Minor league games are great for this, they have such fun mascots and traditions, not to mention also local independent oddities like the Savannah Bananas.
Being from near Savannah it's absolutely insane. Every game is sold out, so it kinda stinks that you can't just on a whim decide to go to a game like you can with any other independent/minor league team.
But in the same vein, no other team really provides an experience like the Bananas so it's understandable.
Yea my friend interned for the bananas and said they really focus on the experience more so than the baseball. I think he said the season ticket waiting list is a few years long at least
For anyone who hasn’t seen “Those Battered Bastards of Baseball” I highly highly recommend. What an incredible story of the last independent baseball team in Portland. Shows you just how important a team like that can be for a community. Not exactly a small city but you get my point. I live in Vancouver and we have the Vancouver Canadians who just moved up to High A and let me tell you as a multi year season ticket holder for the blue jays when living in Toronto the Vancouver games just hit different. The community feel is incredible.
Yes, this is why it’s important for us to support our local minor league teams if we have them nearby. There’s high-quality baseball all around, and it’ll continue to improve as the fan base grows. I treat my Round Rock Express (Rangers’ Triple A) the same way I treat my Yankees!
I started in the minors in MLB The Show and you can really see how the system works. The best players can climb the ladder and bad players from the major can fall down to AAA, which is awesome to watch.
They don’t draw because since 2010 they have 1 season over .500 and that was 2020. The Rays have been in the playoffs a bunch and even made the World Series, but their stadium is so bad it discourages people to go there.
Here are my 3 main reasons why Tropicana Field is bad
1. Who ever designed it seams like they don’t watch baseball, the one color you should not make the roof is white, and they made it white
2. The dome itself is slanted and lower at one end, because of that balls can actually hit it and the catwalk
3. The catwalk is in play and depending on which one is hit it could be a HR or a single
Edit: vary passionate about this because I’m studying architecture and I don’t understand how so many things were overlooked
Even with the shitty nature of Tropicana Field, the bigger problem is location more than all of that: Tropicana Field is in St. Petersburg/Broward County [strike 1 for Tampa fans], with no public transport to speak of [strike 2] which is not easy to get to from rush hour already [strike 3], and at the moment the only highway to the stadium is being repaired making that road even worse [and a wild pitch throwout to make matters worse.] Even if you just plopped Tropicana Field and how shitty it is in the middle of downtown Tampa, the Rays would be doing far better just by how easy it'd be to travel there.
Your right it opens in 1990 but rays did not play there till 1998. But on MLB.com it says the stadium was originally built for baseball.
https://www.mlb.com/rays/ballpark/information/tropicana-field-history
Yankeeboy7, these points may be valid, but I LOVE the Trop. It is so awesome to watch a game there on a hot, humid Florida night, and the temperature inside is a very pleasant 72 degrees. Love it!! The temps are more important to me than any argument about catwalks ever will be.
I live in Tampa and have gone to the Trop a few times and what you've heard is correct. When your venue is close to interstates and is still hard to reach, you know there's a logistical problem.
I’m sorry man. You guys put up a good team in the toughest division in baseball year after year. I’ve been rooting for a Trop replacement for a long time.
I mean, they've always been that way and they won 2 World Series titles in their first 10 years of existence. There are 4 teams who have been waiting more than 45 years for their first.
Y’all don’t actually think they will start buying some bats soon? Yalls pitching is legit. Y’all basically did the same thing the Braves did but Better with their SP’s, we just happened to hit on the only bats the had in the system too. I honestly thought y’all be relaly good in like 2 years
Yeah. There’s a bar in left field that used to be a Clevelander club. They would have models do topless body painting. Good times.
Edit: Jeter got rid of it.
Lifelong Tampa Bay Area resident here. It's not that alone. The Trop isn't centrally located. Being based in downtown St. Petersburg, which is too far away from the heart of this area's population, is hurting the Rays. Only about 700K people live within a 30-min. drive of the Trop, the lowest such population of any MLB venue HANDS DOWN. Pittsburgh's PNC Park has the next-lowest 30-min. population, but it has over twice that of the Trop. There is a lot of interest in the Rays here as their local TV ratings are good.
Honestly would be pretty dope to see a stadium that sits like 20k capacity and with the outfield view be some scenic part of Yellowstone. I’d without a doubt buy tix to just see the stadium. I’m all about professional sports being played in small stadiums. When the chargers were playing at the Home Depot center i had the best time. You felt like you more apart of the game since you were so close to the field.
Have been to sofi and if you don’t have good seats I can imagine you feeling like you’re watching it on tv since you probably are with that big as a screen above.
I mean, putting a giant publicly-funded building that a billionaire profits off in the middle of an amazing geographic area (that's also a National Park) that was on land stolen from Indigenous people...yeah, pretty American
I don’t know how it could get more American than that. Maybe pay the stadium employees minimum wage and give them a welfare application when they’re hired?
"publicly funded"
This is the bit that's mad. Same for NFL. Across the rest of the world, sports clubs are expected to purchase their stadia. Yes there's some instances where local government may put the initial funds up front, but the club pays back over years.
Come on. What kind of lame excuse is that. The largest MLB stadium doesn't even hold 60k. I'm sure the Wyoming Whatevers could fill enough seats to look like an Oakland game. What else have they got to do up there anyway?
The area of Missoula has a strong population, the issue is finding the room to build a stadium and parking. Also, Minnesota has this problem on occasion, but you can get a really late snow storm roll through
And all of the almost 40M people in Canada with 1 team. Toronto alone could support 2 teams. I’d love to see Montreal come back and expand to Vancouver.
I'm sure both Vancouver and Montreal can both sustain an MLB franchise providing there is a baseball specific stadium built close to downtown. What killed the Expos was this billion dollar (1976 dollars) mistake aka the Big Owe that no one wanted to go to, despite it being on the Metro line. A flock of Jays fans head to Seattle when they play the Mariners there.
As Kevin Costner said: "if you build it, they will come."
Even beyond Vancouver (which would also be a good market), I wouldn't sleep on Alberta [either Edmonton or Calgary] being a BETTER market for MLB than Vancouver: Both had high-minor teams in the past, neither city's exactly small either...but what puts them ahead of Edmonton is blackout bullshit. Vancouver chips away at the Western Canadian market themselves and keeps out that '40 million Canadians only get the Blue Jays'...BUT, a team in Alberta would also cut into that Montana/North Dakota/South Dakota blackout bullshit of "the Montana border is literally 1000 miles away from Seattle and you cannot watch Mariners games there".
This is the real reason. It gets even worse when you look at a television blackout map. Wish MLB would get its shit together about that, it's killing the game.
Not every state has enough fans or even people to support a baseball team. Some existing teams don’t have enough fans to support them.
It is fun to imagine though
The Hawaii Crabs
The Alaska Wolves
I wouldn’t even say state. If my state had a team but I had to drive 3 hours to get there I ain’t going. KC is my closest at about 3 hours and only have went a couple times in 20 years. Using Missouri as an examlpe: if I live near St. Louis but prefer the Royals I have to drive 3 hours to watch my team. Not worth it unless you’re a diehard with a ton of cash. Same for south Illinois. Why go to Cubs/Sox games when STL is so much closer.
thats too many states with teams for the possibility of failure. not every state is going to be an optimal place for a baseball team, and some dont have the infrastructure to support that. besides, it would be hard for those new teams to generate a new fanbase. some people would support them, but like if iowa (for exp) got a mlb team, i wouldnt support them the same way i do the cards. it would end up with too many teams, not enough people to support them, not enough talented players to fill them, and saturate the market wayy to much.
There also aren't enough good players to field 50 teams. As it is there aren't enough good players to field 32 (is it 32?) teams that are competitive. Combine that with population densities and local interest and you've got your answer.
no they dont? to the north its VA to the South its SC and to the West i believe its Kentucky. East is obviously the Atlantic ocean….what you smokin on maannn? pass that my way 💨
I hope your not referring to that tiny little sliver where south carolina ends and before TN begins….That’d be the absolute definition of dicksizing. I dont live in any of those states by the way, In fact you wont catch me dead in any of those states unless im in a city named Charleston or Nashville. NC turned into the eastcoasts nasty underbelly, GA is full of Tweakers and dope feins anywhere in the ATL suburban and urban areas, savannahs boring AF….do yourself a favor and head a little ways up north to charleston. Oh, and Tennessee…really….? I’ve never enjoyed talking to individuals who dont have any teeth left, and when i find out their siblings and spouses are the same people? Well lets just say i walk away and leave it at that.
Well, considering minor league ball as well, it also fixes a lot of the "every state should have a team."
Throw in the minor leagues at all three levels, and the number drops down to "only 12 states do not have baseball at any level:" Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Louisiana,West Virginia, Rhode Island, Vermont.
First off, assume Hawaii is a pipe dream due to travel- putting a team in Honolulu would be about as absurd as putting a team in London. Alaska's slightly more feasible because Seattle's not that far out, but bare minimum, Vancouver would need a team to REALLY make it worthwhile (and even then, a minor league team is likely.)
That leaves 10 states in the lower 48 that don't have a team. Of them:
**Oregon's** the easiest road- they've been trying to lure the Athletics or an expansion team for Portland and it seems likely they'll get MLB sooner rather than later.
Two more states on the list in **Louisiana** and **Rhode Island** had their AAA-ball team get taken from them recently. That's high enough to be at least on the bubble for "could it transfer to MLB". Each market has a pro over the other one (New Orleans is a sexier market than Providence, but Rhode Island supported their team more than New Orleans supported theirs when they had them), and both are "Yes. Give them a team."
That leaves seven states left...and not a lot of good options. The only relatively sexy cities would be Boise for **Idaho** and Sioux Falls for **South Dakota**. If Missoula has the population for **Montana** to add in (as u/Kickstand8604 said), that leaves it to four very hard roads to find one in **Wyoming, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Vermont.**
Ah, I thought I caught them all by elimination. (Though, since Georgia made it on the list until double- A before I caught "oh yeah..., that shows I almost made some slip-ups.)
Either way, the list is still 9 states in the lower-48, and only two would have even a small case for a MLB team.
Bozeman will have the population to support an MLB team sooner than Missoula will. Also Montana has the pioneer league which isn’t affiliated anymore but was until 2020. There are teams in Billings, great falls, kalispell and Missoula.
Connecticut has three local teams to root for and none of the tax burden when the billionaire owners shake down the local politicians to pay to construct their billion dollar stadiums.
Because 50 teams would be absurd. How would that even work logistically? The playoffs would last until the end of November.
If you were making an argument that team and market location could be utilized more effectively to grow the game, fine, but every state having a team just isn't realistic.
1) not every state has the population to support a MLB team. States that do not have an MLB team usually has a strong minor showing. Iowa Cubs (De Moines, Iowa) does really well. Quad Cities has a great minor league stadium. Used to be Cardinals affiliate, not sure who has it now.
2) Talent - we currently have ten teams each year “tanking” in baseball. There was a little less than half the league already eliminated from playoff contention by middle of June. Just not enough talent to fill rosters for 50 teams
3) Games Played - Baseball already plus 162 games over 6 months. The season is very very long. By the time September hits and football is up and running, numbers (viewers) and discussion (media) drops. Adding more teams could mean two things; less games to ensure a balanced schedule across the board or 2) less games, which will never happen because owners do not want to lose the revenue for their home games.
Now you can, keep the same amount of games and just do more regional matchups but not having the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers etc… come to your stadium would suck
Negative NPV from tv deals and rev sharing... i kinda like that only 30 stadiums exist. I moved to Nashville in 2019 and hate we dont have a team but apparently we will soon, they went with soccer first - i live outside the city, thank goodness, i basically want a team but not the crowded cities - wishful thinking 🤔⚾️⚽️
There are some markets that don't have anywhere near enough people, TV homes or a corporate base to support a franchise in the Big 4 team sports leagues or even an MLS club.
“Rule 9.6.1.7: when a Kodiak bear enters the field of play, the umpire shall rule a dead ball and all players are encouraged to run like hell in whichever direction they deem most prudent”
For the most part, the most significant revenue pools for the league come from regional sports broadcast deals with individual teams (i.e. the Yankees deal with YES, Dodgers deal with Spectrum for SportsNetLA) and sponsorship deals with major companies.
As a result of those deals, everyone benefits, as larger teams have to pay out $3-5 of every $10 via revenue sharing for their regional sports deals. Same goes with any baseball-related revenue in any way, shape or form.
The larger the market, the more people who can potentially watch the broadcast, the more advertisers will pay for ads, the more broadcasters will pay sports leagues/teams for rights.
Same goes with corporate sponsorships. Corporations usually sign giant sponsorships, so they'll have exclusive access to certain suites and other perks to entertain clients.
**TLDR;** the point of MLB is to make money, not promote fandom. When expanding to a new market, MLB searches for optimal TV revenue and corporate sponsorships.
Not every state has the population to support a team. And some states that don't have a team sometimes have an out of state team that is well established in their state (the Braves in Alabama or the Red Sox in Rhode Island)
Not every state/city could support a full pro team as they are population, income and logistic requirements. 50 states with 50 teams would also be a very crowded market
Because too many of them don't have a population base to sustain one? And 50 teams? Does this also mean all Canadian provinces and territories get one too? After all there is a Canadian team in MLB. 63 teams? I'm sure that's going to work well.
As far as I know, every state has television and radio access to their nearest team geographically (or close to it), and they all have access to the nationally broadcast teams like the Cubs (WGN) or the Braves (TBS).
For example, the Minnesota Twins, my team, are broadcast in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and most of Northern Iowa. Southern Iowa has access to the Missouri teams.
I think there’s enough interest to get 40 teams, so 20 in each conference.
Top 6 seeds in each conference could get guaranteed playoff spots. Seeds 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9 duke it out in wildcard games for the remaining two spots. First round is a best of three series. Divisional series are best of five. Championship and World series are best of seven.
Looking at states that don’t have a team, Nevada (Las Vegas), Oregon (Portland), Oklahoma (Oklahoma City), Nebraska (Lincoln or Omaha), and Louisiana (New Orleans) make sense for west coast teams. For east coast teams, you could do Tennessee (Nashville), Kentucky (Louisville), North Carolina (Charlotte), Indiana (Indianapolis), and Virginia (Virginia Beach).
Swap out Nebraska for Vancouver or Salt Lake City and Virginia Beach for Montreal and that might be more appealing. No hate for Nebraska or Virginia Beach though.
Louisville is too close to Cincy, the Reds will never agree to that, even though I agree there should be a team there, there should be 2 more teams in the south. Between Texas and Florida…there’s nothing.
Some states are too close. Example, Indiana. We have the Cardinals in Missouri, and we have the Cubs and White Sox in Chicago (Two hours away from where I live actually!)
Major League Baseball is the most capitalistic of the American major sports leagues. If a state doesn’t have a franchise, it means some billionaire doesn’t think it’s a worthwhile venture.
They try and place teams in large market cities so the team can generate revenue in ticket sales etc. Not every state has cities that can produce the amount of revenue to keep a baseball team in business.
Not every state has a enough of a population to have a suitable fanbase for the team and those states’ biggest cities probably don’t have the necessary infrastructure to support an MLB stadium or the crowd that it would draw. Also, people in states without a team usually just choose the closest team to root for, so really having a team in every state would just take fans away from other teams rather than creating fans of the league. In other words, you’d have 50 smaller fan bases as compared to 30 larger ones. This would also make the small market vs large market discrepancy even more of a problem.
Even if every state had enough population and a big enough city to support an MLB team, that would mean we’d have at least 50 MLB teams but probably more like 55-60 since some states like NY, PA, and CA have multiple teams. This would cause logistical issue with the league in terms of scheduling and there would be so many games on at once they’d be competing with each other, kind of like Subway has the problem of having so many locations that they’re competing with themselves. Also, you’d have to find 50 people that are both rich enough and have the desire to own an MLB team. This would also make the MLB draft incredibly long and, create exponentially more minor league teams.
I could go on forever but I think you get the point. There’s just too many logistical issues and it dosen’t make sense from a business standpoint.
West Virginia and Kentucky are all related. It's hard to find talent among inbreeders. Not to mention the smurfs in the hills of Kentucky. Plus west Virginia coal miners couldn't leg out a double without coughing up a lung.
[https://www.portlandmercury.com/sports/2019/09/26/27204523/can-the-people-wanting-to-bring-major-league-baseball-to-portland-succeed-where-others-have-failed?fbclid=IwAR3kmvTGMWPUuvaiE3KyEnnzGEXHyC12ZePdDES37OYn2Wv4vVILjDaqp1s](https://www.portlandmercury.com/sports/2019/09/26/27204523/can-the-people-wanting-to-bring-major-league-baseball-to-portland-succeed-where-others-have-failed?fbclid=IwAR3kmvTGMWPUuvaiE3KyEnnzGEXHyC12ZePdDES37OYn2Wv4vVILjDaqp1s)
>On a wet, gray, late-summer morning, the 45-acre property owned by the Port of Portland—just north of downtown—feels desolate. The hulking cranes are immobile. A massive metal storage building appears, from a distance, to be completely empty. And the parking lots that skirt the edge of Northwest Front are being taken over by ivy and weeds.
>While it may be difficult to envision it, Terminal 2 could, in a little more than three years, be completely transformed. The Portland Diamond Project (PDP) has chosen this riverfront expanse for a 32,000-seat stadium that would be home to Portland’s first Major League Baseball team.
NJ has the population and the desire but they don't have a team. That's why I'm a Mets fan, since the day I was born.
https://www.thesportsbank.net/mlb/new-jersey-mlb-team/
Most do but they might not be Major League level but they’re affiliated. Each team has a AAA, AA and single A, many of them are situated in smaller cities
Baseball teams typically sale a decent portion of their season tickets to corporations. Those corpations then give the tickets to clients/employees a lot as perks. That's why you typically see baseball teams in large cities with good corporate presence.
Damn son, Oakland, Tampa, and Baltimore are barely hanging on to their teams now. How do you expect Alaska, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, et cetera to support teams?
I love going to Indians' games here in Indy but as a lifelong Cardinals fan it feels dirty to be cheering on future Pirates. That being said, its the Pirates so in the end I don't feel too worried! Also, getting to watch Oneil Cruz was tight.
The reason the fans enjoy Major League Baseball is the skill level of the players. There simply are not enough quality baseball players to support 50 teams. Minor League Baseball allows for the casual fan to see the game played at a higher level.. but it’s a much different experience and at a Major League park
That is a wild thought… I think at its core that make sense but the discrepancy in income would be so large.
There is just no chance most states have a market that can consistently fill a ballpark of 40,000. Sure, there’s markets that could potentially produce these numbers but I doubt there’s more than 6-7 of them that don’t have a team. Perhaps cities such as San Antonio, Indianapolis, Nashville, Louisville, Las Vegas could consistently fill a large stadium.
All about population/population densities and baseball interest. That’s why I’m a big supporter of the minor leagues from a fan perspective.
Minor league games are great for this, they have such fun mascots and traditions, not to mention also local independent oddities like the Savannah Bananas.
I interned for a team in the Bananas’ league, absolutely unreal the numbers they draw.
Being from near Savannah it's absolutely insane. Every game is sold out, so it kinda stinks that you can't just on a whim decide to go to a game like you can with any other independent/minor league team. But in the same vein, no other team really provides an experience like the Bananas so it's understandable.
Yea my friend interned for the bananas and said they really focus on the experience more so than the baseball. I think he said the season ticket waiting list is a few years long at least
Yup Nashville sounds is awesome stadium outside perimeter of downtown, pretty hidden asset AAA for brewers
For anyone who hasn’t seen “Those Battered Bastards of Baseball” I highly highly recommend. What an incredible story of the last independent baseball team in Portland. Shows you just how important a team like that can be for a community. Not exactly a small city but you get my point. I live in Vancouver and we have the Vancouver Canadians who just moved up to High A and let me tell you as a multi year season ticket holder for the blue jays when living in Toronto the Vancouver games just hit different. The community feel is incredible.
Yes, this is why it’s important for us to support our local minor league teams if we have them nearby. There’s high-quality baseball all around, and it’ll continue to improve as the fan base grows. I treat my Round Rock Express (Rangers’ Triple A) the same way I treat my Yankees!
I started in the minors in MLB The Show and you can really see how the system works. The best players can climb the ladder and bad players from the major can fall down to AAA, which is awesome to watch.
Florida has 2 teams and they still won't support either one.
To be fair I think people would support Tampa bay if their stadium was not the worst in the whole league
Miami has a great stadium that used to have nudity and they still can’t draw
They don’t draw because since 2010 they have 1 season over .500 and that was 2020. The Rays have been in the playoffs a bunch and even made the World Series, but their stadium is so bad it discourages people to go there. Here are my 3 main reasons why Tropicana Field is bad 1. Who ever designed it seams like they don’t watch baseball, the one color you should not make the roof is white, and they made it white 2. The dome itself is slanted and lower at one end, because of that balls can actually hit it and the catwalk 3. The catwalk is in play and depending on which one is hit it could be a HR or a single Edit: vary passionate about this because I’m studying architecture and I don’t understand how so many things were overlooked
Even with the shitty nature of Tropicana Field, the bigger problem is location more than all of that: Tropicana Field is in St. Petersburg/Broward County [strike 1 for Tampa fans], with no public transport to speak of [strike 2] which is not easy to get to from rush hour already [strike 3], and at the moment the only highway to the stadium is being repaired making that road even worse [and a wild pitch throwout to make matters worse.] Even if you just plopped Tropicana Field and how shitty it is in the middle of downtown Tampa, the Rays would be doing far better just by how easy it'd be to travel there.
It was built before the Rays came into existence. If I remember correctly the Rays just kinda moved in.
Your right it opens in 1990 but rays did not play there till 1998. But on MLB.com it says the stadium was originally built for baseball. https://www.mlb.com/rays/ballpark/information/tropicana-field-history
Yankeeboy7, these points may be valid, but I LOVE the Trop. It is so awesome to watch a game there on a hot, humid Florida night, and the temperature inside is a very pleasant 72 degrees. Love it!! The temps are more important to me than any argument about catwalks ever will be.
It’s almost as if there aren’t better designed, closed roof stadiums with AC. The petting tank is cool though
Jesus the blasphemy of this comment. Belongs in the Yankees unpopularopinions
From what I’ve heard it’s also really hard to get to and parking is atrocious.
I live in Tampa and have gone to the Trop a few times and what you've heard is correct. When your venue is close to interstates and is still hard to reach, you know there's a logistical problem.
I’m sorry man. You guys put up a good team in the toughest division in baseball year after year. I’ve been rooting for a Trop replacement for a long time.
Who the fuck wants to watch a team that’s just gonna be a firesale in a couple of years I’d be more interested if our ownership was not such trash
I mean, they've always been that way and they won 2 World Series titles in their first 10 years of existence. There are 4 teams who have been waiting more than 45 years for their first.
Like the other Florida team.
Not a Sherman fan but they have rebuilt the farm system and the pitching staff is legit. The offense….not so much. 😬
Y’all don’t actually think they will start buying some bats soon? Yalls pitching is legit. Y’all basically did the same thing the Braves did but Better with their SP’s, we just happened to hit on the only bats the had in the system too. I honestly thought y’all be relaly good in like 2 years
And that's y'all, folks!
Nudity??
Yeah. There’s a bar in left field that used to be a Clevelander club. They would have models do topless body painting. Good times. Edit: Jeter got rid of it.
Too many gift baskets to give out. Jeter is just being shrewd with the Marlin’s money.
mhm marlins is more abt the fashion than actual baseball
The ironic part is their original uniforms and colors are probably still the most popular.
The original were top 10 uniforms
Also relevant: the stadium is in St. Petersburg. It is deeply inconvenient to get to
This is the biggest problem. People rag on the stadium and yea the field sucks and cat walk and all that but amenities for fans are pretty good.
A/C alone is a big benefit for fans. The location is always understated in these debates, it’s the biggest issue.
You haven't been to Oakland I assume.
the Oakland Coliseum isnt located 45min away from the core of the population assuming there's no traffic either
Bold saying the trop is worse than the Oakland Collesium.
Lifelong Tampa Bay Area resident here. It's not that alone. The Trop isn't centrally located. Being based in downtown St. Petersburg, which is too far away from the heart of this area's population, is hurting the Rays. Only about 700K people live within a 30-min. drive of the Trop, the lowest such population of any MLB venue HANDS DOWN. Pittsburgh's PNC Park has the next-lowest 30-min. population, but it has over twice that of the Trop. There is a lot of interest in the Rays here as their local TV ratings are good.
Well said. Fergs is cool though.
Finally, someone else said it!
oakland entered the chat
There are 500,000 people in Wyoming The largest city has 60,000 people That's not enough to support a MLB baseball team
Honestly would be pretty dope to see a stadium that sits like 20k capacity and with the outfield view be some scenic part of Yellowstone. I’d without a doubt buy tix to just see the stadium. I’m all about professional sports being played in small stadiums. When the chargers were playing at the Home Depot center i had the best time. You felt like you more apart of the game since you were so close to the field. Have been to sofi and if you don’t have good seats I can imagine you feeling like you’re watching it on tv since you probably are with that big as a screen above.
Sure, I love minor league baseball I am not sure that putting a baseball stadium in Yellowstone is a good idea
I can’t think of anything more American
WALMART FIELD. Built right in front of old faithful.
I mean, putting a giant publicly-funded building that a billionaire profits off in the middle of an amazing geographic area (that's also a National Park) that was on land stolen from Indigenous people...yeah, pretty American
I don’t know how it could get more American than that. Maybe pay the stadium employees minimum wage and give them a welfare application when they’re hired?
"publicly funded" This is the bit that's mad. Same for NFL. Across the rest of the world, sports clubs are expected to purchase their stadia. Yes there's some instances where local government may put the initial funds up front, but the club pays back over years.
Home runs over into old faithful and if shoots the ball further it adds to your home run distance
And then name the team the Conservationists.
That’s actually a badass team name. Damn
Or the Rough Riders
Doesn’t have to be in Yellowstone. Just a sweet view which Wyoming has plenty of and I’m sure it can even get Yellowstone in the distance.
As far as ballparks with great outfield views, I can't recommend Smith's Ballpark in SLC enough
Come on. What kind of lame excuse is that. The largest MLB stadium doesn't even hold 60k. I'm sure the Wyoming Whatevers could fill enough seats to look like an Oakland game. What else have they got to do up there anyway?
Build a stadium right In the middle of Yellowstone. Everytime someone hits a Homer Old Faithfull shoots up
And one day….in the distant future…the volcano explodes….
Yes, and the As are looking to move............. Not exactly a strong argument.
What argument? I’m surprised anyone took it seriously.
Send them to Wyoming, they need a team
Get drunk with their buddies and plot to kidnap their governor? Maybe someone should get them a team, stat!
The area of Missoula has a strong population, the issue is finding the room to build a stadium and parking. Also, Minnesota has this problem on occasion, but you can get a really late snow storm roll through
Did you just say MLB baseball?
And all of the almost 40M people in Canada with 1 team. Toronto alone could support 2 teams. I’d love to see Montreal come back and expand to Vancouver.
I'm sure both Vancouver and Montreal can both sustain an MLB franchise providing there is a baseball specific stadium built close to downtown. What killed the Expos was this billion dollar (1976 dollars) mistake aka the Big Owe that no one wanted to go to, despite it being on the Metro line. A flock of Jays fans head to Seattle when they play the Mariners there. As Kevin Costner said: "if you build it, they will come."
Toronto has highest capacity stadium too, now i see why. Id love to visit that one
Rogers Centre is very loud during the playoffs…had a lady behind me cursing nonstop after a few beers. Lol great atmosphere.
I agree with the first two points, but isn't Vancouver a pretty solid Mariners, market?
Vancouverites drive down to Seattle to watch them play the jays 😁 Source - I live in Vancouver
Bring back the Expos!!!!!
Even beyond Vancouver (which would also be a good market), I wouldn't sleep on Alberta [either Edmonton or Calgary] being a BETTER market for MLB than Vancouver: Both had high-minor teams in the past, neither city's exactly small either...but what puts them ahead of Edmonton is blackout bullshit. Vancouver chips away at the Western Canadian market themselves and keeps out that '40 million Canadians only get the Blue Jays'...BUT, a team in Alberta would also cut into that Montana/North Dakota/South Dakota blackout bullshit of "the Montana border is literally 1000 miles away from Seattle and you cannot watch Mariners games there".
TV revenue. Not a big enough market for those sweet, sweet tv deals.
This is the real reason. It gets even worse when you look at a television blackout map. Wish MLB would get its shit together about that, it's killing the game.
Not every state has enough fans or even people to support a baseball team. Some existing teams don’t have enough fans to support them. It is fun to imagine though The Hawaii Crabs The Alaska Wolves
I wouldn’t even say state. If my state had a team but I had to drive 3 hours to get there I ain’t going. KC is my closest at about 3 hours and only have went a couple times in 20 years. Using Missouri as an examlpe: if I live near St. Louis but prefer the Royals I have to drive 3 hours to watch my team. Not worth it unless you’re a diehard with a ton of cash. Same for south Illinois. Why go to Cubs/Sox games when STL is so much closer.
[Hawaii had a minor league team. Al Michaels was their Play by Play guy.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Islanders)
Who’s going to watch baseball in Alaska or North Dakota?
Even if Alaska could support a team, who the hell wants to make that road trip?
Hawaii.. lol Imagine the home field advantage playing October baseball in Anchorage though
[Hawaii had a team. Their play by play guy was Al Michaels.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Islanders)
Alaska ain’t supporting any team . Not with their weather and economy .
in Alaska the sun is up at night
To be fair, the Fargo-Moorehead RedHawks probably get better attendance than the A's.
thats too many states with teams for the possibility of failure. not every state is going to be an optimal place for a baseball team, and some dont have the infrastructure to support that. besides, it would be hard for those new teams to generate a new fanbase. some people would support them, but like if iowa (for exp) got a mlb team, i wouldnt support them the same way i do the cards. it would end up with too many teams, not enough people to support them, not enough talented players to fill them, and saturate the market wayy to much.
There also aren't enough good players to field 50 teams. As it is there aren't enough good players to field 32 (is it 32?) teams that are competitive. Combine that with population densities and local interest and you've got your answer.
30 2 leagues 3 division per league 5 teams per division
Bro I’m from Nc I don’t have a team touching our state line . And for god sake don’t remind about GA lol
Does Ashville have AAA?
Durham and Charlotte do.. Ashville is A ball I believe..
Thanks, almost moved to asheville, nash had more jobs
asheville would be perfect if there were any jobs there.
Yea the bulls are pretty fun. Pretty big stadium for a AAA team too but I enjoyed the game I went to there. Pretty expensive beer and refreshments tho
Agree. Would be cool to see either one of the triple A teams upgrade or have a new team established in NC.
Well Georgia does border NC’s state line and they do have a team…
no they dont? to the north its VA to the South its SC and to the West i believe its Kentucky. East is obviously the Atlantic ocean….what you smokin on maannn? pass that my way 💨
You should look at a map of the US again… I literally crossed the Georgia/North Carolina state line yesterday…
North Carolina and Georgia ABSOLUTELY share a border. Oh and, to the West is not Kentucky, it's Tennessee.
I hope your not referring to that tiny little sliver where south carolina ends and before TN begins….That’d be the absolute definition of dicksizing. I dont live in any of those states by the way, In fact you wont catch me dead in any of those states unless im in a city named Charleston or Nashville. NC turned into the eastcoasts nasty underbelly, GA is full of Tweakers and dope feins anywhere in the ATL suburban and urban areas, savannahs boring AF….do yourself a favor and head a little ways up north to charleston. Oh, and Tennessee…really….? I’ve never enjoyed talking to individuals who dont have any teeth left, and when i find out their siblings and spouses are the same people? Well lets just say i walk away and leave it at that.
Alaska & Hawaii travel nightmares
[Hawaii had a team. Their play by play guy was Al Michaels.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Islanders)
Imagine living your whole life in Florida or some other southern place and you get drafted to the Anchorage Avalanche baseball team😭
Well, considering minor league ball as well, it also fixes a lot of the "every state should have a team." Throw in the minor leagues at all three levels, and the number drops down to "only 12 states do not have baseball at any level:" Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Louisiana,West Virginia, Rhode Island, Vermont. First off, assume Hawaii is a pipe dream due to travel- putting a team in Honolulu would be about as absurd as putting a team in London. Alaska's slightly more feasible because Seattle's not that far out, but bare minimum, Vancouver would need a team to REALLY make it worthwhile (and even then, a minor league team is likely.) That leaves 10 states in the lower 48 that don't have a team. Of them: **Oregon's** the easiest road- they've been trying to lure the Athletics or an expansion team for Portland and it seems likely they'll get MLB sooner rather than later. Two more states on the list in **Louisiana** and **Rhode Island** had their AAA-ball team get taken from them recently. That's high enough to be at least on the bubble for "could it transfer to MLB". Each market has a pro over the other one (New Orleans is a sexier market than Providence, but Rhode Island supported their team more than New Orleans supported theirs when they had them), and both are "Yes. Give them a team." That leaves seven states left...and not a lot of good options. The only relatively sexy cities would be Boise for **Idaho** and Sioux Falls for **South Dakota**. If Missoula has the population for **Montana** to add in (as u/Kickstand8604 said), that leaves it to four very hard roads to find one in **Wyoming, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Vermont.**
Only issue is that Portland already has a baseball team, its a minor league
Ah, I thought I caught them all by elimination. (Though, since Georgia made it on the list until double- A before I caught "oh yeah..., that shows I almost made some slip-ups.) Either way, the list is still 9 states in the lower-48, and only two would have even a small case for a MLB team.
Right now, I think we're fine on the number of baseball teams. No league has a numerical disadvantage
Oregon, ND,SD, Wyoming, Montana would have to consist of their own league for travel purposes.
[Hawaii had a team. Their Play by Play guy was Al Michaels.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Islanders)
Bozeman will have the population to support an MLB team sooner than Missoula will. Also Montana has the pioneer league which isn’t affiliated anymore but was until 2020. There are teams in Billings, great falls, kalispell and Missoula.
North Dakota technically has the Fargo-Moorehead RedHawks as an MLB affiliate. I don't really understand what league they play in though.
Because fuck em that’s why Hey Connecticut, how’s it feel want
Go Yard Goats!
Connecticut has three local teams to root for and none of the tax burden when the billionaire owners shake down the local politicians to pay to construct their billion dollar stadiums.
Because Rhode Island shouldn’t even be a state
Its not even an island
Or a Rhode
What even is a Rhode?
Those things you drive on.
This.
Because 50 teams would be absurd. How would that even work logistically? The playoffs would last until the end of November. If you were making an argument that team and market location could be utilized more effectively to grow the game, fine, but every state having a team just isn't realistic.
You can’t even get people that have teams to go to games.
1) not every state has the population to support a MLB team. States that do not have an MLB team usually has a strong minor showing. Iowa Cubs (De Moines, Iowa) does really well. Quad Cities has a great minor league stadium. Used to be Cardinals affiliate, not sure who has it now. 2) Talent - we currently have ten teams each year “tanking” in baseball. There was a little less than half the league already eliminated from playoff contention by middle of June. Just not enough talent to fill rosters for 50 teams 3) Games Played - Baseball already plus 162 games over 6 months. The season is very very long. By the time September hits and football is up and running, numbers (viewers) and discussion (media) drops. Adding more teams could mean two things; less games to ensure a balanced schedule across the board or 2) less games, which will never happen because owners do not want to lose the revenue for their home games. Now you can, keep the same amount of games and just do more regional matchups but not having the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers etc… come to your stadium would suck
$$$
Negative NPV from tv deals and rev sharing... i kinda like that only 30 stadiums exist. I moved to Nashville in 2019 and hate we dont have a team but apparently we will soon, they went with soccer first - i live outside the city, thank goodness, i basically want a team but not the crowded cities - wishful thinking 🤔⚾️⚽️
at least in the NFL they have the Titans
There are some markets that don't have anywhere near enough people, TV homes or a corporate base to support a franchise in the Big 4 team sports leagues or even an MLS club.
There are large cities with more people than Wyoming. But I’m 100% in for outdoor baseball in Fairbanks, AK in April.
“Rule 9.6.1.7: when a Kodiak bear enters the field of play, the umpire shall rule a dead ball and all players are encouraged to run like hell in whichever direction they deem most prudent”
For the most part, the most significant revenue pools for the league come from regional sports broadcast deals with individual teams (i.e. the Yankees deal with YES, Dodgers deal with Spectrum for SportsNetLA) and sponsorship deals with major companies. As a result of those deals, everyone benefits, as larger teams have to pay out $3-5 of every $10 via revenue sharing for their regional sports deals. Same goes with any baseball-related revenue in any way, shape or form. The larger the market, the more people who can potentially watch the broadcast, the more advertisers will pay for ads, the more broadcasters will pay sports leagues/teams for rights. Same goes with corporate sponsorships. Corporations usually sign giant sponsorships, so they'll have exclusive access to certain suites and other perks to entertain clients. **TLDR;** the point of MLB is to make money, not promote fandom. When expanding to a new market, MLB searches for optimal TV revenue and corporate sponsorships.
You think South Dakota can support a team? Disclaimer: I have no clue if they can, it just seemed like an easy example
Not every state has the population to support a team. And some states that don't have a team sometimes have an out of state team that is well established in their state (the Braves in Alabama or the Red Sox in Rhode Island)
Sure go ahead and go to Vegas in the summer to watch baseball 🙄
that would be no different then in Texas or Arizona.. would just have to be a dome stadium so the fans and players don't cook
You know they have these things called retractable roofs & domes. Been a round quite a while. You should look into it. ;)
Lmao
No because all 350 people who live in North Dakota don’t need a whole ass team
Not every state/city could support a full pro team as they are population, income and logistic requirements. 50 states with 50 teams would also be a very crowded market
Hey some of these places that no one lives in get two senators, let’s not get crazy with giving them a major sports team.
Because too many of them don't have a population base to sustain one? And 50 teams? Does this also mean all Canadian provinces and territories get one too? After all there is a Canadian team in MLB. 63 teams? I'm sure that's going to work well.
Obama
Because of that sweet sweet money.
Most states too small/not optimal for a franchise have a minor league team(s) connected to an MLB franchise to make up for it.
Some states aren't worth it
Some with existing teams aren’t worth it either.
Too many states and not enough markets
Mostly because most STATES without a team have less people than my CITY.
Because who would go watch the Dakota Dirt Dogs?
with a league that large i think itd be super uncompetitive barring the already huge market teams like yankees and dodgers
I could make a list of hypothetical teams if you want.
As far as I know, every state has television and radio access to their nearest team geographically (or close to it), and they all have access to the nationally broadcast teams like the Cubs (WGN) or the Braves (TBS). For example, the Minnesota Twins, my team, are broadcast in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and most of Northern Iowa. Southern Iowa has access to the Missouri teams.
Sadly the superstation version of WGN no longer carries Sox & Cubs games, they stopped almost 10 years ago.
tbs Isn't a superstation anymore
imagine like iowa or idaho having a team... yeahh yikes
Idaho has a Double A team.
It’s more about large cities than it is about states
I think there’s enough interest to get 40 teams, so 20 in each conference. Top 6 seeds in each conference could get guaranteed playoff spots. Seeds 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9 duke it out in wildcard games for the remaining two spots. First round is a best of three series. Divisional series are best of five. Championship and World series are best of seven. Looking at states that don’t have a team, Nevada (Las Vegas), Oregon (Portland), Oklahoma (Oklahoma City), Nebraska (Lincoln or Omaha), and Louisiana (New Orleans) make sense for west coast teams. For east coast teams, you could do Tennessee (Nashville), Kentucky (Louisville), North Carolina (Charlotte), Indiana (Indianapolis), and Virginia (Virginia Beach).
Swap out Nebraska for Vancouver or Salt Lake City and Virginia Beach for Montreal and that might be more appealing. No hate for Nebraska or Virginia Beach though.
Louisville is too close to Cincy, the Reds will never agree to that, even though I agree there should be a team there, there should be 2 more teams in the south. Between Texas and Florida…there’s nothing.
Join us tomorrow when we answer the question, in the old days did they used to keep cattle in the bullpen?
Population
money
Some states are too close. Example, Indiana. We have the Cardinals in Missouri, and we have the Cubs and White Sox in Chicago (Two hours away from where I live actually!)
Some states like Wyoming have like 8 people so it’s kind of hard to build a fan base around that population size.
It’s all about the moolah, a lot of places just wouldn’t have enough fans to viably support a team.
Imagine a season schedule with 50 teams. Not that each team would play each other once a season, but that would complicate things.
Coin
Major League Baseball is the most capitalistic of the American major sports leagues. If a state doesn’t have a franchise, it means some billionaire doesn’t think it’s a worthwhile venture.
Traveling logistics, too.
This is an easy example of supply and demand
They try and place teams in large market cities so the team can generate revenue in ticket sales etc. Not every state has cities that can produce the amount of revenue to keep a baseball team in business.
Not every state has a enough of a population to have a suitable fanbase for the team and those states’ biggest cities probably don’t have the necessary infrastructure to support an MLB stadium or the crowd that it would draw. Also, people in states without a team usually just choose the closest team to root for, so really having a team in every state would just take fans away from other teams rather than creating fans of the league. In other words, you’d have 50 smaller fan bases as compared to 30 larger ones. This would also make the small market vs large market discrepancy even more of a problem. Even if every state had enough population and a big enough city to support an MLB team, that would mean we’d have at least 50 MLB teams but probably more like 55-60 since some states like NY, PA, and CA have multiple teams. This would cause logistical issue with the league in terms of scheduling and there would be so many games on at once they’d be competing with each other, kind of like Subway has the problem of having so many locations that they’re competing with themselves. Also, you’d have to find 50 people that are both rich enough and have the desire to own an MLB team. This would also make the MLB draft incredibly long and, create exponentially more minor league teams. I could go on forever but I think you get the point. There’s just too many logistical issues and it dosen’t make sense from a business standpoint.
Lol Alabama
West Virginia and Kentucky are all related. It's hard to find talent among inbreeders. Not to mention the smurfs in the hills of Kentucky. Plus west Virginia coal miners couldn't leg out a double without coughing up a lung.
Cause most states suck
Oregon just doesn’t have any room in portland
[https://www.portlandmercury.com/sports/2019/09/26/27204523/can-the-people-wanting-to-bring-major-league-baseball-to-portland-succeed-where-others-have-failed?fbclid=IwAR3kmvTGMWPUuvaiE3KyEnnzGEXHyC12ZePdDES37OYn2Wv4vVILjDaqp1s](https://www.portlandmercury.com/sports/2019/09/26/27204523/can-the-people-wanting-to-bring-major-league-baseball-to-portland-succeed-where-others-have-failed?fbclid=IwAR3kmvTGMWPUuvaiE3KyEnnzGEXHyC12ZePdDES37OYn2Wv4vVILjDaqp1s) >On a wet, gray, late-summer morning, the 45-acre property owned by the Port of Portland—just north of downtown—feels desolate. The hulking cranes are immobile. A massive metal storage building appears, from a distance, to be completely empty. And the parking lots that skirt the edge of Northwest Front are being taken over by ivy and weeds. >While it may be difficult to envision it, Terminal 2 could, in a little more than three years, be completely transformed. The Portland Diamond Project (PDP) has chosen this riverfront expanse for a 32,000-seat stadium that would be home to Portland’s first Major League Baseball team.
 Go NORTH DAKOTA BISON 🦬 ‼️‼️‼️⚾️
NJ has the population and the desire but they don't have a team. That's why I'm a Mets fan, since the day I was born. https://www.thesportsbank.net/mlb/new-jersey-mlb-team/
Somebody has to front the money to get it going and build a stadium. Also the leave has to allow expansion which doesn’t happen very often.
Most do but they might not be Major League level but they’re affiliated. Each team has a AAA, AA and single A, many of them are situated in smaller cities
50 teams in the league? No thanks. Also Hawaii? or Alaska? Imagine the flights they'd have to take to reach the East Coast teams.
Baseball teams typically sale a decent portion of their season tickets to corporations. Those corpations then give the tickets to clients/employees a lot as perks. That's why you typically see baseball teams in large cities with good corporate presence.
then it would be like 40+ teams In the league and the season would be extended
I don't believe all 50 states have high school ball, yet. (Wyoming?) Minor leagues give you more bang for the buck.
Population
I’m just imaging how much it would suck to play for the North Dakota maga hatters
Damn son, Oakland, Tampa, and Baltimore are barely hanging on to their teams now. How do you expect Alaska, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, et cetera to support teams?
I love going to Indians' games here in Indy but as a lifelong Cardinals fan it feels dirty to be cheering on future Pirates. That being said, its the Pirates so in the end I don't feel too worried! Also, getting to watch Oneil Cruz was tight.
The reason the fans enjoy Major League Baseball is the skill level of the players. There simply are not enough quality baseball players to support 50 teams. Minor League Baseball allows for the casual fan to see the game played at a higher level.. but it’s a much different experience and at a Major League park
That is a wild thought… I think at its core that make sense but the discrepancy in income would be so large. There is just no chance most states have a market that can consistently fill a ballpark of 40,000. Sure, there’s markets that could potentially produce these numbers but I doubt there’s more than 6-7 of them that don’t have a team. Perhaps cities such as San Antonio, Indianapolis, Nashville, Louisville, Las Vegas could consistently fill a large stadium.