Detroit Tigers: Where Will the MLB Land Next?

Expanding the MLB has become a thing, again. There is no way that an expansion team would ever be added to Michigan to compete with the Detroit Tigers.

What locations are possible contenders to host some new teams in baseball?

Major League Baseball and commissioner Rob Manfred will have plenty of challenges to overcome while trying to expand the league. There have always been the great franchises like the Giants, Yankees, and our beloved Detroit Tigers. But one of the biggest and most excited prospective ideas is an expansion. Expansion leads to a lot of changes in baseball, obviously. The last expansion was done the year I was born (1998). That expansion lead to the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now the Tampa Bay Rays).

An alternative, or addition to expansion is relocations. There are a handful of teams that could use the scenery change like the Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins, and maybe even the Chicago White Sox. But what cities are able to hold a MLB team?

I would love the idea of having a team in one of the Carolinas (North or South). They already have the well-known Durham Bulls. But of course that is minor league. North Carolina is the best bet for a successful team in my opinion. Charlotte would be a great place for a team. With the recent success of the Carolina Panthers, the fan base in Charlotte is drooling for some more teams to love. They also have a handful of great college baseball teams like UNC and Duke. The estimated population of Charlotte in 2014 was about 810,000 people and still growing. The area bleeds baseball and the weather is perfect.

Another state that I would love to see a team in is Tennessee. Nashville would be a great place for the team. There is just something about baseball that just calls for country music. Nashville is a large city at about 645,000 people in 2014. The larger population coupled with the huge tourist attraction of the Music City makes the population flow great. Nashville already has a NFL team in the Tennessee Titans, who although aren’t great, does bring in some people. There are also a ton of amazing sights to see like the Parthenon and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

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Sometimes a good option isn’t even in the US. Bringing baseball back to Montreal would be a historic and cool thing to do. Bringing back the Expos would be fascinating. Baseball left Montreal in 2004. They were the first MLB team to franchise outside of the U.S. Now, of course, we have the Toronto Blue Jays, but making a Canadian rivalry would be pretty sweet. They had about 1.73 million people in it in 2014 which would make a huge market for the new team. There has been speculation for years that baseball may travel back to Montreal. It would be awesome to see a team in Montreal. They also already have an NHL team so the city is familiar with large competitive sports.

If I got to choose what would happen I would relocate Tampa Bay and Oakland soon as opposed to later. For Oakland, ownership has been wanting to at least change stadiums for a while now. The team could use some rejuvenating from new fans too. I would move the Athletics to Montreal. The huge fan base coupled with the cool history surrounding the city would potentially be great for the Athletics. Of course, I would rename them to be the Expos though. For Tampa I would move them to Charlotte. The team wouldn’t be moving very far and there is a lot of potential for a pretty loyal fan base. The new stadium alone would bring in new fans, Tropicana has seen better days. The only downside is that the name would probably be changed. Doesn’t make much sense to keep the name the Rays considering they wouldn’t even on the water. Nashville is just asking for a new team. There are so many names that could be used. With all the cool sights to see and it being a huge tourist city Nashville should be a clean slate.

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Personally, I wouldn’t move Miami and the White Sox. Even though Chicago is run by the Cubs now and Miami hasn’t been great, the teams should stay where they are. Having two teams in Chicago just adds to the individual franchises. The White Sox also added some good talent to their team in the off season so they have some potential to be good. Miami has a brand new stadium and some talented players as well. Now that they are bringing in the outfield fences, Giancarlo Stanton will bring a ton more fans just to get some amazing souvenirs and Jose Fernandez will light up the radar gun. Don Mattingly will, in theory, bring their team back around.

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