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Nashville Rays, Major League Baseball Team?

MidTenn1

By MidTenn1
in Nashville

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MidTenn1 Town

MidTenn1

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An article in today's City Paper repeats the points I have made regarding relocation of the struggling Tampa Bay Rays to Nashville.

An American League team in Nashville has a better chance of working as it would fill a huge American League 'hole' in the middle of America. It would actually draw fans from St Louis, Cincinnati and Atlanta who hunger to see the Red Sox and Yankees or any AL team. Baseball is a regional attraction, so the population of the City is important, but not like it is with the NBA or NHL. A stadium modeled after Pittsburgh's (35,000+ capacity) would fit in the Thermal site perfectly. The Pirates stadium is the best one I have been to. And with a different Mayor now, maybe it could happen.

SoBro could use an extra two and a half million visitors each summer, I'm sure. The argument about an empty stadium sitting there 284 days (365 - 81) would be countered by the growth of ancillary retail and attractions that would be open all year to further draw people and money to the area.

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Lexy Town

Lexy

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I agree with BNA, I have my doubts. But the Rays are the best in the league right now and they can't even manage to fill their stadium up so the waters have to be unsettled in some way down there. I realize their stadium is sub par by most MLB stadium standards of course. Tropicana Field is a nightmare of a baseball stadium. YUCK!

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miami1855 Whistle-Stop

miami1855

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South Florida has never supported baseball....even with the marlins winning several World Series titles. As far as market size, we are no smaller than Cincinnati, St. Louis and other midwest cities. However, they have extremely historic franchises and huge fan bases.

As much as I would love it, I too think that it is a stretch. I can see lots o9f empty seats in August and September when the Titans start playing. Unfortunately, more people would probably pay $100 a seat to go see the Titans play an exhibition game than would pay that for the whole family to see a baseball game.

And there are no rays in Tennessee! :P

Also, I think we would do much better with a franchise of MLS soccer considering our huge youth soccer base.

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timmay143 Burg

timmay143

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I would love to have an MLB team here!!!! I also would love to have an NBA team as well, but I don't think we could support 4 teams. Maybe 3, but probably not 4. I think the thermal site is perfect for a baseball stadium whether AAA or MLB. If it happens to be AAA just make sure it is easily upgradeable to MLB! However, I can live with the Predators and Titans for now if the mayor focuses on our schools and mass transit problems!

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Hankster Town

Hankster

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South Florida has never supported baseball....even with the marlins winning several World Series titles. As far as market size, we are no smaller than Cincinnati, St. Louis and other midwest cities. However, they have extremely historic franchises and huge fan bases.
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MidTenn1 Town

MidTenn1

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I'm looking at it not just as 'Major League Baseball', but as 'American League Baseball' specifically.

I wish I had all my software loaded on my new computer so I could draw a map, but if you draw a half-way point line between Nashville and the nearest American League cities, it covers an incredible amount of space. I would guess it includes 25 to 30 million people. It would include almost all the South, including Georgia and North Carolina and parts of Illinois and Indiana. For all the Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers and Orioles fans in that huge, populated territory, Nashville would be the closest AL City.

Though Nashville's size would limit the base attendance somewhat, this huge AL market area may more than make up for it. Baseball is a regional sport and Nashville would have the region. I wonder what other Cities would have a 25 million person regional base.

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AcklenLove Unincorporated Area

AcklenLove

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As much as I love having pro sports teams here, we are not in a position to be throwing even more money at them with our budget like it is. I'm a huge Preds fan, but the fiscally conservative side of me wanted to see Basille pay the massive exit fee to our coffers. That issue is water under the bridge now, of course, but I think we should be happy with minor league baseball until we put a few more notches in the doorframe :)

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Hankster Town

Hankster

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I'm looking at it not just as 'Major League Baseball', but as 'American League Baseball' specifically.

I wish I had all my software loaded on my new computer so I could draw a map, but if you draw a half-way point line between Nashville and the nearest American League cities, it covers an incredible amount of space. I would guess it includes 25 to 30 million people. It would include almost all the South, including Georgia and North Carolina and parts of Illinois and Indiana. For all the Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers and Orioles fans in that huge, populated territory, Nashville would be the closest AL City.

Though Nashville's size would limit the base attendance somewhat, this huge AL market area may more than make up for it. Baseball is a regional sport and Nashville would have the region. I wonder what other Cities would have a 25 million person regional base.

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MidTenn1 Town

MidTenn1

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I think your points are valid. I think Nashville would never be considered as a home for a National League team. We're literally surrounded by that league with St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Atlanta. But as an American League team, we would be an intriguing choice. There really is a huge void for American League baseball, and we're right in the center of it. The closest American League Teams to Nashville would be the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians to the North, the Baltimore Orioles to the East, the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers to the West, and if the Tampa Bay Devil Rays moved here, there would no teams to our South. It's really quite amazing. The population base we're talking about is way more than 25 million. You could count the entire populations of NC, GA, TN, KY, AL, & MS, and possibly even FL. Imagine that. That's from 36 to 55 Million(if you count FL). And that doesn't even count parts of IN and IL that you correctly point out would be in the area. The way Atlanta is growing though, the real push might be to move a second Major league team there. I believe Atlanta will be the size of Chicago within 25 to 30 years.
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highriser Unincorporated Area

highriser

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I honestly don't ever see Atlanta getting a 2nd team. They had a hard enough time pulling together to support the Braves back when they were winning 15 straight division titles. I remember playoff games that were not even sold out.

I'm also not sure Nashville alone could sustain the long-term support for an MLB team, maybe short term, but not for long term. We would need support from all around the state and even Alabama and Kentucky. With gas prices people will no longer drive as far as they used to, especially for 81 home games, but we could pull support from Southern Kentucky and Northern Alabama on the weekend. We might could pull support from Jackson, TN, but Memphis belongs to the St. Louis Cardinals. Memphis practically pulls for and follows St. Louis like it is their home team. Knoxville could give us a few fans, same with Chattanooga, but I still don't see the long term stability in a fan base that we need. I also believe that Nashville has burned some bridges around the state through the years to get to where it is now as well, atleast that's the feedback I get when traveling from east to west. It would be great, but I just don't see it anytime in the near future...Maybe an addittion of 1 million people from now would help, but even that is a stretch as Atlanta is still sucking so many new residents down there...

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