I want Pro-Baseball (Jackson, Martin, Mason: stadium, tickets, ranking)

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by Hey_Hey

I think any city, regardless of size, is going to have trouble making an expansion or relocating MLB team successful. Almost nobody is becoming a baseball fan. There are existing baseball fans but I just don't see that many new ones being made. With the exception of the Nationals, have there been any truly successful new relocated or expansion teams in the last 30 years?

MLS, on the other hand, benefits from soccer being on an upward trajectory. New people are becoming soccer fans and MLS attendance figures seem to be increasing. Soccer seems to attract people that aren't existing baseball/basketball/football fans, which is similar to hockey. I can't imagine baseball being successful here, but I could easily see MLS being successful.

I could see Nashville supporting a MLS team. It's got a young, energetic and increasingly, more international population. 3 pro teams in a sub 2 million metro is pushing it though! It ends up being the same people (and corporations) supporting everything.

Right now, IMO Cincinnati has the best bid placed for MLS and they routinely draw 20k fans a game for their division II USL soccer team. Louisville is also top 3 in the USA for their soccer attendance in USL. The Louisville vs Cincinnati games produce massive crowds in both cities.

When Nashville joins the USL next year, I think it will be a fun rivalry with Louisville, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. I hope to travel to all these cities for games.

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by emanresu1

Butt-hurt over their ELEVEN world championships? How many does Atlanta's baseball team have?

1) I'm not an Atlanta fan.

2) https://twitter.com/BestFansStLouis

[Coseau]

Originally Posted by Peter1948

I was at the Reds game Thursday....completely empty! People handing out free tickets and "scalpers" selling them for 5 bucks! Again, a metro really needs 3-4 million before baseball becomes viable. And honestly Cincinnati comes closer to this with Dayton nearby and and also Louisville and Lexington and Indianapolis markets part of the cachement, and still the Reds barely draw

Nashville is just not there yet, especially since half the city is transplants. That said, Nashville has a HUGE geographic cachement area as it covers all of central TN, southern KY, heck, even north AL. But that is also part of Braves market, and they would never go down without a fight.

So, say Nashville gets to that 3 million mark in 20 years...I still don't see baseball there.

Personally? I usually make the drive up to Chicago to see real baseball and tradition

I think when the Reds moved from Crosley Field to the Riverfront really was a bad move in the long run. The residential Kenyon Barr neighborhood that was razed to the ground in order to become a highway and industrial site didn't help either. If both of those didn't happen Cincinnati would have had a stadium in real urban neighborhood instead of far end of a business district surrounded by the Highway Interstate 71, inpersonal Skyscrapers and the Ohio River. It feels isolated from the community and the neighborhoods because of its location.

It wasn't apparent for a while because they had a good front office and the Big Red machine. The real test is when you have a string of disastrous seasons will people show up. Baseball is about community and neighborhood vibe. At Riverfront you don't feel that vibe. It almost feels like it is located at a suburban office park surrounded by modern highrise glass office complexes. Wrigley field in Chicago has been in the same actual urban neighborhood for over an century. This gives the feeling of tradition, continuity and connection to the community.

This is the key to high attendance figures for the Cincinnati USL pro soccer team. Their home stadium (Nippert Stadium) is in an actual dense urban neighborhood. People feel connected to it because it feels that it is part of the neighborhood and community.

[sportzfn]

I'm going to the Cubs/Reds weekend series in a couple weeks. It's always a blast going to see the Cubs there. 30,000 Cubbie fans and 6-8 thousand Reds fans. Cincy is the most overrated baseball town ever.

[KendraC]

I would love a Pro Baseball here in Nashville. I love the Atlanta Braves but hate to travel that far to see Pro-Baseball.

[bspray]

Full disclosure: I am a Royals fan.

Having said that, I think the ideal baseball situation for Nashville would be to get the AAA affiliation for the Braves away from Lawrenceville, GA. Lawrenceville has been struggling to fill the stadium for years with the Braves basically in the same city.

Then, in a perfect world, the Braves move to the NL Central and the Pirates move to the NL East. That would give us these AAA affiliate cities:

Braves - Nashville
Brewers - Colorado Springs
Cards - Memphis
Cubs - Des Moines
Reds - Louisville

It would be nice to see Milwaukee find a AAA affiliate closer to this area, Indianapolis maybe? Of course, we did kind of leave them high and dry when First Tennessee Park opened, so there is that... Regardless, having the A's AAA affiliate is less than ideal if you ask me. I think I would rather have the Brewers back just for the regional rivalry if the Braves affiliate isn't an option.

I just think AAA is the perfect level of baseball for Nashville, we just need to affiliate with the right team.

[BeeHoyal]

Originally Posted by KendraC

I love the Atlanta Braves but hate to travel that far to see Pro-Baseball.

You mean semi-pro baseball?

[Drake744]

Originally Posted by bspray

Full disclosure: I am a Royals fan.

Having said that, I think the ideal baseball situation for Nashville would be to get the AAA affiliation for the Braves away from Lawrenceville, GA. Lawrenceville has been struggling to fill the stadium for years with the Braves basically in the same city.

Then, in a perfect world, the Braves move to the NL Central and the Pirates move to the NL East. That would give us these AAA affiliate cities:

Braves - Nashville
Brewers - Colorado Springs
Cards - Memphis
Cubs - Des Moines
Reds - Louisville

It would be nice to see Milwaukee find a AAA affiliate closer to this area, Indianapolis maybe? Of course, we did kind of leave them high and dry when First Tennessee Park opened, so there is that... Regardless, having the A's AAA affiliate is less than ideal if you ask me. I think I would rather have the Brewers back just for the regional rivalry if the Braves affiliate isn't an option.

I just think AAA is the perfect level of baseball for Nashville, we just need to affiliate with the right team.

I see your points but I don't think the team's affiliation really affects the fan interest in the city that much. MAYBE if it was the Braves, Cardinals or Reds but other than that I don't know if it really matters much. Minor league baseball is just entertainment for the majority of people. Hell, in many MLB cities it's just entertainment and a lot of people there don't really care. Minor league baseball will obviously never capture civic pride of a city like pro sports do.

I think Nashville is a good market for AAA baseball and I think MLS is a good fit for us as well. I don't mean any disrespect to the league as I'm actually a pretty big fan of it, but it's kinda like a mix of minor league sports and another major pro team in town. Yeah it's a major league but it's not on the level of trying to get a team in another sport.

[ExIslander]

Originally Posted by septimus

I'd much rather have a MLS team. Baseball is so boring.

Originally Posted by nashvols

So is soccer.

One of my favorite sportswriters wrote this about baseball. Most soccer fans would probably nod in agreement:

"I never argue with people who say baseball is boring, because baseball IS boring. And then, suddenly, it isn’t. And that’s what makes it great."

On the subject of MLB in Nashville, I follow the sport and I don't think it's really under consideration. MLS seems to make more sense, but there are many similar-sized or bigger cities wanting in on that game, so the odds aren't great, unfortunately.

[BeeHoyal]

You want exciting? The Preds have a couple of playoff games coming up.

It will be a madhouse, especially if they win one in Chicago before playing here.

Oct. 2016: ESPN released its annual Ultimate Standings report with the Predators ranking first overall in the categories of Fan Relations, Affordability and Stadium Experience. **


**playoff tickets are not cheap