By The Editorial Board
America’s pastime is better than ever, and every year, there is one day when sports fans catch a glimpse of hope — Opening Day, the start of a 162-game season that lasts more than 220 days.
On March 27, the New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers kicked off 2025’s Opening Day slate as the most-watched MLB Opening Day game since 2018. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs started the season a week prior in Tokyo, drawing one of the largest national baseball broadcasts in history. People care about baseball, and it’s time to make Opening Day a recognized holiday.
Every MLB team sat at 75% capacity or better in person capacity for their respective home openers, with all but three at 89% or better. Aside from competitive imbalance and inefficiency from several front offices, which in the case of the St. Louis Cardinals has heavily influenced fan attendance, most of the league has serious support. Baseball is not a dead game.
Historically, Opening Day games on Friday tend to lead to some of the highest “sick days” at work, mimicking “Super Sick Monday” — the day after the Super Bowl. While MLB viewership rates aren’t nearly as high as the Super Bowl — 127.7 million against 1.93 million — there are 15 games on Opening Day across the globe. Each game saw viewership between one million and 1.93 million people from New York to California.
According to Major League Baseball, more than 22 million people over the age of 21 have admitted to playing “hooky” to get out of work or plans to attend an Opening Day game. After the research was released, a poll showed that 62.9% of people think making Opening Day a holiday is a good idea.
None of that accounts for the boom to local businesses, future revenue and accessibility that a recognized holiday would attract. Super Bowl tickets saw prices range from $3,000 to over $20,000, while most MLB ballparks offer tickets for less than $100 to get in the gates. Getting fans off the couch and into downtown with a holiday would significantly improve the atmosphere and local revenue for a day.
And again, this is just one day we are talking about.
The primary reason to take a holiday here is to support the interests of students. Opening Day is an exciting, cheap and encouraging way to promote sports to kids. While support for the pros grows, so does youth participation. Roughly 16.6 million people above the age of six played baseball at least once in 2023, a 7.5% boost from the year before.
Yes, making Opening Day a national holiday is a stretch since there are 33 states without MLB teams and not everyone in America would actually tune in. However, for states with Major League ball clubs or big cities like Arlington and Houston, a recognized holiday would go a long way. Baseball is the only sport where everyone is hopeful at the start of the season — embrace it.
