Could a major league team move to Providence? That is a question that I have wondered about for some time. My proposal would be for a National League Team, say the Marlins who have not drawn well in Miami. Would they do better in Providence in a new stadium on the waterfront on Allens Ave.

The idea would be with RI's increasing Spanish population and with the seasonal increase of tourists (Cape Cod, Newport, South County) would there be enough demand to support a team?

I know this is Red Sox nation but Fenway Park is a hard place to get to from the south and the smallest stadium in the majors. And the most expensive. And are sold out.

The Pawsox have shown that minor league baseball in this area can thrive also with the smallest and oldest facility in the International leaque. How many people would go to a new stadium on the bay, on the new trolley line to downtown, with ferry service to Newport and along the extended boardwalk south of the Hurricane barrier?

How many people travelled to Green airport last year? Where did they all come from? Within an hours drive of Providence, in the summer, how many people live here or visit here.

i don't think we have the population to support major league baseball here. the red sox have too much of a pull, and we're not that far from new york either.

if we were to put a stadium down there, public transit would need to be superbly enhanced to accommodate all the fans. the way it is now, the highways would be backed up for hours if a game were to sell out. it's hell driving by foxboro on a game day and there isn't a whole lot else around there.

There's some chatter about this topic elsewhere on the forum. And MLB was supposedly talking about the fact that Boston could and should support a second team not too long ago. Providence would certainly be a logical home for such a team.

Knowing next to nothing about sports, I wonder if it is possible to build a dual purpose soccer/baseball stadium or if that is just silly.




There's 8 million people in the Providence (southeast New England) area.

i know how many people there are, i just don't think, with the red sox less than an hour away, that it'd work out that well. yes, providence would be the obvious location for a team, should the area get a second team (how many cities the size of boston have more than 1 team though?). there are very few cities with multiple teams of the same sport (new york being the obvious one with 2 baseball, 2 football, and basically 2 basketball and 2 hockey teams, but new york is kind of in a league of its own with the size of the city and metropolitan area). i'm really not sure the boston area would be able to handle another team.

as for the stadium... yes, a dual purpose stadium can be built. there are others that are used that way (i think the stadium the florida marlins play in is also used as a football stadium, i could be wrong on the stadium, but i do know they exist).

Providence could absolutely support a national league team, and i have long lamented the lack of an NL team for new england. Red Sox fans (like many crazy fanatics) are fans of Baseball and would see games anywhere if given the opportunity. I would only hope that the ownership of the Sox wouldn't pull Peter Angelos and freeze out the other team. And i wouldn't want a NL team to impact the Pawsox, which is a great, cheap family baseball stadium.

this is a state that has three whole foods within 10 miles, two within three miles. I think the entire region can handle two major league baseball stadiums

How many people attend waterfire? That seems to work. This Providence Piers stadium would be much smaller than Gillette. Maybe half the size (35,000). Five million people used the airport in Warwick this year. I would venture that the population of Southern New England could very well support a major leaque team. In a new Camden Yards style stadium within walking distance of downtown. It could also be on a light rail line that ran along the Promenade. If you move the salt pile it could happen.

where would it go now???

Well, LA, SF, and Chicago (and you could count Baltimore/Washington as well) each have two baseball teams and there was talk by the MLB that Boston should also pick up a second team. One could argue that out of those cities, Boston (by Boston I mean Greater Boston, Eastern New England) has the most ravenous baseball fans, of course if the Sox start to suck again, that could change. I think when the Expos(?) were moving there was a serious proposal to bring them to southern Connecticut, which really would have been more of a New York market, but would have picked up the western fringe of the Providence/Boston market.

Yes, each of those cities is slightly larger than Boston, but not much really.

Plus, how many Yankees fans in RI/Eastern Connecticut are there that don't even care about the Red Sox and never go to games?

I think with ticket prices and the size of Fenway, there are a lot of people in the region who are not able to go to Red Sox games that would be eager for a second team.

Now, reality for a minute, any team coming to RI would be looking for money from the state, and our state has no money.

We don't have any money but we do have hotel rooms. And more all the time. Other cities who have proposed new stadiums have put a tax on hotel rooms to finance this kind of project. Sounds good to me. Or put a toll on the new IWAY.
We could be what Anaheim is to LA.

We are already connected by train and highway. Think of all the celebrities who would come as well. The movie stars in town filming. The rich and famous on the islands and in Hyannis. It could be huge. We could sell Del's Lemondade and Rocky Point Chowder and clamcakes. And Awful, awfuls from NC.
People will come just for the food and view. And Buddy could be the official greeter!

Of course we'd have to change the name of the team since we don't have marlins here, Maybe the Providence Fireplace Pokers? With the former mayor as the mascot?

There was talk when the Expos were on the move that they could possibly work in Hartford, and I would agree for many of the reasons that you all give for it working in Providence. Providence might be too close to Boston, while Hartford is pretty much equidistance between NYC and Boston, and I'm obviously biased, but I could see it working in Providence as well.

The Krafts seriously thought about bringing MLB to Foxoboro in the years leading up to Gilette being built.

But here is the problem. The state/city would almost certainly have to foot the bill on a baseball stadium in order to get Bud's attention. And while it would be awesome to have baseball around, I'm pretty sure the facts are strongly against the economic reward being worth the price of the stadium, especially for a place like Providence that doesn't "need" to create an entertainment district or some such.

What I do wonder is whether there would be a way to build a multi-use for baseball and soccer and move the Revs down here as well. I wonder how much Kraft would put in if you could sell him on that plan.

Of course, even when you got through all of those roadblacks, you can bet your bippy that the Red Sox would do whatever they could to keep another team out of their market. The PawSox probably wouldn't be too happy, either. Looking at market data suggests that Boston could support two teams and New York at least three, however MLB is reluctant to take away any share from its cash cows, and that will continue.

Also, they would have to be the Providence Grays, for history's sake.

I also agree. In fact, I'd be among the first to grab season tickets. You have to think of this as a greater Boston/Southern NE thing. There is plenty of fans to go around, especially since it would have to be a NL team. Heck, they could build a staduim as part of the vacated 195 land/sea of parking south of the FD - I think the State owns that land already anyway. While RI doesn't have any cash to offer a team, they could offer some incentives to use that land and still come out ahead in so many ways (marketing/exposure, increased tourism/visitors, increased economic activity from baseball related sales, etc.). I think a dowtown site would also offer RIPTA good use of it's existing system (close to KP) while not adding a LOT of infrastructure. The increased ridership could fund the needed improvements. The expanded rail from Wickford and Warwick couse ease traffic as well. Throw in the proposed rail to Woonsocket and I don't see traffic as being as bad as others might.

and yes, the Providence Grays would be a must.

I'd think Kraft (or similar area mutli-millionaire) could fit the bill for a basic/smaller(ish) sized stadium as long the State gave in on taxes, etc. The Kraft/Revs idea seems pretty good to me.

I think the Indian Casino Indians should build a stadium.

It's nice to think about money not being an issue but that is a fantasy of Disney proportions when dealing with MLB.

I am a huge baseball fan and I have been following the economics of baseball for the better part of 20 years. Jesus I'm old. Anyway, the point is that new cities don't get new teams without building sparkly new stadiums. And even then they might have to wait a while (hello Tampa). The only exception is the aforementioned Marlins, who aren't exactly the model franchise. Also, Providence does not have a multi-use venue like Dolphin Stadium (or RFK for the Nationals before building their own park) so a stadium would need to be built ahead of the pursuit of the team.

just to back up my claim that fans are crazy--i bought season tickets to the Washington Nationals, because i could.

that just proves that *you're* crazy. If we had 40,000 jencoleslaws, we'd have a team (IMG:http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

and a lot more headaches.

(IMG:http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

Perish the thought. (IMG:http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)