MLB Expansion

[Neill99]

Hi does anyone have any updates on MLB Expansion?.I like the name Portland Herons named after the great blue heron is Portland's official bird.

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[tony d]

Haven't heard much lately but it'd be nice to see some expansion. Got to think the situations in a few markets may be preventing expansion from happening. If expansion does happen Portland and Charlotte would be my top picks.

 

[rent free]

i don't think mlb is focused on expansion any time soon. i think they'd like to figure out the issues to their current teams and their ballparks, like oakland and tampa bay

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Expansion would be an awful idea.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Not the right time now but they have to do it eventually. MLB needs to expand their international presence, and by 2040 I think they need a team in Mexico (Monterrey is the ideal location but we’ll see). I’d like to see a team in Havana too, but we’re probably at least 25-30 years out on that.

Oakland and Tampa should have their stadium issues fixed by the middle for the next decade (relocation in the case of Tampa, and hopefully a deal to build a stadium in Oakland/San Jose for the Athletics). When that happens, we should get some legitimate updates on when expansion will happen.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Charlotte and New Orleans are the markets I arrived at based on my proposal to realign both leagues into East, North, South and West divisions. I have New Orleans joining the AL and Charlotte the NL, with Colorado and Tampa Bay swapping leagues. The AL South would consist of Houston, Kansas City, New Orleans and Texas and the NL South would have Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, and Tampa Bay (thus each South Division is concentrated in one time zone). Colorado would become the new 4th team in the AL West and Pittsburgh would move back into the NL East. The Central Divisions become North Divisions.

Interleague play is no longer held year-round and is once again confined to one weekend in May and part of June.

 

[robert terwilliger]

Expansion would be an awful idea.

yes. there are too many teams.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

yes. there are too many teams.

Money talks though.

 

[Terry Yake]

yeah expansion really would be a bad idea for MLB

 

[robert terwilliger]

Money talks though.

i'm aware. that's how we got the rockies, rays, marlins and dbacks.

 

[HisIceness]

Take it from someone who lives here, Charlotte would be a terrible MLB market.

I would be okay if Montreal got a rebirth of the Expos. Who gets team #32 I'm not sure, but Charlotte long-term would be a disaster.

 

[robert terwilliger]

can't be worse than montreal.

 

[BigMac1212]

I instead have 32 teams than 30. We can have balanced divisions and maybe get rid of year-round interleague.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

In all sports I think divisions should be used for nothing but scheduling/rivalries. I hate the fact that a team with a worse record can get into the playoffs over a team who was better just because they won a division.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Pick any of these markets:

Vancouver
Portland
Las Vegas
Salt Lake City
Albuquerque
San Antonio
Oklahoma City
Memphis or Nashville
Charlotte or Raleigh-Durham
Hampton Roads
Montreal

The first one to either finance or start building an MLB-quality stadium, and you'll have a frontrunner for the next expansion or relocation target. If any market takes that massive of a step, and we'll hear a lot more about expansion. Until then? Wouldn't guess it's on the horizon.

 

[SoupNazi]

Take it from someone who lives here, Charlotte would be a terrible MLB market.

Agreed. Panthers seem to rule the Charlotte market, and I'm not sure there's enough appeal in the surrounding area. Down toward the Greenville, SC area people are either passionate Braves or Red Sox fans, if they follow baseball, and I'm not sure that putting an expansion team in Charlotte would do much to draw away from that.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

Agreed. Panthers seem to rule the Charlotte market, and I'm not sure there's enough appeal in the surrounding area. Down toward the Greenville, SC area people are either passionate Braves or Red Sox fans, if they follow baseball, and I'm not sure that putting an expansion team in Charlotte would do much to draw away from that.

There's that and I don't know what the appetite would be to spend money to build a new park only a couple years after BB&T Ballpark opened (who knew that that attorney who sued to try to block its construction might have, in the end, been right?)

 

[IslesFan2017]

I hope that expansion happens just so the two Texas teams in the American League West can be realigned into new South/Central divisions (preferably with the Astros returning to the National League). However, that doesn't seem like it will happen anytime soon since no contenders for expansion have built a new stadium for Major League Baseball.

If there is expansion to 32 teams, it will be interesting to see if they choose to realign into 4 8-team divisions or 8 4-team divisions.

 

[Bjorn Le]

I hope that expansion happens just so the two Texas teams in the American League West can be realigned into new South/Central divisions (preferably with the Astros returning to the National League). However, that doesn't seem like it will happen anytime soon since no contenders for expansion have built a new stadium for Major League Baseball.

If there is expansion to 32 teams, it will be interesting to see if they choose to realign into 4 8-team divisions or 8 4-team divisions.

They essentially have to realign into either 4 eight team or 8 four team divisions. The league hated when the divisions were uneven a few years ago. Also, my own semi-professional opinion from trying to keep unbalanced divisions in OOTPB tells me it's very awkward.

 

[IslesFan2017]

They essentially have to realign into either 4 eight team or 8 four team divisions. The league hated when the divisions were uneven a few years ago. Also, my own semi-professional opinion from trying to keep unbalanced divisions in OOTPB tells me it's very awkward.

Yes, but which way MLB decides to expand is what I am interested in. I am not a fan of a west coast team, but I hope that expansion reduces the travel problems for the west coast teams. I've seen some proposals in which the American League and National League are abolished and there is one 8-team division of all western teams (Mariners, A's, Angels, Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies or an expansion team in Portland/Las Vegas with the Rockies moved to the mid-west divisions) and one mid-west division of 8 teams, as well as 2 other eastern 8-team divisions.
On the flip side, if they decide to move forward with 8 divisions of 4 teams, the American League and National League would probably remain separate, but some division rivalries would be broken up, similar to what happened with the NFL's 2002 realignment into 8 4-team divisions.