MLB: What cities would get a team?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I can see no good reason to exclude St. Louis in a list of 30 candidate cities for the “revised” Major League Baseball.

Recent St. Louis Attendance Figures:
2005 3,359,092 (at current pace) (3rd in MLB)
2004 3,048,427 (8th in MLB)
2003 2,910,386 (7th in MLB)
2002 3,011,756 (6th in MLB)
2001 3,109,578 (7th in MLB)

St. Louis also ranks #18 in metro area population.

US Census, Top 50 MSAs:


New York, NY-NJ-PA                     18,640,775
Los Angeles, CA                        12,829,272
Chicago, IL-IN-WI                       9,333,511
Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD               5,772,947
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX                   5,589,670
Miami, FL                               5,288,796
Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV                 5,090,435
Houston, TX                             5,075,733
Atlanta, GA                             4,610,032
Detroit, MI                             4,483,853
Boston, MA-NH                           4,439,971
San Francisco-Oakland, CA               4,157,377
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA    3,642,328
Phoenix, AZ                             3,593,408
Seattle, WA                             3,141,777
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI             3,083,637
San Diego, CA                           2,930,886
St. Louis, MO-IL                        2,735,927
Baltimore, MD                           2,616,229
Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL                2,531,908
Pittsburgh, PA                          2,410,330
Denver, CO                              2,301,116
Cleveland, OH                           2,139,512
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN                    2,047,333
Portland, OR-WA                         2,040,258
Sacramento, CA                          1,974,810
Kansas City, MO-KS                      1,904,908
San Antonio, TX                         1,820,719
Orlando, FL                             1,802,986
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA      1,734,721
Columbus, OH                            1,674,589
VA Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC    1,637,251
Providence, RI-MA                       1,623,172
Indianapolis, IN                        1,595,377
Las Vegas, NV                           1,576,541
Milwaukee, WI                           1,514,313
Charlotte, NC-SC                        1,437,427
Austin, TX                              1,377,633
Nashville, TN                           1,371,302
New Orleans, LA                         1,317,541
Memphis, TN-MS-AR                       1,239,337
Jacksonville, FL                        1,202,900
Louisville, KY-IN                       1,190,154
Hartford, CT                            1,177,935
Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY               1,159,443
Richmond, VA                            1,138,234
Oklahoma City, OK                       1,132,652
Birmingham, AL                          1,072,646
Rochester, NY                           1,041,198
Salt Lake City, UT                      1,005,232
22

Montreal was extremely competitive in attendance throughout much of the 1970s and 1980s (with teams that weren’t even particularly great), before complete owner apathy and a derelict stadium caused them to basically become a triple-A team over the last five years or so they were there. Part of the hypothetical is that we’re ignoring the local stadium issues; given even a neutral-quality stadium and owner, I think Montreal has plenty of people willing to watch baseball during the months of the year they aren’t playing hockey.

That’s my reasoning, at least.