I don’t like a lot of things about football and basketball celebrations. However, those are the most successful sports. They used to not have those celebrations. They changed.
Are celebrations part of the reason those sports are growing in popularity? Who knows. We do know that baseball is declining. If you change nothing, the trend tells you where this ends.
Um...not sure what book you are reading, but MLB revenue last year was $9B up 13% from prior year and barely second to NFL ($9.5B) and way more than NBA (<$5B).
Baseball is bigger than ever. The report of it's demise has been greatly exaggerated.
Baseball coffers are definitely busting. Question is whether the current model is sustainable into the future. Cause a countervailing trend is that youth aren't watching or playing nearly at the rate they used to.
Baseball revenue has increased over 300% in the past 20 years. It's doubtful that this trend will continue. It becomes mathematically difficult to sustain such growth indefinitely. But, organizations such as MLB (and Red Sox) will make every effort to continue this growth, that's what big successful corporations do.