I'm listening to late night sports radio and that's what the guy said, based on an article coming out in Sunday's New York Post. It's a bargaining chip in the current baseball negotations. They might move the Marlins there. I didn't really get any more details but I'm sure the link will be up soon for you guys on the East Coast. The Metros may play in Rochester after all!!!
I don't know how well a NJ team would do. We already have the Mets and Yankees. Jersey makes up a lot of both teams fan bases. I think it'd be a tough sell. Plus you look at the NJ Devils who have attendance problems because of the Meadowlands. Traffic there is terrible. So I think an upstart baseball team wouldn't really draw much.
Wouldn't the Yankees and Mets get a veto of anything moving in on their territority? As i understood it this is even an item that has to be negotiated with Angelos (Baltimore) about moving a team to Washington, an hour away. I can't imagine that Steinbrenner wouldn't get an effective veto over this like he has an effective veto over everything else that might save that sport....
The Mets and Yankees would be well paid to allow another team into the area. Likewise for the Orioles. The team would be well-supported. Baseball fans in the NYC area could support 5 MLB teams. The history of success of baseball in NYC has developed a very large fandom. Parents will take kids to baseball games, business reps will take their clients to baseball games, etc, and they will take them to the closest ballpark. Why shlep over the GWB if you don't have to? The reason I don't expect it to happen is that baseball does not do anything that is intelligent. They would rather have a team in Montreal than in Brooklyn.
Ironic, isn't it? Because baseball's culture is ruled by the big Media, the average fan doesn't have a decent on-line forum to vent, so ironically, some of the best Baseball talk ends up here in BigSoccer. This is easy. After the strike and the massive contraction that is coming, MLB Baseball will end up where it already is, namely a regional professional sport followed in some parts of the US and Canada, much like Hockey used to be. So, there may be as many as 4 teams in the New York area. (Yanks, Mets, a NJ team and one on Long Island) There will be a National League team in Boston. There will be a team in DC, a 3rd Team in the LA Basin, probably the new city of San Fernado Valley, and so-on. All being teams moved from defunct cities. That is how they will try to not bankrupt their buddy owners, and still maintain the illusion of a National sport. That all noted...WHO CARES? Isn't this a Soccer forum?
This Saturday I went to see the Mets for the first time ever at Shea. I only went cause I was a REDS fan growing up and wanted to check them out. Had to be the most boring game I have ever witnessed. We left after 9 with the score 1x1. I sat there wondering how the US media and public have the balls to say soccer is slow and boring. It was painful to sit there. Basicly the only way to survive a baseball game and pass time is to talk with your friends and later walk around the stadium to get a look at different angles. Maybe thats why its called the national passtime. The game was slow, boring, very litlle atleticism was going on (outfieldrs on their knee waiting for action, coaches talking to pitchers,ZZZzz). By the Top of the fifth I had calculated that a soccer game would be ending at that moment. That was probably my last MLB game I will ever attend and this coming from a guy that hit his peak of baseball fanatisism from 92 to 96 when I was really into it for some odd reason (maybe no MLS?)
Sorry about your first time out at Shea. It's too bad you couldn't have been to a more exciting game cuz when the crowd is pumped, you get pumped with them. But yeah, I've been a part of some pretty slow baseball games but Saturday's was one of the slowest I've seen.
Yes, the Yankees could interfere, but since whenever the subject of sharing the Yankees' local TV revenue, George talks about the sacred free market, he would never be so hypocritical as to disturb the Marlins' use of that free market.
Re: Ironic, isn't it? Dude, National League team in Boston? Where the hell would they play? They can't/won't solve what to do with Fenway until 2110 with the political climate, never mind bring in another team.
Re: Re: Ironic, isn't it? Believe it or not, at the old/new Fenway. It has been done many times before, 2 baseball teams in the same stadium. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE GREED OF BASEBALL OWNERS. You do so at your own peril, Dude.
It used to be the case that all MLB teams had a veto right over any team from the same league moving within 50 miles. Thus, Angelos had a veto right on an American League team moving to DC... he never has had any right to stop a National League team. Two years ago, baseball consolidated the American and National League offices into one MLB office. My understanding is that this reorganization of the league offices ended the same-league veto power that individual owners had. Thus, technically, neither the Yankees or Mets could stop a team from moving. In any event, moving any team requires approval of 3/4 of the owners, so nothing would ever happen if the adversely-affected owners were not compensated. More importantly, how could baseball be played at the Meadowlands? The seats on the sideline are not removable as far as I know, so there is little chance of this happening.
Re: Re: Re: Ironic, isn't it? First of all, the Red Sox own Fenway, so no team could play there unless the Red Sox wanted them there. Second, the Red Sox will not willingly allow another team to compete with them in the same ballpark. Even though it is possible both teams could survive at the gate, having a second team in your market decreases the amount for which you can sell you local TV broadcast rights. Thus, there is NO chance that a second team will ever play in Boston in the same ballpark as the Red Sox. In fact, this will never happen in any city. You're right about never underestimating the greed of baseball owners... but this is precisely why your prediction of having additional teams moving to already taken markets is highly unlikely. By the way, having two teams playing in the same stadium has not been done "many times before." It has only been done either (i) before teams sold television rights or (ii) when teams needed temporary homes while their ballparks were being renovated. Even when three teams played in NY, they each had their own ballpark.
If it were for an expansion team, that could certainly happen. However if we're talking about moving the Marlins, they would need a place to play now. There's no way that a team is going to play as a lame-duck in a city for 5 years while its new stadium gets built in another city.
Having a third baseball team in the NYC area might be a workable thing, but I think that the DC area or the Carolina's will be first before the NYC area sees another team.
Actually, the reason I posted this initially is because I thought when the radio guy said "the Meadowlands" I thought he meant where the Metros play, and therefore with a conflict with baseball the Metros may have to move somewhere. But if the stands don't move they couldn't convert it to a baseball friendly ballpark so I guess I was mistaken.
What I saw in the NY Daily News is that former baseball commish, Bowie Kuhn, suggested that a team could move to the Meadowlands. Kuhn lives in North Jersey. As someone mentioned, a baseball stadium would have to be built. Right now they're debating what to do with the Continental Airlines Arena. The Yankees/Nets organization wants a new arena in Newark but NJ legislators are rightly balking at building George Steinbrenner a new arena in these economic times. It's all part of his YES tv network. All talk of moving the Nets & Devils out if an arena is not built is silly. The tv network depends on them being in the area. But I guess anything is possible at this point. The Metros are looking to build their soccer stadium in Harrison which is right next to Newark and its large Portugese/Brazilian/Latino population. The Metros want state funding along with the Yankees/Nets so their plans are on hold as well.