I'm not going disagree at all about the amount of poor MLB Teams year-over-year, that happens, NBA has that problem too. But you can't tell me the game and pace of play aren't a problem. AND the price.
I complain about MLB on social outlets far far far too often.
The game is boring. Painfully boring. There isn't anything but HRs anymore. None of the little nuances that differentiated the game from a home run derby or a simulation of a game. You could have the batter hit the ball, never leave the batters box, and award him a base. He doesn't even have to go to the base, it's not like he's going to steal, or someone will bunt him over (none of them can bunt anymore). It's a simulation of an older game now.
Now, lets talk about the price for a second, but I'm going to combine it with how LONG it is. Forget the average person going with a buddy, who really loves the game and sits there for 3 hours a game. Hell, add 1 hour each way for travel. You're looking at a sport that will take you 4-6 hours to enjoy. And you're going to pay $100 for a ticket, and who knows was for parking, food, drinks, merch.... You've just paid what? $50-$300 to head out to see 17 minutes and 58 seconds of action over the course of a three-hour game, that takes 1/4 (if your lucky) or 1/6 of your DAY.
Now wait, that's just you. Imagine bringing children to an event like that? Add a few tickets, more food, more merchandise. Hell, maybe the sight lines aren't even the best. Why leave the comfort of home, where you have the sport in HD or 4K, and the hassle and cash aren't even an issue.
Now, lets get on MLB for a second, they will have you sit in a rain delay for HOURS, they won't give you any reasonable time frame for the game starting up again. They will delay games for the threat of rain (May 25, 2019 - TB vs CLE, the game was delayed 2:48 minutes. No rain had fallen.) The league could have FORCED teams making new stadiums to include a ROOF. They didn't. So now you have a sport that gets screwed over consistently by weather. They have rules in place to shorten games, call games "official" and yet they don't do it nearly often enough. (I'd like to see the adapt the MiLB Double-header rules)
A lot of this changes if they could ever get the game back to being under 2.5 hours average game time. But I don't think they will. They will restrict shifts, and minimum batters for pitchers, but I've been rather vocal that I believe they just add a pitch clock it would help the pace of play, things would happen quicker, the game could be entertaining again. M2C