MLB commissioner names Nashville a potential expansion city

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ANCHORDOWN01
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MLB commissioner names Nashville a potential expansion city

Post by ANCHORDOWN01 »

"Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday mentioned Nashville among a short list of possible expansion cities as the league explores growing from 30 teams to 32.

Manfred, who is in Washington D.C. for the MLB All-Star Game, was asked to name potential locations during a television appearance on Fox Sports.

"We have a real list of cities that I think are not only interested in having baseball, but are viable in terms of baseball — places like Portland (Ore.), Las Vegas, Charlotte, (N.C.), Nashville in the United States, certainly Montreal, maybe Vancouver, in Canada. We think there's places in Mexico we could go over the long haul."


https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2 ... 793828002/


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Re: MLB commissioner names Nashville a potential expansion city

Post by commadore »

Would be a mistake for MLB to expand now. They have several teams that can barely average 10k a game. Move them rather than expand. Miami and Tampa neither one has support worth a crap. Move one to Vegas, the other to Nashville or Charlotte. Canada would be a mistake, Mexico would be a nightmare.
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Re: MLB commissioner names Nashville a potential expansion city

Post by vu2003rpl »

So the Sounds average about 1,100 / game less than Miami (8426/game vs 9558/game) What a joke for the Marlins!! Good call on that new stadium, Miami.

Agree that expansion is not a good call. Relocate some teams around. Its nuts how the Florida teams are #29 and #30 in attendance.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.js ... 2&sid=l112
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Re: MLB commissioner names Nashville a potential expansion city

Post by BelleVUe »

32 is definitely better than 30 when it comes to scheduling. Having 15 in both leagues means there must always be an inter-league series going on, and that can be a burden when scheduling the 3-game series in between other games. Say the Dodgers are on the East Coast playing 3 or 4 against the Mets, and their AL teams for a season include the AL West. They may have to go to Oakland or Seattle for 3 and then come back to Washington for 3.

Besides having to move teams around like this, there are certain conflicting dates where teams either need to be at home for a specific reason or need to be away for a specific reason. Having 32 teams gives the schedule maker a lot more leeway, because the player's union also has a say in scheduling.

I think I have seen a scenario that at 32, they would go with 4, 8-team divisions or 8, 4-team divisions, and they would consider moving back to 154 games.

As for the cities, I don't believe Nashville is in the top 2. Montreal seems to be the #1 favorite due to the Expos leaving more because of poor management, and they had a terrible facility. Knowing how many Mexicans love baseball, I would guess that Mexico City would be the other team. There are 3 current teams that might relocate. Miami, Tampa, and Oakland all have severe issues, and Oakland may be forced to move if they don't have a new place to play soon.

I love going to baseball games, more for the food, a cold beer, to watch pretty girls, and shoot the breeze with others. I hear that the Sounds may need to search for a new affiliate next year, because Oakland may put their AAA team in Las Vegas, since the Mets will be moving to Syracuse. In a perfect world, the Dodgers would bring their AAA team here. I was in Albuquerque for years when the Dukes were the Dodgers' AAA affiliate. Besides all the great talent that played for ABQ, there is one thing that comes with being the Dodgers' AAA affiliate--DODGER DOGS! They are almost as good as sex! I jokingly called them Farmer John's hot daughter.

BTW, the 1981 Albuquerque Dukes might have been the best Minor League team since WWII and better than the Cubs, Twins, Padres, and Mariners that year. They hit .325 as a team and stole close to 300 bases in 132 games, winning the division by 25 games.
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Re: MLB commissioner names Nashville a potential expansion city

Post by Titans309fan »

I feel like baseball needs to shrink to 28 teams, not expand to 32. Get rid of the Marlins and Rays (or the A's).

I don't see any way Nashville could support a MLB team. First, the city can't afford any more stadiums, and I doubt a potential owner would come here and build a stadium on his own. Second, we just don't have the population to put 30,000 people in a stadium each game, 81 games a year.

Baseball is suffering right now, and soccer may surpass it in popularity.
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Re: MLB commissioner names Nashville a potential expansion city

Post by ANCHORDOWN01 »

No kidding. The people in Miami were always iffy about building a new baseball stadium. If I remember citizens wanted to hold a referendum and a judge ruled that a referendum wasn't neccesary. Just to show how much people in Miami didn't like the idea. The mayors race in 2009 was between a pro-stadium guy and an anti-stadium candidate and the anti-stadium candidate won with 72% of the vote.

The Marlins organization deserves every empty seat in that stadium.

vu2003rpl wrote:So the Sounds average about 1,100 / game less than Miami (8426/game vs 9558/game) What a joke for the Marlins!! Good call on that new stadium, Miami.

Agree that expansion is not a good call. Relocate some teams around. Its nuts how the Florida teams are #29 and #30 in attendance.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.js ... 2&sid=l112
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ANCHORDOWN1
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Re: MLB commissioner names Nashville a potential expansion city

Post by ANCHORDOWN1 »

Forget soccer- if we can get the MLB here, try to back out of the MLS. We can't spread ticket dollars and stadium costs too thin, and I will probably never watch a Nashville soccer team game, but I would probably go to 5-10 games a year of a Nashville MLB team.

Now, I don't like soccer, so I'm biased, but still.
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Re: MLB commissioner names Nashville a potential expansion city

Post by BelleVUe »

I read somewhere that Nashville is very high on the Major League expansion list for a couple of unique reasons.

1. The population within 2 hours drive of downtown and not within 100 miles of an existing team is now larger than multiple MLB markets.

2. The large tourism numbers in Spring and Summer project to thousands more tickets being purchased by those outside of the 2-hour circle.

3. Nashville's future growth have it on pace to pass numerous MLB and competing expansion cities. It's the expected area population 25 years into the future that matters.

Davidson, Rutherford, Williamson, Wilson, and Sumner counties accounted for 38 percent of all net migration in the state between 2001 and 2010. However, since 2010, those same counties have accounted for 62 percent of all net migration.

This area is expected to grow past 3 million in the metropolitan area population before 2040, and this does not include non-documented residents.
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Re: MLB commissioner names Nashville a potential expansion city

Post by BWestbrook »

With the increasing demise of pro football I can see MLB in Nashville.
BelleVUe

Re: MLB commissioner names Nashville a potential expansion city

Post by BelleVUe »

This is where a Major League Ballpark Can Be Constructed, since it is obvious Vanderbilt will never build a new stadium within walking distance of campus.


Charlotte between 25th and 28th
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