NFL
By: Nicholas Mukhar
While Major League Baseball continues to make a global push with new elements to the season like the World Baseball Classic and the MLB World Tour, the League is simultaneously fielding plans to expand in the States. The latest pitch comes from the city of Orlando, where Orlando Magic owner Pat Williams leads an investment group that recently proposed a brand new 45,000-seat stadium for what they hope will be Major League Baseball’s newest location.
A growing number of cities compete for MLB club
Orlando joins a growing group of both U.S. and international cities making a play for a Major League Baseball franchise. Currently, the list includes Nashville, Nevada, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Austin, Charlotte, Portland, Montreal, and now Orlando.
So what’s unique about Orlando’s stadium proposal? The Orlando investment group’s preferred choice is to relocate an existing team to their proposed new ballpark rather than compete with many of the aforementioned for an expansion franchise. Instead, Orlando could enter the race against Las Vegas to relocate the Oakland Athletics. According to FOX 35 Orlando, the $1.7 domed stadium proposal could be an effort to relocate the Tampa Bay Rays, though the investment group has not specified its intention as to which franchise it plans to target for relocation. If there’s any merit to the Rays relocation rumors, it won’t be easy. The Rays are hitting their stride on the field this season and currently have the best record in MLB, which will make it particularly difficult to wrestle the club away from Tampa.
Beyond building a ballpark
Another unique aspect of the Orlando plan is that it includes more than just a stadium. The group plans to build a downtown epicenter around the stadium that includes new restaurants and retail shops, with the Orange County Tourist Development tax covering $975 million of the construction plan.
Courting the Rays has been years in the making
Pat Williams has been openly courting the Rays for the last 3-4 years before officially submitting the Orlando Proposal on Tuesday, May 9. Williams has used everything from Orlando’s tourism bounce back since the Pandemic, to local economic studies that estimate the new stadium plan could generate up to $40 billion in revenue for the city over the next 30 years, to art renderings of the new stadium complex as measures to entice the Rays to make an in-state move to central Florida.
Early 2023 MLB ratings strong
The increased competition among cities to score a Major League Baseball franchise is a sign of strength for a League that has so far posted a 7% increase in television ratings in 2023 year over year and had its highest-rated opening day this season compared to the last 14 years.
According to Forbes, both television viewership and attendance are on the rise this season compared to 2022. Here’s a breakdown of some of the major network television ratings for Major League Baseball, one month into 2023 compared to the same time in 2022:
- ESPN Sunday Night Baseball: +11%
- TBS national MLB broadcasts: +69%
- Live MLB Network games: +3.6%
- MLB.TV: +12%
Baseball fans are not only tuning in, they’re also showing up. Some of the most impactful pace-of-game rules changes that Major League Baseball has ever implemented – all in a single off-season – have led to a 5% increase in ballpark attendance across the entire league. Roughly one month into the 2022 MLB season, the League was averaging 25,275 fans in attendance per game. A month into 2023, that average is up to 26,753.
All of this newfound popularity for – and interest in – the sport both domestically and internationally can only be good for Baseball as cities line up to claim a major league team and the value of clubs continues to steadily rise.
