Thanks! How are we so confident we are and will stay positioned ahead of Charlotte?
I think we’re definitely in the running, but from what I’ve seen Nashville and Portland are a bit ahead of us at this point. Their organizations have been around longer and are more put together than what we have, though Dundon’s involvement is certainly helpful.
I do think MLB will prefer one west coast and one east coast addition, which could make things very difficult for Raleigh, given Nashville’s prominence and preparedness.
I think there’s 0 chance Portland gets it. If you’ve been there recently, you’d know why.
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I tend to agree I don’t think Portland will get a team. Could be wrong, but it just doesn’t seem like a MLB market.
I know Nashville is probably the front runner in the SE, but I will continually say I think they have a lot more headwinds than Raleigh does. The City / State just dropped a lot of money on NFL and MLS, I’m not sure the appetite will be there for another. They also already have a minor league team downtown in a spot that could not be converted to a MLB stadium. I think the Braves would try and say Nashville is their market as well much more so than Raleigh. I think Charlotte has a lot of the same challenges as Nashville.
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I was about to say, isn’t Nashville tapped out for stadium money for the foreseeable future?
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Considering the gap between DC and Atlanta and the current population/projections of NC it just seems hard to fathom how MLB doesn’t put a team in this State.
If Raleigh is really better positioned then Charlotte (I’ll never truly be sold on that until it’s actually awarded) then you have to feel good about the chances.
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I think Dundon leading the charge makes Raleigh a preferred spot over Charlotte. I imagine he would want the sports market here to himself instead of dealing with Tepper. This is also truly just based on “vibes” but I feel like the Triangle would more quickly adopt a local team than Charlotte would. Charlotte is a little closer to Braves country and seems to me a little more transient.
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Right. But the issue seems to be when someone other than Dundon who has more horesepower then he does swoops in who wants it in Charlotte.
Tepper just got hammered in an Observer editorial. Not only bad for the Panthers, but stealing all the joy out of sports in Charlotte. This might give Raleigh an edge. I also agree with @Daniel on Nashville, I just can’t see the state and city/county coming up with any more stadium money. But when it comes to subsidizing sports teams, all bets are always off.
https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article282373088.html
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Dude Tepper is becoming the laughingstock of the NFL hahaha - no chance in hell the MLB will want to work with him if they can instead work with Dundon here who has proven to be a successful and not embarrassing franchise owner.
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I feel like everyone is forgetting that Dundon has already said he would still support a team in Charlotte. He would obviously prefer a team in Raleigh, but I don’t think that he is necessarily the silver bullet everyone seems to think he is.
From the News & Observer:
“I think you have to do the work to make sure you give yourself the best chance,” Dundon said. “If it’s Raleigh, it’s easier for me. We’re so early in the process it wouldn’t be fair for me to think about that kind of decision. One, because it’s not up to me. You have to do whatever gives yourself the best chance.”
Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/luke-decock/article280089824.html#storylink=cpy
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Tom Dundon has been vocal about 2 things. Both publically and with us.
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He prefers Raleigh. He thinks Raleigh is the best market.
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At the same time, he believes the best way to go about getting a team is to not alienate anyone and to make the high-level focus on getting MLB to North Carolina first and foremost. Something the entire state can help champion.
Now, reading a little deeper. He owns the Hurricanes here in Raleigh and he just signed that giant PNC deal in which he’ll be involved in the build-out of mixed-use around the arena. He believes in this market and has first-hand experience in making a pro franchise work in this market.
Charlotte has a lot of hurdles. First off, Tepper is having a tough go of it both in the local and national media (w/ the Panthers struggles). He also just purchased the MLS team which has direct regular season overlap with MLB, in an already saturated market for their size.
The land that any MLB investor would hypothetically target is the recently ‘for sale’ Pipe and Foundry site which is next to the Panthers stadium. There is enough room there for a stadium, however it is also just .3 miles from their AAA ballpark. MLB wants affiliates close to the MLB team, but not .3 miles from it. The AAA stadium can’t be upfit for MLB bc of space restrictions, so they’d have to tear it down and move it. (That would be on top of the massive cost any owner would be paying to get a new franchise/build an MLB stadium).
But saying Charlotte has NO CHANCE is false and serves nobody any good. It just has more hurdles than people realize while having only a slight market advantage in population and TV Market (we’re 22nd, they are 21st) All of that plus, those currently involved have a preference for Raleigh.
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As for Nashville, go ahead and read this deep-dive into their movement.
TLDR: They have a real estate investor, a former pro baseball player, a bunch of celebrities and a sexy market. What they don’t have is any likelihood for government funding (just committed $1.2 billion to an NFL stadium and just completed a publically funded MLS stadium), they don’t have a billionaire, secured land for a stadium, nor do they have a SINGLE market metric that is better than ours.
So you tell me who the east coast front-runner is.
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From your lips to God’s ears my man
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The Portland Poopers
Not to mention, from a sports culture standpoint, Charlotte sports culture is a dead, wet fish on a slab of concrete - most Panthers games are majority opposing teams’ fans in the stands, and when is the last time you heard anyone discussing the Hornets? LMAO. Counter that to the Hurricanes - the highest attendance in the NHL and an absolutely rabid fanbase.
If you were the MLB, which city’s sports culture would you rather participate in?
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I agree! When I was in Vegas, I had my Canes hat on and a random guy said to me, “Let’s go Canes! You canes fans are crazy!”
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But also the million plus who attend the college games throughout the area. The Triangle is geared for sports fans, and MLB would complement well.
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I posted this over the Charlotte boards as well but it is absolutely astounding that Tepper came directly from being a part owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, a team generally regarded as one of the most well-run sports franchises of all time, and in just over five years in Charlotte has done the TOTAL opposite of anything and everything that the Steelers do. There have been some crazy situations in the NFL before but the Panthers’ current predicament is borderline unprecedented, like I’m not sure there even is a light at the end of the tunnel or a silver lining anywhere. And over on the FC side, their games have generally been well-attended but I wonder how long that will last considering they have also gone through two HCs in two years and the novelty will eventually wear off.
I hope any MLB team in NC stays far far away from Tepper.
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I’d like to sew the government be more open about this considering all the evidence
I think we have the evidence to support 2.