OT: 5th Boston Pro Sports Team

McGarnagle

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Aug 5, 2017
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MLB would be the obvious pick to me - long term, baseball is king in Boston. Talk to anyone over 50 - those who have disposable income and a memory - and they'll tell you that even in the 86 year lull the Red Sox had, they were still pulling in a decent fan base most of the time. Yes, we've all been entranced with the Shiny New Thing down in Foxboro for the last 15 years, but as soon as Brady and Edelman are gone and the Patriots start stinking, I think a lot of Patriots viewership is going to be schadenfreude from other teams.

We're a baseball city. That said, the question is - is it baseball, or is it the Red Sox? I can see it being a hard sell to fans. If Werner had some big Jacobian slip-up around the time the second Boston team were introduced...maybe. Definitely enough fans to spread between the two teams, and it'd be nice to have a professional franchise where you don't have to donate plasma to take the family out for a Saturday game.

The question is will fans try the new team? The NL/AL split and relative schedule sequestration makes split loyalty easier in baseball than any other league besides football.

Going to a Red Sox game with a family of 4 is downright prohibitive more than like once a year for anyone middle class or lower. If the NL team played it right and did family package deals or just had lower ticket prices all-around, they might make some fans. Additionally, being in the NL would be great because a lot of Sox fans who appreciate baseball would get a chance every year to see guys like Arenado, who never get to play in Boston aside from an interleague series every 6 or 7 years.
 
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KrejciMVP

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Jun 30, 2011
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Red Sox are the team ill make the trip to Boston for. It's the best sports experience in Boston. I saw one MLS game in Montreal since I've been here bc work forced us to attend
 

wintersej

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I think back to pre-Brady (or pre-Kraft really) and I wonder if this area will care as much about football when the team is 7-9 with a mediocre starting QB.
 

rfournier103

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I think back to pre-Brady (or pre-Kraft really) and I wonder if this area will care as much about football when the team is 7-9 with a mediocre starting QB.

I don’t think the Patriots will ever go back to the pre-Kraft lack of success. They may cough up a 6-10 or 7-9 once in a very blue moon, but I think they will be competitive year in and year out for decades to come.
 

Centrum Hockey

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I don’t think the Patriots will ever go back to the pre-Kraft lack of success. They may cough up a 6-10 or 7-9 once in a very blue moon, but I think they will be competitive year in and year out for decades to come.
Hopefully kraft won’t become like AL Davis in the 2000s who set the raiders back decades with poor decisions when he started to get older.
 

rfournier103

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Hopefully kraft won’t become like AL Davis in the 2000s who set the raiders back decades with poor decisions when he started to get older.
As hands-on as Bob Kraft is, I don’t think he’s even close to being as bad as Al Davis. Kraft was never a coach like Davis was, and I’d like to think that he knows the limits of his abilities.

As far as getting older goes, I think there’s a system in place now and the owner isn’t as involved as he used to be.
 
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missingchicklet

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Jan 24, 2010
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I don't really see how any of the big 4 sports could have a successful second team in Boston. Boston fans of each of the four major sports have rabid fan bases to the point there are not enough people in the Boston area willing to part with a lifetime of supporting the Boston team(s) of their choice, and each of those teams have a very long history. Then throw in the fact that Boston doesn't have a huge population and isn't ridiculously spread out geographically such as the LA area or isn't like the Bay area -- two major separate cities with endless suburbs.

There is only so much expansion these leagues can do without getting too many teams and ridiculously watered-down talent. There is no way the NHL would put another team in Boston simply due to geography. It seems like the NHL is fixated on putting new teams in new markets. An MLB team would be tough due to the number of games. Good luck trying to keep a second team afloat with 81 home games in the same city as the Red Sox. Additionally, season tickets to baseball is a huge time and monetary commitment. A second NBA team has zero chance of happening. Another NFL team? Forget about it.
 

veganbruin

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Sep 20, 2013
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Well there use to be the Boston Braves. Still some braves fans in Boston when they come to town.

I think at the rate baseball is dying I don’t think an NL could compete.

I do think if they don’t move the Revs to Boston they should consider putting an MLS team in the city as I think it could do very well being accessible by those that live in the City. Also that sport is growing and since parents will no longer allow their children to play football because of CTE it will only grow more.
 

Over the volcano

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Maybe, but I think a lot of fans may hold it against the Krafts for how badly they gutted that team over the years. It's been a joke how they've run it in after a decent run earlier. Since 2010, 6th, 9th, 9th, 3rd, 2nd, 5th. 7th, 7th, 8th, with this year tbd. And it's not even the finishing record, but the way they traded star players for lesser talents. There's a reason they were considered the worst owners in all of the MLS for a while.

And as this is about what team could become the 5th big franchise, I simply don't see it being the Revs.
They go on a little run this year and boom they pulled in 25k fans last night an hour away from the city. The only thing holding them back is the Krafts and Foxborough.
 
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Seidenbergy

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they should consider putting an MLS team in the city as I think it could do very well being accessible by those that live in the City. Also that sport is growing and since parents will no longer allow their children to play football because of CTE it will only grow more.

While likely true, it makes me laugh give that the rate of concussions in soccer is on par with football (and much worse than any other sport for females).
 

JoeIsAStud

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Yeah, and last year they averaged 18k. 21st in MLS. So sure a one off game with 25K is good, but they don't do that regularly.

How much of that is even fully paid. Revs have been near or at the bottom in attendance historically, and that is with huge numbers of giveaway and deeply discounted tickets included.

I think an NL baseball team could work if they had a new stadium and competitive pricing. Everything else wouldn't though.

Like if the Tampa Bay Rays got moved to Boston, played in a waterfront stadium like McCourt wanted to build when he was bidding on the Sox, then they got transferred to the NL East and Miami or Washington went to the AL, I think it could work. If they were in the same division or had direct competition with each other, the Sox would run them out of business.

Of course to do this you need to build a 1.7 billion dollar stadium, which of course means there will be no discount tickets

What it could do is crush the Red Sox who could quickly become more of a mid market team rather than a team with almost unlimited financial resources
 

Gator Mike

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How much of that is even fully paid. Revs have been near or at the bottom in attendance historically, and that is with huge numbers of giveaway and deeply discounted tickets included.
The Revs used to be near the top of the league in attendance, but at the time, the product was so bad that they drove a number of those fans away.

Their attendance declined pretty sharply when they stopped giving away/discounting tickets, and I don't believe they're doing too much of it any more.

Foxboro/Gillette Stadium is both a curse and a blessing. On the downside, it absolutely hurts attendance. On the plus side, they're not paying rent, so they've actually been fairly profitable in recent years. But if they were to build in Boston, they'd sell the place out every week without having to discount tickets.
 

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