OT: Baseball?
- Thread starter namttebih
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ginner classic
Dammit Jim!
- Aug 28, 2011
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There are 80-something home games a year right? It seems like a great idea because Vancouverites fill up Safeco field whenever the Jays come...however I doubt a team here can get such a consistent turnout outside summer. Also most Jays fans here jumped on the bandwagon when the team saw some moderate success....
I continue to argue that this city can support an NBA franchise...however it was quite evident the NBA hates this city for some reason.
I continue to argue that this city can support an NBA franchise...however it was quite evident the NBA hates this city for some reason.
DustyMartellaughs
Flashing the leather.
Baseball can work in Vancouver, but the team would need to be consistently good. We don't have a history here, where a lovable loser would be supported.
Tobi Wan Kenobi
Registered User
Our sky train would need to go to Langley, White Rock and Ladner or possibly the ferry terminal for it to work well imo
I think MLB could work here in an intimate, baseball specific stadium. Problem is, nobody's willing to build one.
It would be something, though. Sitting outside on a summer evening with a view of the mountains, enjoying a local craft beer whilst watching a Major League Baseball game certainly sounds appealing.
I don't know that a team would do very well at BC Place - certainly not after the novelty wears off, and certainly not if the team is poor.
It would be something, though. Sitting outside on a summer evening with a view of the mountains, enjoying a local craft beer whilst watching a Major League Baseball game certainly sounds appealing.
I don't know that a team would do very well at BC Place - certainly not after the novelty wears off, and certainly not if the team is poor.
Great game, but the population wouldn't support it unless it was a consistent winner. BC Place is a dump and not suitable for baseball so a building would need to be built. There's no culture here to support the game. I'd love to see it but I don't see it happening in the next 20 years.
Tim Calhoun
#11
- May 31, 2006
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It's larger than some of the current MLB cities. Am I wrong in assuming that it's a baseball town/province?
Tables of Stats
Registered User
Vancouver is large, but there isn't that hunger for sports that some cities have. There's also a lot of non-sporting things to do here.
Captain Bowie
Registered User
- Jan 18, 2012
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Saturated Fats
This is water
I love baseball, and would love a team here... But it'd never happen. They'd never get approval for a stadium (unless it was in a suburb like Burnaby or Coquitlam), and they'd never be able to get consistent bums in the seats after the first few years.
Vancouverites are generally terrible sports fans. We fill Safeco for the Jays because it's one weekend a year, involves a little bit of a fun road-trip, and requires a bandwagoner-level of temporary enthusiasm. The amount of non-sports people who I see on Instagram and Twitter and such posting pictures in their Jays hats from the Field that weekend is remarkable.
That being said, I would absolutely love to see it. I'd be a season ticket lifer.
Vancouverites are generally terrible sports fans. We fill Safeco for the Jays because it's one weekend a year, involves a little bit of a fun road-trip, and requires a bandwagoner-level of temporary enthusiasm. The amount of non-sports people who I see on Instagram and Twitter and such posting pictures in their Jays hats from the Field that weekend is remarkable.
That being said, I would absolutely love to see it. I'd be a season ticket lifer.
There was lots of talk of MLB coming to Vancouver in the '80s, including as a site for the Expos, but that was when domed stadia were still thought to be the way of the future.
In addition to the less-than-rabid sports base in Vancouver, the fact that so many residents are migrants to the city often harms support. Most of Vancouver's Asian population isn't from baseball-y areas, as well.
In addition to the less-than-rabid sports base in Vancouver, the fact that so many residents are migrants to the city often harms support. Most of Vancouver's Asian population isn't from baseball-y areas, as well.
Not gonna happen. You need a suitable stadium, which given the rain we usually get in the spring we would probably need a retractable roof....raising the cost. Given what BC place costs, you're looking at a billion dollars which would absolutely never ever (and it shouldn't) happen.
I love going to baseball games and would easily go to 10 games a year if we had a team, but reality is that Vancouver is not the greatest spectator sports town and the Canucks are really the only team that has cracked the city's culture. The people here are active, and there is plenty of recreational opportunities, particularly when we get 3-4 months when its not raining during the baseball season.
I love going to baseball games and would easily go to 10 games a year if we had a team, but reality is that Vancouver is not the greatest spectator sports town and the Canucks are really the only team that has cracked the city's culture. The people here are active, and there is plenty of recreational opportunities, particularly when we get 3-4 months when its not raining during the baseball season.
Saturated Fats
This is water
Speaking to the fact that we in Vancouver suck as sports fans... do we really think it's because there are so many other options? I grant you that, from May-September, it's the best place to be. But the other months of the year? Seems like a soft, convenient excuse.
Why do we suck at something the rest of North America seems so damned good at?
Why do we suck at something the rest of North America seems so damned good at?
It would be one of the smallest cities in MLB, in with towns like Cincinnati/Milwaukee/Kansas City which are big-time mid-west sports cities with a lot less to do during the summer.
There was a fair bit of talk a long time ago when BC Place was relatively new, and MLB played some exhibition games here ... but that died in the early 1990s and hasn't really come back.
I'm sure if someone spent $500 million on a 40k seat retro-fitted stadium right on the water, that a team here could do ok ... but pigs will fly before that happens, and BC Place would be BY FAR the worst stadium in MLB.
Right now, baseball is - more than any other league - a sport defined by the 'stadium experience', and if you don't have either a massive population or a very expensive retro-cool ballpark ... forget about it. The Mariners would be long-gone, too, without their new park.
Tobi Wan Kenobi
Registered User
Vancouver sucks in general imo. Love the surrounding beauty but everybody is way too up tight. Traveling trough the states you realize Vancouver truly is a no fun city.
The Toronto games in Seattle are some of the most fun things you can do as a sports fan. But we couldn't sustain it here. There isn't a history of pro-ball in BC. The Canadians are about as good as we're going to get, and even they have dropped from Triple A to Single A.
As for why we aren't great sports fans, I might suggest it is because Vancouver is such a destination city (and an expensive one at that). We don't have a long history as a city, nor a strong developed communal culture. Baseball in Chicago started in 1876, for instance. Vancouver became a city in 1886, and for most of our history we've been pretty small and isolated. The Vancouver of today is entirely different from the Vancouver of 10-20 years ago even, so there is little to no consistency. The closest thing we have to a sporting culture is clearly the Canucks, and even that is filled with bandwagon fans.
As for why we aren't great sports fans, I might suggest it is because Vancouver is such a destination city (and an expensive one at that). We don't have a long history as a city, nor a strong developed communal culture. Baseball in Chicago started in 1876, for instance. Vancouver became a city in 1886, and for most of our history we've been pretty small and isolated. The Vancouver of today is entirely different from the Vancouver of 10-20 years ago even, so there is little to no consistency. The closest thing we have to a sporting culture is clearly the Canucks, and even that is filled with bandwagon fans.
I don't think we suck at all. I mean, we aren't one of those blue-collar cold-climate mid-west US cities like Pittsburgh or Cleveland where fans live and die sports and there isn't much else to do ... but we aren't really any different than any other coastal NA city, I don't think.
A few things are in play :
1) Again, we're a very small city by NFL/MLB/NBA standards. But even at that we support the Canucks pretty rabidly, and the NBA was killed by the horrible product and Canadian dollar.
2) In that small population is a huge Asian component, and culturally this group just isn't as interested in NA pro sports.
3) In terms of summer sports, we built the wrong stadium at the wrong time. BC place was a dinosaur by the time it was 5 years old. If we'd built a great retro outdoor stadium on the water 10-12 years later that people here were really proud of and wanted to spend time at on a summer day, things might be completely different.
4) We're stuck with that crap stadium, because nobody is going to front the money for a new one, and we won't see a city government drop $500 million on one as you see in the US.
So yeah, we're a small city with a bad stadium. And that isn't going to change.
Hit the post
I have your gold medal Zippy!
Look at how many times Seattle has lost major league teams (and at least the Sonics actually won a championship or two). Mariners have been in trouble at times (don't forgot they already lost a MLB team in the past - Pilots).
We ain't the only ones....we share much in common with that city.
In any event...MLB has been dead to me since they gave the big **** *** to Montreal.
The stadium in Montreal was a piece of junk. They weren't making money the last several years. It wasn't sustainable at Olympic Stadium whatsoever. The good players didn't want to play there. I can't blame that on MLB.
Hit the post
I have your gold medal Zippy!
Don't disagree that stadium was garbage HOWEVER the fans were coming to the games until the owner got cheap & started selling off the 'star players' (vs the players just leaving on their own). Owner tried to strong-arm the city in footing more & more of the building costs of another stadium (naturally the city wasn't too thrilled about that given that they were STILL paying for that crap Olympic Stadium). Then via some other shenanigans Loria got a sweetheart deal to have a team in Florida (heh, I think that same owner screwed that city later....)
That's because it's so goddamn expensive to go. I like hockey followed the team for as long as I can remember but I never go to games cause it's a minimum 200 dollar night.
Baseball is great like that you have a free Wednesday night go chill in right field for 10 bucks and watch them take on Marlins or someone.
Premium games are still expensive but day games mid week it's easy to just go and sit down for basically nothing.
