2034.2 Where should the team be born?

[bschr682]

Its official! The BBA is expanding to 30 teams with 1 of the expansion franchises being awarded to Francis Nephi Grigg IV. The league was abuzz after the news broke as customarily these types of league actions are rather drawn out affairs. This time would be the exception as the owners met shortly after the all-star break and within a few short hours the proposal was ironed out, voted on and approved.

So what now? Mr. Grigg has been awarded an expansion team but where should it go? These days Ore-Ida exists in name only as much of the companies assets were bought out from under the Heinz Corporate umbrella by McCain foods back in 1997 and the headquarters of what remained within Heinz Corp was transferred to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1999.

So should the new team be based in Pittsburgh? It would make some sense. Pennsylvania has no BBA team with the nearest ones being Yellow Springs in Ohio and then a smattering of teams along the atlantic sea board. Would a mostly Ore-Ida funded team based in the eastern US make sense though? Mr. Grigg apparently didn't think so.

In a recent interview following the expansion announcement Mr. Grigg was asked about where his team may be based. He wouldn't go on record with an exact proposal but he did mention that while Ore-Ida may have been purchased and had its corporate activities moved away to the east coast, the largest portion of actual manufacturing operations remained in the Rocky Mountain area and its spiritual headquarters remained in the Oregon-Idaho border region.

So just where would the team end up? There was brief talk of a Portland team a few years ago but that fell through when once again the east coast snatched it up. So Oregon has the space but does it have a willing fan base? With Seattle and Vancouver firmly entrenched and so close in that region it seems unlikely that a rabid fan base could be built in a short time.

What about Idaho then? Its farther away and there are no major league teams in the vast expanse of the Rocky Mountain/Northern Great Plains area. Is Boise big enough? It ranks 99th on the list of the 100 largest US cities but it does come in at nearly a quarter million people. Are there enough baseball fans in that area of the US to form a fan base? Or will the team be forced to actually be on the east coast? Time will tell...

[RonCo]

For some reason I flashed on the image of sitting in the outfield bleaches in Idaho, eating pork rinds and tater tots.

[recte44]

Use more imagination, its 2034 here. Maybe Boise is a bigger city now?

[RonCo]

Boise is the gateway to the Northwest now. The pathway to the new transporter capital of the world.

[bschr682]

Use more imagination, its 2034 here. Maybe Boise is a bigger city now?

Next article addresses things. Boise is plenty big.