MLB Stadium Saga: Oakland/Tampa Bay/Southside

[GDAWG]

13 minutes ago, Magic Dynasty said:

A's options not named Las Vegas:

Portland - ehhhh I don't think they'd build them a stadium

San Antonio - 2 teams already in Texas

Salt Lake City - too small 

Vancouver - Canada

Nashville/Charlotte - probably the best non-LV options available, but they're not "flashy" cities like LV is

 

I can't see it being anywhere other than Vegas. Sure, they'll "look at other options" (probably Nashville, if I had to guess) in case Nevada isn't willing to fund a 3rd stadium in less than 10 years, but that won't happen. 

 

If nothing else, it's kinda funny that the A's and Raiders will once again be together, but in a different city.

 

Vegas already has a minor league stadium that is brand new and opened in 2019, but it's not known if it's expandable to MLB standards.

[DEAD!]

24 minutes ago, Magic Dynasty said:

 

Vancouver - Canada

NOW... There is quality reason for not having a major league baseball team!

 

I want to see the A's threaten to move to Albuquerque.

[The_Admiral]

1 hour ago, Red Comet said:

I always thought the rationale behind Vegas is the increasing trend of fans traveling to see their teams play.

 

Whoops, a third of the American population is never setting foot on an airplane ever again. They'll have to have a gig worker drop the Athletics off at their doorstep instead.

[rams80]

An MLB team in Albuquerque would be excellent black comedy.  I'm for it.  We need a Seattle Pilots of the 21st Century.

[Dilbert]

From what Ive seen the top places for a team now are Montreal, Nashville, Portland and Las Vegas. Tampa Bay has kinda claimed Montreal already. Las Vegas and Nashville have both built new ballparks. Portland lost its team and ballpark to MLS. At this point if the city/state/provincial government gets involved in funding, Id say Portland has the best shot.

[DnBronc]

2 hours ago, FiddySicks said:

Remember the contraction talks in the early 2000s? Yeah, they probably should’ve just done that with the A’s. 

 

They should contract in MLB, NBA, and NHL. Just too many teams.

[Walk-Off]

On 5/11/2021 at 6:09 PM, rams80 said:

We've got maybe Charlotte and maybe Montreal east of the continental divide as "plausible" markets.  I think MLB could brick those quite nicely if need be.

 

Presently, Montréal seems more plausible to me than Charlotte, if only because of an active campaign led by Stephen Bronfman, an heir to the Seagram distillery fortune and the son of the original owner of the Expos.  While Charlotte has been rumored for years as a potential home of an MLB team -- thanks largely to both a metro area with steady population growth and the continued financial pull of the city's banking industry (especially the national juggernaut that is Bank of America) -- I am not aware of any serious, clearly organized movement for an MLB franchise in or near the South's Queen City.  In fact, I dare say that Raleigh has currently the most substantive and most tangible campaign for an MLB club anywhere in North Carolina (replete with a #RaleighOnDeck hashtag) ... even if most of the boosters of that project seem to be local hipsters whose individual and collective net worths are middle-class at best.

 

On 5/11/2021 at 6:13 PM, MJWalker45 said:

Is Nashville still in play? Apparently that's where people think Cleveland is moving to. 

 

Is Nashville still in play?  Hmmm ...

 

https://mlbmusiccity.com

 

https://nashville-stars.myshopify.com

 

https://twitter.com/NashvilleStars

 

https://instagram.com/nashvillestarsbaseball

 

https://facebook.com/NashvilleStarsBaseball

 

As for Cleveland's MLB club moving anywhere, I see two major hurdles:

 

1. Ohio's "Art Modell Law" forces pro sports teams playing at publicly funded venues in that state "to either get agreement from their home town to play most home games elsewhere, or give six months’ notice of their intention to move and allow locals a chance to buy the team."
2. From what I have read, while Cuyahoga County's government is on track to pay off its debt on Progressive Field by the end of the 2023 season, it may not be exactly clear as to whether the Cleveland MLB team would become free to exit its lease of that ballpark at that moment, or would have to wait a certain number of years afterward before being allowed to play home games elsewhere.  If the latter is true, then the Cleveland MLB franchise would be in a predicament much like that of the Tampa Bay Rays, who are still contractually bound to Tropicana Field through the 2027 season even though the City of St. Petersburg's government paid off the debt on that facility a few years ago.

[Dilbert]

1 hour ago, DnBronc said:

 

They should contract in MLB, NBA, and NHL. Just too many teams.

old man yells at cloud

[GDAWG]

Doesn't Portland have Russell Wilson as part of their ownership group?  First of all, that's weird.  If the A's move there and Wilson is part owner of the new group that owns the A's, they would still be in the same division as the Mariners, from Seattle, a place where Wilson is super popular.  Second, why didn't he purchase a small share in the Mariners?

[sky1324]

1 hour ago, Walk-Off said:

 

 While Charlotte has been rumored for years as a potential home of an MLB team -- thanks largely to both a metro area with steady population growth and the continued financial pull of the city's banking industry (especially the national juggernaut that is Bank of America) -- I am not aware of any serious, clearly organized movement for an MLB franchise in or near the South's Queen City.  In fact, I dare say that Raleigh has currently the most substantive and most tangible campaign for an MLB club anywhere in North Carolina (replete with a #RaleighOnDeck hashtag) ... even if most of the boosters of that project seem to be local hipsters whose individual and collective net worths are middle-class at best.

 

The real Queen City, thank you

 

Raleigh is much more organized right now, but they kind of have to be to combat Charlotte. The Raleigh metro isn't particularly conducive to a team, with three large, distinct populations spread out over about 113 square miles. Durham to Raleigh is about half an hour, and you can't rely on half of your population to drive half an hour or more see the team. Diehard fans sure, but you're going to be drawing mostly from the city proper. The Research Triangle, Raleigh's CSA, is about 700,000 people smaller than Charlotte's, and the TV market is also smaller, though not by much here. The corporate money is also much more prevalent here as well as we have 9 Fortune 500 companies with headquarters here while Raleigh has... 2, not to mention other companies with regional headquarters in the city. 

 

Both cities are held back by the fact that neither of them have a stadium. Raleigh loses to Charlotte in just about every metric - the only reasonable argument for the Triangle over the Queen City is that Raleigh only has the Hurricanes to compete with. But in the MLB Raleigh site you mentioned, while they reference the Hornets' attendance struggles, they fail to mention that the Hurricanes also don't draw well, in fact, they've draw worse than the Hornets recently. If the MLB announced real expansion or it was seriously under consideration for a franchise to move, I guarantee you somebody in Charlotte would step up, whether that's David Tepper or another one of the rich guys that make the area home.

[flasah]

4 hours ago, Magic Dynasty said:

A's options not named Las Vegas:

San Antonio - 2 teams already in Texas

 

Two teams already in Texas is not the problem. SA is too poor. We couldn't finance a AAA ballpark, so no way we'll get a major league park.

As much as I would like a team here, Austin is a much better choice, both richer and growing faster.

[TrueYankee26]

On 4/1/2020 at 10:42 PM, Cujo said:

Oakland fans after the Warriors, Raiders and A's all dip out

 

Getting sadly closer to reality.

[Joke Insurance]

Could any of these cities be in contention?

 

San Antonio

Austin

El Paso

Tucson

Fresno

Inland Empire (San Bernadino/Riverside)

Salt Lake City

 

I'll also throw some Mexican cities into the mix:

 

Mexico City

Guadalajara

Monterrey

[FiddySicks]

26 minutes ago, Joke Insurance said:

Could any of these cities be in contention?

 

San Antonio

Austin

El Paso

Tucson

Fresno

Inland Empire (San Bernadino/Riverside)

Salt Lake City

 

I'll also throw some Mexican cities into the mix:

 

Mexico City

Guadalajara

Monterrey

Oh, come on. 

[flasah]

21 minutes ago, Joke Insurance said:

Could any of these cities be in contention?

 

San Antonio  2,550,960

Austin  2,227,083

El Paso  844,124

Tucson  1,047,279

Fresno  999,101

Inland Empire (San Bernadino/Riverside)  4,650,631

Salt Lake City  1,232,696

 

I added 2019 metro populations. El Paso, Tucson, Fresno & SLC are too small.

Inland Empire is too spread out. None of its cities is bigger than 330,000.

I think Austin is more likely than SA, because it is richer and growing faster.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

While from the historical perspective the A's can be seen as peripatetic, the astonishing fact is that they have been in Oakland for as long as they were in Philadelphia — 54 seasons.

 

I am amazed by this as I recall the near certainty of their move to Denver for the 1978 season, which, had it not been averted by a lack of agreement over who was going to pay off the remainder of the lease at the Coliseum, would have rendered the A's time in Oakland shorter than their 13-year stint in Kansas City.

[Walk-Off]

17 hours ago, Magic Dynasty said:

A's options not named Las Vegas:

Portland - ehhhh I don't think they'd build them a stadium

 

The Portland area has two standing proposals now for a major-league-caliber baseball park.  A few weeks ago, the Portland Diamond Project's plan for an MLB venue at the Port of Portland's Terminal 2 gained a intra-metropolitan competitor in the form of a proposal for an MLB park within a hypothetical mixed-use development in Gresham, a suburb east of Portland.  Thus, the Athletics' owners could not only play the overall Portland metro area against any other possible relocation destination and/or Oakland, but could also pit the City of Portland proper against Gresham in the battle to give the A's the most attractive ballpark offer.

[DukeofChutney]

Just a curveball question - what location would be the biggest surprise for the move?

 

Doesn't have to be one of the locations already mentioned. I'm thinking Seattle Pilots level of unexpected here.

 

 

 

 

[GDAWG]

25 minutes ago, DukeofChutney said:

Just a curveball question - what location would be the biggest surprise for the move?

 

Doesn't have to be one of the locations already mentioned. I'm thinking Seattle Pilots level of unexpected here.

 

 

 

 

 

Albuquerque or Reno.

[Walk-Off]

31 minutes ago, DukeofChutney said:

Just a curveball question - what location would be the biggest surprise for the move?

 

Among potential surprises that are big and yet plausible, I would go with Dave Kaval and company paying off the ownerships of both the Yankees and the Mets (and maybe paying off the Phillies' ownership also) and then moving the A's to the northeast quadrant of New Jersey.  Some studies have suggested that, from a financial standpoint, the New York City and Los Angeles television markets would each be able to support three MLB teams more easily than any currently MLB-free TV market in the United States would be able to support one MLB franchise.