Salt Lake City ownership group pursuing MLB expansion team

[floplag]

Id love to see this but i think they are fighting an uphill battle due to metro size.

IMO, id like to see this...
As to Vegas
Rays to Nashville/Charlotte

I think MLB wants to go international more so i think Mex City and maybe a return to Montreal (although i would prefer western Canada personally) would come before any smaller US markets like SLC or some have said Portland. 

[mmc]

20 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

SLC and surrounding area is 1.2m and the growth rate is not “rapid.”

 

SLC metro is 1.2, but the combined statistical area including Provo and Ogden which are less than an hour from SLC, which they'd be drawing from the entirety of, is 2.5 million.  As a media market, it already ranks ahead of multiple MLB cities (SD, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Cincinnati)

[Taylor]

35 minutes ago, Blarg said:

I love this episode. 

[mmc]

3 minutes ago, floplag said:

Id love to see this but i think they are fighting an uphill battle due to metro size.

IMO, id like to see this...
As to Vegas
Rays to Nashville/Charlotte

I think MLB wants to go international more so i think Mex City and maybe a return to Montreal (although i would prefer western Canada personally) would come before any smaller US markets like SLC or some have said Portland. 

Any ownership group that can get a stadium deal done immediately has the upper hand, whether that be in Portland, SLC, Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville, Montreal, etc.  Nashville and SLC seem to be putting together the strongest groups thus far.  Montreal is unlikely to get any government support.

[Barf]

Fuck it MLB.

Put a team in Amsterdam.

Hash brownies for everyone!

[Dtwncbad]

27 minutes ago, Taylor said:

It was a joke. 

Nobody can tell when you are joking dude.  That’s on you.

[Lou]

5 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

Yeah my daughter is a cop in Tampa, FL so I've been to quite a few Rays games, a handful of Rays vs. Angels games as well. 

I just love how they run things there and their talent evaluators both amateur and pro are VERY GOOD. 

I've watched their last few games (currently have their game on vs Boston).

They are a fun team to watch. They just never quit. 

As I say that, they just took the lead.

[Dtwncbad]

28 minutes ago, mmc said:

SLC metro is 1.2, but the combined statistical area including Provo and Ogden which are less than an hour from SLC, which they'd be drawing from the entirety of, is 2.5 million.  As a media market, it already ranks ahead of multiple MLB cities (SD, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Cincinnati)

That’s fine.  But I just don’t see SLC being the BEST spot for an expansion team.  Maybe some day.

I mean, if you cut Denver in half both halves would be bigger than SLC.  Do you think Denver is a two team city?

I have nothing against SLC.  It just seems like the furthest thing from a sports town as you can get.  Maybe that’s because nothing is there yet, but it sure seems like a better bet to choose somewhere else.

But that’s just my opinion.   If you disagree, that’s fine.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

16 hours ago, mmc said:

SLC’s edge here is they are bidding for the 2030 or 2034 Winter Olympics, if they can turn what will be their opening/closing ceremony venue into a MLB caliber ballpark that will help with the funding. 

Atlanta tried that, and the ballpark never really worked.

[T.G.]

3 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

I have nothing against SLC.  It just seems like the furthest thing from a sports town as you can get.

They seem to support the Jazz pretty well.  I know it's apples and oranges, but I'm not going to assume it is not a sports town. 

That being said, I don't know what the attendance is for the D1 programs there.

[Blarg]

43 minutes ago, Taylor said:

It was a joke. 

Is that your brother?

[Dtwncbad]

2 minutes ago, T.G. said:

They seem to support the Jazz pretty well.  I know it's apples and oranges, but I'm not going to assume it is not a sports town. 

That being said, I don't know what the attendance is for the D1 programs there.

Jazz is like 13th in the league with 18k fans a game.  Pretty much in the middle.  I just have no idea how to translate that into any prediction for 81 baseball games.

And keep in mind that the NBA has a salary cap that drives parity, so that helps smaller markets have a competitive product.

Without a salary cap in mlb, it is harder for a smaller market to put a good enough product out there o draw consistently.

We all can name small market teams in mlb that succeed, but it’s just not nearly as easy in mlb as it is in the nba to remain competitive against bigger markets.

So I don’t really know how to view 18k a game support for the Jazz in terms of predicting support for a mlb team.

 

[Dtwncbad]

19 minutes ago, T.G. said:

They seem to support the Jazz pretty well.  I know it's apples and oranges, but I'm not going to assume it is not a sports town. 

That being said, I don't know what the attendance is for the D1 programs there.

Wow I just checked and University of Utah football averages 50k a game.  BYU almost 60k.  I am surprised.

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, Dtwncbad said:

Nobody can tell when you are joking dude.  That’s on you.

Link?

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, Blarg said:

Is that your brother?

Why, you interested?

[Hubs]

21 hours ago, HeavenlyHalos said:

I wonder where the dust settles on all of this. I would guess Oakland moves to Vegas (highly likely), Tampa moves to _____, and two teams are added via expansion. 

If Oakland moves to Vegas, that's fine, but ideally, they stay and get it worked out. Even as the Second team in the Market, the population in the Greater Bay Area dwarfs that of Las Vegas Metro. Vegas now has two winter teams in the Golden Nights and Raiders, can they support a third team in the market? A lot of cities struggle supporting a third big four team.

Portland I think would support a MLB team well, as would Salt Lake. Both only have Basketball. Nashville has Hockey and Football, so same concerns as Vegas. Memphis has two already in Football, and Basketball so maybe thats too many.

As far as geographical Alignment, I've mentioned this before and it's best for travel and for alignment reasons that they go to 4 divisions of 4, and two wild cards instead of three. 

AL WEST - Angels, Mariners, A's and D'Backs/Portland/Salt Lake

NL WEST - Dodgers, Giants, Padres and D'Backs/Portland/Salt Lake

AL North -- Twins, Guardians, Tigers, and White Sox

NL North -- Cubs, Cardinals, Reds, Brewers

AL South -- Rangers, Rockies, Tampa, Kansas City 

NL South -- Braves, Astros, Marlins, Nashville or Nationals

AL East --  Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles

NL East -- Mets, Phillies, Pirates, Nationals or Montreal

 

I'm sticking the Cheating Astros back in the National League, where they belong and existed for the first 50+ years of their existence. If the A's move to Vegas, and Salt Lake is the Expansion team, I'm moving the D'Backs to the AL. If the A's don't move, then I'm putting SLC in the AL West. If Portland is expansion team, then I'm putting them in The NL WEST, moving the D'backs to the AL.

For Scheduling, it's 6 games against the other 12 teams in your league, = 72, and 3 games against 15 teams in the NL and 6 games against your rival in the opposite league = 51. Then you have 39 games against the teams in your division. 

 

[eligrba4ever]

The Jazz have half the playing dates and half or less of the necessary seating capacity that an MLB franchise would need. The Utah market is smaller than Portland's. SLC is 200,000. Orem, Provo and Park City don't add all that much more. Boise is 300 miles away.

[Dtwncbad]

5 hours ago, Taylor said:

Link?

Ok.

[HaloBronco]

7 hours ago, Hubs said:

If Oakland moves to Vegas, that's fine, but ideally, they stay and get it worked out. Even as the Second team in the Market, the population in the Greater Bay Area dwarfs that of Las Vegas Metro. Vegas now has two winter teams in the Golden Nights and Raiders, can they support a third team in the market? A lot of cities struggle supporting a third big four team.

Portland I think would support a MLB team well, as would Salt Lake. Both only have Basketball. Nashville has Hockey and Football, so same concerns as Vegas. Memphis has two already in Football, and Basketball so maybe thats too many.

As far as geographical Alignment, I've mentioned this before and it's best for travel and for alignment reasons that they go to 4 divisions of 4, and two wild cards instead of three. 

AL WEST - Angels, Mariners, A's and D'Backs/Portland/Salt Lake

NL WEST - Dodgers, Giants, Padres and D'Backs/Portland/Salt Lake

AL North -- Twins, Guardians, Tigers, and White Sox

NL North -- Cubs, Cardinals, Reds, Brewers

AL South -- Rangers, Rockies, Tampa, Kansas City 

NL South -- Braves, Astros, Marlins, Nashville or Nationals

AL East --  Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles

NL East -- Mets, Phillies, Pirates, Nationals or Montreal

 

I'm sticking the Cheating Astros back in the National League, where they belong and existed for the first 50+ years of their existence. If the A's move to Vegas, and Salt Lake is the Expansion team, I'm moving the D'Backs to the AL. If the A's don't move, then I'm putting SLC in the AL West. If Portland is expansion team, then I'm putting them in The NL WEST, moving the D'backs to the AL.

For Scheduling, it's 6 games against the other 12 teams in your league, = 72, and 3 games against 15 teams in the NL and 6 games against your rival in the opposite league = 51. Then you have 39 games against the teams in your division. 

 

If you’re going to talk Re-Alignment I think something like this would be more interesting. 

 

Midwest

Cubs
Cardinals
White Sox
Brewers

Southwest

Astros
Rangers
Diamondbacks
Royals

Pacific Coast

Angels
Giants
Dodgers
Padres

 

West

Rockies
A’s (having moved to Las Vegas)
Mariners
Portland (expansion)

 

East

Yankees
Red Sox
Mets
Blue Jays

North

Twins
Guardians
Tigers
Phillies

Mid-Atlantic

Pirates
Orioles
Nationals
Reds
(Good god this is a bad division … )

Southeast

Rays
Marlins
Braves
Charlotte/Nashville (expansion)

[arch stanton]

12 hours ago, Barf said:

Fuck it MLB.

Put a team in Amsterdam.

Hash brownies for everyone!

They tried but the fucking Giants claimed it as their domain

[baycat93]

Nashville is pretty far along.  They have a strong ownership group and a site agreement.  Not sure where they are on financing.

[Anthony Tendon]

On 4/13/2023 at 7:12 AM, Dtwncbad said:

I don’t know, Joseph Smith banked on a good portion of that population being pretty dense.

Bet you wouldnt say the same shit about another religion. 

[UtahHalo]

As someone who lives in Utah, I'd love to see a Major League team here. I just don't see it happening, though. I think the Rockies experiment kind of ruined any hope for another high altitude team. They'd have no shot at decent free agent pitching.  Salt Lake would have plenty of fan support. As somebody else mentioned, though, MLB is a large-market game because of local TV contracts and no salary caps.  The Utah Jazz can compete because of the salary cap.  A Utah baseball team would look a lot like a Kansas City and other small-market teams.