Proposals won’t do anything, breaking ground will. Raleigh is already behind other candidates, the only way it jumps Charlotte IMO is if dirt starts moving.
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These stadium ultimatums and threats of relocation are so obnoxious and why would we want to steal a well supported franchise from a city like Milwaukee? I would actively root against the Brewers if they ever moved here.
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It’s not stealing if they simply found their city untenable. That said, Milwaukee is not my idea of a struggling franchise whose burned bridges in their city ala the A’s, so I imagine they’ll work something out.
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Uhm I don’t know because we should take advantage of it, Hurricanes wouldn’t be here if we didn’t It’s called competition.
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I think they will. But there always Plan B.
The A’s aren’t moving to North Carolina, but the bigger point here is that when mentioning potential MLB markets, Ken Rosenthal (one of the bigger MLB Analysts) mentioned Raleigh (-Durham) for the first time.
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We need the Billionaires here to step up, Malik and Kane are rich and all, but we need folks to step up like, Goodnight or the Holden Family of The now Fortune 500 First Citizens bank Corp, also with the city council we have now a public private partnership will lean much harder on the private side unless, major concessions are given.
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I would also throw in having the media might of Jim Goodman helping the cause too. I feel if he had WRAL helping to push the narrative for an MLB to Raleigh as a good thing it would help tremendously. Also would tie in nicely with Capital Broadcasting’s baseball portfolio since they already own both the Durham Bulls and the Holly Springs Salamanders.
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First Citizens Bank could be a catalyst for MLB to Raleigh we’ve given them everything time to give back.
If Goodnight could build the park in Chatham, we might get him involved lol.
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Downtown South should be the spot as that’s literally the only place without any serious legitimate hurdles.
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Raleigh has the only billionaires that live in the state of NC. If someone wants to move / build a MLB franchise here it will happen. That’s pretty much the whole story at this point. Doesn’t have to be someone local, as evidenced by Dundon.
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The problem is the billionaires here are all computer nerds that don’t give a flip about pro sports. They are into art and conservation as pro Bono’s. If they cared about sports we would already have MLS. No reason to think baseball will be any different.
Need to stop talking about people like Kane and Malik. Landing major pro sports for a region is way above their level of wealth and influence.
And that’s what I hate about this area a little bit and why I don’t like about this area being different than other areas they’re just too many geeks. That is one of the reasons for the hindrances to growth in this area. Glad I figured that out.
Here is exactly what you need. In this order…
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A government willing to work with MLB/Developers/Investment group
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Land that can be zoned for a stadium, accessible to major highways, and bonus if you can build a district around it.
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A huge developer who can partner with an investment group/government to build out that stadium and potential district.
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An investment GROUP. There does need to be a majority owner who is worth near the $1 billion range. It would be best if this person was local but MLB has a Rolodex of people who want to be majority owners of MLB teams. If all the other ducks are in a row and there is no local owner interested in putting together a group and owning a team, then MLB can fill that void.
If the NC government is willing in a bipartisan fashion to come together and go for this. If a major developer with stadium-zoned land is willing to anchor a district with a stadium. Then right away Raleigh runs to the top tier of candidates.
Note: You don’t need an ownership group if you get the A’s or Tampa (A’s being the most unlikely). Those ownership groups simply pay a relocation fee and move. However, if you are vying for an expansion team, then you will need an investor group and while MLB may lean towards a candidate that has a local one, they will obviously be taking the whole scope of things into account.
Here is the lay of the land right now and why we think things are shaping up well for us…
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Las Vegas just had their legislature vote down the stadium deal for the A’s. Oakland has also declined to build the A’s a new stadium. The A’s want out of Oakland without a new stadium, however, they likely won’t be funding one. Something has to give.
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Nashville doesn’t have a real viable ownership group. They don’t have land and their state legislature just ‘OK’d’ a public-private partnership for a new stadium for the Titans for over $2 billion. Their state funding has been ‘bled dry’ by this deal. MLB is very unlikely unless someone pays for all of it themselves.
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Portland’s momentum has halted. MLB is looking for a government that will play nice with them and there are reasons to believe they aren’t interested at all in funding a stadium. They also don’t have land, and their ownership group lacks the billionaire majority investor. They have an ex- Nike exec who is worth a couple million and an investor who is worth about $10 million. Then they have a few celebs they run out, like Russell Wilson. Maybe they have a whale lurking behind the scenes, but at this point, no one has hinted at that.
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Orlando is a push backed by former Magic owner Pat Williams. He is worth about $25 million. However, they don’t have land (although they have identified land they’d like to use) and they don’t yet have government support. Meanwhile, their real only play is the Rays relocation. There is no way MLB passes up North Carolina (one of the fastest growing states and in the middle of their biggest east coast dead zone) to jam a team into Orlando, FL while just a couple hours a way you have a Rays team in first place ranking 27th in attendance in the league. And then 4 hours south you have the Marlins who are ranking 2nd to LAST in attendance. There is no way MLB plops another expansion team in Florida unless there are NO other options.
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Salt Lake City’s bid has government backing and a billionaire investor, but do they have the market? And does MLB want to expand there?
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Montreal has the market and the money, but there are questions on whether MLB wants to enter an already failed market in Canada.
Honestly, right now, there is no clear front-runner, however, in the next 6 months to a year, I believe a couple will emerge. We are hoping and working towards making Raleigh one of them.
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Residency isn’t necessarily an indicator of market viability — look at Tepper and the Panthers.
Yeah that’s the point I was making with my post, albeit not very clear. Raleigh has the only billionaires in the state, but Charlotte has NFL, MLS, and NBA.
Honestly, and this is just IMO, I think it comes down to a motivated #4 from your list with deep pockets. I think the others will align if there’s big, serious money behind it. I think we only need to look at what happened with Charlotte FC and the MLS expansion. Charlotte was considered an outsider back in 2019 when the Downtown South concept was debuted and then jumped in front of everyone when Tepper got more seriously involved. Yes, it also helped their cause tremendously they had an existing stadium too.
Another reason why I think a serious motivated #4 is crucial is the commish said in 2021 the expansion fee would be over $2 billion for an MLB team. Looks cheap compared to the MLS expansion fees.
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Well, that’s IF you are going for expansion. As I said, relocation won’t involve a new ownership group unless the A’s or Rays decide to sell (which is more likely with the Rays but still unlikely overall).
That said, I think MLS wanted into the NC market. That seemed clear. Tepper gave them a owner who has a pro track record, deep pockets and didn’t need to ask for stadium money from the state (yet). He could simply house them at BOA stadium.
Raleigh, while early to the party, had so many questions. They first had a site off Peace St, but that wasn’t really viable for a lot of reasons. Then when Malik finally got with Kane to secure DT South, they put out a rendering there, but at that point it was getting late. And there were questions on whether the State/City would fund that stadium. Then there was the question on whether Malik had a strong enough portfolio for MLS to feel comfortable with him being a majority owner.
Raleigh may have seemed like the slam dunk early on for MLS, but the stadium + developer + land stuff came together too late for Gov’t to approve the funding and I’m sure MLS didn’t want to announce Raleigh, only to see their stadium not get funded. It would have been embarrassing.
Even if the State didn’t want to pay for an MLS stadium (although I think they would have), in Charlotte you still have a backup option and could get the team up and running ASAP.
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That’s an awfully big reach to make that connection.
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