12/21/24
March 17, 2004
Could the Expos be New England bound?: If real estate developer John Alevizos has his way, they will be. Alevizos, who assisted Toronto in landing the Blue Jays in the 70s, has assembled a group of investors and has put in a bid (above the 125m the MLB paid for the team 3 years ago) to buy the Expos and move them to Connecticut.
posted by jerseygirl to baseball at 10:47 AM - 10 comments
I think this has next to zero chance of happening. The Yankees and Red Sox (and to a lesser extent, the Mets) all have a stake in keeping a competing team out of Connecticut. I can't imagine NESN and/or YES quitely agreeing to lose a portion of their market share. As much as the rest of the league may get a kick out of tweaking Steinbrenner, they probably won't be anxious to hurt John "I'm with Selig" Henry. Plus, I'm inclined to belive that it is a terrible idea to just put a ballpark somewhere along the I-91 'Corridor'. Baseball is different from football in that people won't just jump in a car and drive to the middle of nowhere to watch a game -- particularly on a weekday. So, that leaves Hartford and New Haven as potential host cities -- either of which would instantly become the smallest host city in all of baseball in terms of population (about half the population of St. Petersberg for crying out loud!). I don't think either of them can compete with the likes of DC, Vegas, or Portland in terms of raw marketshare.
posted by Jugwine at 11:19 AM on March 17, 2004
If Connecticut got the Expos, there would be five teams in a 300-mile line between Philadelphia and Boston. Las Vegas is the obvious choice based on population and geography, but the casino sports betting will probably scare off all the major sports. With the huge numbers of Latin American players, it would be awesome to have an MLB team in Puerto Rico or Mexico, but I just can't see Selig & Co. making it work economically. Even for the 22-game experiment in San Juan, MLB managed to screw it up: The top ticket here costs $85, more than the Mets charge in New York. The general admission price, $25, costs more than a box seat in Montreal. Tavares and John McHale, a baseball official, passed the buck, saying the scale was established by Antonio Muņoz, a winter league owner who is the local promoter of the 22 games. Baseball assumed that Muņoz knew what the market would bear. In any language - English, French or Spanish - it sounded like price gouging.
posted by dusted at 12:03 PM on March 17, 2004
Growing up in Connecticut, I don't see how it would ever work. The state's sportscape is based on New York vs. Boston...you pick which way you want to go and then argue with your next door neighbors. Jeff Jacobs' article today sums it up: Hartford endured a five-year battle to save the Whalers only to see them move to Carolina. The Patriots and the Raiders were coming in the early '90s and they never showed up. After covert meetings in airport hangars between Gov. Rowland and Robert Kraft, the Patriots finally did show up in 1998, only to leave Rowland a jilted lover. For the 2% of the population who won't pick a side in the RedSox/Yankees battle the Expos are a perfect fit. Everyone else doesn't care and won't notice while they're cheering UConn this weekend.
posted by YukonGold at 12:39 PM on March 17, 2004
I'm still pissed that my fine fellow citizens of northern VA don't want any part of a ballpark on our great land. Call them the Virginia Minutemen, or the NoVA Quasars, for the geeks among us. While on team names, what would be a good name for a Las Vegas team? Anything with snakes is passe, thanks to the Diamondbacks. Gamblers? Hustlers? How about Portland? Galoshes? Voyagers (to play off Trailblazers)?
posted by bcb2k2 at 12:44 PM on March 17, 2004
Vegas Lucky 7s Vegas Blackjacks Vegas Dealers Vegas Wheels Vegas Strippers
posted by billsaysthis at 01:18 PM on March 17, 2004
My NFL Street team is named the Vegas Pitbosses. Unfortunately that's now Copyright 2004, Me.
posted by YukonGold at 01:34 PM on March 17, 2004
I've never really enjoyed any of the names that have come up for expansion teams or renamed teams. I particularly did not enjoy that late 80s, and 90s trend towards making expansion team colors purples and teals with accents of black (see Raptors, Toronto; Marlins, Florida; Rockies, Colorado; Hornets, Charlotte/New Orleans; Diamondbacks, Arizona)
posted by jerseygirl at 01:47 PM on March 17, 2004
Vegas Vigs
posted by garfield at 01:56 PM on March 17, 2004
Hrm. Well, as the article points out, CT hasn't had huge success at attracting/retaining pro teams...but then, it's not as if Montreal wants 'em either. I wonder what they'd be called. Whalers was a dumb name, but there isn't a lot that suggests itself. The Nutmegs? The Charter Oaks? The Insurance Agents?