I was listening to the Breathing Orange Fire Podcast and started thinking about some major expansion/realignment/ playoff changes. This thread was the closest I could find so I will add my ideas here over the next few hours. 1) expand and realign based on timezones keeping current league/division rivalries whenever possible. 3 cities have 2 teams and they should be in different divisions. Eastern timezone + Chicago Cubs= 2 divisions of 8 teams. Charlotte and Orlando are largest media markets w/o a team. Charlotte gets the expansion team and Orlando is designated as area for Miami to move if needed. NYY, TOR, Bos, Det, TB, Bal, Cle, Charlotte. NYM, ChC, Phi, Was, Atl, Mia, Pit, Cin. Central/Mountain + LA Angels ChW, Tex, Hou, LAA, Min, St.L, KC, Mil. Pacific + Denver Sacramento gets to audition and if they do well and secure funding for stadium, they get the expansion team. Otherwise it goes to Portland. LAD, Ari, Den, SD, Sea, SF, LasV, Sac/Port. I'll post my schedule and playoff ideas when I have time
There will still be 2 leagues w/ 2 divisions. AL-East NYY, TOR, Bos, Det, TB, Bal, Cle, Charlotte. AL- West ChW, Tex, Hou, LAA, Min, St.L, KC, Mil. NL-East NYM, ChC, Phi, Was, Atl, Mia, Pit, Cin. NL-West LAD, Ari, Den, SD, Sea, SF, LasV, Sac/Port. Schedule: 9 games vs each division rival = 63 5 games vs each team in other division= 40 3 games vs each team in the other league= 48 151 game season There's gotta be promotion opportunity w/ Bacardi there, right?
I think Miami's new ballpark means they aren't going anywhere anytime soon...but moving another team to Central Florida where Tampa already can't draw fans seems like a really bad idea, regardless of market size.
This is a valid concern. Orlando is a different type of demographic though. It's inland where Miami and Tampa/St.Pete are on the coasts. It's also much more tourism heavy like Vegas and has smaller percentage of retirees than the coastal areas do. If it's not viable there are no shortage of cities in the east.
Playoffs: 2 division winners and 4 WC in each league. 1 day off after regular season. 4 WC teams play a 3 day tournament at a preselected location. $$$ opportunity for MLB. Day 1: Game 1= A vs B, Game 2= C vs D Day 2: Game 3= 2 winners. Game 4= 2 losers Game #3 winner advances to play #2 seed. Day 3: Game #4 Game 3 loser & game #2 winner Winner advances to play #1 seed. Division round starts 5 days after regular season ends.
Almost certain Nashville is the next city getting a team. Then Portland or San Antonio (a central Texas team in New Braunfels could be huge but I think the Astros and Rangers are going to push back hard on any expansion in Texas). Charlotte would be behind Nashville and Portland imho.
My brother lives between Orlando and Tampa (yeah, he’s prepping for a storm for sure now)…I’d argue Tampa has the demographics to support baseball way better than Orlando could….but no Florida city supports baseball. I don’t really blame Miami for not showing up for a franchise that doesn’t care to field a competitive product. Tampa and Orlando are less than 2 hours away. I can’t imagine MLB would move a team to Orlando unless that team was already playing in Tampa and currently called the Rays. I can’t imagine they’re going to make it even more difficult for the Rays to draw in Tampa by introducing another team to the city about an hour and a half away.
Florida does not need a third team. They barely support two. Snowbirds don't give up their AL/NL East allegiances when they move down there. I also don't think Austin, or a combined team with San Antonio based in New Braunfels, would work. Filling a stadium in New Braunfels 81 times a year is a big ask; I-35 traffic is terrible and making a 7 pm first pitch would be a huge challenge for fans in Austin and San Antonio. Plus the Astros and Rangers would fight like hell to stop it. I don't think MLB will be able to resist Nashville and Portland. Both markets fill geographic voids and I bet Portland would eagerly support a team. I wish they'd go back to Montreal. It's an amazing city with a long baseball history going back to Jackie Robinson. It's got a huge population and fans only abandoned the Expos after the strike and MLB's obvious desire to move the team. But, they'd need a new stadium and I don't see Quebec putting any public money toward that.
These are all valid points, but my original post had no intention of adding a 3rd team to Florida. This was about IF Miami has to relocate, Orlando being a potential option. But as I said, there are tons of cities in the East. For it to fit within the framework of my plan, they would just need to remain in the Eastern Timezone, though truth be told, the central Timezone wouldn't be the end of the world.
I don't see Miami relocating because they have a brand new stadium. It seems like Tampa is finally on track to build something, but they were floating a "shared team" option with Montreal a couple of years ago. We're also assuming that the A's successfully relocate to Las Vegas. That's still a few years away and nothing has been agreed-to regarding a stadium.
AL East: NYY, Boston, Baltimore, Toronto AL South: Tampa, Texas, Houston, KC AL North: Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota, White Sox AL West: Seattle, Las Vegas, Colorado, LAA NL East: NYM, Washington, Philadelphia, Nashville* NL South: Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte*, St. Louis NL North: Milwaukee, Cubs, Pittsburgh, Cincy NL West: Arizona, LAD, SF, SD Playoffs stay at 12 teams, just shift to division winners plus 2 WC per league.
This looks to me like what they’d do. I don’t like having 12 playoff teams, but whatever. Let’s play 162 and put a premium on playoff spots.
Tampa supports a winning hockey team very well. They support a winning baseball team poorly (mainly because the team doesn't play near the city... and they're building another stadium near the previous one.... would be as if the Astros played in Kemah). All this means is that Houston deserves the opportunity to support a hockey team...
"Snowbirds don't give up their AL/NL East allegiances when they move down there." Those fans do not move to the Gulf coast they are mostly on the Atlantic coast of Florida. In my experience Gulf coast retirees are mostly from the mid west and have no east coast allegiences to speak of.
Astros get to beat up on organizations with terrible ownership like he As / Angels or middling teams like the Rangers or Mariners. I'd rather have it like this instead of being in divisions that have legit teams and ownership.
Swap St. Louis and Tampa. Ban use of State names. Only affects Texas, Minnesota, Colorado and Arizona. When a team moves, the history stays with the City.
The Austin/San Antonio area could easily support a team but that is not going to happen because of politics.
The Yankees have had their offices, headquarters, and ST cathedral in Tampa for decades now…. There are tons of Yankee fans from NY there. Ditto Red Sox with Fort Myers.
$$$: Austin > San Antonio and more enticing to major professional sports leagues, but, yeah, the politics there just don’t embrace the concept of “if you build it, they will come”……
