Some say baseball is a dying sport, but don’t tell MLB commissioner Rob Manfred that. He told reporters that he sees the sport adding franchises for the first time in over 15 years and listed Charlotte as one of the potential suitors.
[ESPN]
“Maybe one of the reasons I got this job is, I’m bullish on this game,” Manfred said. “I think we are a growth business, broadly defined. And over an extended period of time, growth businesses look to get bigger. So yeah, I’m open to the idea that there will be a point in time where expansion may be possible.”
Montreal, Charlotte, North Carolina, San Antonio, Portland, Oregon, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, northern New Jersey, Mexico City or Monterrey, Mexico, are among the markets that could eventually land on baseball’s radar as potential locations for new or relocated franchises.
This would be interesting. Since relocating to a stadium in Uptown, the Charlotte Knights, the minor league Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, has seen a huge surge in attendance. Whether or not that enthusiasm would transfer over to the Major Leagues is unknown, but Charlotte seems determined to be a city to be reckoned with and having a MLB team would only serve to help with that goal.