Game: Where Would You Expand MLB?

[Spy Fox]

You're the Commissioner of Baseball. Not just the commissioner, you're the Magical Ruler of Baseball.

It's 2025, baseball has continued its 21st century economic growth and has withstood some of the concerns related to the cable bubble. MLB still isn't the cultural behemoth of the NFL, but things are going well.

The 30 MLB owners have petitioned you, in your Almighty Magical Ruler Wisdom, to expand MLB from 30 to 32 teams with the hopes of continuing the sport's economic success.

Simple question: As the Magical Ruler of Baseball, where do you put these two new teams, and how do you restructure the league structure to accommodate them?

[NashLumber]

Purely selfish reasons (I'm in Durham), but I'd love to see it come to Charlotte. One even mentioned Raleigh (or Raleigh-Durham as some out-of-staters call it due to the airport).

Several articles have explored the idea (just from a quick Google search). I know so many baseball nuts like myself who don't mind driving two or three times (at six hours a pop including stops) to Baltimore. I'd see maybe 20 a year if MLB came to the Queen City, which is a two hour drive for me.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/mlb/charlotte-knights/article27346342.html

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/742743-proposal-for-32-teams-in-major-league-baseball

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2013/6/21/4452550/the-next-mlb-city-the-top-10

"City #2: Charlotte, North Carolina

Charlotte has just about everything going for it. Along with the facts below, Charlotte is one of few metro areas that sits in a truly ideal location. Charlotte is 400 miles from Washington, D.C., 480 miles from Cincinnati, and 245 miles from Atlanta. Relatively speaking, in terms of baseball, Charlotte is out in the middle of nowhere. In this case, that is a wonderful thing that should appeal to any owner seeking to move there.

Key Facts: Population of 2.22 million, 39% GDP of average MLB metro area, 99% GDP/Capita of average MLB metro area

Charlotte sits in prime territory and is remarkably affluent. Along with this, the states of North and South Carolina have a rich baseball culture as they are home to multiple schools in the South Eastern Conference and Athletic Coast Conference. The states also are home to several minor league teams in MiLB's Carolina League. Simply put, it is crazy that a MLB team is not already in the area, and it's even more crazy that nobody has really given the city a legitimate shot.

When run through the attendance simulator, an average team in Charlotte would draw an average of 29,380 fans per game."

http://www.therichest.com/sports/baseball-sports/top-10-cities-that-deserve-an-mlb-team/?view=all

[Can_of_corn]

Two? One each in NY and Bos.

[Spy Fox]

Purely selfish reasons (I'm in Durham), but I'd love to see it come to Charlotte. One even mentioned Raleigh (or Raleigh-Durham as some out-of-staters call it due to the airport).

Several articles have explored the idea (just from a quick Google search). I know so many baseball nuts like myself who don't mind driving two or three times (at six hours a pop including stops) to Baltimore. I'd see maybe 20 a year if MLB came to the Queen City, which is a two hour drive for me.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/mlb/charlotte-knights/article27346342.html

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/742743-proposal-for-32-teams-in-major-league-baseball

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2013/6/21/4452550/the-next-mlb-city-the-top-10

http://www.therichest.com/sports/baseball-sports/top-10-cities-that-deserve-an-mlb-team/?view=all

I've lived in NC (Durham, actually) as well and I agree that the area could support a team better than most other possible candidates.

I'm still thinking about my own answer to my posed question, but I think there's only a few main places I'd seriously consider:

Montreal

Newark or Brooklyn

Charlotte

New Orleans

Nashville, though maybe not because for expansion purposes Nashville might just be the kind of worse version of Charlotte

[NashLumber]

With relations normalized, I wonder how far out of the box is a Cuban based team? I know folks were jokingly suggesting that last year for relocating Tampa Bay (even before the news of the thaw broke)..

[OFFNY]

You're the Commissioner of Baseball. Not just the commissioner, you're the Magical Ruler of Baseball.

It's 2025, baseball has continued its 21st century economic growth and has withstood some of the concerns related to the cable bubble. MLB still isn't the cultural behemoth of the NFL, but things are going well.

The 30 MLB owners have petitioned you, in your Almighty Magical Ruler Wisdom, to expand MLB from 30 to 32 teams with the hopes of continuing the sport's economic success.

Simple question: As the Magical Ruler of Baseball, where do you put these two new teams, and how do you restructure the league structure to accommodate them?

Danbury, CT.

Or

Brewster, NY.

[Spy Fox]

With relations normalized, I wonder how far out of the box is a Cuban based team? I know folks were jokingly suggesting that last year for relocating Tampa Bay (even before the news of the thaw broke)..

The bigger problem than political relations would probably be that a normal family income in Cuba is a very small fraction of that of in the US.

That said, I'd love for MLB to expand to Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, or Puerto Rico if it became more financially viable. Maybe that could happen some point in the long term future.

[Why Not?]

There absolutely should be a third team in NYC.

[25 Nuggets]

The bigger problem than political relations would probably be that a normal family income in Cuba is a very small fraction of that of in the US.

That said, I'd love for MLB to expand to Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, or Puerto Rico if it became more financially viable. Maybe that could happen some point in the long term future.

I would use my almighty magic then to make Mexico and Cuba first world countries and plop a team in Mexico City and Havanna.

[25 Nuggets]

Here's a potentially useful tool courtesy of the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/23/upshot/24-upshot-baseball.html?_r=0

If you click the link it takes you interactive.

[TommyPickles]

San Juan, Puerto Rico

And

Mexico City, Mexico

All the immediate economics aside, I think expanding MLB to include these two cities would have some really cool ripple effects for the league.

Hell, a team in Seoul or Tokyo would be cool too, but that's a lot of travel time.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DrungoHazewood]

Surprise, surprise, I have a wacky solution. Let the market figure it out. Not the wildly skewed monopolistic MLB version of a market, but the real market. As Magical Ruler of Baseball I split the Majors into 3-4 competing leagues that are not allowed to collude/cooperate/divide up the world in any way, shape or form except to set up an annual Championship Series. This means that all existing claims to territory are completely null and void. If some rich guy wants to buy up the ugly hotel next to OPACY, tear it down, and build a stadium for his Continential League expansion team there's nothing Peter Angelos or anyone else can do about it.

Yes, there are some tough nuts to crack like existing cable deals and MLB contracts and the like, but I guess I have a magic wand to fix all that.

I think in fairly short order the new leagues would add a dozen or more teams. In the longer term this largely (but certainly not completely) balances out revenues as the new teams suck revenues from the Yanks and Dodgers and others. Which leads to the financial viability of markets like Indianapolis or San Antonio or Sacramento or Portland OR.

And to make this really work we'd have to have a shift in how the minors are set up. I'd probably let teams keep, say, their AA and A Ball teams, but have to divest themselves of the rest. This probably means the draft either goes away or goes down to ~10 rounds.

[Spy Fox]

As a practical answer, I think I would go with Newark and Charlotte as the new teams. Put Charlotte in the AL and Newark in the NL and split each league into two 8-team divisions, East and West. Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh move to the East and all the other Central teams go to the West. Expand the playoffs to 12 teams, the top 3 from each division with the four division winners getting the first round bye. The others play a Wild Card game or maybe 3 game series to move on to Division Series.

But I did say you were the Magical Ruler, so 25 Nuggets' Latin American solution and Drungo's separate leagues idea are probably more interesting answers.

[Stotle]

Brooklyn and Charlotte.

[25 Nuggets]

San Juan, Puerto Rico

And

Mexico City, Mexico

All the immediate economics aside, I think expanding MLB to include these two cities would have some really cool ripple effects for the league.

Hell, a team in Seoul or Tokyo would be cool too, but that's a lot of travel time.

San Juan is actually a plausible location, easier than Mexico City or Havanna anyway, because Puerto Rico is still a US Territory. Congress however will need to grant bankruptcy to the island first, which is something the Treasury is pushing for. Frankly I think Puerto Rico should be the 51st state, but it would be such a chore to change all the flags...