OT: So why hasn't Vancouver made a play for an MLB team?

[Fat Tony]

You don't need to preach to me about "Vancouverism". I grew up near Marine and lived downtown in a condo for a decade before I went to England. Vancouver's core isn't small 'by design', the peninsula is small because there's nowhere to grow.

Have you been to the downtown core of Toronto in the past few years? It's filled with high density towers. They're even planning on a building that would be the tallest in Canada.It looks more like Manhattan than the 'urban sprawl' you speak of. Get further out into York, East York and North York and you get high-mid density apartment blocks and old Victorian era mansions cut up into flats.

You only get 'urban sprawl' when you hit Etobicoke, or Scarborough or places very very far from the city center. Places that are just as far from downtown Van as Langley, Surrey, White Rock, Delta, etc.

Don't drink the kool-aid; I like Vancouver for what it is, but it is in the grand scheme of things a small resort city that thinks it's a big one.

Vancouver is Toronto West: both think they're bigger than they really are and annoy the hell out of those around them. Manhattan looks at Toronto like Toronto looks at Vancouver.

 

[sirwilliam]

I love me a good baseball game. I'm wearing my Vancouver Canadians t-shirt right now.

However, I think Vancouver is a terrible market for MLB. Almost no knowledgeable fans. The statistics are cryptic to the uninitiated. Plus I'm not sure where they'd play, I doubt BC place would work.

I think we're at a good place with the NHL, CFL and MLS in our city.

 

[Rocko604]

Andy Dunn, President of the C's is on TSN 1040 for Presidents Week right now.

 

[JuniorNelson]

When BC Place opened baseball came to town. They played an exhibition game and an old timer game (Hank Aaron played!). It was a big lavish affair, Bob Hope MCed and did twenty minutes of stand-up. The owners of several teams and many minions came. A local Trump-like figure banged the drum and announced he had financials in order. A giantly successful car dealer/mogul said he was interested. The media interviewed baseball dignitaries who pointed out Vancouver wasn't even supporting Class AAA. End.

 

[sexydonut]

If/When the local land developer oligarchs assemble large enough plots in the DTES docklands or Terminal railyards, we could see the beginnings of an MLB expansion/relocation and the development of a baseball stadium in the former post-industrial wasteland neighborhood.

Sports stadiums have been touted as gentrification projects by their vested interests. Great for the land developments in the local vicinity and great for the sports superfans, not really so great for the taxpayers who publicly subsidize their private infrastructure.

 

[valkynax]

Personally found watching baseball about as exciting as watching tectonic movement and glacial migration.

Wouldn't watch it for free, let alone paying any amount of money for it.

I suspect a significant portion of the population don't really care much for this particular sport.

 

[Derp Kassian]

Vancouver probably would've had a team if they had a big baseball specific stadium in the 70's/80's. Too late now.

 

[sexydonut]

Back in the 70s/80s, multipurpose stadiums were the ones being built, e.g. the old Kingdome and all the concrete donuts and air-supported teflon roofs.

The whole baseball specific stadium craze only started off in the early 90s with Camden Yards. It was hailed as making the baseball experience great again. I guess the seats were a bit closer to the field of play, and some stadiums provided nice views, but its biggest accomplishment was to effectively hand the baseball franchise sole control over related revenues. With the old multipurpose stadiums, the various teams and sports were mostly just tenants jointly occupying the mostly city-owned infrastructure.

BTW, Camden Yards made the Orioles owner a lot of money. It helped out some of the retail/dining businesses in the local vicinity. Baltimore is still a mess.

 

[Jyrki21]

BTW, Camden Yards made the Orioles owner a lot of money. It helped out some of the retail/dining businesses in the local vicinity. Baltimore is still a mess.

Once the authorities finally bring down Marlo Stanfield, the city will be great again.

 

[Canucks21]

One has to just look at Montreal...
Around 2004...
When the Expos left.
Montreal has 1.5 million people in 2003...
And over 3 million in the metropolitan area...
But it still struggled.

Montreal Expos were struggled because they ****

 

[The Stig]

MLB just couldn't thrive here. Not enough hardcore fans. Add a bunch of seating to Nat Bailey and bring in a Triple A club first and see how that goes.

I think the NFL could work here. BC Place would work too. At 54,500, it wouldn't be the smallest stadium in the league (Minnesota, Oakland are both smaller). What really gets me are the people who keep saying we need to replace BC Place. Have you been in there since the upgrade?v Its beautiful. Plus we just paid a buttload of money upgrading it and replacing it would only cost us more.

 

[Rotting Corpse*]

MLB just couldn't thrive here. Not enough hardcore fans. Add a bunch of seating to Nat Bailey and bring in a Triple A club first and see how that goes.

I think the NFL could work here. BC Place would work too. At 54,500, it wouldn't be the smallest stadium in the league (Minnesota, Oakland are both smaller). What really gets me are the people who keep saying we need to replace BC Place. Have you been in there since the upgrade?v Its beautiful. Plus we just paid a buttload of money upgrading it and replacing it would only cost us more.

Yeah it is ten times nicer now. The sunroof is dumb though.

 

[nameless1]

Montreal Expos were struggled because they ****

The team went for it in 2002...
In one of the most lopsided deals in retrospect...
When they were in the thick of a playoff chase...
But still barely anyone went to the games.

Honestly...
By that point...
Suckage was the least of the issues.
People just did not care.

 

[Canucks21]

The team went for it in 2002...
In one of the most lopsided deals in retrospect...
When they were in the thick of a playoff chase...
But still barely anyone went to the games.

Honestly...
By that point...
Suckage was the least of the issues.
People just did not care.

To me they were doomed since the 1994 strike and when they traded everyone after

 

[nameless1]

To me they were doomed since the 1994 strike and when they traded everyone after

I think you are right.
At the time of the lockout...
The team had the best record in the NL...
And was poised to make a run in the post-season.

When baseball finally returned the next season...
The fans all stayed away...
To express their anger.
However...
For a team like Montreal...
Which was never popular to begin with...
That was the nail in the coffin...
And it never recovered.

 

[Canucks21]

I think you are right.
At the time of the lockout...
The team had the best record in the NL...
And was poised to make a run in the post-season.

When baseball finally returned the next season...
The fans all stayed away...
To express their anger.
However...
For a team like Montreal...
Which was never popular to begin with...
That was the nail in the coffin...
And it never recovered.

Too bad they didn't had any of the Coyotes people they know how to survive a lockout

 

[nameless1]

Too bad they didn't had any of the Coyotes people they know how to survive a lockout

The difference is...
Coyotes fans will resort to violence.

Seriously...
They pooled together the money...
For the chance to tase the mayor.

 

[Canucks21]

The difference is...
Coyotes fans will resort to violence.

Seriously...
They pooled together the money...
For the chance to tase the mayor.

Who didn't ever wanted to tase a politician?

 

[Frank Garrett]

Once the authorities finally bring down Marlo Stanfield, the city will be great again.

The city first needs to address its rampant STD problem as well.

 

[Archangel]

BC place is not built for Baseball and the field would kill too many knees and I do not see Vancouver have the support for a team

 

[nutbar]

When BC Place opened baseball came to town. They played an exhibition game and an old timer game (Hank Aaron played!). It was a big lavish affair, Bob Hope MCed and did twenty minutes of stand-up. The owners of several teams and many minions came. A local Trump-like figure banged the drum and announced he had financials in order. A giantly successful car dealer/mogul said he was interested. The media interviewed baseball dignitaries who pointed out Vancouver wasn't even supporting Class AAA. End.

To be fair, Toronto wasn't supporting any minor league baseball at the time they were awarded a franchise.

But, yeah, Vancouver isn't getting a MLB team.

 

[PG Canuck]

The team would have to be good every year to gain huge interest. Few slum years, and people will lose interest fast.

This city just needs to face the fact it's not a multiple sports city. One team rules all, an one team will always rule all. It can't have multiple NA major league sports here...there just isn't that kind of fanbase here. Interest would die so fast.

We aren't Boston, Chicago, Detroit etc...and I'm betting we never will be.

 

[dave babych returns]

Yeah I don't know why anyone thinks Vancouver would be a viable option for a baseball team.

They'd need a new building (or a new field at any rate, but let's not kid ourselves) to start.

Then a team in that building would have to make enough money to support a $100m payroll for player personnel (particularly if the team wants to be competitive on the field) which is even beyond what the entrenched hockey franchise is spending.

Maybe if all the folks buying up condos ever set foot in town it'd be a large enough market.

 

[Rocko604]

The team would have to be good every year to gain huge interest. Few slum years, and people will lose interest fast.

This city just needs to face the fact it's not a multiple sports city. One team rules all, an one team will always rule all. It can't have multiple NA major league sports here...there just isn't that kind of fanbase here. Interest would die so fast.

We aren't Boston, Chicago, Detroit etc...and I'm betting we never will be.

If you really look at, in terms of the Big Four Leagues, MLS and minor league sports, we're Portland.

 

[PG Canuck]

If you really look at, in terms of the Big Four Leagues, MLS and minor league sports, we're Portland.

And you don't see Portland in the sights for any future MLB team. Vancouver is a big, beautiful city, but it's sure as hell not sports city.