as Roanoke VA resident i would certainly try to make a few games per season…approx 150 miles.
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Anyone else see “PIG” when viewing the MLB Raleigh “919” logo?
i can’t unsee it lol
Maybe it’s an omen for a team name LOL
“Bring mlb PIG to Raleigh”…along with some down east vinegar
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The Raleigh Hogs lol
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The Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs have a pretty fun brand, maybe we can buy them out and they can switch to one of their alternates, like the Hoagies.
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If the recommendation by the baseball consultant was a 60-mile drive to the stadium, a 60-mile circumference isn’t the same thing. Is there a tool that can tell you the population that lives within X driving distance to a pin?
You’d have to factor in speed limits and traffic. 60-mile radius given highway access is a rough guideline. Case in point, Fayetteville and Greensboro are both 1 hour and 9 minutes (and 71 miles) from the Lenovo Center right now per Google. So 60 miles would be just this side of both.
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there is a Ceasars casino in danville va… 90 mi from raleigh, 70 mi from durham, 55 miles form greensboro… Caesars has now taken in nearly 370 million dollars since they opened last year. December taxes on Caesars was $6,515,549.10. Nearly two million of that goes directly to the City of Danville. mlb might do ok?
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as a former Raleigh resident…born at Rex…not having to hear Atlanta baseball on the radio, with a Carolina team…im good with that.
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The Carolina Pulled Pork Vinegar Based BBQ
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Our own Cherokees of NC own half that casino so NC is profitting in one way.
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Okay. I believe you that on the advice of a sports consultant you just so happened to stumble onto a metric that could not possibly be more flattering to Raleigh. Fair enough. But you can see very clearly that the edge of Raleigh’s circle slices right through a major population center, and none of the other cities’ do, and quite obviously people on the very edge of a 62-mile radius are much less likely to attend a game in person than people living close to the stadium.
I actually think that centering the circle at the Lenovo Center is a perfectly sensible choice since, yes, it’s probably near where any theoretical stadium would go. And it’s great to, even implicitly, acknowledge that the proposed downtown Raleigh sites aren’t realistic. But transparency is always nice, too, because unlike the other cities, moving Raleigh’s center just a few miles causes big increases in population because you catch more of Greensboro’s density on the very fringes.
I think this is spot on, actually. It is marketing. And I don’t think there’s anything at all wrong with MLB to Raleigh having a marketing arm, the same way that it’s totally sensible that Subaru has a marketing arm to selectively use data to try to convince people that their cars are better than others. But if I want trustworthy information about the automotive industry in general, I wouldn’t call my local Subaru dealer.
MLB Raleigh wants an MLB team in Raleigh; It’s right there in the name. Like any other organization with a desired outcome, if there are data points that support our goal (and there are many), we’re going to publish them. We’d be foolish not to. To borrow the Subaru example, you’re unlikely to see a Subaru ad that says “hey Subarus are really great, but here are some reasons to buy a Volkswagen instead.”
I would understand your challenges to MLB Raleigh’s messaging if the claims made were demonstrably false. Like, if we claimed our TV market was #18 in the US when it’s actually #22, that would be problematic and deserving to be labeled “untrustworthy.” If the other markets in the Tom Forth graphic had a Greensboro-sized city within 100km, it would boost their market population numbers, right? But they don’t, so it doesn’t.
We want MLB in Raleigh. This has never been a secret. I understand your desire for transparency and trustworthiness, and that’s a good thing! We want that too, which is why we’ll keep publishing information that’s objectively true. All the other expansion hopefuls are (or should be) doing the same thing for their bids.
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Why should Raleigh be penalized for being near other metro areas?
It actually supports the idea that Raleigh is a great place to put a team. Plenty of people come from Greensboro for Canes games, it’s not a crazy idea that they would be included in the larger Raleigh MLB fanbase.
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Thanks for the input David and for your thoughts on our data. I’ll keep it in mind going forward.
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i was born in raleigh in the late 60s, lived their for 40 years. im not part of mlb raleigh or any other org…im in roanoke va. i read the nc has the 11th largest gdp in the usa, meets criteria for a mlb team within income and population studies. now its either a braves hat here or some team near DC…seems like a large baseball vaccum (or told to me as a baseball black hole) to me. i would try to make a couple of games per season 150 miles away.
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Again, this criticism would hold more merit if Raleigh’s 30-mile radius plummeted compared to others. But it doesn’t, it remains pretty much the same comparatively.
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Portland has advanced to the shiny renderings stage of the campaign (also, Portland is such a pretty city. Big fan.)
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Hey, when did they get a ski lift? (Last photo). Interesting photos. Not really blown away, that retractable roof will be a must.
I gotta admit, I did not fall in love with Portland when I was there 20 yrs ago.
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The lift connects to the hospital and health sciences campus up the hill!
Portland is definitely gritty and not for everyone (and they desperately need to get the homeless services out of Old Town, it’s so sad), but I love how artsy and industrial it is, and the natural beauty around it is wonderful.
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Dang kinda cheering for Portland to get a team if this is where the actual location of the stadium would go. What a view. Would be a home run.
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