MLB coming to NC? Berger, Stein fuel baseball expansion fire

By Alan Wooten | The Center Square

North Carolina could be competing against Nashville, TN for a spot. | graphic by The Shelby Independent.

SPORTS – Stopping short of saying spend taxpayer dollars, North Carolina’s legislative upper chamber leader says he favors the General Assembly doing all it can to help land a Major League Baseball expansion franchise.

Whether it’s Raleigh or Charlotte, Rockingham County Republican Sen. Phil Berger said he’s “agnostic.” He was also noncommittal on whether the two-year state budget due last year on July 1 and yet to be finalized would include anything toward a project.

Speaking to a group of reporters Thursday, Berger said in part, “The question of money? Not necessarily the thing – maybe. But I’d be interested in seeing what steps we would need to take in order to facilitate putting North Carolina in the best position to be successful in having an owners’ group – because obviously we would need that – to be able to get a franchise.”

Raleigh and Charlotte are each in conversations about baseball’s expansion, if and when it happens. Commissioner Rob Manfred wants Major League Baseball to have a process set and two cities chosen before his time is scheduled to end in 2029, amid the caveat of resolutions for the Rays’ stadium and the transition of the A’s from California to Las Vegas.

Strong positions on a salary cap for the sport are pointing to a lockout when the players’ union contract expires Dec. 1, possibly meaning missed games next year.

On Wednesday while in Charlotte, first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein said his office was “working to do all we can” to bring baseball to Raleigh.

North Carolina has three top 50 media markets – trailing only Florida (five), California (four) and Texas (four). Florida and Texas have two teams each, California four. And there are projections North Carolina, ninth largest state at about 11.2 million population, could be seventh largest after the next census in 2030 only trailing six who have at least two teams each.

Given Manfred’s past comments on regions, and possible shifts in the divisions or leagues as has happened in other expansions, North Carolina could be competing against Nashville for a spot, and Salt Lake City against Portland for the other. Manfred doesn’t rule out markets in Canada or Mexico.

(Baseball expansion in NC continued below...)

Betting market odds favor Nashville, Salt Lake City, Portland, Raleigh, Charlotte and Montreal in varying orders.

Baseball expanded in 1998 by adding teams in Phoenix and Tampa. Five years earlier, teams were added in Denver and Miami. Before that, it was 1977 when teams began playing in Seattle and Toronto. The National League and American League first split into divisions in 1969 when the former added teams in Montreal and San Diego, and the latter added teams in Kansas City and Seattle.

The Seattle Pilots were a 1969 one-year deal, hurt by bad attendance and finances. The franchise became the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970.

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Alan Wooten has been a publisher, general manager and editor. His work has won national or state awards in every decade since the 1980s. He’s a proud graduate of Elon University and Farmville Central High in North Carolina.

The Shelby Independent.