Charlotte Knights AAA Ballpark in Third Ward

[Guest]

I get it by going to games. We've been through this before.

Pretty sure half the 9000 people spend a fairly reasonable price to be able to walk around and drink with their friends. Can’t do that many other places in Charlotte lol.


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[CarolinaDaydreamin]

MLB would attract many more regional fans and even opposing fans. Charlotte could easily average 20-25k per night, middle of the road for MLB. Miami averages 10k reported, but i think it is even lower than that. 

I don't think its likely unless Tepper wants a baseball team too, which I think is certainly possible.

[Guest]

MLB would attract many more regional fans and even opposing fans. Charlotte could easily average 20-25k per night, middle of the road for MLB. Miami averages 10k reported, but i think it is even lower than that. 
I don't think its likely unless Tepper wants a baseball team too, which I think is certainly possible.

He’s too good a business man to sink money into something he won’t make a profit on.


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[CarolinaDaydreamin]

3 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

He’s too good a business man to sink money into something he won’t make a profit on.


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Eh he's a sports nerd too and If he thinks he can create a year round bar restuarant district with a baseball and football stadium near each other, he may feel he can control the market. Similar to the Battery surrounding the Braves new stadium. 

[GeauxCLT]

[j-man]

What if the actual field was to be flipped/reversed on the opposite side of where it is. Like a mirrored image, and all of the empty land left on the parcel be used to make the larger part of the stands behind home plate. Don' t know if anyone mentioned that but I feel it would be the best way to convert the stadium to MLB status. I bet they could add like 20,000 seats on that grass area and go up three sections. That would be quicker and less work. Make more VIP seating, possibly convert the ticket booth areas to retail and build new ones under the new section. Just a thought.  

[kermit]

^ Batter would stare into sun...

[SouthEndCLT811]

https://tht.fangraphs.com/lost-in-the-sun-the-physics-of-ballpark-orientation/

 

Quote

The orientation of the field — like everything else about Major League Baseball — is proscribed by the rule book. Sure enough, Rule 1.04 states in part, It is desirable that the line from home base through the pitchers plate to second base shall run East-Northeast.

Not saying they don't make exceptions but the suggestion would be the first of it's kind it would seem

Edited February 5, 2019 by SouthEndCLT811

[j-man]

1 minute ago, kermit said:

^ Batter would stare into sun...

lmao. oops. So do they actually take that into consideration when building them? 

[CLT2014]

8 minutes ago, j-man said:

lmao. oops. So do they actually take that into consideration when building them? 

The post right before yours shows it is taken into consideration and the Rule Book says fields should be oriented to the northeast ideally. The subsequent image of MLB field angles shows none of the fields in MLB face the direction BB&T would face if flipped. 

Edited February 5, 2019 by CLT2014

[Urban Cowboy]

I would love an MLB team. As previously stated by many - we're in no man's land between Atlanta and DC - and North Carolina really needs its own team. The current ballpark site would be my preference. The only way I see it happening is permanently closing Mint Street between 4th and 3rd. And then building out into the street and  the parcels occupied by Park Signs and the surface lots. Green's lunch could probably be saved.  A pedestrian walkway around the stadium could maintain walkability in that block (or just use Poplar). Traffic flow could be pushed down to Graham - which feels better suited to handle more traffic than Mint anyway. Just a thought.

 

Edited February 5, 2019 by Urban Cowboy

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

I remember back in the day when Jerry Reese fought the Knights and the city in building this 3rd ward ball park.  Looking back at it now he had some very valid points...5 years later we are discussing the same things he was fighting for back then.  Don't get me wrong, the Knights have been tremendously successful since their move, I just wish it was designed purposely with the ability to expand one day.  I think the location is perfect and hope with the decreasing capacity designs going on in MLB, that BBT can someday figure how to expand this ballpark.  I think the 25k-30k range would be ideal and make for a nice intimate MLB experience.  I don't think adding the 15k+ seats (somewhere in the outfield) would be the major obstacle, however, with the inability to add anything along 1st/home/3rd (suites or upper deck), makes it very hard to be a viable option.

Edited February 5, 2019 by CharlotteWkndBuzz

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

8 minutes ago, CharlotteWkndBuzz said:

I remember back in the day when Jerry Reese fought the Knights and the city in building this 3rd ward ball park.  Looking back at it now he had some very valid points...5 years later we are discussing the same things he was fighting for back then.  Don't get me wrong, the Knights have been tremendously successful since their move, I just wish it was designed purposely with the ability to expand one day.  I think the location is perfect and hope with the decreasing capacity designs going on in MLB, that BBT can someday figure how to expand this ballpark.  I think the 25k-30k would be ideal and make for a nice intimate MLB experience.  I don't think adding the 15k seats would be the major obstacle, but how we add the abundance of suites along home/1st/3rd for MLB standards.

I agreed with him at the time, but I disagree now. I think the success of this park is essential to selling Charlotte as a future home of MLB. We are still years away from candidacy and then additional 3-5 years of stadium construction. Maybe MLB lowers its stadium attendance standards, as it seems like they are doing in Tampa,  or someone comes up with a Portland Timbers style stadium renovation for baseball: https://www.nbcsports.com/northwest/video/providence-park-adding-4000-seats-new-50-million-expansion-project

I wish we were discussing this for Memorial Stadium for MLS, but I think that will be done separately by Tepper.

I'm not sure baseball will happen as soon if Charlotte gets an MLS team, but if Denver can have both NFL, NBA, MLS, MLB AND a Hockey team, maybe we aren't that far behind in adding MLB and MLS.

[Rufus]

36 minutes ago, CarolinaDaydreamin said:

I'm not sure baseball will happen as soon if Charlotte gets an MLS team, but if Denver can have both NFL, NBA, MLS, MLB AND a Hockey team, maybe we aren't that far behind in adding MLB and MLS.

Ehh...Denver gets that many bc it's a 3 million+ metro area for a good distance before another one even remotely comes close. It benefits from its geography more than its population. Similar can be said about Minneapolis since it is pretty removed from the rest of the Great Lakes Region. Salt Lake City to a smaller extent. 

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

1 hour ago, Rufus said:

Ehh...Denver gets that many bc it's a 3 million+ metro area for a good distance before another one even remotely comes close. It benefits from its geography more than its population. Similar can be said about Minneapolis since it is pretty removed from the rest of the Great Lakes Region. Salt Lake City to a smaller extent.  

Same argument could be made about Charlotte compared to DC and ATL. The areas of Colorado(5.0m) and Minnesota(5.5m) outside those metros are almost void of people. NC &SC have a combined 15.3 million! That may be irrelevant in terms of nightly attendance, its huge when it comes to added local TV households and adding CLT, PTI, RDU and GSP, CAE tv markets.

[videtur quam contuor]

Jerry Reese was wrong about the major league factor at that time however the delay that his lawsuits caused pushed construction into the Great Recession and aftermath and made construction costs and financing less than it would have been in 2007 or so. It required the team to forego income by staying in SC so the result might have been close to a wash.

[Boricua]

5 hours ago, CarolinaDaydreamin said:

Same argument could be made about Charlotte compared to DC and ATL. The areas of Colorado(5.0m) and Minnesota(5.5m) outside those metros are almost void of people. NC &SC have a combined 15.3 million! That may be irrelevant in terms of nightly attendance, its huge when it comes to added local TV households and adding CLT, PTI, RDU and GSP, CAE tv markets.

Never understood the arguments against MLB in CLT.  If not now then when. CLT is the perfect market for an American League team. 

[TheOneRJ]

I don’t see Charlotte getting both a MLB and a MLS team. Whichever we do get, Raleigh will get the other. 

[dubone]

16 hours ago, Boricua said:

Never understood the arguments against MLB in CLT.  If not now then when. CLT is the perfect market for an American League team. 

It has been studied quite a bit, and so far has not been feasible.  

But here are a few points as I understand

- MLB does not have anything to equalize for smaller, less wealthy teams, so markets too small to support the teams end up with worse teams most of the time.

- Pro sports may not always be in the same season, but there is still only so much in the way of budgets that fans and sponsors have.  The chart by population and number of pro teams helps to show a point where we may be able to support a 3rd, which is being pursued now with MLS.  

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

 

 

I know sports spectating is a popular pastime for many people, but I do not understand why it is a consistent topic for the city needing constant upgrades to the sports options there now.  MLS makes some sense in that it is growing, has compatibility with football stadiums in theory, and the potential to grow its fanbase to match some of that seen around the world.   But really, it is exhausting just thinking of all the work and expense trying to start up a MLB team to a level where a massive stadium can be filled... all subsidized by some multibillion dollar ballpark.   Let's catch up on the non-sports investments first, and grow and support our current teams. 

[Nick2]

I think Charlotte (and the Carolinas as a whole) could absolutely support MLB and MLS. However, with MLS looking to be full steam ahead, I'm betting MLB would take a step back from coming to fruition.

[Spero]

18 hours ago, TheOneRJ said:

I don’t see Charlotte getting both a MLB and a MLS team. Whichever we do get, Raleigh will get the other. 

For what it’s worth if that’s the alternative I think the better outcome is MLB to charlotte and MLS to Raleigh.

there is a lot of existing baseball competition in the triangle (3 1st flight NCAA teams and the bulls) and charlotte is centralized as a region in a way that Raleigh is not that would support the high volume, variable times of MLB games. I feel like the triangle has a higher international population but that isn’t based on any statistic and may be wrong.

[ssh214]

IMO the following should happen... Panthers get a dome, MLS team expansion in the new dome, Hornets stay put at Spectrum Center, the Charlotte Hurricanes (move from Raleigh) begin play at Spectrum Center, BB&T gets expanded to support the Charlotte Athletics (move from Oakland), and NASCAR has a resurgence with all corporate operations consolidating in Charlotte... #goals 

Edited February 7, 2019 by saamh

[King of the Queen City]

The triangle is so saturated with college sports that the best bet for pro teams is  always going to be Charlotte. We are an established pro sports city with no power 5 conference schools around to compete. According to ESPN, the Hurricanes rank 28th out of 31 for attendance this season in the NHL (AVG 13,917). The Hornets rank 23rd out of 30 in the NBA (AVG 15,993), but if they can start winning consistently that number should go up. The Hornets used to have the best attendance in the NBA back in the early days of the Charlotte Coliseum. The Panthers ranked 7th out of 32 in the NFL for 2018 (AVG 73,772) and have sold out every game since 2002 (even if every seat is not always filled).  The fact that the Knights have the best attendance of any team in MiLB shows that we could support a team in the near future. Having been to a number of Braves games, MLB prices (at least in the upper deck) aren’t much more than what Knights tickets sell for.  As with the NBA Finals if the Hornets ever get there, having an MLB team would give us the chance to host half of the World Series if our team makes a championship run.

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

38 minutes ago, King of the Queen City said:

We are an established pro sports city with no power 5 conference schools around to compete. 

Hear me out.  I think someday that will change.  UNCC is the fastest growing university in the system, in one of the fastest growing cities in the country.  If Charlotte can up there profile nationally in academics (including a possible med school) and get the athletics on the right track...I think a P5 would kill to be in this city/market.  I know the SEC really wants a school in this region and may not be able to pluck one of the ACC schools here due to $$$ and such.  SEC network is also in Charlotte.  It's far-fetched, but not outlandish. 

[j-man]

So what is the biggest factor from Charlotte not having an MLB team? Population, location, or interest?

Edited February 7, 2019 by j-man