Near the top in attendance last year and the team was never above .500 until August. Braves attendance has been strong since the move to a good location and away from the ghetto Turner Field was in.
They'll keep the Rays name. Nashville Rays, but somehow make it so that the Rays meaning is the Ray of sunshine rising from the Smokey Mountains to the East and therefore giving them reason to change their colors to Home Depot orange.
Thrashers were in town for a decade and in a league where over half the teams make the playoffs, they never won a single playoff game. Only thing I remember about the Thrashers is when their star players killed his teammate in a car crash.
Interesting city to name there. Actually I don't hear any middle America news, is there ever any talk of Omaha to get an MLB team? The Royals seem to work in Kansas City, Omaha since it holds the CWS could likely support an MLB team, it would capture the Western Iowa market too. Omaha actually should maybe get a baseball team.
James Earl?
Omaha is a pretty big town and Lincoln isn't far away and they'd be the only professional sport in town.
The only thing is, I don't see Omaha as booming of a city as Nashville. Nashville has other things to offer and is attractive to outsiders and tourists. Omaha? Not so much.
And there's too many Cornhuskers around. Scrap Omaha.
They would probably shoot down the acquisition of an MLB team because then Nebraska football wouldn't be the only show in town anymore and the people of Nebraska would finally be able to turn their attention elsewhere.
Staten Island
A city needs to "deserve" a team? If so, why doesn't Nashville deserve one? One of the top tourist destinations in the country, deep in the heart of baseball country, rabid support for three existing major league sports teams, tons of cash and a promise to build a state-of-the-art stadium before the team plays one game.
Omaha is a super nice city; was shocked how nice when there recently and they love baseball. Just not sure there's enough people; certainly no tourism.
Hoboken
people forget this b/c the Hornets have been such a mismanaged organization for so long (which includes both iterations of the team), but they led the league in attendance for their first ten years in existence. Five years later, they moved to New Orleans. The owner of the team becoming deeply unpopular in the city played a role, but you can't discount the impact that the Panthers had on the Hornets' popularity.
