Friday, July 16, 2004
Big Sky Baseball
So the biggest question regarding my boys, the Expos, is where are they going to end up? It's a damn good question and I don't expect an answer in late July/early August despite what DuPay would have you believe.
Since then I may have time to influence the answer, might I suggest an alternative to the DC/VA/Portland/Las Vegas quadrumpterive. I, instead of looking at population sizes and TV markets, SCIENTIFICALLY examined the distance between actual baseball cities. I then GEOGRAPHICALLY determined the area of the continental US that must travel the most distance to see a live MLB game. This area would be prime for expansion. An unspoiled fan base. The winner is Northeast Montana. That's right "Montana's Missouri River Country" as you know it. Land of Lewis and Clark and Outlaws and other stuff.
Ideally we'd place a team in Wolf Point or Glasgow, maybe even Havre, but given the population sizes <10,000 I don't think baseball would go for it. So I'll be the first compromise. We can go with Billings. It's a bustling growing city of 60,000+. You can build a nice intimate ballpark that seats around 30,000. You've got twice as many people in the area, so it should be easily filled. Plus I haven't even considered the Billings Metro area. That should push the available population to slightly more than 60,000+. Think about all the players who want to own ranches, it'd be a snap to find one in Montana. There must be at least 40 of these. And you'd have easy access to Wyoming. It's like right there.
Since then I may have time to influence the answer, might I suggest an alternative to the DC/VA/Portland/Las Vegas quadrumpterive. I, instead of looking at population sizes and TV markets, SCIENTIFICALLY examined the distance between actual baseball cities. I then GEOGRAPHICALLY determined the area of the continental US that must travel the most distance to see a live MLB game. This area would be prime for expansion. An unspoiled fan base. The winner is Northeast Montana. That's right "Montana's Missouri River Country" as you know it. Land of Lewis and Clark and Outlaws and other stuff.
Ideally we'd place a team in Wolf Point or Glasgow, maybe even Havre, but given the population sizes <10,000 I don't think baseball would go for it. So I'll be the first compromise. We can go with Billings. It's a bustling growing city of 60,000+. You can build a nice intimate ballpark that seats around 30,000. You've got twice as many people in the area, so it should be easily filled. Plus I haven't even considered the Billings Metro area. That should push the available population to slightly more than 60,000+. Think about all the players who want to own ranches, it'd be a snap to find one in Montana. There must be at least 40 of these. And you'd have easy access to Wyoming. It's like right there.
