MLB Proposal Would Eliminate 42 Minor League Teams

[mjjm367]

Baseball should be ashamed of itself.

Baseball owners clearly lost the ability to feel shame a very long time ago. If they ever had it.

We go to Round Rock about once a year to watch a AAA game. It is a huge thing for the community up there. While Round Rock will continue, I can't image the heartbreak it would cause to communities where baseball doesn't survive.

Way to grow the next generations of fans, dumbasses.

[NY FANG]

Come on guys. Baseball is a business and we are the consumer. I assume they were cut because the profitability was non-existant. I'm sure they examined the short and long term costs. While it is unfortunate that this cost the loss of jobs and entertainment that people enjoyed, why should the cutting of this business be any different than the cutting of other businesses.

Brian, I feel for stadiums like yours more than most, because I am sure it was no small investment to modernize the stadium, and it wouldn't surprise me if there was a municipal cost contributed at the time, and that stinks. But at the end of the day, this was a business decision, and to cry foul like your best friend done you dirty is doesn't make any sense. I am sure if stadiums like the Columbia's had been more profitable, they wouldn't have been cut, or if they are desirable, another team will move in there, as that would be a smart overall business decision.

Netflix recently decided to cancel Sabrina and The Order after 2 seasons... despite them being a popular shows. I am sure some people are going to cancel their Netflix accounts over it. Investors put in money into the success of those shows specifically. Actors turned down projects to be on those shows. But end of the day, Netflix believe they will be more profitable without that market. How is this different other than it's less commonplace than a show getting cancelled?

[mjjm367]

Baseball owners clearly lost the ability to feel shame a very long time ago. If they ever had it.

We go to Round Rock about once a year to watch a AAA game. It is a huge thing for the community up there. While Round Rock will continue, I can't image the heartbreak it would cause to communities where baseball doesn't survive.

Way to grow the next generations of fans, dumbasses.

And less than 24 hours after I typed this, Round Rock (near Austin) lost the AAA team for the Astros. Sugarland Skeeters are the new AAA Astros team, about an hour away, 1.5 hours with traffic. Unfortunately for me, the Mets AAA doesn't come out this far.

Hopefully the Rangers go back into Round Rock. They were there from 2011-2018. Their current AAA location is Nashville. Real nice field, players are very accessible to the fans. Saw the Mets AAA team there when they were in Vegas.

[saxon]

Sugarland? What kind of town comes up with a stupid name like Sugarland?

[mjjm367]

Hey, don't blame me, I'm from New York.

Home (or used to be home) to a large sugar cane plantation.

[Brian Stark]

Well, to be fair, Columbia is about four hours away from me, I only got to go there because my work took me there three times per year.

I'm actually MORE worried about the Kinston team now, the Down East Wood Ducks. Again, they refurbished a great old stadium for the team, poured millions into it, and Kinston does NOT have the money to blow, on the A team for the Rangers. This was with the agreement from them for long term use.

Now? Who freaking knows. I know it's a business, but these cities spend the money based on good faith word that they will have a team, then a couple years later the rug gets pulled from under them. This wasn't a long term decision, this is short term, and it because the foundation of the sport is the minor leagues. That is where most fans learn the game and experience it live for the first time. Most families don't live very close to a major league team, so their best shot at a live game is a AA, A, or even Rookie level game. They are much more affordable, there are those outlandish gimmick things that go on, the kids get to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame, eat a dog, sit in the sun and see a game. Most folks who don't have a lot of money can only afford these lower level games, but they do so because it's good, clean fun that is affordable to the masses. Major League teams have pretty much priced many, if not most, fans out of the stadium and onto the TV, now, they are taking away 42 more opportunities for promoting the game at the roots.

This may give them initial revenue boost by fewer salaries, but they are killing their long-term growth potential.

[NY FANG]

you're assuming those people from small towns who follow the lower level teams continue to follow the big league teams and put money in the owners pockets. I think that may be a false assumption. Considering these teams flip regularly, I bet there is little to no loyalty from a Buffalo fan to a Mets fan prior to them leaving Buffalo, or after.

Maybe I'm thinking too much like someone who has never lived more than a 7 train or LI Rail Road ride away from a major stadium. But let's remember, this contraction started prior to COVID, and COVID may have deepened the cut, but this was a well researched business decision.

But I do totally get that it absolutely Sucks, and for that I'm sorry

[mjjm367]

you're assuming those people from small towns who follow the lower level teams continue to follow the big league teams and put money in the owners pockets.(

Think of it more like college football (granted, on a smaller scale). You can have allegiances to one college, and a possibly completely geographically different pro team, and passionately root for both. In the same way that your team's college football players move into the NFL, minor league players move to MLB. Even cooler when your college or MiLB player lands with your pro team. But either way, you root for and follow the player you saw come up through the ranks. And again, same as a college town, in Milb, the local team is equally as important, or sometimes even more important than the pro team to the area.

I think you were quite accurate when you said that you may be looking at it like a person who was never more than a 7 train ride away from the game. Me too. To be honest, I was openly dismissive of minor league ball, couldn't be bothered. The only reason I went was that I received free company tickets, 17 rows behind home plate. Closest seats to the plate that I have ever had, and wanted to check it out. What a great time. (By the 7th inning, I had the entire section standing and yelling "Soup" for Eric Campbell's ABs, but that's a different story.)

Anyway, it was a great time. So much so that I would ask for tickets and receive tickets every year. Sat in CF after a lot of the games for concerts. It was a community event, every game. And there were lots of people who were there for their team, every game, who would have never driven the 3-4 hours to the closest major city and get a room for an MLB game. Pros were what you watched on TV, your local team was your passion.

While I agree that it is not MLB's job to subsidize MiLB, I have to agree with Brian, it is a damn shame for the communities. And I am a convert. At some point next season, we will drive to a Sugarland Skeeters game (Astros AAA) for a weekend day game. It's about an hour away. Don't have a dog in the hunt, but will just go for the fun time. Although, I will admit, I will scan the Skeeters and visiting team's rosters, trying to pick a game where someone I want to see is there. Last AAA game I went to up in Round Rock, the Nashville Sounds were the visitors. Got pics and autographs with Hojo.

[NY FANG]

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the proximity and rawness of minor league games. I go to Brooklyn at least once a year to attend.

And I also agree, it's a damn shame to rip away a community's team, though no one was up in arms when Montreal moved to Washington (the only MLB team to move in my lifetime). People understood it was a business decision, the same understanding needs to apply here.

Maybe I don't just understand the minor league culture, and so my presumptions are off. But all my friends who have major college sports allegiances (I don't not. Go UMASS?) while they might say something when a alumni on a pro roster does something good, it does not give the team they currently play for any of their allegiance. They all have pro teams of their own that they route for. Have multiple fiends who was in Delaware during the time of Flacco, not a single one became a Ravens fan. Personally, I never routed for Crus of the NY Giants or Quick from the LA Kings. I routed for the Jets (UGH) and Rangers. So I ask why should pro teams subsidizing minor league teams have any allegiance to the communities when the communities don't have any allegiance to the pro-team?

All in all, it's a shame. I wish it was a 10 year descaling plan to help the communities recoup investments without making new investments, but I can't fault MLB for making a business decision, and I have to think they had multiple experts and panels telling them this would NOT cost them more in long term intangibles than the actual present monetary cost.