Charlotte???

does anyone think that we will ever get a mlb team?? it would be nice to be able to watch the panthers, bobcats, and a baseball franchise. dont even mention the knights-that is totally different from a mlb team.

 

I would love an AL MLB team here...just so I could see the White Sox in town, but where do you put a ballpark? That is the biggest issue....where do you throw a stadium that will meet MLB specs and needs?

 

With the way baseball is struggling now I kinda doubt we ever get a "new" team. The Bobcats having early success could dictate the baseball decision in a lot of ways. It’s going to take a successful Bobcats team to bring fan attention back. The sooner they can get that and make it a "popular" sport again, and assuming the Panthers remain competitive for a good few years. It will help establish Charlotte as a "sports town". Once Charlotte is tagged as that the chances for baseball coming increase exponentially. But I doubt we ever see a new team here, possibly a team that meets financial difficulty and is forced to move. I also wouldn't be surprised that if 10 years down the road if the Hurricanes still aren't winning and it causes Raleigh to quit backing them, that they don't consider a move to Charlotte.

 

just a thought solarte, but what about the west side off of Freedom Drive or Wilkinson Blvd? I know these are not desirable areas, but there is room for a ballpark there, decent road structure already in place, and they are convenient to the interstates and downtown. Could be what the city needs to reviatalize those areas.

of course, that would only come into play if MLB wanted to bring the big leagues to town. i think the city would have a tough time supporting three major league sports. They would need to attract at least 25k a night to come close to being competitive in today's baseball economics.

 

The Hurricanes will contract before they move to Charlotte. bobcats sucess wont play that big into it really. LA cant keep an NFL team but have you ever tried getting tickets to a Lakers game? The MLB has approached Charlotte several times. We were approached about the Expos...and the the Brewers...we said no. we dont have the metro pop to support 3 major teams.

 

True about the economics of the thing. I don't know what MLB requires in its ballparks, but if the capacity needs to be at XX,XXX seats, Charlotte may have a hard time selling a percentage of those seats...remember, it woul dbe hard for minor league teams to stick around if that were to happen, so the minor league fans theoretically would become Charlotte MLB fans...I'd love to see it, just dont know that it will.

 

No.

 

i dunno if there is a specific number of seats that MLB requires. but i am guessing that they will need to average 25k a night to be successful. of course, it is not all about that. Pittsburgh and Milwaukee said they needed state of the art buildings to be competitive and we see how that goes. you need a nice TV deal (maybe the new sports net could come into play...hhmmm) and of course radio dollars are huge.

good point about the local minor league teams though...never really thought about that. I don't think they would all go away, but many of them would certainly suffer if MLB were to bring a team to CLT. but that is the cost of growing though. i tell you this, if a team were to move to charlotte i would find a way to relocate back there.

 

sadly, i don't think we'll ever see it. if we did get one, we'd be the first in line for tickets.

i don't see it hurting the minor league teams really. first, it brings more attention to baseball, which would have people wanting to watch baseball of any kind. secondly, i'm speaking as a die-hard baseball fan here, while i prefer MLB's "product on the field" over the minors, give me a nice little minor league stadium anyday. the atmosphere is so different. factor in ticket prices and everything that goes with watching a game, and i'll take the minors over the majors.

 

While tghe cost is a plus, fans of the game who want to see the Bonds, Sosas, etc...would pay more for that and the minor league teams would suffer at the gate....minor league hockey in Raleigh died the day the Hurricanes relocated from Hartford....they played 1 season after the Canes moved, and then the Icecaps became the Augusta Lynx...it would happen....probably the Knights affected more than the intimidators, but still, there would be a hit for sure.