London Calling MLB for '17

[BigMac1212]

First NFL, now MLB. It's insanity, I tell ya.

MLB.com Report

Discuss, please.

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[darko]

Insanity?

It's been done before. Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia. I'm actually surprised they haven't done London yet.

 

[BigMac1212]

London is Cricket country. But maybe MLB might be on to something. But if they want to try to put a franchise there, I'm hammering the panic button...

 

[darko]

MLB was in Sydney at a ground that holds 45000-50000. I'd love to see if come to Melbourne and play in a stadium that holds 100k. Would be interesting to see if they fill it up.


I think that Olympic stadium holds 60-odd thousand. I'm willing to bet it fills out.

 

[darko]

London is Cricket country. But maybe MLB might be on to something. But if they want to try to put a franchise there, I'm hammering the panic button...

Australia is not much of a baseball nation (it is getting more popular) yet Sydney double header tickets sold like hot cakes.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Baseball seems to be growing exponentially in Australia (which isn't saying a ton since it's growing from basically nothing, but still).

London...I wouldn't be against having the season-opening series abroad turn into an annual thing. It can work for short stints like that...and while I can't imagine this attracting a ton of interest from a tonne of Brits, the ex-pats would fill the stadium alone.

I'd like to see this in Amsterdam in the near future, though fitting it into an appropriate venue would be quite the challenge. Seoul seems like a logical choice as well.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

When did Roger Goodell become MLB commissioner?

 

[Vamos Rafa]

First NFL, now MLB. It's insanity, I tell ya.

MLB.com Report

Discuss, please.

The NBA does it yearly as well.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

This will become more and more popular and frequent over the next decade. They'll be a fulltime NFL team there by 2020.

 

[cutchemist42]

Think London is a bad choice, and it feels sort of like cash-grab me-too by the league since the NFL/NBA/NHL have all done it.

Would have picked Ned/Ita/Ger before London personally.

I still think too if the culture wasnt so different that Ger/Austria have a better gridiron fandom than London.



Former Grantland wrtier who I talk to sometimes about baseball in Europe had a take on this:

http://www.todaysknuckleball.com/around-the-diamonds/baumann-london-mlb/

I also think because Hoofdoorp basically designed the stadium with MLB instructing them from day one on construction that it should have been there. Stadium is expandable to 30,000 for MLB/WBC events. Regensberg as well can be expanded.

Regensberg

 

[cutchemist42]

MLB was in Sydney at a ground that holds 45000-50000. I'd love to see if come to Melbourne and play in a stadium that holds 100k. Would be interesting to see if they fill it up.


I think that Olympic stadium holds 60-odd thousand. I'm willing to bet it fills out.

What's interesting is that from what I read the organizers were pissed that Sydney beat out their bid for the MLB Australia series. If MLB does it again, is it better to spread it around or go back to what you know worked?

I just think baseball is too small in the UK that this barely makes a scratch of impact there. People might point to Australia/NZ that baseball/softball can have small niches in cricket countries but I feel this is different. Those countries have shown for decades that they support it at a decent level and Australia has had MLB players going back almost 30 years on their own. The UK to my knowledge on its own has had like D1 scholarship and no MiLB signings. I feel like the UK has already shown how it feels about baseball, and its too big of a hole to do anything.

Think the impact of this type of event goes a longer way in other countries.