Connecticut To Get A MLB Team?
by Ryan McKeen
I haven’t written about baseball on this site in a long time but this topic is too good to pass up.
There are smart people in the Major League Baseball offices wondering if there’s hope of even discussing a potential move of the Rays to New Jersey or Southern Connecticut over certain protests from the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and Phillies. - Peter Gammons, MLB.com 1/22/201o
With all the recent talk of a Springfield-New Haven rail line, how cool would it be to hop on a train in Hartford after work, head down to New Haven, grab some pizza, and watch the Red Sox? A man can dream.
To quote Rogers Hornsby “People ask me what I do all winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
Whether or not a team ever comes to Connecticut, who knows? It’s probably not going to happen and I blame the Yankees for that. For now, I’m content to read Gammons, drink coffee on a cold January morning, and stare out the window and wait for spring.
January 29th, 2010 at 11:09 am
There’s a huge open space in Bridgeport right along the turnpike that would be perfect!
[Reply]
February 5th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Ryan – Keep dreamin’ and I’ll be dreamin’ right there with you! The fact that Gammons even made that statement gives a glimmer of hope of an MLB team in, say, New Haven or Bridgeport, but we all might be long gone by the time it ever happens! A major league team sandwiched geographically between two major market teams (Boston and New York)? A tall order for sure, not to mention the influence of the Mets and Phillies to put the squeeze on any possibility of it.
[Reply]
Ryan Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 8:23 am
Keeping a 3rd team out of the NY Metro Area is the sole reason that MLB’s anti-trust exemption matters.
[Reply]
February 16th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
I think it would draw more fans than people thing. Throw the Rays in CT, smack dab in the middle of Boston and New York, and knowing that each of those 2 teams will be playing @ (the Rays) in CT. Fans like myself from Connecticut would attend many games. And tickets wouldnt be totally overpriced imo.
[Reply]
April 2nd, 2010 at 2:20 pm
I think MLB’s loss of a national impact and status as the premiere American sport has a lot to do with anti-competitive behavior rules. In contrast, the competition rules in the NFL have elevated that sport’s national impact considerably. For a lot of the country, MLB is just an obscure, slow-paced proxy war between the Bronx and Boston. The biggest problem is that MLB has an anti-monopoly exemption and restrictions on who can move where. If anyone knows the law on this, please share. Second, baseball is huge in the Northeast. Unlike most of the country, it is the number one sport. So as far as a fan base (or potential fan base) is considered, New York OVER represents its population in terms of dollars spent on baseball per person. That said, NY only has a two teams for 19 million people, far above the MLB average. The fact that Rockies and Twins are even good enough to be cared about in their regions is surprising. The Twins may have kept Joe Mauer this year, but they lost Johan Santana to the Mets and Tori Hunter to the Angels, mostly because they couldn’t match the bids of teams with big markets and interventionist rules to keep their market share intact. In a sane world without restrictions on movement of teams, the Royals, Athletics, Pirates, Rays, Marlins, or someone else would have moved into the NY area a long time ago. If left up to market factors alone, I think 5 or even 6 teams could be supported in the greater NY metro. A similar situation occurs in New England, where the Red Sox are the premiere sports team. A sane solution that increases overall revenue for the league and improves competition is to allow teams to move into NE, NY, and NJ as they see fit. Unfortunately, the state-sponsored stadium issue distorts the whole landscape on who can make a profit where. Kaufman, for example, is too nice to be a minor league park. The Royals are stuck in it. Further, no one has pointed out the effect of merch sales on revenue. I lived in Sweden where, guess what? Guys wore NY yankees hats. None of these guys cared about baseball. Some picked it up along with an I (heart) NY shirt when they made a trip to the US. Guys see rappers wearing NY hats on MTV and imitate the fashion trend. That revenue needs to be shared. Next, abandon the DH and realign the leagues based on geography to foster local rivalries. Oh, and figure out how to speed up the game. In short, a CT team would be fantastic for baseball, but the real issue is competition rules.
[Reply]