Could Rochester support a big 4 sports team?
- Thread starter MMC
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To the question at hand, nope.
Rochester is a classic minor league city because that's exactly the profile it fits to a tee. Too small for a major team (the NBA of the 1950s was barely a major league and still had a bunch of teams descended from company teams of the 1930s, so it doesn't count.) perfect size for AAA baseball (just like Syracuse, Scranton, or the Lehigh Valley). Heck, Buffalo barely makes it, and that's only because the Bills are really a regional team that also covers Rochester, and the Sabers also to some extent (for the NHL level at least, Rochester also having minor league hockey).
Rochester is a classic minor league city because that's exactly the profile it fits to a tee. Too small for a major team (the NBA of the 1950s was barely a major league and still had a bunch of teams descended from company teams of the 1930s, so it doesn't count.) perfect size for AAA baseball (just like Syracuse, Scranton, or the Lehigh Valley). Heck, Buffalo barely makes it, and that's only because the Bills are really a regional team that also covers Rochester, and the Sabers also to some extent (for the NHL level at least, Rochester also having minor league hockey).
You entirely miss my point. Everything was just realigned and levels shuffled. Rochester could have easily been bumped down and Manchester switched affiliates, as was done all over the minor league landscape. ALL of the old affiliation agreements expired at he end of last season, every single one of them, and all of the newly announced affiliations are new contracts. Some stayed the same (especially where the minor league team is owned by the parent club, though not exclusively), but a ton of them are all new deals. That Manchester was the Jays' AA affiliate last year has absolutely zero bearing on the possibility that they could have switched this year. Absolutely none whatsoever.
that has nothing to do with it, ok
all that was done realignment WISE was below AA, EXCEPT the transfer of Trenton to Somerset.... nothing else in the "Northeast" League changed except the dissolution of the title of Eastern and legally where the League was legally..... Maine still is the league office for the "Northeast" League
BKIslandersFan
F*** off
MLS in its infancy mind you. Not MLS today when franchise values are 9 digits.
Incorrect on many levels. All leagues are now run out of the MLB offices in New York. The current Low A East and High A East leagues are new leagues that both draw on former Carolina League and Sally League teams, but are neither old league.
No affiliated team is in its old league anymore. None. The way the restructuring was performed all the teams withdrew from their old leagues and signed new Professional Development Licenses with the new minor league office within the MLB offices. All previous agreements expired, all previous memberships disbanded, and all previous situations are irrelevant. Fact is if MLB brass had decided to go that route, then Rochester would have been invited to be the Jays' AA affiliate, and their previous status as a AAA team would have meant nothing. There was no requirement or obligation to maintain that old affiliation level at all. Just as Fresno was dropped from AAA to Low A.
That Rochester was invited to be the Nationals' AAA affiliate instead is just the way MLB decided to go, probably because Rochester has shown themselves to be a good town for the level and because the stadium is up to snuff.
JMCx4
Censorship is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Can I change my vote to "YES" for Rochester, Missouri? I could drive there to watch games in about 4--1/2 hours. 
Centrum Hockey
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- Aug 2, 2018
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It sounds like the only thing that kept Rochester in AAA was that Richmond's ballpark was in no way fit to host the Nationals AAA club. MLB clearly didn't care at all about AAA titles or historical records.
that's why the Braves left for Gwinnett, and the Diamond has been that way ever since....
KevFu
Registered User
Rochester SHOULD be an MLS city, but the MLS screwed it up royally.
MLS basically teased Rochester for eight years, saying "build a soccer-specific stadium, and we'll strongly consider you" because the Rhinos were crushing it in A-League, averaging like 12,000 fans and won the Open Cup over MLS teams (the only non-MLS team to win it).
And then when Rochester DID build a soccer specific stadium, MLS was like "PSYCH! Naaaaaaaaah... we want TV markets!" even though no one was really watching on TV anyway, and MLS expanded from 10 teams to 20 teams and didn't even look at Rochester.
Rochester is making the playoffs every year, finishing ahead of Seattle, Montreal, Vancouver, Portland, etc, and they're just leapfrogging the Rhinos into MLS.
It was really disheartening and fan support dropped in half (you know, from MLS levels to USL levels).
