Nashville as MLB Expansion/Relocation Market

[nashvylle]

4 hours ago, Bos2Nash said:

I will say this though..... if the Rays somehow relocated here that would mean LOTS of Red Sox and Yankee visits, always makes for good baseball

Would be tough to make it out of the division. 

[Mr_Bond]

On 2/3/2019 at 11:07 PM, titanhog said:

I wouldn't be opposed to a name change.  The Nashville Titans would work just fine for me.

As long as they remain the Titans.  As an ORU alum, I'm still a little salty about their name change from Titans to Golden Eagles.  Titans is a great name for a sports team.

[PruneTracy]

39 minutes ago, Mr_Bond said:

As long as they remain the Titans.  As an ORU alum, I'm still a little salty about their name change from Titans to Golden Eagles.  Titans is a great name for a sports team.

I was always partial to the Tornadoes during the name contest. Copperheads as well, that lent itself to a good color scheme. Just think, we could have had the Tennessee Tornadoes in the NFL and the Nashville Fury in the NHL.

[jmtunafish]

Fans show out as Sounds beat Texas Rangers in exhibition game

The record crowd for Sunday's Sounds exhibition game against the Texas Rangers at First Tennessee Park was indicative of a city that hasn't hosted a major league baseball team in 20 years.

A buzz hummed among the 11,824 fans who braved a pre-game rain delay. Fans were waiting to get inside the park for more than two hours before first pitch.

"It's a great city, and I've said this before ... if you put this city in the big leagues, it would be in the top five among players," said Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward, who spent part of the 2008 season with the Sounds when he was with the Milwaukee Brewers organization. "It is a big league city."

Nashville was fourth among 160 minor league baseball teams in attendance in 2018 with 603,135. Texas' former Class AAA affiliate, Round Rock, was just ahead of the Sounds with 616,636. The Sounds averaged 8,741 per home game in the 10,000-capacity (8,500 fixed seating) First Tennessee Park.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/2019/03/24/major-league-baseball-record-crowd-watches-sounds-vs-texas-rangers/3234740002/

[Sean blackdog]

PLAY BALL? 

Check out this article from Tennessean:

Nashville group meeting with Major League Baseball next week about expansion possibilities

https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/2019/05/07/nashville-major-league-baseball-rob-manfred/1128690001/

Edited May 7, 2019 by Sean blackdog

[PaulChinetti]

Heard 102.5 talking about this on the radio today. They were just bs-ing on what they thought the Commissioners biggest question would be to the group and they all agreed it would be, "Where would this team play and how would you pay for the stadium?"

Briley is on the record saying he would welcome MLB but there would be no public money for a stadium.

[NashvilleObserver]

1 hour ago, PaulChinetti said:

Briley is on the record saying he would welcome MLB but there would be no public money for a stadium.

So it sounds like this plan is already dead in the water? Who is going to pay 100% out-of-pocket for property, stadium construction, franchise expansion costs, etc. for a dying sport that is losing fans year-over-year?

These "NASCAR in Nashville" and "MLB in Nashville" enthusiasts are focusing way too much on an absolute pipe dream.

[nashvylle]

10 minutes ago, NashvilleObserver said:

So it sounds like this plan is already dead in the water? Who is going to pay 100% out-of-pocket for property, stadium construction, franchise expansion costs, etc. for a dying sport that is losing fans year-over-year?

These "NASCAR in Nashville" and "MLB in Nashville" enthusiasts are focusing way too much on an absolute pipe dream.

I do not think NASCAR is as much of a pipe dream as MLB. 

[PaulChinetti]

3 hours ago, NashvilleObserver said:

So it sounds like this plan is already dead in the water? Who is going to pay 100% out-of-pocket for property, stadium construction, franchise expansion costs, etc. for a dying sport that is losing fans year-over-year?

 

To me that means no bonds, like for MLS but that doesn’t say anything about tax breaks or other incentives, like what amazon and other businesses got. 

But regardless of all that. Land is the biggest bugaboo, if it’s not downtown or inside the 440 loop. I think it’s a failure. 

But short of PSC Metals (my and many people’s always present dream to get that redeveloped)  maybe River North? Somewhere else on the east bank north of the stadium? Somewhere down by the river off of Hermitage Ave? 

Just my immediate thoughts. 

[tragenvol]

19 hours ago, NashvilleObserver said:

So it sounds like this plan is already dead in the water? Who is going to pay 100% out-of-pocket for property, stadium construction, franchise expansion costs, etc. for a dying sport that is losing fans year-over-year?

These "NASCAR in Nashville" and "MLB in Nashville" enthusiasts are focusing way too much on an absolute pipe dream.

The group understands that public money will not be available, but likely a pipe dram regardless, but so was MLS.  

According to Loar, there is land near Nissan Stadium that is already owned by the Metropolitan Sports Authority and is large enough to carve out space for more than just a stadium.

He says the plot is large enough to build a "destination" entertainment complex that could houses both professional football, baseball and other events -- an idea so enticing, Loar believes, it would lure investors without needing public money to fund the project. 

https://www.wsmv.com/news/local-businessman-pushes-mlb-expansion-in-nashville/article_f46d8802-280f-11e9-963e-df6d48925cd1.html

Edited May 8, 2019 by tragenvol

[titanhog]

^^Well...I wish they would have included MLS in that (if true).

[PaulChinetti]

1 hour ago, tragenvol said:

According to Loar, there is land near Nissan Stadium that is already owned by the Metropolitan Sports Authority and is large enough to carve out space for more than just a stadium.

He says the plot is large enough to build a "destination" entertainment complex that could houses both professional football, baseball and other events.

The parcel the stadium is on is 29 acres. AT&T park where the giants play is located on 12.5 acres. It's a park that is super similar to what I would think they would want to build, so they could show off the Nashville skyline in one of the outfields in all their tv coverage. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Park

So the 2 parcels with woodland street in the middle total about 12 acres, so that would be feasible, IF there wasn't a bridge there. I don't think they would want it behind the stadium, but you could probably position it in the lot behind the stadium so that the open outfield was looking towards all the stuff being built on 2nd Ave. 

We tailgate in that lot for Titan's games and it's never full. 

[tragenvol]

51 minutes ago, PaulChinetti said:

The parcel the stadium is on is 29 acres. AT&T park where the giants play is located on 12.5 acres. It's a park that is super similar to what I would think they would want to build, so they could show off the Nashville skyline in one of the outfields in all their tv coverage. 

 

Would that face west southwest?  Or it could be oriented west northwest?  Generally ballparks face east and preferably east north east.  Could be like GAB in Cincy....skyline sits behind home plate.

 

[PaulChinetti]

I am VERY busy today folks.

The scales are close unless google maps has different default views for different areas.

East north east makes the most sense from a baseball sense and looks better with the stadiums lining up. I guess the other way doesn't make as much sense with the way Oracle park is laid out. Then Dodgers and Fenway stadiums for the hell of it. I like the idea of the cut out wall, you don't have to build the stadium as large, it gives views of the city and not having to build an entire outfield saves money. Not to mention, it doesn't look bad when it's not at capacity.

And the last one why the hell not, get rid of Woodlawn street on the east bank, make the current bridge another pedestrian bridge, have another river front stadium with ridiculous views of the city and save the giant parking lot in the back for redevelopment.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[nashvylle]

thanks @PaulChinetti

I don't think home plate could face 2nd ave as the sunset would be in the batter's eyes. 

[bnacincy]

A good location for a ballpark I think would be between the railroad tracks and Spring Street/Jefferson Street bridge.

Also, if homeplate is facing 2nd Ave. South that would be facing southeast-up here in Cincinnati the homeplate at Great American Ballpark faces Southeast.

[Ingram]

I knew they were going to do some private investmement stadium/entertainment/retail/dining development on the east bank. I figured it would be a new NFL stadium instead of a Major League Baseball stadium.

They're probably going to build something similar to the L.A. NFL stadium complex.

 

 

Edited May 9, 2019 by Ingram

[Ingram]

This is probably why they wanted the MLS stadium at the fairgrounds instead of the east bank. It was probably their intention all along to get a Major League Baseball team in Nashville and have them play downtown. MLS is only one game a week. Major League Baseball is six to seven games a week which can more substantially justify a billion+ dollar investment by developers.

So now there will probably be two separate mixed-use stadium complexes. One at the fairgrounds and a larger one on the east bank.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Ingram

[smeagolsfree]

At some point they will build a new football stadium on the east bank and it will probably go where any proposed MLB stadium would go according to the diagram above, most likely on the huge area east of the current stadium. So any idea of putting a MLB stadium there will be nixed in a NY minute, IMO.

When they build the new stadium which I think they will at some point, they will have to keep they old stadium in play until construction is finished on the new stadium. I also think that when and of course if it is built, then it will follow the models of most all of the newer stadiums and incorporate a huge mixed use project around the new facility.

[Bark At The Sun]

I went to Milwaukee for a few baseball games last year and a couple at Atlanta.   Brewers have an awesome venue, but it is not really near anything.   Atlanta's new stadium  has basically the Gulch built around it.   If Nashville were to get a relocated team, they would have to build something similar to Atlanta (Marietta) to make it work.   But, I don't believe MLB needs expansion at all and I dont think that Nashville would support it long term.  

[PaulChinetti]

Yeah I don't see it as being an expansion team. I would think it would be like Oakland or Montreal moving to a new city.

I haven't been to the new Atlanta stadium but I'm looking forward to it at some point, everyone that goes has nothing but good things to say about it.

[Ingram]

If they can't fill the seats they're going to have a hard time justifying a new stadium for eight regular season games a year. The stadium seats have looked anywhere from 20% to 40% vacant for the past four years.

The NFL can't justify fleecing taxpayers for a team that can't fill the seats.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Ingram

[Ingram]

If MLB will relocate a team here they'll put an expansion team here. It doesn't make any difference to MLB unless there's a difference in the fee.

[Bark At The Sun]

17 minutes ago, PaulChinetti said:

Yeah I don't see it as being an expansion team. I would think it would be like Oakland or Montreal moving to a new city.

I haven't been to the new Atlanta stadium but I'm looking forward to it at some point, everyone that goes has nothing but good things to say about it.

I actually liked Turner Field better, but the surroundings of Sun Trust make it  awesome.  We stayed at a Double Tree the next exit down and just Ubered to Battery Park.  Im going up to Cincinatti at the end of the month to watch a couple of Nats games.  

[bnacincy]

27 minutes ago, Ingram said:

If they can't fill the seats they're going to have a hard time justifying a new stadium for eight regular season games a year. The stadium seats have looked anywhere from 20% to 40% vacant for the past four years.

The NFL can't justify fleecing taxpayers for a team that can't fill the seats.

Renovating Nissan Stadium would be an uphill battle, much less building a totally new facility.

Plus ya can't beat the current locations'.......location!