By: Casey Bell

Casey Bell — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 02:29:30 +0000

I’m a contrarian on many subjects, and that includes the subject of MLB expansion. Many people believe expansion is inevitable and that it would be a good thing. You yourself see it as a way for baseball to “expand its brand”, but for the life of me I don’t see why baseball NEEDS to expand it’s brand. It’s a monopoly for pete’s sake and it has billions of dollars of revenue, so why does it need to grow? Bigger is not always better.

Expansion dilutes the product. Adding teams generally means that each team will see some other teams less often. For example, years ago the Giants played the Phillies 22 times a season. Then it went down to 18, and then 12. And last year they met just 7 times!! It’s hard to develop rivalries with teams whose stadiums you only visit once a season!

Expansion also means fewer head to head opportunities for stars to face each other (Trout vs Verlander, Harper vs Kershaw, Bryant vs Arrenado, Justice vs Altuve, etc). And adding additional playoff spots makes the regular season even less meaningful than it is already. It also increases the chances that the World Series will feature mediocre teams.

There’s an old tale about killing the golden goose that I think applies to baseball. If greedy owners keep voting for expansion they are likely to drive away more customers than they will create,
in my opinion. Expansion devalues both the regular season (since having the best record isn’t that important anymore) and the playoffs, since the best teams are usually knocked out before the World Series begins.

Comments on: Expansion and Realignment Are Not As Easy As They Look

By: Casey Bell