MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred talked about expansion happening soon while addressing the media at the Baseball Writers Association of America. After the Oakland Athletics relocate to Las Vegas, and the Tampa Bay Rays get a new ballpark, Manfred said he hopes to look into expansion soon after those things are settled.
“I hope shortly thereafter, we will put together an expansion committee and start talking internally first, about the issues associated with expansion,” Manfred said. Now that it seems like MLB expansion is on the horizon, when expansion does happen will the Braves lose some popularity? Earlier today The Morning Shift debated the topic.
To give you perspective on just how popular the Braves are, a couple of years ago SeatGeek did some research to figure out what sports teams counties in the United States were searching for the most
The Braves have the most counties in the United States searching for Braves tickets, and it’s not even close. According to SeatGeek the Braves had 515 counties that searched for Braves tickets the most, and the footprint was all the way to the Mississippi River, up to Southern Kentucky, into Western Virginia, and all the way down to Jacksonville, Florida.
The Texas Rangers were the second place team as they had 287 counties where their tickets were searched for the most, so that just goes to show the Braves widespread popularity, and that’s great, but will that change once the MLB expands?
Beau doesn’t think expansion would hurt the Braves anytime soon because of the fact that parents and people that will be parents between now and when expansion finally happens are going to raise their children to be Braves fans.
“I think that you’re right it would hurt a little bit, it would not continue to grow the way it has with the generational thing, but I still think you’re gonna get a good bit of that with parents.” Morgan said.
Mike isn’t convinced that children that grow up with an MLB team in their city will be a fan of a different team just because their parents are. “If Charlotte gets an expansion team, maybe you’re a Braves fan, but I’m just telling you right now if the team on the regional sports network up there is the Charlotte Knights or whatever they want to call them at that point, your kid is probably going to grow up watching Charlotte baseball team.” Johnson said.
Time tells all, but it will be interesting to see how much already established Braves fans in other place will be able to influence the next generation to be Braves fans, that could be growing up with a new, possibly exciting expansion team.