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I like Las Vegas which is a city that many people like to travel to for conventions, entertainment, etc.
It gives fans of baseball a very good reason to follow their hometown team to Vegas for a road series where they can see a game, do some gambling, see some great shows, do some shopping and get in some sightseeing as well.
A great new football stadium just opened there last year for the Oakland Raiders, so maybe the Oakland Athletics can follow suit.
As more casinos open up around the country it detracts somewhat from gambling in LV, but the NFL team now there enhances the tourist economy, and an MLB team would enhance it even more since the season has 81 home games spread over a six month season. People from the frozen north would like a trip to sunny and warm LV, especially during April.
My other favorite city might be Havana, if we can work out our FUBAR diplomatic mess first, but that may take another 20 years.
Austin, IMO, is too close to Dallas (196 miles) or Houston (163) miles.
New Orleans is too endangered by hurricanes.
Memphis might be decent choice, it seems to sit in an underserved area but not sure the demand is there.
El Paso is far enough away from other team cities but not sure the demand is there.
Several possible choices! I have a couple more--
Idaho has been seeing steady growth for some time. The Boise/Meridian/Nampa/Caldwell area is up to about 2/3 of a million people. Still low in population.
Utah is a better choice. Their population is just over 3 million and IMO 75% of it is the Salt Lake City area. Provo is 50 miles south and Ogden is 35 miles north. I don't have stats to back it up but I'll wager 2,000,000 people live in the SLC/Provo/Ogden area.
One bit of trivia here. The Athletics franchise has been in 3 cities in 3 different time zones--Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Oakland. Why not make it 4? I'm not sure that this stat is anything you would want to hang your hat on, though.
Forgot about Salt Lake City. That would be a much better fit for a baseball team if they're going to actually move. The southeast isn't baseball country at all. Texas not much better. Vegas is a cruel joke. Portland crossed my mind, but they have bigger fish to fry.
The fourth time zone thing would be fascinating.
Their Kansas City stint predates me. Kind of odd to think I could be an A's fan had they not left there.
Portland and to a lesser extent Vancouver would be intriguing. They are both in the Mariners markets, so the Mariners I believe would have to approve for either one which I could see a pro and a con.
On the plus side, the Mariners, if not leading the league in miles traveled in a season (last year was I believe first time in a while they weren't number 1 in that category) are always top 3 or top 5 if not number 1, and it will only be 9 or 10 games so not much on an overall big scheme of things, but they'd probably be happy to have a semi decent road opponent to travel to that doesn't take 2 hours to get to.
On the minus side and this is a big hit; that would obviously cut into their fan base, and when Toronto comes in, the home side is usually outnumbered by all the Jays fans that take the short trip down from Western Canada. Now imagine the last day of the season, the Mariners lead the Vancouver team by a game in the second wildcard, and 60% of T-Mobile Park in Seattle is cheering for Vancouver. That probably wouldn't be good.
Forget Las Vegas. The hockey team has been doing well because they are a good team and hockey only has 41 games. It's a bigger commitment then football, but still half of the number of home games that a baseball team has. Plus the summer weather, much like Phoenix they would need a retractable roof....not because it rains often, but because the weather is too hot.
Forget Montreal too. I think that's a better alternative for the Marlins or Rays to relocate too because you don't have to move teams around and rearrange the divisions.
I think this is just a ploy to get more money from the city to pay but IF they move I think Nashville is the most logical choice. There is NOTHING professional baseball wise in that area, and the population has skyrocketed in the area. Number 2 would be San Antonio/Austin for the very reason only reason I put Nashville first was because Texas still has the Rangers & Astros, and I think Austin is about 3 hours from both DFW & Houston while San Antonio is about 3 hours from Houston & 4 from DFW.
I think this is just a ploy to get more money from the city to pay but IF they move I think Nashville is the most logical choice. There is NOTHING professional baseball wise in that area, and the population has skyrocketed in the area. Number 2 would be San Antonio/Austin for the very reason only reason I put Nashville first was because Texas still has the Rangers & Astros, and I think Austin is about 3 hours from both DFW & Houston while San Antonio is about 3 hours from Houston & 4 from DFW.
Nashville has had professional baseball going back to the late 19th century and was had a professional baseball team from then to now, with only a 14-year gap with no team from '64 to '78.
From 1978 to 1984, Nashville was home to a Double-A team and from 1985 to today it has had a Triple-A team. Their current team, the Nashville Sounds, play in one of the nicest ballparks in all of minor league baseball, it opened in 2015.
While I agree Nashville would be a great future market for a MLB team, along with Charlotte and Portland and Montreal, there is professional baseball in the Music City, it's just not the majors!
Nashville is an incredibly supportive market. I am sure most thought the NHL would bomb there; the season ticket requirements from the league were incredibly high, and the region rallied around its team to make it occur.
That same commitment would occur if given an MLB team.
Nashville has an ownership group ready, a site ready next to the Titans stadium, the growth, the corporate base, a media market that will likely surpass Baltimore in size this year, and no team for 250 miles. It's also not too hot for a open roof stadium and these charmless retractable roof facilities tend to fit poorly within their surroundings - i.e. produce fewer ballpark villages or neighborhoods around the park.
Las Vegas and Nashville have been among the top 5 in all minors attendance the last few years, and in Las Vegas' case, that means people are watching minor league outside, so they too could be viable without a roof and heavy night games. There's also a big risk with Vegas because its media market is 30% smaller which means less cable revenue. So on balance, Nashville makes the most sense. If this ever gets closer to reality, the only benefit to Las Vegas over Nashville is keeping a team in the West and holding Nashville for the Rays.
Portland and to a lesser extent Vancouver would be intriguing. They are both in the Mariners markets, so the Mariners I believe would have to approve for either one which I could see a pro and a con.
On the plus side, the Mariners, if not leading the league in miles traveled in a season (last year was I believe first time in a while they weren't number 1 in that category) are always top 3 or top 5 if not number 1, and it will only be 9 or 10 games so not much on an overall big scheme of things, but they'd probably be happy to have a semi decent road opponent to travel to that doesn't take 2 hours to get to.
On the minus side and this is a big hit; that would obviously cut into their fan base, and when Toronto comes in, the home side is usually outnumbered by all the Jays fans that take the short trip down from Western Canada. Now imagine the last day of the season, the Mariners lead the Vancouver team by a game in the second wildcard, and 60% of T-Mobile Park in Seattle is cheering for Vancouver. That probably wouldn't be good.
Forget Las Vegas. The hockey team has been doing well because they are a good team and hockey only has 41 games. It's a bigger commitment then football, but still half of the number of home games that a baseball team has. Plus the summer weather, much like Phoenix they would need a retractable roof....not because it rains often, but because the weather is too hot.
Forget Montreal too. I think that's a better alternative for the Marlins or Rays to relocate too because you don't have to move teams around and rearrange the divisions.
I think this is just a ploy to get more money from the city to pay but IF they move I think Nashville is the most logical choice. There is NOTHING professional baseball wise in that area, and the population has skyrocketed in the area. Number 2 would be San Antonio/Austin for the very reason only reason I put Nashville first was because Texas still has the Rangers & Astros, and I think Austin is about 3 hours from both DFW & Houston while San Antonio is about 3 hours from Houston & 4 from DFW.
Not for the minors
In 2018-2019, $150 million was spent for a minor league ballpark in the Vegas metro.
It is open air, seats 10,000, has an outfield pool like the retractable roofed Chase Field in Phoenix, and the largest video board in the minors.
There's a chance MLB is worried about losing Las Vegas to the NBA, at which point the spending capacity of the market would make baseball unlikely for decades. Re: Sacramento, Las Vegas is also about to leapfrog Sacramento in terms of MSA size and has a stronger growth rate.
The main reason I thought of Sacramento was because it could still keep much of its existing Bay Area and NoCal fan base while going elsewhere to resolve the stadium issue.
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