Mariner Talk Chat Forum

mostonmike wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 25, 2025 7:57 am

I wouldn't give this a second thought at the moment. Portland at this stage is only about 4th most likely market to be awarded a new franchise. The bookies are often the best arbiters of where these things might go and have Nashville (36%), Salt Lake City (22%), and Charlotte (16%) further up the pecking order - before you get to Portland (13%).

Montreal (9%) are also interested and if any city could leap out from the pack, the attraction of taking another team to Canada might be attractive to MLB - I'd have a sneaky suspicion that Montreal will have a team by the end of the decade albeit a relocation is most likely option for them.

But if Portland are getting their campaigning machinations into position then its a good time to perhaps pitch a safe-bet to MLB. Their pitch is clearly to tell MLB "No problems here, were all set to go". After all the Oakland nonsense and Tampa not exactly looking committed long-term, this might be something that MLB want to go with.

But if we know anything about the motives of leagues, I would even say that Portland have just presented a fantastic bargaining chip to drive up the price that Nashville / Salt Lake / Charlotte will have to pay. "Come on you need to pay another $250m otherwise we will go with Portland".

Pharmabro wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 25, 2025 6:33 am

Some of this is dependent on them being in the AL with us, but I think both teams would get a slightly bigger area on the map than 1/2 the M's current control but not enough to be a power franchise.

One pf the problems Seattle faces is they may have a similar "population of TV watchers as say the Yankees NY MSA is about 20M, but Seattle is only 4.1M. The populations of Wa. is about 8M, Oregon is 4.3M, Idaho is 2M, Montana is 1.2M, Alaska is 750K= about 16 million

Possible replacements if Portland happens:

#1 Seattle gets BC 5M, and Victoria and Vancouver would represent major population centers that could drive down for the game easily

#2 Seattle adds the Alberta TV markets 4.3M

#3 Portland gets Hawaii as part of its market (1.5M). This would be a sneaky good get. Hawaii has a lot of tourists and occasionally the tourists watch TV and if that TV is in front of some kid and his 1st exposure to baseball is your franchise?

#4 Since Oakland is now centered in Las Vegas, Portland gets to push a South to all of Oregon and into Northern California, Takes S. Idaho, Utah including SLC.

If this happens there needs to b shake-up. Toronto having an exclusive TV market of 40 million people never seemed fair to me.

D-train wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 25, 2025 1:47 pm

mostonmike wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 25, 2025 7:57 am

I wouldn't give this a second thought at the moment. Portland at this stage is only about 4th most likely market to be awarded a new franchise. The bookies are often the best arbiters of where these things might go and have Nashville (36%), Salt Lake City (22%), and Charlotte (16%) further up the pecking order - before you get to Portland (13%).

Montreal (9%) are also interested and if any city could leap out from the pack, the attraction of taking another team to Canada might be attractive to MLB - I'd have a sneaky suspicion that Montreal will have a team by the end of the decade albeit a relocation is most likely option for them.

But if Portland are getting their campaigning machinations into position then its a good time to perhaps pitch a safe-bet to MLB. Their pitch is clearly to tell MLB "No problems here, were all set to go". After all the Oakland nonsense and Tampa not exactly looking committed long-term, this might be something that MLB want to go with.

But if we know anything about the motives of leagues, I would even say that Portland have just presented a fantastic bargaining chip to drive up the price that Nashville / Salt Lake / Charlotte will have to pay. "Come on you need to pay another $250m otherwise we will go with Portland".

Exactly. What a waste of time to even consider it at this point. People have been waiting 17 years for NBA expansion. I haven't heard a peep about MLB expansion. Not to mention Stanton et al would fight to the death opposing it.

Donn Beach wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 25, 2025 9:14 am

The Rays are about to be sold to a Florida developer so they probably aren't getting moved, expansion is years away.

Captain 97 wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 25, 2025 3:22 pm

800 Million is a drop in the bucket these days. Its going to probably be a Billion for expansion fee and 2 Billion to build a stadium. Who do they got with deep pockets that wants a team in Portland?