Want a pro baseball team?

[PantherFanInPhilly]

Braves.

[Stumpy]

43 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

I'm kinda iffy on that idea.

Reminds me too much of The Mighty Ducks thing, I suppose.

I get that, but part of the reason the Ducks thing failed so badly was the team had no real ties to the movie, other than being owned by Disney. 

The team portrayed in Bull Durham was the actual Durham Bulls, a team with its own rich history, going back over 100 years. 

[NanuqoftheNorth]

1 minute ago, raleigh-panther said:

Yep I’m on the West Coast now and all the talk is about the As probably following the Raiders to Vegas 

living in Raleigh, I’d love to have them augment the Canes 

Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill is exploding and a great place to live but it’s not going to compete with Vegas 

Yeah, Las Vegas metro population is similar to Charlotte's, but can also draw on the tourist crowds to fill the stands.  It really gives Vegas a leg up on the competition. 

[Stumpy]

Not to mention, Durham is close enough to count both Greensboro and Raleigh metro areas in their TV footprint, surely eclipsing Charlotte. 

[Brooklyn 3.0]

3 hours ago, Stumpy said:

I'm not a baseball fan. But, if an MLB team moves to the Carolinas, it needs to be in Durham and named the Bulls.

Instantly recognizable with both historical and pop culture reverence. They would instantly be #1 in merch sales.

Who wants to tell him?

[kungfoodude]

16 minutes ago, NanuqoftheNorth said:

I don't doubt it, however the the metro area of Raleigh would've had to have grown by over a million people during the last 18 months to even approach the metro area of Charlotte.

I know Raleigh metro is growing somewhat faster than Charlotte metro, but even gaining 100,000 more people a year than Charlotte, it would take more than a decade for Raleigh to catch up. 

Notice the "Triangle" statement. Wake County is larger than Mecklenburg but also the Triangle(which is admittedly a much larger geographical footprint) has actually been bigger than the Charlotte metro area for a while. Charlotte itself is larger than Raleigh but the RDU sprawl is much larger than the Charlotte sprawl.

[Stumpy]

8 minutes ago, Brooklyn 3.0 said:

Who wants to tell him?

...you? I guess...

[Brooklyn 3.0]

1 minute ago, Stumpy said:

...you? I guess...

I mean, there IS a baseball team in Durham ... called the Bulls. Surely you knew that. MLB would be pretty rude to just axe the AAA team like that. I guess they could "promote" them to the majors? Send the minor league players to other teams, keep pieces of the current stadium in the new one, etc. But yeah, the Durham Bulls are already a thing.

[NanuqoftheNorth]

4 minutes ago, Stumpy said:

Not to mention, Durham is close enough to count both Greensboro and Raleigh metro areas in their TV footprint, surely eclipsing Charlotte. 

It's close, but Charlotte metro pop still tops the other two areas combined.  Though I'd suspect any team moving to either area would consider more than simply population.   

The competition for entertainment dollars, especially when it comes to sports would be taken into consideration.  Between collegiate and pro sports there is a lot of competition for entertainment dollars in both metro areas.

While I'd like to see NC finally get a MLB team, Las Vegas provides a compelling proposition.  Though, having said that, MLB has a checkered past when it comes to gambling, so who knows? 

[Stumpy]

9 minutes ago, Brooklyn 3.0 said:

I mean, there IS a baseball team in Durham ... called the Bulls. Surely you knew that. MLB would be pretty rude to just axe the AAA team like that. I guess they could "promote" them to the majors? Send the minor league players to other teams, keep pieces of the current stadium in the new one, etc. But yeah, the Durham Bulls are already a thing.

Of course, the current Bulls would have to be a part of the discussions. This idea is not new. When DBAP was built it was rumored that Durham's MLB affiliate, the Rays were considering the change due to poor attendance down in Tampa.

The whispers around Raleigh were that it was gonna be a straight up swap. Rays to the minors, Bulls to the majors. Then they won a championship and everybody forgot about it. Now they might become the Montreal Bay Exrays. Lorde Jeebus, baseball is dumb.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Stumpy

[SizzleBuzz]

7 hours ago, MikeD83 said:

That’s fine, but one county or city does not make a metro. The larger Charlotte area is a more populace area. A potential MLB team isn’t looking at one city or county alone. They are going to look for a market that can put 1,500,000+ butts in seats in a season. I don’t know if that is Charlotte or Raleigh. 

I have serious doubts about MLB surviving/thriving anywhere in NC/SC but if the League was to gamble on team here...

...it should go into the Triangle area.

[rico6]

15 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Notice the "Triangle" statement. Wake County is larger than Mecklenburg but also the Triangle(which is admittedly a much larger geographical footprint) has actually been bigger than the Charlotte metro area for a while. Charlotte itself is larger than Raleigh but the RDU sprawl is much larger than the Charlotte sprawl.

Something like 2500 square miles larger than the Charlotte MSA. It’s honestly no comparison. The upside of the Triangle to a baseball team isn’t the population. It’s the lack of competition. Not sure that I would pass on Charlotte’s population just so I only had to compete with hockey. If the Carolinas end up with an MLB team it will almost certainly be located in the Charlotte metro area.

[NanuqoftheNorth]

13 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Notice the "Triangle" statement. Wake County is larger than Mecklenburg but also the Triangle(which is admittedly a much larger geographical footprint) has actually been bigger than the Charlotte metro area for a while. Charlotte itself is larger than Raleigh but the RDU sprawl is much larger than the Charlotte sprawl.

How far afield from these two metro centers are we expected to go in order to justify our positions for MLB?  The larger the geographic area required, the weaker the case for a team becomes.  Population density is important.  Per capita the Charlotte MSA has gained more people during the last decade than the Raleigh MSA according to the folks at Chapel Hill (2020).  

Quote

 

Within the state, Charlotte grew by 17.5% and gained 392,920 new residents since 2010 while Raleigh gained 260,292.

https://thewell.unc.edu/2020/11/11/raleigh-among-fastest-growing-metros/

 

Having said that, I believe either area could be attractive to a MLB team.  I might even favor RD due to the lack of professional competition beyond hockey.  On the other hand, there are a ton of collegiate sports in the area that they'd have to compete with for consumer dollars.   

  

[OldhamA]

As an Oakland A's fan (hence the name):