Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred just named the Queen City as one of the favorite cities for one of its newest teams.
“I hope I’m around long enough to see us expand,” Manfred told FS1 this past Tuesday. “I think 32 [teams] would be great for our sport.” He continued to talk about potential new cities “that I think are not only interested in having baseball, but are viable in terms of baseball,” naming “Portland, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville in the United States, certainly Montreal, maybe Vancouver, in Canada. We think there’s places in Mexico we could go over the long haul.”
Starting at about the 1-minute mark in the following video:
Last year, Charlotte was also named as a possible MLB expansion city, but in a longer list. In an interview with the Associated Press last year, Manfred listed; Charlotte, Oklahoma City, Mexico City, Portland, Las Vegas, Montreal and San Antonio as possible MLB expansion cities.
The MLB has expanded since 1998 when the Tampa Bay Rays (originally the Devil Rays) and Arizona Diamondbacks first started. Given the growth of major league baseball’s popularity, and after almost 20 years of no activity, the jump from 30 teams to, say, 32 now seems overdue.
If (and when) Charlotte is chosen to host it’s own major league baseball team, one of the biggest questions on everyone’s mind is where will the stadium be. The BB&T field in Uptown Charlotte was not designed to be retrofitted for major league standards, and city planners don’t think Uptown could handle the additional traffic and parking during the 81+ major league home games (many of which are on weekdays).
What do you think about a new MLB team in Charlotte?
Where do you think the new major league field should be built?