SAN ANTONIO – Last week, Rob Manfred announced his intention to retire from his role as Major League Baseball commissioner in 2029.
The 30 owners of the 30 major league teams voted for Manfred to serve two five-year terms, beginning in 2015. Last July, those owners approved a third five-year term that will conclude at the end of this decade.
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For baseball fans, Manfred’s retirement announcement brought to mind some passing memories from his time on the job. He oversaw the birth of the pitch clock, the end of the defensive shift and a perhaps-not-too-severe-enough punishment against the Houston Astros for using a sophisticated system that allowed hitters to identify pitches before they had a chance to hit them.
Wedged somewhere in between Manfred’s news conference was his hope that he would have a plan “in place” for MLB to expand from 30 to 32 teams. Executing such a plan would be a very big deal. Major League Baseball has not welcomed a new franchise since they welcomed the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays into the fold in 1998.
ESPN baseball reporter Jeff Passan said he spoke to some owners, high-ranking league sources and other team personnel who view MLB expansion as an “inevitability.”
Going one step further, according to another ESPN piece written this week, the website identified the cities of San Antonio and Austin as potential candidates to house one of those two potential future MLB teams.
To be clear, expansion may be a hope for Manfred, but it is far from a foregone conclusion. A good example of how slow things can move in baseball is the Oakland Athletics. The A’s have been rumored to be moving to Las Vegas for years now, but as I write, the Athletics are still in Oakland for 2024, and they don’t have an official home stadium for 2025 and beyond.
The most important question is: Are San Antonio and Austin natural fits for a Major League Baseball ballclub?
One factor working against San Antonio and Austin coming together for an MLB team could be the distance between the cities. Part of the Minnesota Twins’ charm is that their nickname refers to the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The Twins’ home base of Minneapolis is not much of an affront to St. Paul, the smaller of the two cities. Additionally, both cities are located some 15 to 20 minutes away from each other.
No Minneapolis-St. Paul closeness exists for San Antonio and Austin, which are separated by an estimated hour-and-a-half drive in either direction along Interstate 35.
Both cities also have a lot going for them. San Antonio is one of the ten largest cities in the U.S., with an NBA team already in tow, while Austin boasts its own professional team – Major League Soccer’s Austin FC – and a large metropolitan population, as well.
One of the biggest drawbacks for both cities will be space. Downtown Austin is famous for its nightlife, the state capitol and the University of Texas at Austin campus, but a major concern would be if there were enough room for a centrally-located professional ballpark, parking for a professional baseball team and Sixth Street.
Maybe an Austin-area MLB stadium outside city limits? (I’m here all week.)
Things get a little less dicey for San Antonio’s prospects for an MLB ballpark. Most of the city’s downtown is undergoing a makeover, but there might be some daylight. The University of Texas Board of Regents approved a proposal on Thursday to sell or lease the property where the University of Texas San Antonio’s Institute of Texan Culture Museum calls home along César E. Chávez Boulevard to the City of San Antonio.
While the university’s decision is public, what the city will do with the 13.5 acres of land is not. The San Antonio Express-News has suggested the museum will move to another location and a new downtown home for the San Antonio Spurs will be built in its place.
A new MLB ballpark becoming a part of the new city-controlled downtown space is an unlikely outcome, but a major league team playing in the air-conditioned Alamodome, especially during the summer months, could make some sense. If the Spurs move downtown, would the space they currently occupy on the East Side be a tenable location to knock down the Frost Bank Center and build a fancy, new MLB stadium in its place?
Like downtown Austin, the prospects of an MLB team playing in downtown San Antonio have the ingredients for a traffic and logistical nightmare for not only fans but residents who would be caught in the crosshairs.
Aside from both cities’ hypothetical interest in having Major League Baseball, one current MLB owner may not believe a San Antonio/Austin team would be good for business: Houston Astros owner Jim Crane.
The Astros have healthy fanbases in San Antonio and Austin, who often travel east on Interstate 10 and down U.S. Highway 290 from Austin to attend games at Minute Maid Park in Houston. Astros ticket sales could take somewhat of a dip if an MLB team makes its way to Central and South Texas. No owner would be happy about that.
Ultimately, this is only fodder for wishful thinking and blogging on a Saturday afternoon. After all, 2029 is still many years and several stadium deals away from officially coming to pass.