Why Global Sports Expansion Fails Without the Right Leadership: Insights from Jim Small, Former President of the World Baseball Classic

Major League Baseball generated a record $12.1 billion in gross revenue in 2024, but unlike the NFL or NBA, much of its long-term international growth strategy has historically depended on building participation.

That distinction shaped how Jim Small approached global expansion during his decades leading MLB’s international business and later serving as President of the World Baseball Classic.

Rather than viewing international markets purely through the lens of distribution, Small helped build MLB’s strategy around a longer-term commercial equation: participation drives fandom, fandom drives engagement, and engagement compounds enterprise value over time.

For operators across sports, media, and entertainment, international expansion is no longer just about entering markets. It is about building ecosystems that can sustain long-term commercial growth.

Why International Sports Expansion Often Fails to Monetize

The leagues creating lasting international value are investing beyond distribution and into the systems that build long-term fan engagement. And according to Jim Small, the difference often comes down to leadership.

After spending years overseeing MLB’s growth across Asia and Latin America, Small has a clear view into why some global strategies compound while others stall.

We found that to grow the game around the world, we needed to focus on three different things: participation, content, live events.

Participation Is a Commercial Growth Strategy

For sports presidents and ownership groups, the distinction is significant because reach alone does not monetize.

One of Small’s clearest observations is that sports leagues often underestimate the amount of infrastructure required to create enduring international demand. In baseball specifically, participation is directly tied to commercial growth.

You’re 62% more likely to have a licensed product in your home if you have a baseball or softball player in that home.

That insight fundamentally changes how expansion capital gets deployed. Instead of focusing exclusively on media distribution or sponsorship activation, MLB invested in grassroots participation, youth development, localized content strategies, and international live events designed to create long-term emotional connection.

The economics follow the ecosystem, and the organizations that understand that are further separating themselves globally.

Over time, engagement compounds commercial value across media, sponsorship, merchandise, and ticketing.

Global Expansion Requires Different Market Strategies

That long-term orientation has been especially visible in markets like Japan, where baseball already had deep cultural roots, and in China, where MLB approached growth through fan acquisition rather than immediate monetization.

Reach was everything. The economics weren’t as important as the reach…our mission in China was fan acquisition.

International expansion requires leaders who can manage near-term revenue expectations while building long-cycle market infrastructure.

The Leadership Capabilities Driving International Growth

The leadership requirements for international growth are also changing.

Small repeatedly returned to the importance of curiosity, local understanding, and market-specific thinking.

It’s rare to see a leader really take the time to understand, ‘Okay, this market is different.’

The organizations succeeding internationally are not exporting domestic playbooks. They are adapting market by market across different cultural, media, and consumer environments.

That complexity is changing what sports organizations now require from leadership teams. For league presidents and operators, that means building leadership teams that can:

• Operate across multiple stakeholder groups
• Balance fan acquisition with monetization timing
• Understand local market behavior
• Translate long-term strategy into commercial outcomes
• Build infrastructure before revenue fully materializes

The organizations that win globally will be the ones disciplined enough to identify where real affinity exists, and patient enough to build around it over time.

That requires more than distribution. It requires leadership.