Charlotte MLB Team Speculation

[ncguy06]

I have heard a few comments about Charlotte possibly getting a pro baseball team. Is the city planning on getting one? What are the chances?

[atlrvr]

I don't think there is much chance within the next 15 years, barring someone with a lot of cash to move and existing team here and to pay for the stadium. Charlotte doesn't have the pop. yet to support three teams.

[Neo]

I don't see it happening. We can't even get the Knights downtown.

[dubone]

who wants a baseball team anymore, with all the doping?

[Miesian Corners]

who wants a baseball team anymore, with all the doping?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The same could be said of pro basketball with all the run-ins with the law.

[dubone]

yeah, i understand that line of reason, but with baseball the unethical behavior is central to the product and how the sport is played. Basketball's problems (and also other sports) are with their behavior off the court.

[RaleighHeelsfan]

yeah, i understand that line of reason, but with baseball the unethical behavior is central to the product and how the sport is played.  Basketball's problems  (and also other sports) are with their behavior off the court.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Off the court???? I see some bad behavior on the court to. The majority are thugs

I would do anything for a pro baseball team

[eastsider]

Off the court???? I see some bad behavior on the court to. The majority are thugs

I would do anything for a pro baseball team

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I seem to remember a game last year where a teams bullpen got into a fight with fans in the stands and a lady got her head busted open by a chair. The thugs are in all sports.

[RaleighHeelsfan]

I seem to remember a game last year where a teams bullpen got into a fight with fans in the stands and a lady got her head busted open by a chair. The thugs are in all sports.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree eastsider, thugs are in all sports. I just like baseball better. I am glad Charlotte has an NBA team. Just wish they could have an MLB team too.

[AmericanUrbanDesigner]

Rank Households

New York 1 7,376 (6.8%)

Los Angeles 2 5,402 (4.9%)

Chicago 3 3,399 (3.1%)

Philadelphia 4 2,874 (2.6%)

Boston (Manchester) 5 2,392 (2.2%)

San Francisco-Oak-San Jose 6 2,441 (2.2%)

Dallas-Ft. Worth 7 2,256 (2.0%)

Washington, DC (Hagrstwn) 8 2,224 (2.0%)

Atlanta 9 2,035 (1.8%)

Detroit 10 1,923 (1.7%)

Houston 11 1,849 (1.7%)

Seattle-Tacoma 12 1,685 (1.5%)

Tampa-St. Pete (Sarasota) 13 1,644 (1.5%)

Minneapolis-St. Paul 14 1,636 (1.5%)

Phoenix (Prescott), AZ 15 1,562 (1.4%)

Cleveland-Akron (Canton) 16 1,543 (1.4%)

Miami-Ft. Lauderdale 17 1,511 (1.3%)

Denver 18 1,399 (1.2%)

Sacramnto-Stktn-Modesto 19 1,278 (1.1%)

Orlando-Daytona Bch-Melbrn 20 1,264 (1.1%)

St. Louis 21 1,202 (1.1%)

Pittsburgh 22 1,175 (1.0%)

Baltimore 23 1,083 (0.9%)

Portland, OR 24 1,073 (0.9%)

Indianapolis 25 1,038 (0.9%)

San Diego 26 1,029 (0.9%)

Hartford & New Haven 27 1,001 (0.9%)

Charlotte 28 987 (0.9%)

Raleigh-Durham (Fayetvlle) 29 948 (0.8%)

Nashville 30 904 (0.8%)

Kansas City 31 875 (0.8%)

Milwaukee 32 871 (0.8%)

Cincinnati 33 872 (0.8%)

Columbus, OH 34 854 (0.7%)

Greenvll-Spart-Ashevll-And 35 807 (0.7%)

Salt Lake City 36 786 (0.7%)

San Antonio 37 736 (0.6%)

Grand Rapids-Kalmzoo-B.Crk 38 724 (0.6%)

West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce 39 709 (0.6%)

Birmingham (Ann and Tusc) 40 698 (0.6%)

Norfolk-Portsmth-Newpt Nws 41 694 (0.6%)

Harrisburg-Lncstr-Leb-York 42 637 (0.5%)

New Orleans 43 665 (0.6%)

Memphis 44 662 (0.6%)

Oklahoma City 45 647 (0.5%)

Buffalo 46 648 (0.5%)

Albuquerque-Santa Fe 47 634 (0.5%)

Greensboro-H.Point-W.Salem 48 645 (0.5%)

Providence-New Bedford 49 636 (0.5%)

Louisville 50 624 (0.5%)

Las Vegas 51 602 (0.5%)

Jacksonville, Brunswick 52 598 (0.5%)

This is a list of the largest media markets in the US. As you can tell, except for Oregon; North Carolina has the largest markets with the fewest pro teams...in fact, NC's three largest metros (which overlap now in the media realm anyway, have over 2,500,000 households...

The markets in italics are smaller than NC's largest markets and have more than one pro-team...

I can certainly see an NC pro baseball team (heck, Colorado and Arizona can support 3+ teams!).

Edited March 25, 2005 by AmericanUrbanDesigner

[eastsider]

I agree eastsider, thugs are in all sports. I just like baseball better. I am glad Charlotte has an NBA team. Just wish they could have an MLB team too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Agreed. Nothing better than sitting out on a summer evening and taking in a game. Unfortunatly, I don't see MLB within a decade at the earliest (probably two), but I would love for the Knights to get their funding issues resolved and move to southend.

[eastsider]

This is a list of the largest media markets in the US.  As you can tell, except for Oregon; North Carolina has the largest markets with the fewest pro teams...in fact, NC's three largest metros (which overlap now in the media realm anyway, have over 2,500,000 households...

The markets in italics are smaller than NC's largest markets and have more than one pro-team...

I can certainly see an NC pro baseball team (heck, Colorado and Arizona can support 3+ teams!).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The reason that those smaller markets got teams before Charlotte is they were larger than Charlotte when they got them. Charlotte is still a "young market" so it will still take time to get some things. Sacramento, San Antonio, and Orlando are all generally the same size as Charlotte and only have one pro team.

I think any of the three NC markets could make a claim for a baseball team, so I think it would be interesting to see if MLB ever said they were going to expand.

[AmericanUrbanDesigner]

That is true,but Milwaukee didn't have MLB until 1970? I agree though, that a "market" no matter how large needs to mature...which is why I wonder how Atlanta got the Braves in the mid-60's when the city was so small and the market as yet, unproven? Was it because the league foresaw the great growth of Atlanta (something which is certainly true of NC's cities now); or was it because a group of civic, sports-enthuasist, leaders pushed it? In any case, if MLB is still around in 10 years or so, I can't imagine that the MLB could ignore NC too much longer...

[SmellyCat]

I doubt it. Doesn't seem like there's much interest in baseball down here. Maybe it's the south in general....the Braves, Fla. marlins and TB Devil Rays have pretty bad attendance historically. The braves can't even sell out their playoff games.

The kingpin sports down here are really just basketball, football and nascar.

[RaleighHeelsfan]

We had better get a team before Mexico City or Puerto Rico....that all I have to say.

[AmericanUrbanDesigner]

I doubt it.  Doesn't seem like there's much interest in baseball down here.  Maybe it's the south in general....the Braves, Fla. marlins and TB Devil Rays have pretty bad attendance historically.  The braves can't even sell out their playoff games.

The kingpin sports down here are really just basketball, football and nascar.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've read this before. I would be cautious about comparing NC to FL however. Minus Florida the only other "Southern" team is Atlanta...

[Raintree21]

I really don't think that we will get a major league baseball team anytime soon. With the apathy shown towards the Hornets and somewhat a lack of interest towards the Bobcats as an example. I just don't think that the people here would support it, especially with the latest drug scandal and add the labor disputes and previous strikes to the mix. We don't have the loyalties towards teams here that other cities do. You can say that we've stuck with the Panthers, but that's not entirely true. There was definitely some lack of interest in general (not all fans, but a lot) when they weren't playing that well a few years ago and now that they're good again, the fair weather fans are back. I think our best bet is to try and get behind the Knights as best we can and move them somewhere closer to Charlotte, preferably in South End on the light rail line.

[afh]

Excluding football, Las Vegas would be the next city in line to get any type of major sports franchise. The pop growth, money and tourist just line everything up perfectly for Vegas. All you have to do is look at baseball in Miami and Tampa and that should tell you how well baseball plays in the South. When you average 13,000 fans a over 81 games for a stadium that holds 35,000, you have a problem. It's the same thing with hockey in the South. When the team is hot you will have packed arenas, but before Tampa Bay won the Stanley Cup, you could empty seats for days at the hockey games. Same thing in Miami.

The major league sports have learned to not force expansion as they did in the late and earlier 90s. Otherwise you get teams in metro areas that have the pop to support the team, but could care less about the team. There'll be very little if any expansion in the near future b/c most leagues are fine where they are at. Hell, 2 years ago baseball was wondering if it should get rid of some of the worst performing teams. If you're not a top ten tv market you don't want baseball in your backyard b/c there is no salary cap to make it a even playing field for all. The NFL is the only league that could afford to expand and still have it's popularity and revenue streams intact. Baseball revenuing sharing is non-existant and any further expansion would make it even worse on the "small market" teams. Hockey is a mess and they can't afford to expand either. Basketball is in a better shape to expand, but there aren't that many more markets for the NBA to look at, excluding KC.

Be glad you have two teams in Charlotte. Any more teams and you maybe breaking the bank. Plus with the way MLB and the NHL are now, you don't want a team from either one of those leagues.

[eastsider]

Couldn't have said it better, afh

[wellington]

For whatever reason, Charlotte and Atlanta do not seem to be sport-friendly cities. I was in Denver recently --> that city really gets behind all of its sports franchsies. Heck, even their indoor lacrosse team draws 16,000 per home game. I think the size of the market is important, but also having a passionate fanbase. In general, I think both Atlanta and Charlotte are fair weather sport cities as Raintree stated. Of course there are loyal fans in both cities, but support/interest wanes considerably during bad seasons. However, I think Charlotte is still in its infancy as a city and I think we will see a further transformation of Charlotte into a vibrant/dynamic city in the future and the Queen City may even become a real sports city like Denver, Detroit, Philly...

Edited March 26, 2005 by wellington

[dubone]

i agree with you somewhat about this area being fairweather for pro sports, but not for college sports. Acc sports are a religion around here, as well as the other local teams.

I think that can be traced back to the history/tradition of the teams. Many college teams around here have a longstanding history of operating at the highest level. Pro sports are very young in Charlotte, and even though the do draw decent numbers, they don't have the power of having watched the team from a very young age for most people. I agree that will change over time. Once the team spans a generation, and is able to pull far to the post season every once in a while, it will become a tradition.

I must say, though, that EVERYONE is an athlete in Denver. I swear there is something in the air up there.

[reverbandwhiskey]

Meh. The last thing I want is another professional sports team wasting uptown space for a crappy stadium that WE end up paying for. Hell, we can't even sell out a basketball game for a team in its first season.

[Neo]

Meh.  The last thing I want is another professional sports team wasting uptown space for a crappy stadium that WE end up paying for.    Hell, we can't even sell out a basketball game for a team in its first season.

I believe this is due to the "marketing" done by Bob Johnson. What has he done to promote the new team? Sometimes I even forget that we have an NBA team now because of his poor marketing. He only televises all the games on CSET which is a Time Warner Digital Cable ONLY channel. You have to pay $60 a month for cable just to watch a Bobcats game. The commercials for the Bobcats are among the stupidest commercials ever produced for any "product" IMO. I don't think it's so much the lack of involvement from locals but is moreso from the bad taste left from those marketing the franchise.

[SmellyCat]

Neo I agree with you about the poor marketing and lack of games on free TV. Very dumb PR move. I really hope that Charlotteans' apathetic attitude toward the team changes when they move uptown, as I'm sure that's the bet team management is making as well.

[skysdalimit]

Yeah the whole CSET thing was Johnson's worst move yet. The team doesn't even have exposure unless you have digital cable, and the average person doesn't. Plus, who would ever want to watch a JC Smith vs. Fayetteville State football game? I mean come on.