The potential market growth of baseball

Warning, this is a non-red sox related article.

An interesting piece ran in Xconomy today about the Baseball World Cup qualification in Sweden. The premise of the article is about the "start-up" and entrepreneurial atmosphere of Baseball in Sweden.

The reason I bring this up is because of the great potential for baseball to spread its market into Europe and across the globe. We have already seen the Latin American community and emerging asian markets embrace the game, why not Europe?

These European countries should learn lessons from minor league baseball organizations. Minor league teams face similar challenges with smaller stadiums and fan bases. They must learn to maximize their revenue and increase their marketing and promotional efforts.

Baseball might not be an instant hit in Sweden or other countries, but with time and effort, baseball could earn a large following in these foreign nations. This will only help the game here in America. More fans means larger merchandising revenue and it could also lead to potential scouting camps in these nations down the road.