The biggest Metropolitan Areas without Baseball in USA:
Charlotte 2.6m (Hornets, Panthers)
Orlando 2.6m (Magic. MLS)
San Antonio 2.55m (Spurs)
Portland 2.49 m (Blazers, MLS)
Sacramento 2.36m (Kings)
Las Vegas 2.26 (Raiders, NHL)
Nashville 1.9m (Titans, NHL Predators)
Boy, Mitch Haniger is having a good start to the season.
Looks like Profar has found a new way to get on base ???
Ivermectin Man
I suppose that I should be fine with a Charlotte team as it would be more convenient than Atlanta and my kids might find that more useful, but I just feel like it would be a small market team without a whole lot of passion behind it.
But that's my general impression of Charlotte. Not anything worth getting excited about.
On a related note, I'm sure it would inconvenience my Braves access in one way or another. And it would probably hurt the Braves bottom line somehow. If I thought it would be a success and a good thing for the kids, I'd probably reluctantly support it. But I just seriously doubt that MLB would do well in Charlotte.
I don't know. It would begin life not only as a small market, but one with two other professional sports franchises in town.
The Braves also dominate their target population to a much more intense degree than anything the Panthers or Hornets ever had to deal with.
With the exception of the early years of the Hornets (LJ and Mourning), I've never really sensed a hell of a lot of passion for professional sports from up there. I tend to wish them well enough, but not enough to follow closely.
I think the MiLB vs MLB dynamic and even target fan is a little different, but the AAA numbers are I guess somewhat encouraging. I understand the park is nice and that has certainly pushed attendance in a lot of places, but sometimes that MiLB thing is about ease and affordability. Not about connection to the team or winning or even watching a baseball game. I feel like you need a lot of more passionate investment in the product to support MLB numbers, but I might be dead wrong.
jpx7 (05-16-2021)
Proximity to ATL isn't really an issue IMO. Braves Country is the southeast and NC falls directly into that regardless of the extra 2.5 hrs away. TBS was the best thing that ever happened to that franchise.
The Triangle would be another good spot, but IMO Raleigh is even more of a transplant town than Charlotte is at this point. They support the Canes fairly well when they are decent.
Charlotte supports everything but the Hornets (due to obvious reasons) and I think the MLS team will take off like a rocket. Prior to the original Hornets leaving the Hive was slammed for every game. CLT also kills it with the golf tournaments... NASCAR...
This city loves that stuff.
I actually think Vegas is a legitimate contender. They've shown there is absolutely no hesitancy to shell out HUGE money for a state of the art park there, and if MLB reshuffles the divisions to actually address some of the travel concerns putting another team out west would certainly make sense because it would really help cut down other teams having to go so far to play the Mariners.
MLB West Division - LA, San Francisco, San Diego, Anaheim, Colorado, Arizona, Seattle, Vegas (formerly Oakland)
MLB Midwest Division - Kansas City, Houston, Texas, St. Louis, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Chicago, Chicago
MLB Northeast Division - New York, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Cleveland, Detroit
MLB Southeast Division - Orlando (formerly Tampa Bay), Miami, Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington, Cincinnati, Nashville, Raleigh/Charlotte
If you rotated playing divisions like the current AL/NL system with the West/Midwest as one league, Seattle wouldn't have to come east of Chicago/Milwaukee unless they made it to the World Series and none of the teams in the new Eastern League would have to deal with time zone changes.
Last edited by clvclv; 05-12-2021 at 03:35 PM.
Has there EVER been a statement and question a certain someone should absolutely never have made and asked publicly more than...
Kinda pathetic to see yourself as a message board knight in shining armor. How impotent does someone have to be in real life to resort to playing hero on a message board?
Well, it started with Jeffrey Loria, but when MLB bought the team in 2002 they took a talented, competitive team and wouldn’t let them spend any money to supplement it. They also constantly blocked them from getting a new stadium built as far back as the 90’s. It was all a ploy to get baseball back in DC.
It’s not like the fans just woke up one day a la Jason Heyward and decided they hated baseball. They had good attendance pre-strike.
jpx7 (05-16-2021)