MLB Expansion (What to do with the Minors)

[RoughRiders99]

Hey everybody.

I made this recent post in the thread called "Sports Expansion," an old thread that was from last winter/spring or so. I just made a post, but it seems that nobody is really paying attention to that, so I thought I'd make a new thread to make sure this catches people's attention.

I know I was in the middle of this project a while back, in the spring/winter and have put this off for a while until recently.

In the last few days, after hearing some more news about the Astros moving to the AL West and it got me thinking about this project and my baseball realignment.

So it got me working on my expansion teams and evening giving them their own minor league teams.

And I noticed that I've expanded a few new teams in cities that already have minor league teams, such as Iowa, San Antonio, Salt Lake, etc.. (AAA, AA teams).

It got me thinking....what would happen to the minor league teams that is already in the city? It's "quite" difficult in the upper leagues (AAA, AA) because it's sort of hard to find "large" cities for them. It get easier once you get to the lower levels. You can just simply add a new city, that's it.

So how would it work? What would happen to the minor league team in a city that has been awarded an expansion team? Do I just leave them there in the same city, or do I move them somewhere else? If we left the minor league team there, how would the scheduling work? How would the city react by having a MLB and AAA team in the same cities, but they aren't affiliated with each other? Etc..? Etc...?

I would appreciate your input! Thanks! :-)

And for people to know, the 10 expansion teams that I've added to MLB are the following:

- Arkansas Travelers

Carolina Blue Sox

- Iowa Oaks

- Memphis Kings

Montreal Expos

- New Orleans Pelicans

- Omaha Legends

Portland Beavers

- Salt Lake Bees

- San Antonio Defenders

The one i've marked with the hash already have a minor league team in the city.

note* - let's just put aside all that "things" that won't make expansion work at all (watering down the talent, not enough money in these cities, etc etc). Let's just call me the "king of north america" and that will be it.

[frontsfan93]

with Carolina, where are they based? If Its Raleigh could use Charlotte for a AAA affiliate. thought you would then have to find a new home for The White Sox AAA team.

[RoughRiders99]

with Carolina, where are they based? If Its Raleigh could use Charlotte for a AAA affiliate. thought you would then have to find a new home for The White Sox AAA team.

The Carolina Blue Sox most likely would use Raleigh for the MLB team. The White Sox would remain with the Charlotte Knights, while the Blue Sox will probably get the Durham Bulls. The Tampa Bay Rays (Currently affiliated with the Bulls) would be affiliated with a new AAA team based in Florida.

[McCall]

Maybe half of those cities are even a remote possibility of being a potential MLB expansion/relocation city.

Iowa? Sorry, never gonna happen. Raleigh? Not a chance before Charlotte. Little Rock, AR? Nope. Omaha? Uh-huh.

San Antonio, Memphis, Montreal and Portland are your most likely, though realisticly, probably not anytime soon.

New Orleans and Salt Lake City have slim outside chances, but are at least legitimate proposals.

[seancarter]

you couldn't come up with idea for San Antonio

[RoughRiders99]

Maybe half of those cities are even a remote possibility of being a potential MLB expansion/relocation city.

Iowa? Sorry, never gonna happen. Raleigh? Not a chance before Charlotte. Little Rock, AR? Nope. Omaha? Uh-huh.

San Antonio, Memphis, Montreal and Portland are your most likely, though realisticly, probably not anytime soon.

New Orleans and Salt Lake City have slim outside chances, but are at least legitimate proposals.

Please refer to this quote that I said in the first post: note* - let's just put aside all that "things" that won't make expansion work at all (watering down the talent, not enough money in these cities, etc etc). Let's just call me the "king of north america" and that will be it.

Thank you.

[B-Rich]

And I noticed that I've expanded a few new teams in cities that already have minor league teams, such as Iowa, San Antonio, Salt Lake, etc.. (AAA, AA teams).

It got me thinking....what would happen to the minor league teams that is already in the city? It's "quite" difficult in the upper leagues (AAA, AA) because it's sort of hard to find "large" cities for them. It get easier once you get to the lower levels. You can just simply add a new city, that's it.

So how would it work? What would happen to the minor league team in a city that has been awarded an expansion team? Do I just leave them there in the same city, or do I move them somewhere else? If we left the minor league team there, how would the scheduling work? How would the city react by having a MLB and AAA team in the same cities, but they aren't affiliated with each other? Etc..? Etc...?

I would appreciate your input! Thanks! :-)

Young man, there is such a thing as precedent. And it would be extremely easy for you to use the internet to look up what has happened before and what will happen in future expansions in the real world, and what would likely happen in "your" world. But I'll give you a brief, recent primer:

Most recently, in the 1998 expansion, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays entered the league. First of all, this entailed two new expansion teams in the AAA level (one for each new franchise). An important thing to remember is that professional baseball allows the higher league to dictate and control its territory. While Tampa Bay had no AAA or AA team to displace, Phoenix had the AAA Firebirds (the Giants' AAA affliate) which had to relocate, which they did to Fresno, CA. The two new AAA franchise expansion franchises went to Durham and Memphis. The Memphis Redbirds displaced the AA Memphis Chicks, who moved to West Tennessee. The AAA Durham Bulls displaced the A-level Carolina League's Durham Bulls, who moved and became the Danville 97s. Fresno had no minor-league ball at the time, but interestingly enough, the major-league Devil Rays worked out a deal in which they got the former St. Petersburg Cardinals A-level team as their farm club, and promptly re-named them the St. Petersburg Devil Rays. Thus the major league and their A-level affiliate reamained in the same city.

In the earlier 1993 NL expansion, similar circumstances occurred. The Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins entered the league, and while Miami had no minor league team to speak of, Denver already had the Denver Zephyrs, who at the time were the AAA affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. Of course, the Rockies did not want the Denver Zephyrs to not only share their territory but also their stadium (Mile High, until Coors Field was completed). So the Zephyrs had to move, and the Dikeous, owners of the Zephyrs AAA franchise, chose New Orleans (which had no minor league ballclub) as their new location. The two expansion AAA sites were Charlotte and Ottawa. Ottawa had no minor league ballclub prior to that, but Charlotte had an AA Southern League franchise. Due to the "higher team" rule, that franchise was bumped from playing in Charlotte by the new AAA franchise and had to move elsewhere. Interestingly enough, that franchise was bought by New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson, who planned to rename them the Pelicans and move them to New Orleans, at the same time the Dikeous were deciding to move their AAA Zephyrs to New Orleans. As AAA teams had precedence regardless of "seniority", it was the Zephyrs who got New Orleans, while the former Charlotte AA team wound up in Nashville, who already had the AAA Sounds, playing for two years as the "Nashville Xpress". That was a very special case as the Sounds management and ownership essentially acted as caretakers for the former Charlotte AA team for two years until a perment relocation spot was identified.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_Xpress)

Now you DO have a precedent where an AAA team and a major league team share a market, but that is by design, not by expansion-forced relocation. The Atlanta Braves moved their AAA affiliate, the former Richmond Braves, to Gwinnett County, GA, a suburb of Atlanta. This cuts down on travel costs and such when players are called up as well as allowing for joint training facilities and such. Of course, they do not share the same stadium.