MLB: The Case For A National Baseball Stadium
If the 2016 World Series goes beyond five games, it will bleed into November. If it goes to a seventh and decisive game, the Series will end just four days before we elect a new president on November 8. With two potentially cold weather cities in the mix (Chicago and Cleveland), a National Baseball Stadium for the MLB makes more sense than ever.
The weather in both Chicago and Cleveland for their respective league championship series looks great over the next few nights and should not be a factor. However, daytime temperatures in the 60’s are a aberration and not the norm for this time of the year.
We are barely into the middle of October and we have two full weeks until the World Series begins. How long will it be before the reality of Northeast fall weather arrives. Those nights when the outside temperature reads 43, but the damp chill in your bones tells you a far different story. Or maybe you get that drizzle that is so common to couple itself with the mid 40’s temps.
This is not a intelligent way to showcase the culmination of a baseball season by seeing players on the field bundled up and pitchers trying futilely to get a grip on the baseball. And forget the fans in the stands who are trapped in their seats and the cold.
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The MLB needs a National Baseball Stadium to combat this blot on the game. November is football season in its glory in the same way that the hot and humid days in the sun belong to baseball.
A state of the art facility with a retractable dome modeled after the one in Milwaukee and packed with the amenities seen in Houston is feasible as a way to grow the game.
A stadium that would not only host the World Series, but potentially a good portion of the World Baseball Classic, the All Star Game, Old Timers games, and regular season games siphoned into the schedule. A place where exhibitions could be played in front of a neutral audience.
But as with anything, there are hurdles to overcome if the idea is to take hold. I can think of two that immediately come to mind, and they are both politically charged.
The first thing to consider is what about the average everyday fan who religiously supported their hometown team only to see the glory swept away from them at the very end. Well, here’s the reality for a seat at Wrigley for Game Five of the World Series as of today with the price only going higher as game day approaches:
Bleachers 306, Row: 14
2 tickets available
Electronic Delivery
$3427.00
each
That’s a sample ad found on Vivid, one of the most prolific ticket scalpers (they would use the word exchangers) . But it hardly matters what you call it when you ask if “Johnny Cub” could afford to take his bus driver or teacher’s salary to buy a ticket to attend this or any other World Series game.
The second hurdle to overcome in order to bring a National Baseball Stadium is even more politically charged and is one that could (but shouldn’t) damage the idea forever. Where the hell do you build the thing?
Is there a Mecca of baseball, and if there is where is it? Does it even have to be a “Mecca” – why couldn’t it be in a city that doesn’t even have a major league team? Or maybe, it should be built next to the cornfields that propelled “Field Of Dreams “ into baseball lore……..
You see what I mean and I haven’t even scratched the surface of the campaigns that would be launched to secure the site.
However, the location of the stadium should not become a hindrance to the discussion. People travel thousands of miles to take their kids to Disneyland. Country music fans do the same to visit Branson, Missouri. And, so on.
And maybe the way we should look at it is to say, “If you build it, they will come”. For once, money should not be a factor. MLB has oodles of it. And the potential to grow the game makes it feasible that the stadium would more than pay for itself over the years.
But, nothing can be finalized until the discussion begins.A good time to begin that discussion might be on a night when Cleveland or Chicago (if they make it that far) is hosting a World Series game with the temperature hovering in the mid forties with a damp on and off rain falling and temps expected to drop into the upper 30’s by midnight when these games usually end.
The showcase of baseball deserves and needs a better venue for what is rightly termed the Fall Classic. A neutral site under a dome should be a prerequisite for maintaining the integrity of the most important games of the baseball season.
Next: Trade destinations for Wade Davis
Oh, and by the way my backyard is for sale to start the discussion for $1…………