What if the Yankees and the Mets, the two major clubs in New York, competed in the same district? How will fans in Los Angeles and Chicago react if the Dodgers, Angels, Cubs and White Sox battle each other throughout the season to advance to the postseason?
The Athletic’s Jim Borden came up with the idea of reorganizing the district on the premise of an expansion to 32 major league teams on the 7th (local time). It is explained that not only box office success but also the distance between teams were taken into account.
Borden said that when he met Major League Commissioner Rob Manfred in October of last year, he was told that he was still willing메이저사이트 to expand the league. Borden said, “Manfred said, ‘The issue of new stadiums in Tampa Bay and Oakland must be settled first, and it will take a long time to expand.'”
Borden picked Charlotte, North Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee as candidates for the two new teams needed to expand to 32 teams. At the same time, he suggested that in the era of 32 teams, it would be better to drastically reorganize the current system of 6 districts in the two major leagues. It is possible to attract fans’ attention by putting teams from the same city in the same district, and by arranging teams according to the geographical location of the city, it is possible to reduce the difference in travel distance between teams.
Borden proposed changing the current National/American League system to an East/West Conference system like the NBA. He suggested placing four districts under each of the two major conferences. This means that 4 teams will be placed in each district.
Borden said that teams with the same ointment should be driven into the same district. The idea is to place the Yankees, Mets, Boston and Philadelphia in the Eastern Division under the Eastern Conference, and put the Dodgers, Angels, Arizona and San Diego in the Western Division.
Seattle, which suffered from a much longer travel distance than other teams because it was located alone in the Northwest of the United States, proposed playing in the Pacific Coast Division of the Western Conference along with Colorado, Oakland (Las Vegas in case of relocation), and San Francisco.
Borden said, “Imagine a district where the New York rivalry between the Yankees and the Mets, and Boston and Philadelphia, the biggest markets outside of New York, compete together.”
Borden’s proposal is intriguing, but also burdensome. The collapse of the two major leagues, the National and American Leagues, which have already been over 100 years old, could lead to a backlash. The fact that it shakes the traditional rivalry between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco, and between St. Louis and Chicago Cubs is also a variable. It is questionable whether San Francisco fans who visit Oracle Park to sing “Beat, LA (Let’s Beat LA)” and St. Louis fans who want the Cubs to lose after the Cardinals win will readily accept Borden’s idea.
The Athletic called Borden’s idea “just for fun”. The league reform proposal he put forward is as follows.