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I have seen numerous things about efforts to attract MLB's attention back to Montreal.
In the right situation, I could even see MLB interested.
I cannot see them interested if all that is offered is sprucing up Olympic Stadium. Been there, done that... hated it. It is not a good baseball park, it didn't draw flies, and it has already been abandoned.
I would think the condition of any expansion team to Montreal will have to be the construction of a brand new, dedicated facility.
If MLB were to expand to 32 teams they'd have a very similar problem that the NHL has... now you have to round up additional MLB rosters with players who are not quite MLB talent.
I understand this is a "what if" thread but I really hope this is something that they don't do.
The Cowboys were actually in Irving, one of the two suburbs between Dallas and Arlington, the other being Grand Prairie.
Yeah... I grew up here. I know that.
I was just saying that Rangers had an option. Dallas... Fort Worth... or Arlington. Arlington is the centerpoint of the Metroplex, but this was back in the early 70's, when the Dallas Area and Fort Worth area just became "DFW". No one really knew what this area would be years later, so they could have had the team play in Dallas or Fort Worth. Arlington was lucky enough to receive the team and it's paid off for both sides.
I think the MLB is fine at 30 teams. I think another 2 teams will make scheduling even more difficult. On top of that, I don't want anymore playoff spots. I was fine with 8, but I admit the Wild Card game has been exciting, so I'm content with 10. One aspect I like about baseball is the playoffs are done within a month, and it's the hardest sport to qualify for the postseason. With the NHL and NBA over 50% of the league makes the playoffs, and it takes over 2 months to complete the playoffs. I don't want to see baseball's postseason start in October and end around Thanksgiving in the future.
If MLB could expand to 32 teams, what do you think the MLB would look like? What cities do you think could get a new team?
Current cities
Anaheim
Arlington(part of Dallas-Ft.Worth,TX)
Atlanta
Baltimore
Boston
Chicago(2)
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Denver
Detroit
Houston
Kansas City
Los Angeles
Miami
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
New York(2)
Oakland
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
St. Louis
St. Petersburg
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Toronto
Washington DC
Possible places:
Portland,OR
Las Vegas, NV
San Antonio,TX
Virginia Beach,VA
Cities are irrelevant - metropolitan areas are what matter.
More than any other sport, baseball requires a large, immediate population. NFL fans will drive for hours and hours because one football game matters more (it represents over 6% of an entire season, compared to a fraction of 1% for an MLB game). Also, NFL games are almost never postponed, while MLB games are with some regularity, and no one wants to drive for hours unless they know the game will be played. So the attendance base for NFL teams is simply larger. NBA and NHL bases don't need to be nearly as large because they not only have half as many scheduled games but their arenas hold far fewer people.
As a result, every MLB franchise is in one of the 33 largest U.S. metro areas (save for Toronto, which is in Canada's largest metro areas). The smallest MLB metro area is Milwaukee at 2.04m people. So basically, all you have to do is look at the larger metro areas without a team, or at ones that are slightly smaller but growing fast.
Larger metropolitan areas in the U.S./Canada without an MLB franchise:
Montreal - 3.82m
Portland - 2.99m
Orlando - 2.92m
Sacramento - 2.46m
Charlotte - 2.45m
Salt Lake City - 2.35m
Columbus - 2.35m
Vancouver - 2.31m
Indianapolis - 2.31m
Las Vegas - 2.25m
San Antonio - 2.23m
Smaller, but close and fast-growing:
Raleigh-Durham - 2.00m
Nashville - 1.85m
Austin - 1.83m
Okay, now let's consider the individual candidacies.
Montreal
By far the largest metro without a team. On the other hand, the Expos.
Portland
The fact that there's only one other major professional team in the state helps.
Orlando
Probably too much overlap with the Rays fan-base (the cities are only 80 miles apart).
Sacramento
Two teams in the Bay Area are less than 90 miles away, and California already has five teams.
Charlotte
North Carolina is the largest state without an MLB team, and several other large metropolitan areas are closer to Charlotte than to any MLB city.
Salt Lake City
Decent growth, and the nearest MLB team is 500 miles away in Denver.
Columbus
Tepid population growth, and two MLB teams are already in Ohio and each is less than 150 miles away.
Vancouver
Strong growth, but Seattle franchise is only two hours away.
Indianapolis
Slow growth, plus the Midwest is fairly saturated with MLB teams.
Las Vegas
Like all the professional leagues, MLB is too casino-averse; the weather would also be a potential problem.
San Antonio
Strong growth.
Raleigh-Durham
Even stronger growth than Charlotte.
Nashville
Tennessee is a fairly large state without an MLB team.
Austin
Torrid growth, and it would be the only game in town. However, it is closer than San Antonio to the established Dallas and Houston MLB fan-bases.
My take?
North Carolina is a no-brainer. It's a toss-up between Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham. Charlotte's bigger by almost half a million people, but Raleigh-Durham is growing faster and has less competition (just a hockey team, compared to the NFL and NBA in Charlotte).
Montreal is close to a no-brainer. It simply has a relatively huge population base.
Portland and Salt Lake City are probably the next two best locations for an MLB franchise.
After that, Vancouver and San Antonio.
The remaining cities all have problems so significant that it make no sense to choose them over one of the six cities I cite above.
Cities are irrelevant - metropolitan areas are what matter.
More than any other sport, baseball requires a large, immediate population. NFL fans will drive for hours and hours because one football game matters more (it represents over 6% of an entire season, compared to a fraction of 1% for an MLB game). Also, NFL games are almost never postponed, while MLB games are with some regularity, and no one wants to drive for hours unless they know the game will be played. So the attendance base for NFL teams is simply larger. NBA and NHL bases don't need to be nearly as large because they not only have half as many scheduled games but their arenas hold far fewer people.
As a result, every MLB franchise is in one of the 33 largest U.S. metro areas (save for Toronto, which is in Canada's largest metro areas). The smallest MLB metro area is Milwaukee at 2.04m people. So basically, all you have to do is look at the larger metro areas without a team, or at ones that are slightly smaller but growing fast.
Larger metropolitan areas in the U.S./Canada without an MLB franchise:
Montreal - 3.82m
Portland - 2.99m
Orlando - 2.92m
Sacramento - 2.46m
Charlotte - 2.45m
Salt Lake City - 2.35m
Columbus - 2.35m
Vancouver - 2.31m
Indianapolis - 2.31m
Las Vegas - 2.25m
San Antonio - 2.23m
Smaller, but close and fast-growing:
Raleigh-Durham - 2.00m
Nashville - 1.85m
Austin - 1.83m
Okay, now let's consider the individual candidacies.
Montreal
By far the largest metro without a team. On the other hand, the Expos.
Portland
The fact that there's only one other major professional team in the state helps.
Orlando
Probably too much overlap with the Rays fan-base (the cities are only 80 miles apart).
Sacramento
Two teams in the Bay Area are less than 90 miles away, and California already has five teams.
Charlotte
North Carolina is the largest state without an MLB team, and several other large metropolitan areas are closer to Charlotte than to any MLB city.
Salt Lake City
Decent growth, and the nearest MLB team is 500 miles away in Denver.
Columbus
Tepid population growth, and two MLB teams are already in Ohio and each is less than 150 miles away.
Vancouver
Strong growth, but Seattle franchise is only two hours away.
Indianapolis
Slow growth, plus the Midwest is fairly saturated with MLB teams.
Las Vegas
Like all the professional leagues, MLB is too casino-averse; the weather would also be a potential problem.
San Antonio
Strong growth.
Raleigh-Durham
Even stronger growth than Charlotte.
Nashville
Tennessee is a fairly large state without an MLB team.
Austin
Torrid growth, and it would be the only game in town. However, it is closer than San Antonio to the established Dallas and Houston MLB fan-bases.
My take?
North Carolina is a no-brainer. It's a toss-up between Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham. Charlotte's bigger by almost half a million people, but Raleigh-Durham is growing faster and has less competition (just a hockey team, compared to the NFL and NBA in Charlotte).
Montreal is close to a no-brainer. It simply has a relatively huge population base.
Portland and Salt Lake City are probably the next two best locations for an MLB franchise.
After that, Vancouver and San Antonio.
The remaining cities all have problems so significant that it make no sense to choose them over one of the six cities I cite above.
I disagree about Montreal because the Expos in a sense were a failure. The stadium was awful, and the team was awful and had poor attendance. Also Montreal's culture is different from Toronto or most of "British" Canada. They don't seem as interested in baseball in the area, or otherwise their attendance wouldn't have been one of the worst in the league. Also for a baseball team to move/expand there, then they need a new stadium. It has to be an indoor/retractable roof since the weather isn't good in April or October. The average low in April is 37 degrees, and they still get spring snow in April.
If MLB expands, then I see Portland and Salt Lake being the best candidates. I say that because you have Houston and Texas in the West. Their division games are long flights, and having a couple more teams out West could move Houston and Texas back into the central or a "Rockies" region.
I disagree about Montreal because the Expos in a sense were a failure. The stadium was awful, and the team was awful and had poor attendance. Also Montreal's culture is different from Toronto or most of "British" Canada. They don't seem as interested in baseball in the area, or otherwise their attendance wouldn't have been one of the worst in the league. Also for a baseball team to move/expand there, then they need a new stadium. It has to be an indoor/retractable roof since the weather isn't good in April or October. The average low in April is 37 degrees, and they still get spring snow in April.
If MLB expands, then I see Portland and Salt Lake being the best candidates. I say that because you have Houston and Texas in the West. Their division games are long flights, and having a couple more teams out West could move Houston and Texas back into the central or a "Rockies" region.
Let's not forget that Portland was AAA for a very long time and never had great success drawing a crowd there. The only way it works is to build a removable domed stadium and your only space in the downtown core has been replaced by a soccer stadium (which was the AAA ballpark). The weather in Portland isn't much better than what you stated in Montreal
Salt Lake is a better expansion candidate but MLB has 3 divisions with 5 teams each and falling numbers of players taking up the sport in their youth. Soccer has really cornered the kid market in many cities. In Denver, little league is a small blip. I highly doubt that MLB wants to expand at this point.
The MLB should not expand but I think they should relocate two teams. The Indians should go to Nashville. Tampa to Vegas.
I very strongly disagree with both... care to state your reasoning?
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