Rest Of Baseball - 2017

[PhillyPhreak54]

Pretty much

And replay is off to a Blandino like start.

[QB Eagles]

Awful sports city Tampa can't even sell out opening day

Take that team and move them to Montreal

They were never able to secure a new park, so they are trapped in that warehouse in St. Petes. Feels like a matter of time before they move on, but I am skeptical about Montreal. I remember Expo home games that looked sadder than Tropicana.

[PhillyPhreak54]

No doubt but I think a renaissance in Montreal would be good.

Other options:

New Orleans
Vegas
San Antonio
OKC

[Sgt PSN]

San Antonio is a cool little town, but Texas doesn't need more teams.  If a team is going to relocate, a region that doesn't have a team would be ideal. Not sure if Vegas can support an MLB team either. Football, yes. Only 1 day a week and draws visiting fans. Baseball fans don't travel like NFL fans do. And if I'm in Vegas for 4 days, sitting in 110 degree temps for 4 hours sounds awful. And if I live in Vegas I'd go to 3 or 4 games a year, tops.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Obviously in Vegas it would be a retractable roof dome but in addition to the tourists the locals could support a team better than what you see in Tampa

San Antonio would support a team because in order for those people to see MLB they have to drive three hours one way to Houston or four plus hours one way to Dallas.

[QB Eagles]

I think baseball and basketball owners are really curious to see how the NFL and NHL do in Vegas.

The other three you mentioned are all cities heavily dependent on fossil fuel energy (San Antonio a bit less than the other two). Trying to figure out what those markets will look like decades in the future is more of a dice roll than the actual dice rolling in Vegas. I was in New Orleans last weekend, and from what little I can remember from the weekend, it didn't exactly seem like a stable and growing place yet.

[Sgt PSN]

Vegas has about 600k people, many of whom already have their own team. There's also very little in terms of suburban population to draw from. There's Vegas and then nothing but desert for a couple hours in any direction.

KC is like 100k smaller in population, but there's probably 3x that many people living within a 1 hr drive.

But mostly people go to Vegas for entertainment and baseball isn't entertaining for people who don't genuinely love baseball. 

[QB Eagles]

Clark County has more than 2 million people permanently living there. Latest estimate puts it right above the KC metro area. Henderson and North LV have more than 200k people each, so I think we can say the Vegas suburbs is a real thing.

Biggest metro areas without a team are Charlotte, Orlando, San Antonio, Portland, Sacramento, and Vegas, in that order. Of course, that's not the same as the size of the media market or the baseball market. I live in Portland and baseball would fail hard here.

[QB Eagles]

There's a lot of obstacles to it happening (they canceled a series there due to Zika last year for instance), but I think the most fascinating place to move the Rays would be San Juan. I feel like the island would go crazy over that. MLB isn't an organization I associate with risk-taking though.

Wouldn't be surprised to see the A's move to San Jose in a pure follow-the-money move either, but I think the Giants can block it.

[Rome]

Orlando is done giving out stadiums to billionaires.  The MLS team self-financed the new stadium and it turned out pretty goddamn spectacular.  Orlando could support a team easily but it's not gonna happen.  Charlotte would be a good place for the Rays to move. 

[MDS]

There's a lot of obstacles to it happening (they canceled a series there due to Zika last year for instance), but I think the most fascinating place to move the Rays would be San Juan. I feel like the island would go crazy over that. MLB isn't an organization I associate with risk-taking though.

Wouldn't be surprised to see the A's move to San Jose in a pure follow-the-money move either, but I think the Giants can block it.

theyd have a stadium there now but san fran claims san jose as its territory....fresno is a possibility. keeps them in "the market" and puts them in a place with rich people.

i cant see las vegas being able to support an mlb team. the market itself is about right for 2 teams, but 3? i can see the nba possibly working because there are fewer games and the stadium already exists.

puerto rico would need to invest in a new stadium or significantly upgrade the existing one. the island is insanely poor. i cant see how the money would be there. mexico city makes a bit more sense, though it would be tough scheduling thing to pull off.

montreal fell apart for a variety of reasons but a downtown open air ballpark would do well. a big question is does toronto want to welcome 2 AL teams in canada? or another all together? they currently own an entire country marketing wise. if montreal moves back to the NL, look for the marlins to move to the al east. it maybe a requirement when they are sold, to at least be open to the move, kind of like houston having to move to the AL when they were bought.

[Geowhizzer]

Stop screwing around with the teams withing driving distance of the Great Florida Swamp.  bastiches!   

[ice grillin you]

I remember Expo home games that looked sadder than Tropicana.

i remember phillie games last year

[ice grillin you]

pretty cool chuck berry johnson going on

[ice grillin you]

the cubs have a black pitcher named carl edwards jr