How serious is expansion in the next 5 years?

[knightni 269]

It's now been 22 years since Tampa Bay and Arizona joined as the 29th and 30th MLB teams. To have a balanced AL/NL schedule, 32 teams is ideal.

Do you think that expansion is right around the corner again?

What cities do you believe would be the likeliest to have those franchises?

Which cities have been talked about in the past, but are bad fits, in your opinion?

[southsider2k5 6,119]

5 minutes ago, knightni said:

It's now been 22 years since Tampa Bay and Arizona joined as the 29th and 30th MLB teams. To have a balanced AL/NL schedule, 32 teams is ideal.

Do you think that expansion is right around the corner again?

What cities do you believe would be the likeliest to have those franchises?

Which cities have been talked about in the past, but are bad fits, in your opinion?

I think it would have been if things had stayed normal.  I think MLB will want it more, but I think there has never been a worse time to ask a City to put up a package to attract a bid than there is now, and those conditions will linger at the state and local levels for years on.  Unless you get someone who is willing to fund a bid from the ground up (stadium, team, etc) it will be a bit now.

[Quin 2,242]

If not for COVID, I think we'd see Nashville, Charlotte, Montreal, Mexico City, Las Vegas and Portland vying for teams.

My money would be on Nasvhille and Portland to help balance the west without giving Las Vegas a team. Las Vegas would get a team if they gave up the whole "we'll never allow a team near gambling" thing.

[Dominikk85 440]

No. Find a new home for consistently cheap teams like TB, oakland, pittsburgh or miami first before you think about expansion.

The last thing mlb needs is another team with a consistent sub 90m payroll.

[Balta1701 3,045]

I would have thought it was all but guaranteed within a few years other than the Virus. 

[knightni 269]

1 hour ago, Dominikk85 said:

No. Find a new home for consistently cheap teams like TB, oakland, pittsburgh or miami first before you think about expansion.

The last thing mlb needs is another team with a consistent sub 90m payroll.

There would definitely need to be realignment with 32 teams as well.

Four 4 team divisions like the NFL.

 

 

 

 

[flavum 997]

2 minutes ago, knightni said:

There would definitely need to be realignment with 32 teams as well.

Four 4 team divisions like the NFL.

 

 

 

 

With 162 games, 4 four-team divisions in each league wouldn't work. How many games would you play against each team in your division to limit the chances of an under .500 team winning a division? 30? Nobody wants to see that, I hope. If they go to 32 teams, the most likely thing to happen is geographic realignment and four divisions of 8 teams.  Four division winners and a bunch of wildcards. It's going to be two divisions of 8 in the East time zone, 8 in the Central, 8 in Mtn/Pacific.

[manbearpuig 1,457]

4 hours ago, Quin said:

If not for COVID, I think we'd see Nashville, Charlotte, Montreal, Mexico City, Las Vegas and Portland vying for teams.

My money would be on Nasvhille and Portland to help balance the west without giving Las Vegas a team. Las Vegas would get a team if they gave up the whole "we'll never allow a team near gambling" thing.

Balance out the west by giving a city more East a team?

[Dominikk85 440]

5 hours ago, knightni said:

There would definitely need to be realignment with 32 teams as well.

Four 4 team divisions like the NFL.

 

 

 

 

Yeah but that would still leave you with another shithole, continuous tanking cheap team.

Mlb already has enough of this already. In fact I even would like tampa and oakland to be removed. Yeah they have success due to smart front offices but they have low payrolls every year and their stadium is empty even if they win. Get rid of them and let their front office win for somebody else:).

[Texsox 705]

San Antonio would be an interesting choice.  It's the largest city in the US without a MLB team.  The financial struggle is the stadium will require a dome or a retractable roof at the minimum. 

[Balta1701 3,045]

Wrong league, but one interesting concept coming from a better commissioner than MLB has is that expansion fees could be used to manage and offset some of the 2020 losses.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30576045/adam-silver-acknowledges-possibility-nba-expansion

[bmags 5,638]

 

1 hour ago, Balta1701 said:

Wrong league, but one interesting concept coming from a better commissioner than MLB has is that expansion fees could be used to manage and offset some of the 2020 losses.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30576045/adam-silver-acknowledges-possibility-nba-expansion

 

On 12/20/2020 at 8:17 AM, Texsox said:

San Antonio would be an interesting choice.  It's the largest city in the US without a MLB team.  The financial struggle is the stadium will require a dome or a retractable roof at the minimum. 

just fyi only mods/admins can see this forum in winter months.

[Texsox 705]

47 minutes ago, bmags said:

 

 

just fyi only mods/admins can see this forum in winter months.

You made that sound like a bad thing lol

I'm new here. I really didn't realize which forum it was in. 

[sin city sox fan 145]

Vegas will definitely get a team.   After seeing the tremendous success of the Golden Knights and the Raiders, MLB wants a piece of the action.

[knightni 269]

Will Tampa move to Montreal - or get a new stadium?

St. Pete has that awful stadium agreement.

[Hamhock 22]

I think only once the Rays and A's are settled as to their stadium futures will we then see an expansion to 32.

[hi8is 1,460]

6 hours ago, Hamhock said:

I think only once the Rays and A's are settled as to their stadium futures will we then see an expansion to 32.

Cant wait for the day and hope the two new teams go to Portland and Vegas. Won’t be surprised if it’s Nashville though.

[Dominikk85 440]

Definitely the Rays and As situation has to be resolved before you can think about expansion, two good teams with half empty or less full stadiums is enough.

[Quin 2,242]

This Rays stadium mock-up will always be one of the greatest stadium concepts I've ever seen:

[Kyyle23 2,653]

22 minutes ago, Quin said:

This Rays stadium mock-up will always be one of the greatest stadium concepts I've ever seen:

As cool as that looks I could imagine a hurricane messing that up bad 

[South Side Hit Men 566]

In reality, baseball would be better off contracting two teams.

Leading up to 2020, owners were considering expansion this decade. COVID has changed this stance in significant ways:

1. There is no appetite or money for new stadium taxpayer shakedown schemes.
2. As the proportion of overall net revenue from shared sources increases (National TV, MLB.com, etc), the short term $ boast from expansion fees are offset by the fact teams split less of the overall pie.
3. While revenues hold on for now in terms of RSNs, and attendance declines are offset by raising ticket prices and auxiliary revenue, baseball demographics continue to trend in the wrong direction. Part of this is due to MLB’s antiquated management of the game. Until owners truly repair their relationship with the players and fans, and better promote said players and the game as a whole,  this trend will continue.
4. The least desirable markets remain, at least domestically. You may get short term fan interest, but demographics in terms of market size and revenues will soon render these new franchises revenue sharing/welfare teams. Baseball needs more Harlem Globetrotters and less Washington Generals.

Edited February 25 by South Side Hit Men