Despite steroid scandals, MLB revenue flying out of the park

The New York Sun says not many people really care that drug-cheats abound in baseball:

It is decision time in Bud Selig's office: The commissioner of Major League Baseball, along with his president and chief operating officer, Bob DuPuy, and the rest of the administrative staff, will have to figure out whether the National Football League's move of ignoring a doping trial is a prudent way to deal with the current indictment against Barry Bonds of perjury and obstruction of justice in the BALCO case, or if MLB should get involved in the process.

The Sun points out that MLB drew in record numbers of fans last year.  New public-financed stadia are being planned, or built in Florida and New York.  Yet, MLB appoints a blue panel board to investigate drug-cheating; Conversely, the NFL ignored a drug-cheating scandal when the Carolina Panthers were caught hip deep in illegal PEDs, peddling merely down their lucrative way without reacting,

Lastly:

Despite the Mitchell report, a congressional hearing on steroids and other banned substances, and the Bonds indictment, the bottom line is that politicians, the corporate community, and baseball customers don't care. They may talk a big game about how baseball is filled with cheats and drug users. But when it comes down to it, there is more money than ever flowing into the game. The baseball consumer has spoken.

We don't accept all the reasoning.  There does seem to be public concern about drug-cheating: The various busts, the Mitchell Report, and  the tons of ink spilled to discuss Bonds and BALCO.  Yet, the fact remains, Americans love to attend the circus; they love the strongman, the bearded lady, and the other assorted caricatures of real humans.

Comments

[drew]

i agree with your circus reference. sometimes people take their entertainment without thinking of the consequences of their dollars going to something unhealthy. it won't be a problem until people start overdosing to the point where teenagers are having their hearts enlarge. it's a sad fact that i thought of steroids when joe kennedy died, i wonder what the medical examiner will find.