I don't think the economics work for baseball in Las Vegas. They definitely don't for hockey. The only league I could see working there is the NBA, which is the most amenable to entertaining clients and just hanging out. No, you probably wouldn't have hot tubs in the stands (though hey, why not?), but it wouldn't be hard to run an NBA team there. It wouldn't do terribly well, but it'd get by. I don't see baseball working. Where's your local TV contract for Las Vegas?

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You know what other city has a shitload of conventions? CHICAGO. IT'S A BIG CITY IN ILLINOIS KINDA BY THAT PART OF INDIANA THAT SMELLS LIKE SULFUR.

Major League Baseball is not going to say to itself "gee this might be a gambling town built on mob dollars that won't exist in 30 years due to lack of water and has a population roughly that of the eastern quarter of Nebraska... but by golly we cannot miss out on those convention dollars." I don't pride myself on having any business acumen (I despise the existence of those who utilize their skill in such a criminal field) but it wouldn't make much sense to ditch smelly lake city with like a billion people in it for a crap desert shithole that has fewer people than metro Spokane.

Especially for a league that still catches shit for letting the Dodgers vault across the country. MLB doesn't relocate teams, and they aren't looking to expand any time soon either. At least until the embargo is lifted, then we'll have the Havana Atlèticos.

So people who own or run businesses, regardless of size, are criminals?

So that guy who starts a costum t shirt printing store is conducting a criminal enterprise?

No, not really; we lost them all to Las Vegas because we're a frozen ghetto shithole with usurious hotel taxes and union rules written by Eugene Debs.

But the rest of your point stands. There is no way in hell that baseball lets a team move out with an extant stadium lease. Even the Rays, a dead team walking since day one because of their shitty dome and fair-weather fanbase, have been made to honor their lease. For all the shit Comiskey gets for being Not Wrigley, it's a thoroughly sufficient modern stadium with modern revenue streams, plentiful parking, and transit access in a world-class city. You can't just get up and go from it.


Yeah, this too. Lake Mead's water levels are at record lows and dropping. Did people really think the good times were going to last forever? I wouldn't want anything to do with Phoenix or Las Vegas in the coming years. To call Las Vegas a house of cards makes me feel like a hack, but...

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Las Vegas is a massive shithole. They'd draw 5000/night.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Isn't St Petersburg (FLA, not Russia lol) a suburb of NY anyway?

Move them to Gilberts or NWI, still "Chicago White Sox" which is a charter franchise of the American League, FWIW.

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

It is really amazing at the Sox fan inability to think that someone might buy the team they like and want to move them.

Bringing up the sacrelig of moving them as if it wasnt possible. Hmm, the owner said they had to move if they didnt get a stadium deal once. They needed this to compete.

A new owner would say the 100% exact thing, they would need a growing media market that they can be the big fish in in order to compete. How about a dome in North dakota? They have nothing but money up their a population explosion and the city would build a multipurpose dome in a second. memphis or tennesee?

Everyone is breaking down how well they will do, or not do, I am not telling you they will or wont do great (Even though I do think a Vegas move would work), it should be a simple thought of would that city want a team and be willing to invest in such a team with a private owner. If any city can fit that model, they are a viable option.

I actually agree with BRick, that they have done a poor job of marketing and that does leave a slight chance of upside in the market, but if I was buying team B and was paying $750 mill, I would be looking for a new city other than 35th and shields, plus Team A, makes my product less in may respects that I would realize in other markets as the only game in town.

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You and your multipurpose domes!

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The thing is the only game in town in a place like Raleigh NC is equal to being like #100 on the list of 'games in town' in Chicago. It's is Raleigh fucking North Caro-fucking-lina! You know what the last thing to happen in Raleigh was? No? Neither do I! Nothing happens there! That's one of those places where a day out on the town consists of a trip to Kohls and the people there (inexplicably) like it that way.

And in Vegas there's a whole lot of tacky Vegas garbage going on for a sports franchise to compete with. Celine Dion warrants a residency in that wasteland.

Here's what will happen: new ownership will threaten a move in about 15 years when the Cell is nearing it's end. By that time everything north of 35th will be gentrified, the city will want to keep the Sox there and ownership will rip the state off again for a brand new stadium at...you guessed it...35th and Shields. I'm guessing the Sox will not be able to keep their expansive parking lots though. They'll be hawked off to developers in exchange for the sweetheart subsidy the Sox get for the new park.

That's how this story ends.

Off topic a little, but more than Phoenix and Vegas are screwed. Take the whole section of the country W of I 25 and S of I 80, here are the places in that area that are not totally screwed:

Sante Fe NM
Flagstaff AZ
Salt Lake City UT (if it keeps growing like a weed though this could change)
Albuquerque NM... probably
Colorado
Reno/Lake Tahoe

And that's it. The Rocky Mountain snowpack is clearly losing the war against reckless water consumption in the Sun Belt, nowhere will really be spared when the Colorado River starts really losing steam. San Francisco is even in a bad place because it'll eventually come down to SF or the San Joaquin Valley getting that good Hetch Hetchy water. The Sierra's are being hit really, really hard by climate change. Whitney has been snow free by mid June for the last 5 years! That's nuts! Shasta Lake is seriously empty. It's crisis level in Norcal.

Everything N of like Ashland OR this side of the Cascades is a rainforest so we should be OK here unless climate change fucks with the 9 month rainy season. There's no way to divert the Columbia that far south either, so the water from up here stays up here.

It's basically a giant suburb, like if Carol Stream were an entire metropolitan area with roughly the population of greater Milwaukee. It's nothing but McMansions and lax bros, but everyone who lives there seems to be very happy there because the tax burden is low, private space is cheap, and public space is nonexistent. Gotta love the New South! Oh well, at least they're not squandering precious water on golf courses.

An MLB team wouldn't be the only game in town because they still have Duke, UNC, NC State, and for the time being, the Hurricanes, but there's nothing going on after March and no one really gives a shit about NASCAR because if Hurricanes games are any indicator, the whole damn city is from Pittsburgh or Buffalo. Promoting the Durham Bulls from AAA is an intriguing expansion possibility if we ever get to two sixteen-team leagues, but it doesn't represent an upgrade over any extant market other than maybe Tampa Bay, though definitely not Chicago.

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Moving the Sox to Vegas would put them in the West and let the Astros to move to the AL Central.

$750 million is cheap for a sports franchise especially in a big market. The Clippers just sold for $2 billion and they are the White Sox of LA.

Whoever buys it will threaten to move to noonecarestown,USA and the city will roll out the red carpet to keep them by building a new stadium if the new owners want one. Maybe you'll even get your retractable roof!

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Sox, Bears, Final Four, Super Bowl, and DePaul can all share the BagDome!

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Yup, and the new owner will get paid millions of dollars when any of those play there even if they don't do anything! bigfan will love that!

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Reading about publicly funded facilities where the teams still control the master lease and all pursuant revenues is just so "fuck this dumb earth." Kind of like building a metro of about 2.5 million people and 1.5 million golf courses in the middle of a goddamn desert.

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Baseball is a dying sport. I'd extract as much value as possible before it collapses. Purchase depressed White Sox, move to Vegas for sweetheart package, sit for a couple of years and then flip for a profit.

Easy money.

Ridiculous. I'd worry about the sport that nobody wants their kids to play.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

That's probably the number one concern for NFL executives. LBJ coming out the other day admitting he doesn't let his kids play football was huge, though he did back down a bit a day later by saying they could play if they decided to when they're older.

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Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Compared to the sport that kids don't want to play?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The NFL is being fazed out even at an insane rate of popularity, isnt that crazy?


I guess functioning brains are more popular

Yes, the one that is so dangerous its not even an option in many homes is in much more danger.


Actually, you'll have parents who dont want their kids to play football pushing them into baseball (SEE: Lorenzo Cain)

Not in the South.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

The NFL will be fine. Eventually, they just won't play tackle football until varsity or potentially even college.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

That would be weird. Having guys learning to tackle and be tackled so much later in life.

The NFL will be massively affected by this concussion thing though either way. You know that.



Anyway, let's not get too far away from the fact that the White Sox are moving to Rocky Mount, North Carolina

I don't think so. Unless you don't have other options I dont see why at least semi informed parents would allow their kids to pursue football, unless they're totally free spirits or something who believe absolutely in personal autonomy at super young ages.

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Not really. The actual tackle isn't all that hard to learn. It's the strategy and physical skills needed to get there.

The NFL is a closed system. There is no noticeable difference if everyone is tackling at the age of 5 or the age of 16.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

If there is no tackling up until your junior year you are free to continue without much concern. Look at Bernstein. His kid is playing hockey and will until it becomes "too dangerous" and he is huge into this CTE thing.

Then you make the decision on whether it is worth it to try and play in college just like any other kid does.

As long as millions are available then there will be people happy to go for them. We've already seen basketball players switch to football and make it to the NFL. No reason that athletically gifted people can't overcome not tackling in 5th grade.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

How does that mitigate CTE concerns though? I got to think I'll take the risks of torn ACLs, broken ankles, and 90mph projectiles over CTE and paralysis when it comes to sports.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY