Mlb to Nashville?

[msstate7]

https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/2019/05/07/nashville-major-league-baseball-rob-manfred/1128690001/

As a braves' fan, I don't want this

[BrunswickDawg]

I thin expansion is a bad idea in general, but I don't think it will hurt ATL any more than Liberty Media already does.
Plus side - if they re-aligned divisions along with it, it would set up a great natural rival.

However, I don't think MLB should expand at all until they resolve Tampa and Oakland. Tampa especially. That franchise needs to be relocated.

[Tbonewannabe]

Nashville doesn't make as much sense as maybe Charlotte or even New Orleans. Nashville is only 3 hours from Atlanta so that isn't a very big footprint. You could put one in Portland, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, or somewhere else that might make more geographic sense. Most of Nashville would be Braves fans so all you would do is split that type of fanbase. Nashville would definitely need to be American League so at least there wouldn't be a direct competition.

[ShotgunDawg]

I think Nashville & Vegas are the clear two best choices for expansion.

Nashville is growing so fast & it's an MLB city.

MLB has to add a team out West for travel purposes. Teams in the NL & AL West basically wear it on travel

[ShotgunDawg]

Nashville doesn't make as much sense as maybe Charlotte or even New Orleans. Nashville is only 3 hours from Atlanta so that isn't a very big footprint. You could put one in Portland, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, or somewhere else that might make more geographic sense. Most of Nashville would be Braves fans so all you would do is split that type of fanbase. Nashville would definitely need to be American League so at least there wouldn't be a direct competition.

Charlotte is only 3 hours from ATL as well & New Orleans isn't an MLB caliber market.

Vegas & Nashville IMO are clearly the two best choices

Thing is, I could actually see the Rays moving to Nashville & Oakland moving to Vegas. Both of those market may get a team without expansion

[Tbonewannabe]

I thin expansion is a bad idea in general, but I don't think it will hurt ATL any more than Liberty Media already does.
Plus side - if they re-aligned divisions along with it, it would set up a great natural rival.

However, I don't think MLB should expand at all until they resolve Tampa and Oakland. Tampa especially. That franchise needs to be relocated.

Would the Tampa franchise be better off in Orlando? It is a little less of a beach vibe type of town. Or does Tampa just need new ownership? It seems like they should have the population to support MLB and NFL teams.

[ShotgunDawg]

Would the Tampa franchise be better off in Orlando? It is a little less of a beach vibe type of town. Or does Tampa just need new ownership? It seems like they should have the population to support MLB and NFL teams.

The Tampa franchise would be better off in Tampa instead of St Pete.

I'm still not sure it would work though

[msstate7]

I wish they'd just get rid of Tampa altogether, and send every FO member and coach straight to the braves lol

[ShotgunDawg]

I wish they'd just get rid of Tampa altogether, and send every FO member and coach straight to the braves lol

Haha.

I think you'd regret that because you'd never win anything.

Due to their market & lack of media, Tampa & Oakland can operate in ways that most every other MLB team cannot. They can make decisions that would be heavily criticized in other markets.

Those two teams strategies are completely built on just staying competitive, but the sacrifices they have to make to do that basically prevents them from ever being able to win anything.

[msstate7]

Haha.

I think you'd regret that because you'd never win anything.

Due to their market & lack of media, Tampa & Oakland can operate in ways that most every other MLB team cannot. They can make decisions that would be heavily criticized in other markets.

Those two teams strategies are completely built on just staying competitive, but the sacrifices they have to make to do that basically prevents them from ever being able to win anything.

Maybe, but I would love their guys to get their hands on acuna, albies, Swanson, soroka, pache, waters, Riley, etc

[ShotgunDawg]

Maybe, but I would love their guys to get their hands on acuna, albies, Swanson, soroka, pache, waters, Riley, etc

Meh. I don't think you would be as impressed as you think

[Bothrops]

Best choices MLB expansion is Charlotte, San Antonio, Nashville, Raleigh, San Juan.

[ShotgunDawg]

Best choices MLB expansion is Charlotte, San Antonio, Nashville, Raleigh, San Juan.

Charlotte - Not as good of a market as Nashville but would be OK

San Antonio - Not a baseball town. Heavy Mexican demographics with Houston & Dallas too close

Raleigh - Sneaky good. Not close to other MLB teams & could work

San Juan - Didn't work with the Expos & there isn't much money there. Would be an interesting situation. Not sure

Nashville - Would work

Vegas - Would work

[Bothrops]

Charlotte - Not as good of a market as Nashville but would be OK

San Antonio - Not a baseball town. Heavy Mexican demographics with Houston & Dallas too close

Raleigh - Sneaky good. Not close to other MLB teams & could work

San Juan - Didn't work with the Expos & there isn't much money there. Would be an interesting situation. Not sure

Nashville - Would work

Vegas - Would work

Charlotte would work, as would Raleigh. I think San Antonio could work as well. Texas has 30 million people and only two MLB franchises. San Antonio has decent tourism and is heavy military and Mexican, just like San Diego. A downtown ballpark would draw fans from the south central Texas region of about 3-4 million population. The Spurs are also well supported from what I recall.

[Johnson85]

Nashville doesn't make as much sense as maybe Charlotte or even New Orleans. Nashville is only 3 hours from Atlanta so that isn't a very big footprint. You could put one in Portland, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, or somewhere else that might make more geographic sense. Most of Nashville would be Braves fans so all you would do is split that type of fanbase. Nashville would definitely need to be American League so at least there wouldn't be a direct competition.

New Orleans won't work for MLB I don't think. They support the Saints great, but there are a lot of season ticket holders that drive from within say a three hour radius. They wouldn't do that for an NFL home schedule is reasonable. Trying to make that work for an MLB schedule is not.

I'd bet the Pelicans don't do that well although I'm not sure. But even then, that's like half the home games of baseball, and both the Saints and Pelicans experience is enhanced by being in the city before or after the game. Not sure off hand if there's a location for a baseball stadium that would offer the same proximity.

[Tbonewannabe]

Charlotte - Not as good of a market as Nashville but would be OK

San Antonio - Not a baseball town. Heavy Mexican demographics with Houston & Dallas too close

Raleigh - Sneaky good. Not close to other MLB teams & could work

San Juan - Didn't work with the Expos & there isn't much money there. Would be an interesting situation. Not sure

Nashville - Would work

Vegas - Would work

Mexico sports are pretty much soccer and baseball so I think having a heavy hispanic population would be a benefit somewhat.

Is Montreal or some other Canadian border city a possibility?

I think Vegas is the most logical choice for a West Coast team.

How about Portland or is Seattle and San Fran too close?

[RocketDawg]

Nashville doesn't make as much sense as maybe Charlotte or even New Orleans. Nashville is only 3 hours from Atlanta so that isn't a very big footprint. You could put one in Portland, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, or somewhere else that might make more geographic sense. Most of Nashville would be Braves fans so all you would do is split that type of fanbase. Nashville would definitely need to be American League so at least there wouldn't be a direct competition.

It's not all on geography though. NY has 2 teams, and in the earlier days when there were only a handful of teams nationwide, they had 3. Chicago has 2. I think Nashville is primed for a team ... they're growing very rapidly, and there are a lot of young people there who will likely support a team. And a rivalry would likely begin soon with the Braves.

I liked it in the old days when there were only two leagues with no divisions. The US population has just about tripled since then though. One thing that might be considered is to only have 1 team in each city, but then you'd be stepping on tradition in the case of the White Sox and Cubs. Not so much with the Mets.

[RougeDawg]

New Orleans won't work for MLB I don't think. They support the Saints great, but there are a lot of season ticket holders that drive from within say a three hour radius. They wouldn't do that for an NFL home schedule is reasonable. Trying to make that work for an MLB schedule is not.

I'd bet the Pelicans don't do that well although I'm not sure. But even then, that's like half the home games of baseball, and both the Saints and Pelicans experience is enhanced by being in the city before or after the game. Not sure off hand if there's a location for a baseball stadium that would offer the same proximity.

New Orleans would depend on stadium location. If they were to build at the current site of Mardi Gras World, just south of convention center it would draw nice crowds. That area is growing like crazy. Multiple breweries are popping up around there too. New Orleans is not a basketball town but we would support baseball. Given that locations’ proximity to downtown you would draw nice crowds. Add in all of the recent apartment/condo projects recently completed and many many more coming, the population density of the business district and adjacent areas is getting higher. The population is back to pre Katrina levels of not more right now.

Prior to Katrina there was a lot of serious discussion of moving the Rays from Tampa somewhere over in this area. The minor league park here is too far away from the dense population. I?d buy season tickets if we were to get a team and I?m pretty sure they could sell a ton with all of the energy companies in the area. Outside of Houston, San Antonio and Oklahoma, we have a lot of large oil and gas corporations in the area. Add in Entergy and other chemical companies, they would suck up many season tickets and suites.

[Tbonewannabe]

It's not all on geography though. NY has 2 teams, and in the earlier days when there were only a handful of teams nationwide, they had 3. Chicago has 2. I think Nashville is primed for a team ... they're growing very rapidly, and there are a lot of young people there who will likely support a team. And a rivalry would likely begin soon with the Braves.

I liked it in the old days when there were only two leagues with no divisions. The US population has just about tripled since then though. One thing that might be considered is to only have 1 team in each city, but then you'd be stepping on tradition in the case of the White Sox and Cubs. Not so much with the Mets.

NY and Chicago are also the biggest populations. I am not sure if Nashville has the population to truly support a MLB team. Atlanta isn't a huge population and it is over 5 Mil and Nashville is only around 650k. I guess it does support NFL and NHL so I guess it is possible.

[RougeDawg]

NY and Chicago are also the biggest populations. I am not sure if Nashville has the population to truly support a MLB team. Atlanta isn't a huge population and it is over 5 Mil and Nashville is only around 650k. I guess it does support NFL and NHL so I guess it is possible.

As with other metros of similar populations, the location of the stadium is key. Nashville had the area to place their facilities downtown. Football is easy to draw fans. Sports that have many games, need to be close to and easily accessible to the centrally locates business areas.

[Gutter Cobreh]

Charlotte is only 3 hours from ATL as well & New Orleans isn't an MLB caliber market.

Vegas & Nashville IMO are clearly the two best choices

Thing is, I could actually see the Rays moving to Nashville & Oakland moving to Vegas. Both of those market may get a team without expansion

Both Nashville and Charlotte are 4 hours away from Atlanta. For some reason it "feels" like Nashville is closer, but I agree - I would choose Nashville over Charlotte for an MLB franchise any day of the week.

Surprisingly, the Panthers ranked 6th in attendance last year which seems odd because of all the games I watched for them - it seemed like the stadium was empty. The Titans ranked 22nd in attendance, so basing it off NFL numbers - maybe the Charlotte area would support baseball better. I know it is two different sports played at different frequencies, but those NFL stats are hard to cover up.

[msstate7]

Both Nashville and Charlotte are 4 hours away from Atlanta. For some reason it "feels" like Nashville is closer, but I agree - I would choose Nashville over Charlotte for an MLB franchise any day of the week.

Surprisingly, the Panthers ranked 6th in attendance last year which seems odd because of all the games I watched for them - it seemed like the stadium was empty. The Titans ranked 22nd in attendance, so basing it off NFL numbers - maybe the Charlotte area would support baseball better. I know it is two different sports played at different frequencies, but those NFL stats are hard to cover up.

Not sure nfl numbers would be a good number to look at it. In the nfl, you have only 8 home games. In mlb, they'll have 81 games. I think soccer or nba numbers would translate better, but it is strictly guessing

[RocketDawg]

NY and Chicago are also the biggest populations. I am not sure if Nashville has the population to truly support a MLB team. Atlanta isn't a huge population and it is over 5 Mil and Nashville is only around 650k. I guess it does support NFL and NHL so I guess it is possible.

The Atlanta metro is just under 6M, and the Nashville metro is almost 2M. You were comparing metro Atlanta to the actual city of Nashville (which is virtually all of Davidson County). The city of Atlanta is <500K.

[dawgs]

Y'all know any MLB expansion/relocation is basically Montreal and Portland as options 1 and 1a. Portland is a top 20 metro size, a west coast addition fits easily into alignment, provides a natural rival for the Mariners, stadium location is already picked out and financing already lined up, they are just waiting for the go ahead. Charlotte, Vegas, SLC, etc are all ranked below 20 in metro size and Nashville isn't even top 30 and New Orleans is not even 1.3M in the metro area (for comparison, Nashville is just shy of 2M in the metro area). Never mind that PNW summer weather pretty much kicks the shit out of summer weather anywhere else in the country, especially a swamp like New Orleans. I love the city of New Orleans and in an ideal world I'd spend my winter months there, but it's drastically lagging behind other MLB options in size.

[msstate7]

The Atlanta metro is just under 6M, and the Nashville metro is almost 2M. You were comparing metro Atlanta to the actual city of Nashville (which is virtually all of Davidson County). The city of Atlanta is <500K.

At 2.09 million, Nashville would be tied with Cleveland and only ahead of 2 mlb cities (Kansas City and Milwaukee).

[Gutter Cobreh]

Not sure nfl numbers would be a good number to look at it. In the nfl, you have only 8 home games. In mlb, they'll have 81 games. I think soccer or nba numbers would translate better, but it is strictly guessing

I agree, but outside of the NFL - they both only have teams in the NHL. The issue there is those stadiums aren't that large, so Nashville comes in at 18th in average attendance and Charlotte at 28th - with the spread being 3k average between the two.

I think it comes down to population (as Rocket did with Atl and Nashville) and ease of public transportation. I don't know either well enough to say which would lead in that category.

[dawgs]

NFL attendance isn't a good barometer and just comes down to stadium size in most cases. % of tickets used each game is a better indicator.

[Tbonewannabe]

The Atlanta metro is just under 6M, and the Nashville metro is almost 2M. You were comparing metro Atlanta to the actual city of Nashville (which is virtually all of Davidson County). The city of Atlanta is <500K.
I screwed up, just glanced over the numbers and didn't notice that Nashville metro area is at 1.59Mil for 2018 and projected for 1.75 in 2019. It is definitely growing but I am just not sure that population is large enough for 81 baseball games. Braves games are pretty empty during the week and are rarely a complete sell out. It also boils down to what kind of companies are going to buy the expensive tickets. Nashville does have a big Health industry.

[Todd4State]

First of all I against relocating Oakland and Tampa. Just build new stadiums in better areas and see if that helps anything first.

To back up what dawgs said- I have heard that Montreal and Portland, Oregon will be the next places MLB expands to.

My thoughts on some potential cities:

1. Montreal is almost a lock to get a team. MLB did kind of screw them over at the end because they wanted a team in D.C. As it is MLB exhibition games in Montreal have sold out the past few years and Expos merchandise has sold well lately. They have a fan base and a stadium already in place and ready to go.

2. Portland has had a group trying to get a team for awhile. The thing is they actually lost their AAA team several years ago so I'm not sure that I agree that expanding to Portland would be a great idea.

3. Las Vegas is where MLB should expand to as well as Montreal. They lead AAA in attendance right now and I think they could support it.


Those to me are the three most likely places for MLB to expand to. But for discussion sake:


4. Charlotte actually outdraws Nashville in AAA as well. That to me seems like an indicator that if MLB has to pick between the two Charlotte would be the place to go. It would also give the Braves, Nats, and Orioles a natural rival.


5. Nashville would be good for all the reasons already mentioned.


6. Buffalo would be good because they draw well in AAA and they would have natural rivalries with the Blue Jays, the Expos, the Mets, Red Sox, and Yankees.


7. Indianapolis would be sneaky good. They draw well and baseball is very popular in the Midwest. They are in between the Cardinals, Cubs, White Sox, Reds, and Indians so MLB really wouldn't be stepping on anyone's toes specifically.


8. I'm not sure what to make of San Antonio because I'm not sure how many fans they would bring in from Austin which actually blows San Antonio away in attendance? Both AAA teams probably affect each others attendance at least to some small degree.

9. Salt Lake City I don't know that they would support it enough. Would be good for the Rockies and D-Backs.

10. Sacramento draws very well in AAA and I think they would support it and they would have natural rivalries with the California MLB teams.


Those would be the ten cities I would look at if I was MLB.


As far as NOLA- the baseball team is so mismanaged there it's not even funny. A very unpopular team name with a poorly located stadium are why they are moving to Wichita next year. I agree with Rogue that located the stadium downtown would be a much better idea- for everyone in the NOLA area. Also- the Baby Cakes are allegedly dropping down to the Southern League next year but what team they will be replacing has been kept pretty quiet. I figure that NOLA is going to either get the Jackson TN, Generals the worst drawing team in the league other than Mobile who is moving to Huntsville, Al or that Birmingham or Jacksonville are moving to AAA and NOLA will replace one of those teams. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Braves move their AAA team (worst drawing in AAA and basically in the same city as the MLB team) to Charlotte and Birmingham goes to AAA with the White Sox and then NOLA becomes the White Sox AA team.

[Quaoarsking]

My picks: Raleigh and Montreal, and move the As to Austin. According to the NYT/Facebook study, the As aren't even the most popular team in Oakland. The Rays do have a big swath of Florida though.

In 10-20 years: Monterrey, San Juan, Havana could be interesting options

[Goldendawg]

I was brought up a Cardinals fan and loved the "Swinging A's" during their great years. I no longer follow MLB, unless it is success and good news about a former MSU player, due to outrageous $alaries. Still remember the article in Sports Illustrated when Tug McGraw got one of the 1st $100K deals. He said that he was going to spend 90% of it on wine, women, and song and waste the rest. I guess he did. Half a billion $ deals have totally tuned me off, unless it's a State guy as I stated. Hail State! Don't care for the NBA for the same reasons.

[Acid mouth]

Despite the awful stadium and the left field light fiasco 2 night ago, I don't see MLB moving the A's. I don't see the Rays moving either. MLBs next move will be an expansion and not relocation. I would bet the bank on Las Vegas and some other city.

[msstate7]

Despite the awful stadium and the left field light fiasco 2 night ago, I don't see MLB moving the A's. I don't see the Rays moving either. MLBs next move will be an expansion and not relocation. I would bet the bank on Las Vegas and some other city.

I'd rather see relocation. I think 2 more teams really waters down the product.

[Goldendawg]

I'd rather see relocation. I think 2 more teams really waters down the product.

It's already watered down and has been for years. I actually did look at the standings today and don't see how some of these teams draw anyone or make a profit unless the big boys still pay for going over budget for player $alaries. Some games look like the Washington Generals vs the Harlem Globetrotters.

[RocketDawg]

I'd rather see relocation. I think 2 more teams really waters down the product.

Me too. Major League baseball was more fun when there were only a handful of teams. A person could be a big fan of a team and never been to the city where the team is. I really think there are too many teams already. I was a NY Yankees fan because they were on television every weekend. And I liked the Cardinals because I listened to their games on KMOX. But I had never been to either city at the time.

I prefer Nashville because if I ever decide to go to a game, it's only 100 miles up the road and it's easy to get to. There are probably better reasons for adding a team, if expansion is necessary, in larger cities.

[Todd4State]

I'd rather see relocation. I think 2 more teams really waters down the product.

People always say that and at first it does but then things even out over time.


I think the main benefit to expansion is bringing MLB to places it isn't- like Nashville.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Bring back the Jackson Senators

[Liverpooldawg]

I hope it happens. I've been to a couple of Predators games. They lost them both but the total experience of both was AWESOME. To me if they do get a MLB team the MAIN thing is to make sure the park is in walking distance of Bridgestone Arena. It has NOTHING to do with Bridgestone, other than proximity to Lower Broadway. It needs to be in walking distance of Downtown AND the Gulch. If you have ever done Downtown and the Gulch when the Preds are in town.....you KNOW what I'm talking about.

[Bothrops]

The problem with MLB is that they play way too many games in the regular season.

Concerning Montreal, I can't believe they would want baseball again there. That city is like Europe to me, more so than Toronto. I can't imagine them being interested.

[parabrave]

New Orleans won't work for MLB I don't think. They support the Saints great, but there are a lot of season ticket holders that drive from within say a three hour radius. They wouldn't do that for an NFL home schedule is reasonable. Trying to make that work for an MLB schedule is not.

I'd bet the Pelicans don't do that well although I'm not sure. But even then, that's like half the home games of baseball, and both the Saints and Pelicans experience is enhanced by being in the city before or after the game. Not sure off hand if there's a location for a baseball stadium that would offer the same proximity.

Plus New Orleans babycakes just went from AAA to AA. San Antonio would be a good choice for a MLB. As for the heavy hispanic population there ask the Dodgers about their hispanic following.

[dawgs]

2. Portland has had a group trying to get a team for awhile. The thing is they actually lost their AAA team several years ago so I'm not sure that I agree that expanding to Portland would be a great idea.


While yes, this is a true statement, it also doesn't give the full picture.

1) the Portland timbers shared the stadium with the AAA team, and when the timbers got the nod to move to MLS, it came with an agreement on stadium upgrades that would make the stadium inoperable as a minor league baseball stadium.

2) because Portland has had a group in place working on an MLB franchise since the expos were leaving Montreal (Portland finishes 2nd to DC for the expos, though MLB was definitely wanting a team in DC, so not sure that Portland or anyone else was a real threat to land the expos, but Portland finished ahead of everyone else in the pecking order), so the city was not wanting to invest in a minor league park knowing that the city was well positioned to land a MLB franchise the next time a franchise relocated or in the next round of expansion.

So there's the full picture of how Portland "lost" a AAA team.

As for building new stadiums, the A's problem is they are basically limited only to Oakland or towns further east from the bay from Oakland because the giants own the rest of the tv market and continue to block efforts of the A's to build a new stadium in their tv market as defined by MLB. MLB had to give the orioles a lot of nice concessions to get the expos/nats into DC, so something may eventually get worked out, but seems like something would've worked out by now if it was actually gonna happen cause this isn't a new issue for the A's.

[dawgs]

I was brought up a Cardinals fan and loved the "Swinging A's" during their great years. I no longer follow MLB, unless it is success and good news about a former MSU player, due to outrageous $alaries. Still remember the article in Sports Illustrated when Tug McGraw got one of the 1st $100K deals. He said that he was going to spend 90% of it on wine, women, and song and waste the rest. I guess he did. Half a billion $ deals have totally tuned me off, unless it's a State guy as I stated. Hail State! Don't care for the NBA for the same reasons.


Only 1 player has anything close to a half billion dollar deal, and that was signed like a month ago, so did you just tune out MLB last month?

As for player contracts, if that money doesn't go to the players we enjoy watching, it's just adding to the bank account of the billionaire owner. I'm not arguing that $200M or something is chump change, and most people would retire tomorrow if they had 1% of that deal, but bitching and moaning about players getting paid and not owners breaking profit records is just mind boggling to me. At least I enjoy watching the players play, I sure as **** don't like watching owners eat hot dogs in the suite for the games they actually decide to show up for.

And that's not even addressing the fact that the mean MLB salary has been going down and the total % of revenues going into player salaries has been decreasing while MLB profits have been skyrocketing.

I know you need someone with money to invest, but that doesn't mean they deserve to take an increasingly large portion of the profit under the justification that they are the owner and the players should be lucky to have whatever they get paid. Folks don't pay MLB prices for college or minor league baseball quality. I'm not arguing owners shouldn't be able to profit, I'm arguing that they are manipulating the system to take a higher % of the profit than they have in decades while driving down the talent cost. But for some reason folks have a mental block in understanding how MLB players employment and pay mirrors their own personal stagnant wage situations, just on a larger scale. Argue about the principal and don't get hung up on the fact that "anyone should be lucky to make $1M/year" while the owners are taking in billions.

[Todd4State]

While yes, this is a true statement, it also doesn't give the full picture.

1) the Portland timbers shared the stadium with the AAA team, and when the timbers got the nod to move to MLS, it came with an agreement on stadium upgrades that would make the stadium inoperable as a minor league baseball stadium.

2) because Portland has had a group in place working on an MLB franchise since the expos were leaving Montreal (Portland finishes 2nd to DC for the expos, though MLB was definitely wanting a team in DC, so not sure that Portland or anyone else was a real threat to land the expos, but Portland finished ahead of everyone else in the pecking order), so the city was not wanting to invest in a minor league park knowing that the city was well positioned to land a MLB franchise the next time a franchise relocated or in the next round of expansion.

So there's the full picture of how Portland "lost" a AAA team.

As for building new stadiums, the A's problem is they are basically limited only to Oakland or towns further east from the bay from Oakland because the giants own the rest of the tv market and continue to block efforts of the A's to build a new stadium in their tv market as defined by MLB. MLB had to give the orioles a lot of nice concessions to get the expos/nats into DC, so something may eventually get worked out, but seems like something would've worked out by now if it was actually gonna happen cause this isn't a new issue for the A's.

I think Oakland is going to find a way to keep the A's. I know that there have been some new stadium proposals that have been brought forward.

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2019/05/08/port-of-oakland-to-vote-on-agreement-with-as-for-new-ballpark/

The thing about Portland not having baseball is it may be good for baseball there because more people may go since they have been without it for so long.

I also think that MLB is skittish about the gambling scene in Las Vegas.

[Bothrops]

I could see a new stadium in Oakland where no American flags would be allowed on the property, and no animal products could be sold by the venders.

[msstate7]

I could see a new stadium in Oakland where no American flags would be allowed on the property, and no animal products could be sold by the venders.

Sounds more Seattle or San Fran... Portland too

[Goldendawg]

Only 1 player has anything close to a half billion dollar deal, and that was signed like a month ago, so did you just tune out MLB last month?

As for player contracts, if that money doesn't go to the players we enjoy watching, it's just adding to the bank account of the billionaire owner. I'm not arguing that $200M or something is chump change, and most people would retire tomorrow if they had 1% of that deal, but bitching and moaning about players getting paid and not owners breaking profit records is just mind boggling to me. At least I enjoy watching the players play, I sure as **** don't like watching owners eat hot dogs in the suite for the games they actually decide to show up for.

And that's not even addressing the fact that the mean MLB salary has been going down and the total % of revenues going into player salaries has been decreasing while MLB profits have been skyrocketing.

I know you need someone with money to invest, but that doesn't mean they deserve to take an increasingly large portion of the profit under the justification that they are the owner and the players should be lucky to have whatever they get paid. Folks don't pay MLB prices for college or minor league baseball quality. I'm not arguing owners shouldn't be able to profit, I'm arguing that they are manipulating the system to take a higher % of the profit than they have in decades while driving down the talent cost. But for some reason folks have a mental block in understanding how MLB players employment and pay mirrors their own personal stagnant wage situations, just on a larger scale. Argue about the principal and don't get hung up on the fact that "anyone should be lucky to make $1M/year" while the owners are taking in billions.

Thanks for the info. Hadn't really thought of it that way. Actually, I lost interest about 10 or so years ago unless former MSU players are involved. Noticed that the light bulb seems to have gone on in the NBA playoffs for Rodney Hood (watched a little of SportsCenter highlights this morning b4 work). The only pro sports I really still watch is the NFL. Watch all sports State is involved in. Hail State!

[Bothrops]

Sounds more Seattle or San Fran... Portland too

Oakland is a ghetto Berkeley