MLB to Small Town America: Drop Dead

The Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim California have both claimed to be "small market teams" at various times in recent years.

 

It's done wonders for the USMNT.

 

So have the Oakland A's. Yet a short BART ride away, San Francisco is a large market.

 

I've seen the Mets referred to at times as a small market team.

The Yankees and Dodgers are the only teams I don't think anybody has ever claimed to be "small market."

 

So, it sounds like you live in the middle of Bumfuck, Egypt.

 

Nah, just a lot of entertainment options. The short-season teams do quite well, but if people want to see full-season baseball, they go to see the MLB teams within a two to four hour drive, depending on where they live in the regions.

 

Philadelphia might as well be a small market. Much of the Philly DMA is Orioles/Yankees/Mets country.

 

MLB wants its own illegal farm system like the NFL and NBA have.

No one who is in on these decisions will ever know or care how much the minor-league clubs have done for ordinary people in those communities.

 

I've never heard the Mets referred to as a small-market team...

Cheap? Yes.

Ran like a small-market operation? Absolutely.

 

Not that many ordinary people seem to be going to the games, at least at the lower levels. The Appalachian League drew fewer fans to its 328 games this year than several college football teams draw to their 7 or 8 home games. Six of the league's ten teams averaged fewer than 1,000 fans a game. Because of the minor leagues' history and tradition, it does seem sad to see teams folding, but minor league teams in other sports come and go without as much angst.

It would be interesting to see a local owner with good business skills try to set up an unaffiliated team to play in the affiliated minor leagues. I believe a team (St. Paul? Salt Lake City?) tried that about 30 years ago and somehow participated in the regular draft and drafted a few players out of college. If the majors do contract many of the existing minor league teams, they'll probably draft many fewer players, and there would be some undrafted players with potential. The trick would be finding them when the majors didn't. Maybe hold massive tryout camps the week after the draft.

 

People go to lower-level minor-league games for promotions and for a way to get their kids out of the house for an evening/afternoon. The regular Joe in Lynchburg gives zero fucks who the club is affiliated with. You'll see it once the playoffs start, when they'll be lucky to draw 500 for a game. If there's no promotion/food or drink special/etc., people aren't coming.

 

Sounds like Erie is ready to sue after using taxpayer $$$ to fund park improvements

Tigers could lose two minor league affiliates, including Erie, in MLB reorganization plan