't Steph Curry with an established reputation to be motivated to potentially lose a three point shooting contest to a WNBA player? How do you motivate guys that make 50, 60 million dollars a year to take, and again, the NBA has also moved to this system, things like load management, where the analytics are saying, We want to rest you guys.
For the playoffs and the championships where again, where your brand and your stardom is truly built that, but we want you to go fiercely head to head for a couple of, for, for, you know, against the Castro all stars. It just doesn't work. The motivation for the all star game participation. isn't there. So you may still have the novelty, and that's what the NBA has leaned into.
But at this point, there's nothing that, uh, there's no set of incentives that are really pushing the athletes put out those truly, you know, the epic performances, the, the, the, the athletic greatness, the highly competitive events that are necessary to truly make this work. Okay, that's this week's podcast.
Uh, you can find me online at, uh, fanalytics. substack. com. And like I said, if you want to see some of the figures related to the decline in viewership, you can find those figures at the sub stack as well. Till next time. Thank you.