MLB Reportedly Pursuing “Radical Restructuring” Of Lower Minors

[gonelong]

I attended games in 5 different minor league parks last year (in 3 states) - Harrumph. Chattanooga was one of them; had a ball.

[JaxRed]

I come from it from a slightly different position (probably unrealistically). I consider MLB to be the stewards of the game of baseball. It's caretaker. I consider it an dereliction of it's stewardship to destroy (because that's what it will do) 25% of it's presence outside of the MLB cities. It takes one step further to reducing baseball in popularity.

[Bourgeois Zee]

MLB is attempting to make money for ownership by destroying the game itself.

Why anyone would be okay with that is beyond me.

[HokieRed]

Nothing about any of this surprises me. It's just part of what has been going on in America for a long time. The centers of power drain as much labor, resources, capital, loyalty as they can from the provinces, then abandon them. Some kind of half ass welfare scheme is devised and then New York, Washington, and all the other rich states have the effrontery to tell the poorer states how much more they contribute to their welfare than vice versa. But all this is an opportunity for the Billingses, Greenvilles and others: let
a thousand baseball clubs bloom, organically. That's just false consciousness. Sure there will be some independent teams formed, and they will play in some pretty broken down facilities, like a number of those I've seen in summer wood bat leagues. And there will be precious little capital to fix them.

[nmculbreth]

MLB is attempting to make money for ownership by destroying the game itself.

Why anyone would be okay with that is beyond me.

Perhaps these teams don’t feel like they’re destroy the game and feel like there is an opportunity to improve player development and put a better product on the field, which is ultimately the goal of a player development system.

It stinks for the communities that are going to lose their affiliate, but at the same time many of these owners put themselves in this position by continuing to utilize sub-standard ballparks that can’t meet the needs of modern day player development.

[Boston Red]

at the same time many of these owners put themselves in this position by continuing to utilize sub-standard ballparks that can’t meet the needs of modern day player development.

I guess, but there's not a more popular publicly funded project than a new minor league baseball stadium at a city's center. They're cheap (relative to their major league counterparts), accessible to the citizenry (pretty much everyone can afford to go to a game or two) and get a pretty high volume of use compared to a lot of other sports venues. Whatever number of substandard ballparks there are out there currently hosting minor league teams, I suspect the cities where they are located would heavily subsidize replacement parks in at least half of the cases.

[redsof72]

This negotiation process will get a lot more nasty before it gets better, and will take months to resolve. I expect the minor league owners to try to stick together. Many of the owners of teams on the elimination list also own teams that are not on that list. By sticking together, I mean they refuse this deal. Since the minor league owners have exclusive leases on their ballparks, they basically can prevent the major league owners from using any of them, and force them to play their entire minor league seasons for all classifications at their spring training facilities, like extended spring training for the whole farm system. At some point, concessions will be made by both sides. I will be shocked if more than 20-22 teams are eliminated. I would say Greeneville could be in danger along with that whole league. I do not think Chattanooga, Daytona, or Billings will be eliminated when the negotiating ends.

It is all about the money. The talk of wanting to improve travel, facilities, quality of life for players, etc. is just a cover.

[Redsfaithful]

I wonder if these idiots realized the political pushback they will face over this. There's nothing more bipartisan or that a member of Congress loves more than hammering away on something non-controversial like this where someone is trying to take something from their constituents.

[Kinsm]

From the list I initially saw, of the 42 teams in line to get cut - almost none of them have a stadium built in the past 25 years.

And a quarter of them are owned by their major league affiliate.

[Slyder]

From the list I initially saw, of the 42 teams in line to get cut - almost none of them have a stadium built in the past 25 years.

And a quarter of them are owned by their major league affiliate.

West Virginia Power built their in 2005 I think. Hosted the league All Star Game twice.

[JayBruceFan]

This is long overdue for some of these locations but to do it all at once is shortsighted and just plain stupid. These places have had more than enough time to get their acts together. Evolve or die

[TNRED]

[QUOTE=Kinsm;4037783]From the list I initially saw, of the 42 teams in line to get cut - almost none of them have a stadium built in the past 25 years.

And a quarter of them are owned by their major league affiliate.[/QUOT I can just comment on what I know since I am in the heart of the Appalachian league. Greeneville plays in a park that is about 10 years old and it is a first class stadium. It's like a MLB park just with less seating. The Twins have an affiliate nearby and they threatened to pull the team if the city didn't build a new clubhouse so they did last year for 1.5 million. A lot of other parks have undergone upgrades. I am sure A lot of these parks need upgrades but think about what the players are accustomed to. What kind of luxury are 18-19 year old Latin American players accustomed to? Maybe MLB needs to build their next generation of fans in areas with out MLB teams thru these farm teams instead of paying a player 200 million.

[BillDoran]

Evolve or die

Why?

I hate this growth at all costs concept.

I'm not here to stand up for places that have sewage problems or rat infestations, but all stadiums don't have to be palaces. MLB should lay out a baseline expectation for acceptable minor league stadiums, and it should require nothing more than a sound structure that fits the needs of the community.

This is all window dressing to cut costs for owners (whose investment valuations are skyrocketing).

[Sea Ray]

I think the main issue here is that major league teams are saying we don't need 7 minor league affiliates in order to develop 3 players a year. Once you decide you want to cut that number to say 4, then it only makes sense to cut the ones that are subpar. In other words, it's not a matter of raising the standards of the subpar facilities.

[Bourgeois Zee]

I think the main issue here is that major league teams are saying we don't need 7 minor league affiliates in order to develop 3 players a year. Once you decide you want to cut that number to say 4, then it only makes sense to cut the ones that are subpar. In other words, it's not a matter of raising the standards of the subpar facilities.

Nah.

The main issue is that major league teams want to save money in any way possible, and they recognize the possibility that they'll eventually have to pay more than a couple of dollars an hour to their employees. They're also hoping that many of these guys go independent so that those lottery tickets that might pay off can still be salvaged while the flotsam can float away on some other guy's dime.

It's a cash grab, plain and simple.