# MLB: What cities would get a team? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 19, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855 "2005-06-19T00:13:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/1 "2005-06-19T00:13:10Z")
If Major League Baseball began today, what 30 cities should have a team? Here is what I have come up with given the population of the United States. I have decided for my league that all teams will be within the 50 states. You may decide to include Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, or any other country. I’ve ignored the local political climate about building stadiu,s. New York Boston Newark, NJ Philadelphia Baltimore Washington, DC Charlotte, NC Atlanta Orlando New Orleans Dallas Houston San Antonio Phoenix Albuquerque San Diego Los Angeles Orange County, CA San Francisco Sacramento Portland, OR Seattle Minneapolis, MN Columbus, OH Indianapolis Las Vegas Chicago Detroit Denver Salt Lake City ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/2 "2005-06-19T02:04:14Z")
This is harder than I thought it would be! If I got to choose I’d go with: New York City (3): Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens (or one could go across the river in New Jersey) Boston Mexico City (22 Million people in the region!) Los Angeles (2): LA Proper, Orange County Chicago (2): North Side, South Side Toronto Havana Houston Philadelphia (Maybe could be 2) San Diego Phoenix (Too good a spot with all the spring training games there) Miami/Ft Lauderdale Dallas-Fort Worth San Antonio Atlanta Charlotte Washington, DC Baltimore Denver San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose (2) Detroit/Windsor Cleveland Seattle/Vancouver Monterey, MX Minneapolis So my Divisions would be: American League: North East: Manhattan New Jersey Boston Toronto Cleveland (Geography surrenders to convenience) North Central: Chicago - North Chicago - South Minneapolis Detroit/Windsor Denver (See Cleveland) West Coast: Los Angeles San Francisco/Oakland Orange County San Diego Seattle/Vancouver San Jose National League: Mid-Atlantic: Washington, DC Baltimore Philadelphia Charlotte Brooklyn (see Cleveland) Southwest: Dallas/Fort Worth San Antonio Mexico City, MX Monterey, MX Phoenix South: Miami/Fort Lauderdale Havana Atlanta Houston (see Cleveland) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/3 "2005-06-19T02:52:50Z")
Jonathan, Seattle and Vancouver are like 100 miles apart. My choices: New York, on Long Island New York, Manhattan New York in the Bronx or across the river in New Jersey Los Angeles Orange County Boston Philadelphia Washington Baltimore Atlanta Miami Toronto Montreal Detroit Cleveland Chicago Chicago again Minneapolis-St. Paul Seattle Denver Phoenix Houston Dallas San Diego Monterrey Mexico City St. Louis San Francisco Oakland Cincinnati So my divisions are: Northeast: New York New York - Long Island New Jersey Boston Montreal Great Lakes: Toronto Detroit Cleveland Chicago Other Chicago Atlantic: Washington Baltimore Atlanta Miami Philadelphia South: Dallas Houston Phoenix Monterrey Mexico City Midwest: St. Louis Cincinnati Minneapolis Denver Seattle (I can’t fit them anywhere else) Pacific: L.A. Orange County San Diego San Francisco Oakland I could easily expand to 36 teams. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/4 "2005-06-19T03:46:13Z")
Yeah, I know about Vancouver. But I wanted a western Canadian team and thought they could share. It sort of works for Green Bay. You really think St Louis qualifies? It’s an awfully small town in the larger scheme of things. ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/5 "2005-06-19T04:36:13Z")
Here’s a go at it: New York (3) Boston (2) Chicago (2) Los Angeles Anaheim Philadelphia Washington Baltimore Miami Toronto Montreal Detroit Cleveland Minneapolis St. Louis Pittsburgh Cincinnatti Houston Dallas San Antonio San Francisco San Diego Denver Seattle Phoenix Vancouver So basically getting rid of Tampa Bay, Oakland, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Atlanta from the current setup, in favor of a third NY team, a second Boston team, a team back in Montreal, and new teams in San Antonio and Vancouver. The big surprise is obviously Atlanta; they are having trouble getting attendance now with a team that has won every year in recent memory, the other sports teams in the city that don’t win have huge attendance issues (even more so than most places that are chronic losers)… I just have a hunch that if we start up from scratch and they lose the first year or two, we’re looking for places to move them. Boston is certainly smaller than the other double-team cities, but it was able to handle two in the past, and the demographics and baseball passion of the area would likely make it a great place to put two again. Divisions I suppose would look something like this: AL: East: New York (Bronx) Boston (Fenway) Toronto Baltimore Miami Central: New York (Long Island) - I just don’t like having two NY in the same division, and there are 11 “east” teams anyways Cleveland Detroit Minneapolis Chicago (South Side) West: Anaheim Dallas Seattle San Antonio NL: East: New York (Queens) Philadelphia Washington Montreal Boston (Cambridge?) Central: St. Louis Cincinnatti Pittsburgh Houston Chicago (North Side) West: San Diego San Francisco Phoenix Denver Los Angeles Vancouver I don’t think Puerto Rico could handle a team in a full-sized stadium over the course of an entire season. I don’t think Cuba could handle a team where MLB prices applied, even once we ignore the other problems there. I don’t feel comfortable with Mexico City yet for an entire 81 game home schedule; if I were going to move into the southern Spanish-speaking areas, though, that’s probably where I’d start. Last Five Out: Milwaukee Sacramento Oakland Las Vegas New York (Brooklyn) Oh, and I almost forgot - if you let me go with 28 instead of 30, we can drop Vancouver and San Antonio, move one team to the AL, and go old school with a 7-team East and West in each league - I’ll even let you keep the next two best records as wild cards if you have some fetish about playing the World Series into November. ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/6 "2005-06-19T04:43:11Z")
**Honolulu** New York, Albany New York, Manhattan Los Angeles San Diego San Francisco Boston Philadelphia Washington, DC Baltimore Atlanta Miami Burlington, VT Detroit Anchorage Chicago Minneapolis-St. Paul Seattle Denver Phoenix Dallas Austin San Diego St. Louis Billings New Orleans Las Vegas Columbus Salt Lake City Portland, OR ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/7 "2005-06-19T04:45:21Z")
You guys all know that San Jose has more people than either San Francisco or Oakland, right? ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/8 "2005-06-19T04:48:06Z")
Mine isn’t based on population. It’s based on location, so that ALL Americans have a reasonable opportunity to enjoy a little live baseball from time to time. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/9 "2005-06-19T04:59:09Z")
> [@Large Marge](#): > > Mine isn’t based on population. Yeah, I figured that from the inclusion of Billings. ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/10 "2005-06-19T05:02:31Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Yeah, I figured that from the inclusion of Billings. 😃 They should be deprived of baseball just because they live in a remote location? ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/11 "2005-06-19T05:04:33Z")
The reminds me of something: The “I never have to look at the paper and see my local team starting at 10pm again” MLB: New York (4) Boston (2) Chicago (2) Philadelphia (2) Providence Buffalo Pittsburgh Baltimore Washington Atlanta Miami Charlotte Cleveland Indianapolis Detroit Minneapolis Milwaukee St. Louis Cincinnatti Toronto Montreal Houston Dallas San Antonio Where we will have the central, north-central, south-east, mid-atlantic, north-east, and north-east-er divisions. Mmmmmm, good! ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/12 "2005-06-19T05:05:20Z")
> [@Large Marge](#): > > 😃 > > They should be deprived of baseball just because they live in a remote location? Well…_yeah_. If they want to see a baseball game, they should move to civilization, like the rest of us. If you want to call Cubs and Sox fans civilized, anyway. (Ahaha! Mocking Chicago baseball fans is one of my hobbies.) ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/13 "2005-06-19T05:23:52Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Well…_yeah_. If they want to see a baseball game, they should move to civilization, like the rest of us. If you want to call Cubs and Sox fans civilized, anyway. (Ahaha! Mocking Chicago baseball fans is one of my hobbies.) I don’t know if I’d call Houston “civilization.” 😉 Besides, Honolulu alone has 371,000 people. Why doesn’t _it_ have a baseball team? Kansas City has a team, and it has only 146,000 people. It’s. Just. Not. Right. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/14 "2005-06-19T05:40:01Z")
> [@Large Marge](#): > > Besides, Honolulu alone has 371,000 people. Why doesn’t _it_ have a baseball team? Kansas City has a team, and it has only 146,000 people. > > It’s. Just. Not. Right. If you’re not asking this rhetorically… it’d be even more unfair than what the MLB did to the Expos in their last years, when they played some home games in Montreal and others in San Juan, P.R. You’d either have some enormous homestands and roadtrips for the Hawaiian team, or a huge number of very long flights, for them and for everybody who played them in Honolulu. I think the closest major league city to Hawaii is San Diego, some 5 hours and 45 minutes away. That’s the equivalent of a cross-country flight just to play a team in your own division. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/15 "2005-06-19T05:41:37Z")
There’s also what I call “The Vegas Issue.” People love going to Hawaii, but is anybody going to want to go there to see a _baseball game_? I’m not so sure. ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/16 "2005-06-19T06:52:10Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > There’s also what I call “The Vegas Issue.” People love going to Hawaii, but is anybody going to want to go there to see a _baseball game_? I’m not so sure. I’m confused. I’m talking about a major league baseball team \*\*for the people of Hawaii, \*\*not the people of San Diego, or any other mainland city. San Diego has its own team. Hawaii does not. Yes, the team would have to fly 11 hours to reach New York. Big deal. New York has to fly 5 1/2 (or is it 6?) hours to reach San Diego. It’s a 4 1/2 hour flight from LA to Honolulu. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/17 "2005-06-19T07:19:34Z")
> [@Large Marge](#): > > I’m confused. I’m talking about a major league baseball team \*\*for the people of Hawaii, \*\*not the people of San Diego, or any other mainland city. San Diego has its own team. Hawaii does not. The issue is that you need to find a way to fill the baseball stadium with people, which means you need to draw them away from whatever they’d usually be doing. I think that would be hard to do in Hawaii. You’re talking about millions of seats every season, and not everyone in the Honolulu area is going to buy season tickets. That’s why I mentioned Vegas. People sometimes say that if you put a baseball team there, the out-of-towners would go see them play. I think that’s wrong. If you go to Vegas, you’re probably going there to gamble and see all the craziness. Same with Hawaii: people go for the weather and all of that wonderful stuff, and I don’t think baseball is going to compete well with those things on people’s limited vacation time. So I’m not sure you’d get enough people to go to the games. > [@](#): > > Yes, the team would have to fly 11 hours to reach New York. Big deal. New York has to fly 5 1/2 (or is it 6?) hours to reach San Diego. It’s a 4 1/2 hour flight from LA to Honolulu. The Padres are the MOST DISTANT team from the Mets. They’re in different divisions, so they don’t play very much. The teams the Mets play the most are in Philadelphia, Florida, DC, and Atlanta, and none are more than 3 hours away. The Pineapples would be 5 1/2 to six hours from the CLOSEST team. I’m hypothetically sticking the Honolulu team in today’s NL West, they have to fly for five to six hours each to get to San Diego, LA, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and 7 1/2 or 8 hours to get to Denver. Also, any road game would involve a time change of three hours, minimum. I think this would be hell on the players. And actually, if you just threw this team in there next year, they’d probably go in the _AL_ West, with Oakland, Seattle, Anaheim, and Texas. The teams would all be a little farther away, and Texas is 8+ hours away. ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/18 "2005-06-19T07:26:28Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > The issue is that you need to find a way to fill the baseball stadium with people, which means you need to draw them away from whatever they’d usually be doing. I think that would be hard to do in Hawaii. > You’re talking about millions of seats every season, and not everyone in the Honolulu area is going to buy season tickets. That’s why I mentioned Vegas. People sometimes say that if you put a baseball team there, the out-of-towners would go see them play. I think that’s wrong. If you go to Vegas, you’re probably going there to gamble and see all the craziness. Same with Hawaii: people go for the weather and all of that wonderful stuff, and I don’t think baseball is going to compete well with those things on people’s limited vacation time. Yes, but you’re making it sound as though the stadium would be built for out-of-towners. It wouldn’t. It would be built for the people who live in Hawaii. There are 900,000 on the island of Oahu alone, and this state LOVES baseball. I don’t think they’d have any problem filling a slightly smaller stadium. > [@Marley23](#): > > The Pineapples would be 5 1/2 to six hours from … I think you mean “The Sharks.” 😃 > [@Marley23](#): > > I’m hypothetically sticking the Honolulu team in today’s NL West, they have to fly for five to six hours each to get to San Diego, LA, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and 7 1/2 or 8 hours to get to Denver. Also, any road game would involve a time change of three hours, minimum. I think this would be hell on the players. Perhaps, but I’ll bet you’d find players willing to give it a go. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/19 "2005-06-19T12:47:02Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > You guys all know that San Jose has more people than either San Francisco or Oakland, right? Note that \*\*I[/b[ had a team in San Jose. Also, the argument against KC regarding Honolulu shouldn’t apply. The smaller populations are ALWAYS going to have trouble drawing. That includes Pittsburgh, St Louis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, et al. That’s why I like including San Antonio and such. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855/20 "2005-06-19T14:21:40Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Jonathan, Seattle and Vancouver are like 100 miles apart. That’s 160 miles. And many folks have suggested both Seattle and Portland which are about the same distance. I also noticed a few folks picked Montreal. Didn’t recent history just teach us something? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-what-cities-would-get-a-team/308855.md?page=2)