Expansion Could Alter MLB's Landscape

Baseball had about a 10 billion dollar revenue stream. Dropping 6 games would be a 3.7% drop in revenue, about 370 million. I do not think that mlb would save that much in travel costs, I doubt players will want to give up their per game income. A home and home series against a rotating team would likely be added to keep up the revenue. 

The players union would push strongly for this, even if the players existing contracts were reduced by 3.7%.  Reason being the addition of 2 teams automatically turns 25 AAAA-type players into major-leaguers, with the accompanying higher salaries.  

And I'm guessing most players would welcome the reduction in games, even if they took a slight hit in the pocketbook.

expansion won't solve the revenue problem. If anything, it makes it worse. Only way to use expansion to do this is to put another team in NY and LA, and even then, I'm not sure it solves anything.

 

Honestly, if baseball wanted to expand, I'd think there would be much better markets in central America than Portland or Montreal.

But central America for the most part is dirt and i mean DIRT poor.  How could any of those countries down there possibly sustain a major league team with comparative payrolls to US teams? 

Panama and Costa Rica have yearly average incomes of $2740.   Honduras $760 and Nicaragua less than $500 a year! 

If you jump over to the island of Hispaniola it doesn't get any better with Haiti at $460 and Domincan Republic is not much better. Just south of our border Mexico averages $4,400 a year.

"I doubt players will want to give up their per game income."

The players per game income would actually increase if the number of games decreased.  Their salaries are determined by the year not by the number of games in the season.

But central America for the most part is dirt and i mean DIRT poor.  How could any of those countries down there possibly sustain a major league team with comparative payrolls to US teams? 

 

Panama and Costa Rica have yearly average incomes of $2740.   Honduras $760 and Nicaragua less than $500 a year! 

 

If you jump over to the island of Hispaniola it doesn't get any better with Haiti at $460 and Domincan Republic is not much better. Just south of our border Mexico averages $4,400 a year.

I'd love Central American expansion, but it won't happen. Canadian teams already have a harder time signing free agents because of different currency, culture, etc.

I don't think Central America is unrealistic though. The rich in these countries are still rich. It's everyday folk who can't afford the luxuries like MLB.

Bud and the boys had it right. Contraction is the better option.

Too many watered down teams and pitching staffs makes for mostly unwatchable baseball.

One point the article made was that the lost revenue in going to 156 games would be made up in lower travel costs because of realignment. Thats why everyone is emphasizing locations as they are. It’s not just about being viable in community and financial support, but is also viable in location.

84 games vs 76 games now with teams regionally close.  Losing 1 short flight between cities on a road trip and 1 shorter flight  with a division rival along with 3 nights of hotel costs is not going to make up  for the loss of revenue from full season ticket packages, suite revenue and loss from 6 games from broadcast  rights fees

No chance, imo, there are enough businesses here to buy suites, nor do I think the tv market is big enough. Seattle would be bummed for sure, to lose this market, they would want to be compensated.

 

I think Vancouver, BC is actually a good idea. LOTS of money there, LOTS.

 

However, a report came out yesterday that there is a Portland money group working on this.....

 

The stadium would be tough. No one in the city likes going west to the burbs, no one in the far out burbs likes the hippy dippy city. Traffic is awful to the one suburb spot you could do (Hillsboro), and even worse in the city. Supposedly there is a site in the city. It will either be Amazon HQ2 (hahahahaha) or a baseball stadium (hahaha), or condos/apartments/park space.

 

Frankly, this city will have to ban cars in the center part of the city at some point....

No mention of a retractable dome as monsoon season begins in September and doesn't let up until the middle of June.

I agree with this, but I'm not sure median income is necessarily the best way to look at it. There are some very large cities in central America. The question is whether there is enough of a middle class to sustain baseball in one or more of them. Given just how much they love baseball there, I wouldn't throw it out either.

It would certainly be worth looking into but carefully studied the numbers may not work. Then there is the safety factor that know one wants to talk about particularly El Salvador and Guatemala.