New team, same state?

[Chevy114]

After hearing someone say new york housed three teams in the past and now have two, I was wondering. If they had to put another major league baseball team in your state, where would it be? Some states have the population numbers, land size, or enough distaste toward the current team; that they could have another team. So lets forget contraction and go to town!

I would say in Florida that Jacksonville might be able to keep a major league team. They have an nfl team and seem to have a semi loyal fan base, with miami and tampa competing with them. Granted it would probably be a small market team, but sometimes those are the most fun to watch.

Also with Jacksonville being at lest 3 and half hours away from Tampa, its hard to get them to come rays games. They might be able to capture some semi big cities like Tallahassee, st. agustine, and daytona, which are all within 2 hours or less of Jacksonville.

[Lafferty Daniel]

Jacksonville is Braves territory.

[Chevy114]

Jacksonville is Braves territory.

WikiAnswers says that its 346 miles or about 5 hours apart, a little far to be a fan if you have home team.

[Lafferty Daniel]

There are a lot of Twins fans in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Eastern Montana. All of those places are much farther than 5 hours.

Jacksonville is also too small of a market. I think Raleigh/Fayetteville would be a better market for MLB.

[TnNYYfan]

The Braves are basically like "the" team of the south. I live in Knoxville and most people follow the Braves or Cubs (thanks to WGN).

[Danielh41]

There was some talk of the Marlins moving to San Antonio, but that is pretty much dead now.

But if someone were to add a team to Texas, San Antonio would be the natural choice, although Austin might come in a close second. The triple-A Round Rock Express is doing very well in the Austin area.

[Yoda]

I think Illinois is all tapped out between the Cubs, Sox and the Cards in the south.

I don't think Rockford or Naperville (which now has a bigger population than Rockford) are big enough to house a team.

Though it'd be nice if they raze Wrigley to the ground and be forced to build it in the Western burbs.

[PeteU]

Jacksonville is a little bit of a smaller market, but it is growing rapidly. I'd say within 20 years it might be considerable as a major league market. There's been a lot of movement to Jacksonville in the past 10-20 years.

And while it technically is considered within Braves territory, it is far enough away that should it be considered for a team down the road, the Braves argument for rights to the area would be questionable at best.

Jacksonville is actually best suited for the NFL now due to the revenue sharing arrangement in that league, which allows small market teams (Jacksonville, Green Bay, Nashville, Buffalo, New Orleans) to complete on the same level as large market teams (New York, Chicago, Los Ang--oh wait, never mind that one. ) Major League Baseball doesn't have those protections so a MLB team in Jax right now would probably be at a disadvantage.

But like I said, should the city continue to grow over the next two decades, it may very well become a prime MLB market.

And one thing Jacksonville does have is a terrific minor league ballpark:



(And it's in one the most underrated cities in the country. I like that city a lot.)

I don't think it was built to be expandable to major league specs like Pilot Field in Buffalo was, but nonetheless, if you are in the Northeast Florida area, you must check it out.

[Yoda]

That looks like a fine ballyard.

[MarcianoNY]

Lets be real for a minute here: Why the heck would the MLB consider another Florida team when the Marlins and the Rays routinely occupy two of the bottom 3 brackets in attendance, even in the Marlins' two championship seasons? They would have to be high.

[six4three]

Lets be real for a minute here: Why the heck would the MLB consider another Florida team when the Marlins and the Rays routinely occupy two of the bottom 3 brackets in attendance, even in the Marlins' two championship seasons? They would have to be high.

True enough. Florida has so far been a disaster (Jacksonville hasn't been any great shakes in the NFL, to be fair).

As far as my city, if MLB was to add another team, it'd have to be in Brooklyn.

[PeteU]

Lets be real for a minute here: Why the heck would the MLB consider another Florida team when the Marlins and the Rays routinely occupy two of the bottom 3 brackets in attendance, even in the Marlins' two championship seasons? They would have to be high.

True for now. Twenty years down the road, with both the Marlins and Rays being more established and in new ballparks, things might be different. Florida teams typically take a while to "take", but they eventually will.

(As for Jacksonville and the Jaguars, Jacksonville actually has been pretty supportive of the Jaguars for a city of its size. The reason for the blackouts has been the fact they built the stadium much larger than the market for GA-FL and Super Bowl purposes.)

[six4three]

We'll see. If two championships doesn't cause a team to "take," then I don't know what will. And I thought baseball in Miami was an obvious choice. Instead, we're treated to a tired litany of excuses about why Florida doesn't support big league ball.

As to the NFL, Jacksonville can't even fill the stadium when they block off huge groups of seats. They don't even have to fill the seats with bodies on game day, merely allocate the tickets. If local companies can't buy the surplus tickets, then the city isn't supporting the team.

[the_Bored]

I've always thought that Buffalo needed a team.

[MarcianoNY]

I agree 100%. If a city doesn't support a team, they don't deserve a franchise. Maybe if people would've shown up during those world series runs, the owners wouldn't have been so inclined to dump the team down the toilet the next year. If anything, Florida should lose a team and prove that they can support one franchise before anything else is considered. Being a New Yorker and Yankee fan, I realize this might come off as a bit chauvinistic but its the truth. Especially, I think "rapid-growth" areas, though tempting, are dangerous for baseball. I'm probably talking out of my you-know-what but I think because MLB has been around much longer than the NBA or NFL, it's much more difficult to build a fan base. In Florida there are a lot of longtime Yankee fans. In Arizona, at least in Phoenix, there are a lot of ex-New Yorkers, LA fans, etc. They're never gonna switch to an expansion team. I realize that Arizona has done much better than Florida, but last year my brother at ASU was able to get NLCS tickets on the street for $5, and they still didn't come close to filling the park.