Could the O's leave town?

[AlbNYfan]

You'll have a hard time convincing me that MLB will ever let Camden Yards go without a team.

It would say more about the State of Baseball than the State of the Orioles. Doesn't PA have too much invested in MASN to allow that to happen??? He benefits more if both teams are successful.

[NewMarketSean]

You'll have a hard time convincing me that MLB will ever let Camden Yards go without a team.

We could get any number of minor league teams. The quality of play would be hardly any different. It would be the other team's that would be the biggest difference.

[SilentJames]

If the Florida Marlins get to stay in Miami, if the Rays got to stay in the league through their troubles (and still uninspiring attendance numbers considering their level of play). If Oakland stays in Oakland then the Orioles stay in Baltimore.

[osfan83]

You'll have a hard time convincing me that MLB will ever let Camden Yards go without a team.

Yeah, and the NFL would never let teams move out of historical footbal cities like Baltimore, Cleveland and Oakland!

[SilentJames]

Yeah, and the NFL would never let teams move out of historical footbal cities like Baltimore, Cleveland and Oakland!

The NFL is a completely different thing with a completely different history and way of doing business.

[DrungoHazewood]

$400 million, according to Forbes, last April.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/33/baseball-values-09_Baltimore-Orioles_336064.html

And the Forbes franchise values almost always undershoot what teams fetch when they're sold.

You'll have a hard time convincing me that MLB will ever let Camden Yards go without a team.

In my lifetime baseball has only used relocation as a tool to extract taxpayer money from cities. Montreal was allowed to move because it became obvious that no amount of pressure was going to force the city to build MLB a $500M Mallpark with 2839 luxury suites.

If the O's left town it would be the first time in, heck, I'd guess since the 1800s that a team was allowed to move out of a top-class ballpark. The Senators shared a multipurpose cookie cutter with the Skins, the Seattle Pilots played in a minor league park, the first Senators, Dodgers, Giants, Philly A's and Boston Braves played in parks built in the big building boom of the 1910s.

The closest you could come to this might be the Milwaukee Braves leaving County Stadium after 12 years.

The NFL is a completely different thing with a completely different history and way of doing business.

Just the Raiders have moved more often than all MLB teams combined in the past 35 years.

[NewMarketSean]

The MSA could always terminate it early and try to get a better team to play in the ballpark.

Yeah! Let's fire the Orioles like Rochester did with the Orioles!

[SilentJames]

The MSA could always terminate it early and try to get a better team to play in the ballpark.

Yes because the state of MD and MSA will gladly give up a guaranteed stream of millions of dollars and spend even more millions of dollars on lawyers and legal fees to do this.

Sure, right.

[ShaneDawg85]

If were got a Cleveland Browns scenario, I'd be fine with the Orioles leaving.

What if the end result is worse than what we already have? I know it's hard to imagine the O's being any worse, but using your example the Browns have been a laughing stock since coming back to the NFL, and there's not much hope for the immediate future.

[SilentJames]

Frankly this might not be a bad thing. I think Baltimore is no longer attatched to the Orioles as much as they once were.

The city caters to visiting fans and they ruined OPACY by building a hotel which took away part of the design of the park - the Bromo-Seltzer tower. I bet that would have never happened back in the 1970's.

Perhaps the city needs to go without a team for awhile. Everybody seems to be in love with the Ravens, so I doubt the Orioles would be missed much to start.

And for the Orioles, I think a new city and owner might invigorate the franchise.

Eventually Baltimore could land one of the Florida teams or an expansion team, or maybe everybody would just become a Nationals fan and baseball would never be missed.

YOU DON'T LIVE HERE!

Shut the eff up. Seriously, you have no idea what you are talking about. I live within the city-proper, I teach city youth. You have no idea how many Orioles-related discussions I have had this year. The Orioles gave my school 400 free tickets (lower bowl none the less) and we gave them all away in less than 8 hours.

So by all means take your assumptions about my city and cram them.

Moreover, every time I go to games I have about a 70/30 chance of running into at least one student in my school. This city wants to love the Orioles, they want a winner. A Thursday night game against Oakland drew over 16 K, the Rays aren't averaging much better right now. Root for the Red Sox and shut up.

[ShaneDawg85]

Frankly this might not be a bad thing. I think Baltimore is no longer attached to the Orioles as much as they once were.

The city caters to visiting fans and they ruined OPACY by building a hotel which took away part of the design of the park - the Bromo-Seltzer tower. I bet that would have never happened back in the 1970's.

Perhaps the city needs to go without a team for awhile. Everybody seems to be in love with the Ravens, so I doubt the Orioles would be missed much to start.

And for the Orioles, I think a new city and owner might invigorate the franchise.

Eventually Baltimore could land one of the Florida teams or an expansion team, or maybe everybody would just become a Nationals fan and baseball would never be missed.

You have no clue what you're talking about.

[Smokin' Joe O]

YOU DON'T LIVE HERE!

Shut the eff up. Seriously, you have no idea what you are talking about. I live within the city-proper, I teach city youth. You have no idea how many Orioles-related discussions I have had this year. The Orioles gave my school 400 free tickets (lower bowl none the less) and we gave them all away in less than 8 hours.

So by all means take your assumptions about my city and cram them.

You don't have to live in Baltimore to have an opinion about the O's or their viability in the city.

[SilentJames]

You don't have to live in Baltimore to have an opinion about the O's or their viability in the city.

But I can tell you right now he has no idea what he is talking about when it comes to the city's relationship with the Orioles as a team. bYou need to live here day in day out to understand that. You can have all the opinions you want, but they would be uniformed stupid opinions.

[JackO]

30 years from 1992 is 2022.

That's not "fairly soon".

In the scheme of things it is fairly soon... the lease is almost two thirds over.

[SilentJames]

In the scheme of things it is fairly soon... the lease is almost two thirds over.

12 years dude. 12 years.

12 years is a long long time.