OT: 5th Boston Pro Sports Team

[BigGoalBrad]

Like it or not our pro sports fanaticism is a running joke to the rest of the country so it stands that we should join SF/LA/NY/Chicago and have more than 1 team in something.

Lets say all 4 owners are equally open to receiving a 9 figure expansion/relocation check for whatever reason in return for the new competition.

Which sport would work best and be best supported as a #2? Could they sell out virtually every game like the 4 do currently? Could a Championship make them go from 2 to 1B?

Its August wondering everyone's thoughts. Growing up in the 90s with TBS it was always a little annoying to think maybe the wrong baseball team left though 4 recent world series and having a cool older stadium sure makes up for that.

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[Nose Face Killah]

XFL team

 

[BigGoalBrad]

1. Post Brady Era NFL - No brainer here. If they were NFC they wouldn't play the Pats much. The lure of the Brady era would keep them from being a #1 but very few Patriots fans can afford to attend games. NFL is king people would go.
2. NHL - Giving money to new owners other than JJ and likely lower prices would have serious appeal.
3. MLB - Cheaper tickets and the split leagues make it somewhat easier to root for both.
4. NBA - Teams going to have a hard time being good Boston is not the Edmonton of the NHL but its not a top destination for free agents. Only see room for 1 team here. I think the other 3 would work in theory.

 

[Lobster57]

as total outsider to the Boston sports scene as a whole, i'd think it's probably baseball. NFL would be a tough sell right now with the Pats riding a 2 decade juggernaut, but a few down years in the post-Tom/Bill era might make it do-able with a stadium in a better location. Basketball's fanbase seems pretty...fickle? An expansion team in a city with an established, legendary franchise, seems unlikely. Hockey is already probably #4 most of the time. So a 2nd MLB feels like it would be the best option. Fenway has a pretty small capacity and is currently full of pink hats, so a lot of die hard baseball fans probably can't get to a lot of games. And (here's where not being from the area may show) maybe they have kind of the opposite problem as the Pats in terms of location? Like getting in to Fenway from the outlying areas is a hassle?

overall though, i don't seen a 5th team happening at all

 

[Over the volcano]

If Kraft sold the Revolution to John Henry...

 

[Seidenbergy]

The Revolution say "hi".

 

[TrashPanda]

The Revolution say "hi".

New England has several minor league teams in other sports, so not sure why the Revolution would stand out.

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

If Kraft sold the Revolution to John Henry...

The Revolution say "hi".

This is what I thought BGB meant as well, but it seems like he means a second team in one of the 4 big leagues.

NBA/NFL/MLB in LA = Clippers/Lakers, Chargers/Rams, Dodgers/Angels

MLB/NBA/NFL in NY = Yankees/Mets, Knicks/Nets, Giants/Jets

MLB in CHI = Cubs/White Sox

 

[Seidenbergy]

New England has several minor league teams in other sports, so not sure why the Revolution would stand out.

Unlike the Sox, the Revs are in the playoffs if the season ended today......

 

[Seidenbergy]

This is what I thought BGB meant as well, but it seems like he means a second team in one of the 4 big leagues.

NBA/NFL in LA = Clippers/Lakers, Chargers/Rams



MLB/NBA/NFL in NY = Yankees/Mets, Knicks/Nets, Giants/Jets

MLB in CHI = Cubs/White Sox

Get the point, but the thread title should be renamed to 6th in that case. They already have 5 pro sports teams, regardless of how one feels about soccer/the Revs.

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

Get the point, but the thread title should be renamed to 6th in that case. They already have 5 pro sports teams, regardless of how one feels about soccer/the Revs.

I had a long post about how the Revolution are already here so why not start with them. I really thought he meant adding a 5th team like from some league that Boston doesn't have a team in.

 

[TrashPanda]

I'd argue that of the 4 only the NHL and NFL would stand a chance.

A 2nd Boston MLB team wouldn't generate enough revenue to overcome having to split a market where the Red Sox have been king forever, and there isn't a hard cap in baseball so generally speaking that team would be the Angels, White Sox, Mets or Athletics but even meeker.

A 2nd Boston NBA team would face a different problem. NBA is a superstar driven league, and Boston already isn't a free agent destination in it's current construction, but you'd be going to an even less desirable franchise in that setup.

In the NHL, I'd offer up the Ducks and Kings as an example. LA is a much bigger market, but it's not a true hockey market, and Jacobs has done enough over the years that he wouldn't necessarily demand blind loyalty.

The only....ONLY reason I could see it with the NFL is that it's a TV driven league, and a 2nd NFL team would only need to sell out 8 games a year, something they could easily do if they played in Boston proper or close to it but on North side of the city closer to the pike/93.

That being said, none of those leagues is expanding to Boston as it wouldn't accomplish anything for their footprint and expanding revenue streams.

 

[TrashPanda]

Get the point, but the thread title should be renamed to 6th in that case. They already have 5 pro sports teams, regardless of how one feels about soccer/the Revs.

Love soccer, but I take shots at MLS as frequently as I can. I'm not sure it's any more "pro" than the Pawtucket Red Sox, Portland Sea Dogs, or Hartford Yard Goats. The players aren't compensated terribly well (with some exceptions) and they're several rungs away from being among the world's best.

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

I take shots at the MLS as frequently as I can. I'm not sure it's any more "pro" than the Pawtucket Red Sox, Portland Sea Dogs, or Hartford Yard Goats. The players aren't compensated terribly well (with some exceptions) and they're several rungs away from being among the world's best.

Lol, I'm not a soccer fan but even I know thats a stupid way to view a league that has teams avergaing 30-50k per game. Minor league teams don't average anything close to this.

2019 MLS Attendance - Soccer Stadium Digest

 

[JRull86]

LA makes sense having multiple franchises because of the sheer size/population of LA and the surrounding area.

Boston? Not so much.

I would never care about a second NHL, MLB, NBA, or NFL team.

 

[jgatie]

NYC - 8 million+
LA - 3.9 million
Chicago - 2.7 million
Boston - 690k (with 150k of those being transient students)

One of these things is not like the others . . .

 

[TrashPanda]

Lol, I'm not a soccer fan but even I know thats a stupid way to view a league that has teams avergaing 30-50k per game. Minor league teams don't average anything close to this.

2019 MLS Attendance - Soccer Stadium Digest

I believe in 2018, 8.5m people attended MLS games, and 8.7m people attended AA baseball games.

They're probably about the same number of rungs below the top level of their sport as well.

Now, will the same be true in 2038? No, I don't think that will be the case. In 20 years unless they continue to expand like drunken idiots, I could see MLS being the 5th best league in the world behind England, Germany, Spain, and Italy, on par with Portugal and the Netherlands.

 

[Over the volcano]

NYC - 8 million+
LA - 3.9 million
Chicago - 2.7 million
Boston - 690k (with 150k of those being transient students)

One of these things is not like the others . . .

If they were playing in the city and had an ownership that was at all interested in developing the team they would kill it in Boston.

 

[jgatie]

If they were playing in the city and had an ownership that was at all interested in developing the team they would kill it in Boston.

No, no they wouldn't. There is not enough population to support another major sports team.

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

I believe in 2018, 8.5m people attended MLS games, and 8.7m people attended AA baseball games.

They're probably about the same number of rungs below the top level of their sport as well.

Now, will the same be true in 2038? No, I don't think that will be the case. In 20 years unless they continue to expand like drunken idiots, I could see MLS being the 5th best league in the world behind England, Germany, Spain, and Italy, on par with Portugal and the Netherlands.

This is a little disingenuous. There are only 23 MLS teams to 30 AA Baseball Teams. MLS plays a 34 game schedule. A double AA baseball team plays 144 games.

So of course they're going to have more people attend their games than an MLS team. They have more games and more teams.

 

[Over the volcano]

No, no they wouldn't. There is not enough population to support another major sports team.

Yes l, yes they would. There is a large enough population to support a thriving professional soccer team in Boston, there isn’t in Foxborough

 

[jgatie]

Yes l, yes they would. There is a large enough population to support a thriving professional soccer team.

People have been saying that for the last 40 years, ever since the Tea Men. I'll stick with history.

 

[TrashPanda]

Yes l, yes they would. There is a large enough population to support a thriving professional soccer team.

MLS is a different use case from the other 4 examples from the original post.

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if a well run team in Providence or Hartford wouldn't out revenue the Revs in their current state (though the parallels of Arena and Parcells are certainly interesting).

 

[TrashPanda]

People have been saying that for the last 40 years, ever since the Tea Men. I'll stick with history.

MLS is quite different from NASL, even if it's a far cry from the big 4 North American leagues (and big 4 European leagues).

The biggest difference between the first 30 years in your time frame and the last 10 is the access and infrastructure for the game to grow in the United States. Prior to the mid 00's, American kids were exposed to the top levels of soccer reliably about every 4 years. Now young American players can watch the best in the world on their tablets every weekend morning. That makes a big difference. The developmental system needs work and America will need to develop coaches almost as critically as it will players, but at this point, there's mounting evidence that the sport is here to stay (in almost every major market).

 

[Over the volcano]

People have been saying that for the last 40 years, ever since the Tea Men. I'll stick with history.

That’s almost as long as Kraft’s been putting on the charade of moving the team to Boston. Pull that team out of Foxborough invest in em and drop them in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville and they’d pack the place like Atlanta or Seattle do.