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Charlotte MLB Team Speculation

ncguy06

By ncguy06
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elrodvt Burg

elrodvt

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^ Yeah Kermit, I've argued about attendance vs. gate in the past and the Knights attendance very often have nice high # and an empty stadium. I'm sure someone who never goes will question that.

 I cut my family seasons back to the occasional outing with my Mom. I'm a fanatical BB fan but given the poor quality of AAA ball, especially in the W.S. org, I  would rather watch my Rockies on the MLB stream. Plus the value isn't there when you look at concession prices and the rules against bringing anything in.

 

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Durhamite
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Raleigh is the state capital that has consistently driven funding for infrastructure and investments in higher education away from Charlotte. There is a reason Charlotte is the largest metro without a

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asthasr Whistle-Stop

asthasr

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52 minutes ago, elrodvt said:

the poor quality of AAA ball

It's inevitable, when the lower level teams are treated as simple feeders for the major league team. What baseball needs is promotion/relegation. It'd actually help all of our major leagues (except the NFL) in terms of quality and probably fan involvement -- but you'll never see it because we'd rather have legally protected monopolies.

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dylansukkert Whistle-Stop

dylansukkert

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I would say the gate attendance is a lot closer to the actual ticket count for Knights games than more people think. Most people do not go to Knights games to watch the full game like a MLB game. People come in and leave at totally different times. More people hanging out on the concourse rather than the seats. Sure not ever ticket sold is being used but people just are not in there seats 100% of the time. Don't forget about all the standing room only tickets too. 

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InSouthPark Burg

InSouthPark

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I went Saturday night and it was an announced sell out as well.  But people have to remember, a lot of seats between 1st and 3rd base are season tickets.  Whether people go or not doesn't affect "paid attendance" which for the most part, is what the Knights care about.   Just like the Panthers, the attendance numbers announced are "paid attendance", not butts in seats.

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DMann Burg

DMann

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I am a season ticket holder in the Home Plate Club and can tell you that when not at games, I sell my tickets quickly on Ticket Return.  There are 2 types of people that go to these games, true baseball fans that enjoy watching these young kids trying to build a future for themselves, and people who go to socialize and have fun in the concourse.  

The success of the team is built on the tickets sold not necessarily on the butts in the seats.  

The salaries of the baseball team are paid by the Chicago White Sox.  The vendors pay their own employees and pay rent to Don Beaver for their site.  Don owns the building and makes money off the ticket sales and concession sales.

Don is very happy to be in the position he is in.

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InSouthPark Burg

InSouthPark

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1 hour ago, DMann said:

I am a season ticket holder in the Home Plate Club and can tell you that when not at games, I sell my tickets quickly on Ticket Return.  There are 2 types of people that go to these games, true baseball fans that enjoy watching these young kids trying to build a future for themselves, and people who go to socialize and have fun in the concourse.  

The success of the team is built on the tickets sold not necessarily on the butts in the seats.  

The salaries of the baseball team are paid by the Chicago White Sox.  The vendors pay their own employees and pay rent to Don Beaver for their site.  Don owns the building and makes money off the ticket sales and concession sales.

Don is very happy to be in the position he is in.

There was a article in Forbes a few years ago and the Knights were the second most valuable minor league franchise and made a profit of $5 million in 2016.  That is a pretty damn good bottom line profit. 

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CLTProductions City

CLTProductions

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45 minutes ago, tarhoosier said:

What makes Milwaukee or CIncinnati or Baltimore cities that have prosperous baseball teams but Charlotte would not? Sheer population is not the answer.

Well Baltimore is at the bottom for attendance and cincy is middle of the road. But the difference is long standing loyal fan bases 

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JHart Whistle-Stop

JHart

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5 hours ago, tarhoosier said:

What makes Milwaukee or CIncinnati or Baltimore cities that have prosperous baseball teams but Charlotte would not? Sheer population is not the answer.

It looks like you've seen a game in Milwaukee which is an experience, people in Wisconsin were born to tailgate. There is not a group of people in the world who are better at standing out in the select few summer months of sunlight drinking beer, and the baseball is an extra cherry on top. Honestly like @Jayvee said, it's because it has been there for 50 years. Once you've been established for that long, Wisconsinites would burn down the capital rather than have a sports franchise leave

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kermit Metropolitan Area

kermit

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IMO Charlotte is a very attractive  market for MLB in terms of both population and total dollars in the market. But having said that, baseball is much more dependent on history than other major league sports (as mentioned in the posts above). The majority of MLB fans I have spoken with love baseball because their moms or dads did (sometimes it was grandparents too). The American version of the movie Fever Pitch does a pretty good job of illustrating this. This history is really what keeps people coming to games regularly, even in August when the playoffs are out of reach. When MLB towns don't have this you see shockingly bad attendance in years where the team is playing badly (see Miami for the most vivid example)

Charlotte is a city of transplants, a bad team on the field will lead to will lead to some embarrassing attendance numbers after the novelty of MLB is gone. Despite those embarrassing nights there is plenty of corporate money here paying for suites and unused tickets so the team will still make money despite the lack of butts in seats.  On the plus side for non-owners in bad years secondary-market tickets would be even cheaper than they are for Knights games and an in town ballpark would be the best possible thing for our urban development.

As an aside, I have been to two MLB and ten minor league games this season (about half in Charlotte).  All season I have had the feeling that baseball is struggling to attract young fans (meaning under 30) even more than most sports. There are fans in seats (for 5 innings), but very few give a crap about what is happening on the field.

TLDR: Lets get MLB (but I wouldn't want to be the owner)

 

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Tyrone Wiggum Whistle-Stop

Tyrone Wiggum

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On 7/27/2019 at 4:13 PM, kermit said:

All season I have had the feeling that baseball is struggling to attract young fans (meaning under 30) even more than most sports. There are fans in seats (for 5 innings), but very few give a crap about what is happening on the field.

Have you ever been to Wrigley?  Baseball is mostly an excuse to day drink in the sunshine on the North Side.

I feel like a wet blanket today, but Charlotte cannot support Major League Baseball right now, and MLB would be foolish to expand ever again; there are already four cities that can't or won't support baseball, and the problem is that the alternatives are even smaller cities or retreads.  I laugh my ass off when I see Nashville mentioned as a possible location; good luck expanding to what would be in the bottom 10% of market size within MLB in a city that already has two other pro sports franchises (I mean, dumber things have happened: see the two most recent "pro" football failures, and the ultimate collapse of MLS).

Portland could do a relo because there's only one other team.  Austin makes a ton of sense as a pure relo. RDU actually would be really smart simply as a relo.  But, Charlotte is still two decades away (I know I know) from having a population base that can support three franchises in the way baseball needs.  

ALTERNATIVELY

Can we disband the Hornets?  That would virtually guarantee a relo of the A's, Rays, Marlins, or White Sox within five years.  Also, until MJ sells the team or quits meddling (not fudgeing likely) the Hornets will be a laughingstock; the GOAT is possibly the worst owner in Professional Sports.

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