MLB is shutting down the Fan Cave, a 4-year-old social media hub in New York City, according to Sports Business Daily.
The move, led by Bob Bowman, president of business and media, is an attempt to consolidate all of baseball’s social media activities under MLB Advanced Media and MLB Network.
“We’re trying to be more coordinated in all of our social media efforts,” Bowman said. “This change in structure is helping all of us focus on the same goals, and by putting all of the social media together, we hope to have a more consistent and effective message.”
The Fan Cave was developed by Tim Brosnan, who recently left the league after a lengthy tenure as executive vice president of business. Tony Petitti, recently promoted to MLB’s chief operating officer, oversees marketing in his new role and will guide the newly consolidated social media activities.
MLB’s lifestyle show developed in partnership with Viacom-owned MTV2, “Off the Bat from the MLB Fan Cave,” also has been discontinued after one season.
MLB still has several years on its lease for the Fan Cave location and Bowman said he has several ideas to repurpose the space, including creating pop-up retail stores there during peak points of the baseball calendar such as Opening Day, the All-Star Game and the postseason. He also envisions using the space to showcase MLBAM’s suite of digital products.
“We’re committed to the space, it’s a hot area, and we don’t have a retail space in Manhattan,” Bowman said. “So doing things there, at least on a pop-up basis to start, we think could be very beneficial to our licensing partners. And we think it could be an interesting way to show our technology in action.”
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