Most of us come up with ways to deal with boredom. One of mine is to study the frivolous lawsuits filed by Charlotte real estate attorney Jerry Reese.
Reese has more lawsuits than most of us have suits.
He has filed seven. Mecklenburg County discouraged him from filing an eighth.
Reese's intent is always the same. He wants to stop the Charlotte Knights from building a ballpark for minor league baseball. He contends he has been in contact with a Major League Baseball team that wants to come to Charlotte.
Like most sports, baseball is fighting to hang onto what it has. Every credible study I've read suggests that Charlotte can't support a big league team. The reason the studies suggest this is because Charlotte can't support Major League Baseball.
Once the newness wore off we'd do well on weekends, when fans came down from Greensboro and up from Spartanburg. But on weeknights when anybody but a glamour opponent came to town? The stadium would be a testament to empty seats.
Reese might have some credibility if he would reveal the name of the super-secret team that has selected him as its conduit to the Carolinas. He hasn't.
The Charlotte Knights have done everything right, and they deserve an opportunity to play in the city they represent. The absence of silly suits will help them get there.
Raleigh-Durham needs MLB. Between the Mudcats and Bulls, they average about 11,000 per home game now, the Bulls 7,000 and the Mudcats, 4,000. If hockey can make it in Raleigh, MLB sure could.
Posted by: Ben | January 15, 2013 at 03:19 PM
@Ben -
You're logic is flawed.
As for the minor league numbers - you don't add them together to get the major league baseball potential. But even if you did - that 11k is still far from enough as you'll see in a moment.
As for NHL comparison: NHL has 41 home games while MLB has 81.
While the Hurricanes average about 16K per home game in an arena that sits about 18.5k for hockey, the smallest MLB stadium (Tropicana) has almost double that capacity at 34k and the lowest MLB season attendance in 2012 was 19,255 (Tampa).
So hopefully you can see the math doesn't add up for Raleigh-Durham's.
To be frank - the math doesn't add up for Charlotte either. And if Charlotte which is a larger market can't support MLB than neither can Raleigh-Durham.
I do think that Baseball could eventually come to North Carolina and frankly I would be in favor of either a Triangle or Triad based location - it's just that the time is not now nor in the near future.
Posted by: Mike | January 16, 2013 at 10:49 AM
Hiya Mike, just had to say what a great night we had at Southwold.We came down on the Sunday just to see you and we had such a fun night.Loved how you handled the drunk with the phone, coulndt believe he did that, great come backs lol.Look forward to seeing you again when you can get back to Norwich area.We have followed you on the comdy shows and it was 1st time we were able to see you live!Thanks for having us in stitches from start to finish.
Posted by: Misook | February 20, 2013 at 02:10 AM