MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has expressed a desire for the sport to expand in the coming years. One group wants North Carolina's capital city to be a candidate.
Residents of the Raleigh area launched a campaign for an expansion team last year; on Tuesday, they launched a website, MLBRaleigh.com, to increase support for their bid.
https://t.co/xltPFxtsET is live.
— MLBRaleigh (@MLBRaleigh) March 5, 2019
Today we officially declare Raleigh a candidate for a Major League Baseball franchise. We hope to show, beyond a doubt, our City and its people are ready. Join the Movement and let's create something special. #RaleighonDeck pic.twitter.com/JxNK08YzaL
The website contains information about how an expansion club would look in the state's second-largest city, and lists four potential stadium sites, all of which are in, or in close proximity to, the city's downtown area.
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Who are the people behind the project, are and why they are doing this? The site's FAQ section provides no names but does lay out the reasons:
"We are a collective of local creatives, business owners, and residents who love baseball and who want to work alongside the community to help put Raleigh in the conversation for a Major League Baseball team.Our main goal is obviously to get an MLB team in Raleigh, but as a by-product of that goal, we hope to bring people together, explore brand, and amplify Raleigh’s community, culture, and creativity so the rest of the world can see what we see in our city."
The site also includes data that is designed to make the case for why the Triangle area — which is composed of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill — makes sense as a location for an MLB team. Campaign organizers, citing U.S. Census Bureau statistics for 2017, note that the Raleigh area's population is larger than Kansas City and Milwaukee's and not much smaller than Cincinnati or Pittsburgh's. Raleigh was also the second-fastest growing metro area in the U.S. from 2010-17, according to the data.
Even with its size and growth, Raleigh is not exactly a big sports town. The NHL's Carolina Hurricanes are the area's lone major professional team. Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State are hugely popular among college sports fans.
The website claims that baseball season would rarely overlap with the area's other sports seasons. It would intersect for about a month with hockey and college football and wouldn't interfere at all with college basketball.
North Carolina's largest city, Charlotte, has long been the subject of speculation about MLB expansion. Manfred has often referenced it, as well as Montreal, Mexico City and Portland, Ore., as a potential MLB market.