MLB Team in Vancouver - Where would you put them?

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by phesto

I think the above poster was implying that we don't have the same demographics as those cities (ie. baseball fans).

Sitting around at a baseball stadium is near the top of the list of things to do in most of those cities you listed, but would be so far down the list for so many Vancouverites that I can't see this city supporting a full 81-game home season.

That's interesting.

Do you have any evidence (empirical or otherwise) to support your beliefs about the hypothetical priorities that Vancouverites might have if Vancouver was actually a part of Major League Baseball (a far bigger league than the NHL), competing against the likes of the famed San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, etc.?

Clearly, baseball has a much higher level of popularity and a greater tradition in Vancouver than you seem fully cognizant of. For instance, since the 1920s, Vancouver has hosted either a high-level or major league-affiliated professional baseball team, including the current single-A team, which has been a success both on and off the field. Vancouver is also the primary fountainhead of Canadian talent in Major League Baseball. Of the current Canadian players in MLB, a plurality (if not outright majority) come from Metro Vancouver, due to its highly advanced and established youth baseball scene. In fact, in 1951, British Columbia became the first place outside of the U.S. to join Little League Baseball, and Langley has sent a team to the World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania almost every year for the last decade, including this year again. Langley's Matt Lawrie caused a sensation in Toronto this year, and many thousands of Lower Mainland residents travelled 3 hours down to Seattle numerous times this season to see Lawrie and the Blue Jays play, making Safeco Field feel more like a home game for the Jays than for the Mariners. The popularity of a home-grown MLB star here in Vancouver (like a Steve Nash of baseball) needs no elucidation.

A person who cannot imagine that baseball is popular enough in Metro Vancouver for MLB is someone who has failed to make himself fully aware of the culture and history of his own city.