NCAA has a light card too
Plenty of opportunities to grab attention - but for whatever reason they think fans care about all star games.
NHL had its moment and is realizing how hard it is to remain “mainstream” on the level of the Big 3 (MLB, NFL and NBA) - had to take a step back and doubled down on marketing to hard core while picking casual fans as they can - similar to NASCAR. Soccer is the only thing growing these days really - golf is suffering, boxing is dead - MMA is treading water.