Quote:
Originally Posted by moorhosj1
No need for absolutes. Multiple cities are going to lose out on expansion. Courting the Sox would be the obvious next move for those cities. Current odds on favorites for new franchise are Nashville, Charlotte, San Antonio, Salt Lake, Orlando, and Portland. No stadium would be ready before 2030 anyways, that actually helps the Sox.
|
Nashville is a lock for an expansion team. They have a group that is headed by Dave Stewart and MLB very much wants to be there. The White Sox may move, but it won't be to Nashville.
Most of these other cities will be horrible markets for the MLB.
Orlando? Have you paid attention to what has happened in Tampa and Miami? Both markets have proven to be horrible for MLB.
Salt Lake City has an MSA of 1.25 million, which makes it much smaller than the current smallest MSA with an MLB team, Milwaukee.
Charlotte has shown little to no interest in attracting an MLB team, while Portland would be a challenging market given how close it is to Seattle.
San Antonio/Austin are full of transplants and has shown no interest to date in trying to land an MLB team. The recent success of the Rangers and Astros probably means that a lot of the people there who are baseball fans probably support one of those franchises right now.
Quote:
|
Nashville and Charlotte are far bigger today than Denver was in 1993, like 20-50% larger.
|
Denver has an isolated MSA which made it far more attractive and viable for MLB since the entire MT could adopt it as their own MLB team. It has proven to be a fantastic market for that very reason. They would have had an MLB team far earlier than 1993 if it wasn't for the thin air.
Quote:
|
An MLB that draws 30k a game in a brand new stadium is worth more than one that draws 20k a game in an old stadium.
|
There is no guarantee that any of these markets can attract 30k every night beyond the honeymoon period. Tampa had exactly one year where they averaged over 30,000, and that was 1998. Miami hasn't drawn over 30k since 1994, and they have a brand-new stadium. Arizona hasn't averaged over 30k for a full year since 2008:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/t...D/attend.shtml
https://www.baseball-reference.com/t...A/attend.shtml
https://www.baseball-reference.com/t...I/attend.shtml
I have no idea why you think any of these other markets can consistently draw 30k. What do you base that on? The above are all bigger markets than the ones that you mentioned.
Quote:
|
It has been said over and over by Reinsdorf himself, the team is being sold when he dies. When that happens, it will likely go to the highest bidder regardless of location as his kids don't care about the team or keeping it here.
|
I have no doubt that the team will be sold after he dies, but I don't own a crystal ball and can't predict who will buy it, and neither can you. These threats are being made to drum up some kind of support for a publicly financed stadium, and it's failing miserably. He deserves no money, especially since the state paid for the last one. It's not the taxpayer's fault that he built a stadium that became dated the second Camden Yards opened.
It'll be a wonderful day when the White Sox are out of the grips of Reinsdorf and his family, who most certainly can not finance a new stadium on their own. If they leave the market, so be it, but it'll be a very short sighted move that will ultimately diminish the value of the franchise. However, it's most certainly possible for an individual or group with local ties to keep the White Sox in Chicago.