Expansion

[REDREAD]

MLS averages more than 21,000 fans per game. It does real well with game day revenue. TV revenue is where it lags.

I Didn't realize it was that high. Our local team, the Columbus Crew (I have no idea what league they are in) only got about 15k/game in 2019. But since there's fewer games, that's about 260k a season. I have not been to a game, but it's probably a lot more fun to watch in person (just like baseball). So yea, I guess I should have said, like baseball.. it's not the greatest sport for TV.

[M2]

I Didn't realize it was that high. Our local team, the Columbus Crew (I have no idea what league they are in) only got about 15k/game in 2019. But since there's fewer games, that's about 260k a season. I have not been to a game, but it's probably a lot more fun to watch in person (just like baseball). So yea, I guess I should have said, like baseball.. it's not the greatest sport for TV.

The Crew is in MLS and was one of the league's founding members. It just won the league title a couple of months ago.

[Chip R]

Soccer has similar problems to baseball in terms of being a spectator sport in America.
A lot of people consider it boring.
Sure, the players are great athletes, but there's a lot of running around and not a whole lot of scoring.

Anyhow, my prediction, just on gut feeling, is there's going to be MLB labor problems in 2022 that will cause another work
stoppage and probably damage the fanbase again.

I think MLS and soccer do a lot of things right. And a lot of teams draw very, very well. However, it's never going to replace any of the other sports - even MLB - in the hearts and minds of the fans. How often is FC Cincinnati a hot topic of conversation here? Every once in a while, sure. But day in and day out, the Reds and Bengals drive sports conversation here. Even the die-hard fans here don't talk about what happened on the field very much. They don't know the minutia of the game like they do in Europe and South America. Even if they say that a manager should use a certain formation or other strategy, it's going to go over most casual fans' heads. There is basically two threads on The Tavern here about soccer and one of them is ostensibly about FCC but it's mainly a catchall for MLS while the other is about international soccer. Whereas there is a thread about college football, OSU football, NFL football, the Bengals, the Browns, the Jaguars, the Colts, Indiana University, University of Kentucky and a weekly pick-em thread.

Now I'm not saying MLS is a threat to replace MLB but if you put an expansion MLB team into a market like Charlotte or Portland with a strong MLS following it's going to hurt the attendance of the MLB team. And that team's going to be bad for a few years at least so when the bloom goes off the rose, it's not going to be pretty.

[cincinnati chili]

I hate the DH, and will continue to hope that the crusty NL owners will block its permanent installation. Unlikely, I know. But I can hope.

If the league expands to 32 teams and everybody is playing by the same rules, then they should put all the eastern time zone teams into one league.

Robinson League West	Robinson League Central	Aaron League East	Aaron League Northeast
San Diego Padres	St. Louis Cardinals	Detroit Tigers	New York Yankees
Seattle Mariners	Chicago Cubs	Cleveland Colonizers	New York Mets
Oakland A's	Chicago White Sox	Cincinnati Reds	Boston Red Sox
San Francisco Giants	Kansas City Royals	Pittsburgh Pirates	Toronto Blue Jays
L.A. Dodgers	Minnesota Twins	Atlanta Hammers	Montreal Youppis
L.A. Angels	Milwaukee Brewers	Miami Jeters	Philadelphia Phillies
Colorado Rockies	Texas Rangers	Tampa Rays	Washington Nationals
Arizona DBacks	Houston Astros	Mexico or Nashville or Carolina	Baltimore Orioles

In this scenario, there would be - at most - one non-Eastern time zone team in the league with the other Eastern time zone teams, and it would be an expansion team. Half the U.S. population is in eastern time zone, and this would stabilize televised schedules a bit. The only time that the Pacific and Eastern time zone would play each other is in interleague play, which in my scenario is a rarity.

Play everyone in your division 14 times; play everyone in the other division of your league 6 times; play half of the teams in the other league twice each.

[mth123]

I hate the DH, and will continue to hope that the crusty NL owners will block its permanent installation. Unlikely, I know. But I can hope.

If the league expands to 32 teams and everybody is playing by the same rules, then they should put all the eastern time zone teams into one league.

Robinson League West	Robinson League Central	Aaron League East	Aaron League Northeast
San Diego Padres	St. Louis Cardinals	Detroit Tigers	New York Yankees
Seattle Mariners	Chicago Cubs	Cleveland Colonizers	New York Mets
Oakland A's	Chicago White Sox	Cincinnati Reds	Boston Red Sox
San Francisco Giants	Kansas City Royals	Pittsburgh Pirates	Toronto Blue Jays
L.A. Dodgers	Minnesota Twins	Atlanta Hammers	Montreal Youppis
L.A. Angels	Milwaukee Brewers	Miami Jeters	Philadelphia Phillies
Colorado Rockies	Texas Rangers	Tampa Rays	Washington Nationals
Arizona DBacks	Houston Astros	Mexico or Nashville or Carolina	Baltimore Orioles

In this scenario, there would be - at most - one non-Eastern time zone team in the league with the other Eastern time zone teams, and it would be an expansion team. Half the U.S. population is in eastern time zone, and this would stabilize televised schedules a bit. The only time that the Pacific and Eastern time zone would play each other is in interleague play, which in my scenario is a rarity.

Play everyone in your division 14 times; play everyone in the other division of your league 6 times; play half of the teams in the other league twice each.

I love the geographocal realignment and the bigger divisions. Now get rid of the abomination known as the "wild cards" and I'm ready to buy into this plan. Four Division winners with schedules heavily populated against their own divisions and no need for second place teams in the play-offs. They already proved they aren't the best team by not winning their division. Why let them in the play-offs?

As far as the DH goes, I don't care much either way. Since pitchers don't go deep into games anymore, there isn't much strategic decision making with or without it. After the fifth inning, the oitcher is coming out iof the game and a Pinch hitter, who everyone who pays any attention at all can guess, will be hitting. I think any 8 year old kid could make the in game decisions in today's baseball. I just want everyone on the same rules no matter what they are.

[cincinnati chili]

I love the geographocal realignment and the bigger divisions. Now get rid of the abomination known as the "wild cards" and I'm ready to buy into this plan. Four Division winners with schedules heavily populated against their own divisions and no need for second place teams in the play-offs. They already proved they aren't the best team by not winning their division. Why let them in the play-offs?

As far as the DH goes, I don't care much either way. Since pitchers don't go deep into games anymore, there isn't much strategic decision making with or without it. After the fifth inning, the oitcher is coming out iof the game and a Pinch hitter, who everyone who pays any attention at all can guess, will be hitting. I think any 8 year old kid could make the in game decisions in today's baseball. I just want everyone on the same rules no matter what they are.

Thank you. If I were dictator of baseball, I could live with zero wild card teams. In the real world, I don’t think there is a chance of that happening. Our best hope is to convince ownership that the recently proposed 14 playoff teams is way too many. And more importantly, to me, I am against any division winner being bounced from the playoffs in any series shorter than best-of-7. I think that MLB got lucky last year that the two best teams survived a “best of 3” round. Even best of 5 is too much to ask of a team that was the best in its division over 162.

[goreds2]

Brett Young Pushes For Pro Baseball Team In Nashville, And He's 'SO PUMPED'

Young, 40, is the newest member of the Music City Baseball Music Advisory Board, which includes fellow artists banding together in the push for a local team. Other members include Luke Combs, Kane Brown, Justin Timberlake, Maren Morris and Darius Rucker, among others. “I have always been a big fan of Major League Baseball so I’m excited about being part of bringing a team to Tennessee,” Rucker said in a statement when he joined in December 2020. For Young, the push is personal:

“Baseball was the biggest part of my life for the first 20-some-odd years of my life. For a long time I thought it's what I would do for a career,” he explained in a statement to PEOPLE, which also noted that the country singer was drafted to play for the Minnesota Twins when he was in high school. “I was very fortunate to find music and to be given the opportunity to make a career out of that, and I wouldn't trade anything that's happened in my life for the world — not even baseball being taken away — but that doesn't mean I don't still have a passion for the sport.”

If the team becomes a reality, it would be named the Nashville Stars, as a nod to Negro league baseball teams that played in Nashville in the 1940s, according to a previous Music City Baseball press release.

Young added that “the only other thing I loved as much as sports was music,” so he’d love to have a team in Nashville. The “In Case You Didn’t Know” singer just released his first holiday album, Brett Young & Friends Sing The Christmas Classics, and it’s packed with collaborations. Young teamed up with Maddie & Tae, Sam Fischer, fellow Music Advisory Board member Darius Rucker and others on the holiday album (but before Christmas festivities are in full swing, Young has to endure one Thanksgiving food he hates the most).

The country crooner and longtime sports fan said in a tweet that he’s “SO PUMPED” to join the advisory board and root for a Music City baseball team.

https://www.iheart.com/content/2021-...line5_readmore

[podgejeff_]

A Nashville team would be bad news for the Reds and even worse news for the Braves.

[mth123]

A Nashville team would be bad news for the Reds and even worse news for the Braves.

Yeah. I don't see it happening. They need to balance out the west and east teams. I'd go Portaland and either Vegas or Vancouver. Then realign by geographic Divisions. No more NL and AL.

[M2]

A Nashville team would be bad news for the Reds and even worse news for the Braves.

There's more than 250 miles between Nashville and both those cities. It shouldn't be that big a hit to either one of them (e.g. I doubt either club is making big coin on Nashville broadcast rights). Nashville seems like the kind of boomtown that would be a great spot for an expansion team.

[scotly50]

There's more than 250 miles between Nashville and both those cities. It shouldn't be that big a hit to either one of them (e.g. I doubt either club is making big coin on Nashville broadcast rights). Nashville seems like the kind of boomtown that would be a great spot for an expansion team.

Nashville is growing. They have transformed the city in the last twenty years. The success of the Preds and the Titans will bode them well for a baseball expansion team.

[oregonred]

Three years later from the beginning of the thread.

MLS may get there one day but still doesn't have much of an impact on MLB attendance

Charlotte and San Antonio/Austin need MLB teams - like yesterday

[podgejeff_]

There's more than 250 miles between Nashville and both those cities. It shouldn't be that big a hit to either one of them (e.g. I doubt either club is making big coin on Nashville broadcast rights). Nashville seems like the kind of boomtown that would be a great spot for an expansion team.

The fan market is greater than just the city.

Nashville would attract some Kentucky fans away from the Reds. It's not like the Reds routinely like keeping fans excited.

And MLB fans in Nashville and Tennessee? They're supporting the Braves.

Something to support the Charlotte/Raleigh metros (growing almost as fast as Nashville and larger) and Las Vegas (larger than Nashville and more geographically isolated) would work. Portland also makes sense for the same reason Las Vegas does.

And something else that makes more sense that they won't do is put a third team in both NYC and SoCal.

I'm not saying Nashville is a terrible idea, but there are better ones. And I want any expansion team as far away from Cincinnati as possible.

[REDREAD]

There's more than 250 miles between Nashville and both those cities. It shouldn't be that big a hit to either one of them (e.g. I doubt either club is making big coin on Nashville broadcast rights). Nashville seems like the kind of boomtown that would be a great spot for an expansion team.

Agreed. If Nashville ends up taking Reds' fans from Kentucky, then the Reds only have themselves to blame.
More competition on the Reds to provide a good product is GOOD for the fans. The reason the Reds have not cared about W-L over the years is because it hasn't impacted their bottom line. If "Bally Sports Tenn" (or whatever it's going to be called) causes the Reds to get less TV money, that's a GOOD thing. Maybe ownership will wake up when a bad team is less profitable.

[InsaneinthBrame]

Agreed. If Nashville ends up taking Reds' fans from Kentucky, then the Reds only have themselves to blame.
More competition on the Reds to provide a good product is GOOD for the fans. The reason the Reds have not cared about W-L over the years is because it hasn't impacted their bottom line. If "Bally Sports Tenn" (or whatever it's going to be called) causes the Reds to get less TV money, that's a GOOD thing. Maybe ownership will wake up when a bad team is less profitable.

Honestly I think they have lost market share(fans especially younger ones) to the Cubs and Indians who have been more successful in the last 25 years because of W-L. Lucky for the Reds more baseball fans are older and remember BRM

edit We could be in the same position as the Cardinals with better ownership. Higher payroll Higher attendance and more winning.