Major League Baseball has had 30 teams since 1998. 32 makes much more sense from scheduling, competitive balance, and geographic points of view. Here’s the current map of teams: You can see that the divisions are scattered across time zones and geographic areas (why are California teams in the same division as Texas teams?).
That said, I think you can move Tampa Bay to a different city instead of just relocating them to a different division. The poor location of Tropicana Field is often blamed for their poor attendance figures to where they even considered moving the team to Montreal. Blasphemous, am I right?
It sounds like Oakland is moving to Las Vegas soon, so there's that factor to consider.
And being Canadian, I gotta stick up for my home friez. Ma Canadian bacon. So, instead of an expansion to Portland/Utah, I propose Vancouver, Canada. Because the MLB's all about the moolah. Like any other professional sports league. And every time the Jays visit Seattle, a hoard of Canadians descend upon the city, taking over T-Mobile Park to the chagrin of locals.
You could get rid of Tampa, add the two florida teams to the Orioles and Nationals for the SE division. Move Cleveland or Cincinatti to one of the eastern divisions, add Montreal.
Move KC to a midwest division and have Arizona, the two Texas teams and Colorado as a division. Then add Vancouver to the AL West.
Another consideration: the MLB wants to maximize revenue over a 162-game season.
That's partly why 6 teams in each league can make the playoffs: the 3 division leaders + the top 3 wild cards. The 3 openings atop the wild card race probably shouldn't be overlooked. Because it keeps many teams in each league in contention for a playoff spot quite late into the season. Meaning: more viewership towards the tail-end of a long season. Meaning: more money for the league.
Replacing at least one of those wild card spots for another division leader changes that dynamic.
I realize the tone of my writing might make me sound serious. But I'm seriously just having fun with this. 🤣
I like the general idea/plan.
That said, I think you can move Tampa Bay to a different city instead of just relocating them to a different division. The poor location of Tropicana Field is often blamed for their poor attendance figures to where they even considered moving the team to Montreal. Blasphemous, am I right?
It sounds like Oakland is moving to Las Vegas soon, so there's that factor to consider.
And being Canadian, I gotta stick up for my home friez. Ma Canadian bacon. So, instead of an expansion to Portland/Utah, I propose Vancouver, Canada. Because the MLB's all about the moolah. Like any other professional sports league. And every time the Jays visit Seattle, a hoard of Canadians descend upon the city, taking over T-Mobile Park to the chagrin of locals.
It's so wild (and infamous) that the Mariners' official team store started selling Blue Jays merch -> https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2023/07/18/seattle-mariners-toronto-blue-jays-merchandise-jp-crawford-paul-sewald.
If that doesn't speak to the revenue potential of the entire western part of Canada, I don't know what does.
Ha relocation opens up a whole new can of beans.
You could get rid of Tampa, add the two florida teams to the Orioles and Nationals for the SE division. Move Cleveland or Cincinatti to one of the eastern divisions, add Montreal.
Move KC to a midwest division and have Arizona, the two Texas teams and Colorado as a division. Then add Vancouver to the AL West.
Another consideration: the MLB wants to maximize revenue over a 162-game season.
That's partly why 6 teams in each league can make the playoffs: the 3 division leaders + the top 3 wild cards. The 3 openings atop the wild card race probably shouldn't be overlooked. Because it keeps many teams in each league in contention for a playoff spot quite late into the season. Meaning: more viewership towards the tail-end of a long season. Meaning: more money for the league.
Replacing at least one of those wild card spots for another division leader changes that dynamic.
I realize the tone of my writing might make me sound serious. But I'm seriously just having fun with this. 🤣
In this case you could add 2 more teams to the playoffs in each league and have the 4 division winners + 4 wild cards