(04-20-2018 02:44 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(04-20-2018 02:07 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(04-19-2018 04:46 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(04-19-2018 04:26 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  

(04-19-2018 04:07 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Most of North Carolina is not in the Braves TV territory. MLB has put them in Orioles/Nationals territory.

If you can have the Hornets (NBA), the Panthers (NFL), and the Hurricanes (NHL) you can darn sure support a MLB team. You never really had neighboring states with teams try to stop those teams coming into being.

I think it would be more about demanding compensation from the expansion team paid to the team losing some of its local TV territory. That isn't an issue at all with the NFL, and it's only been an issue with NBA or MLB in recent years because of the amount of money that local TV deals can bring in. An existing franchise would argue, look, there's a $1 billion expansion fee coming in, and we deserve a greater-than-equal share of that, or additional compensation paid by the new team's owners, because we're losing a few million homes in our TV territory.

A Portland MLB franchise would have a similar issue, because they would get about a third of the Mariners' TV territory.

I've seen fan analysis in the past that registered NC and even a good chunk of VA in the Braves column.

The Braves were on TBS for so many years that it almost didn't matter where you lived and they become one of the more popular franchises in the nation. There were tons and tons of Braves fans in Florida for that matter until the Marlins and Rays arrived to make a dent.

Now, I'll say that the Expos moving to Washington did cut into their fan base in the region, but I would surprised if NC wasn't full of people that were more interested in watching the Braves if they had a choice.

I think one of the issues at play here is the reach of the RSNs. The Braves signed an absolutely horrible media deal with Fox Sports after the TBS days ended and have been paying the price ever since.

Asking people in VA or NC who they root for is different. The Braves can't get compensation for that. They could get compensation, maybe, if their TV territory was diminished by expansion (or by the Rays moving to North Carolina, or whatever).

It looks to me like MLB was trying to balance the competing interests of different clubs when they decide which team could broadcast its local telecasts to which areas. I suspect that they put North Carolina into the Orioles/Nationals territory because those two teams have to divide their territory and they wanted to give it as many TV homes as possible, whether or not many people in North Carolina are Orioles fans.

I think you're probably right.

That alone might be a reason why the MLB wouldn't want a club in Charlotte or Raleigh.