San Antonio a New MLB Candidate

ESPN recently published a story about the city of San Antonio as a potential landing spot for a new MLB expansion team. Being in the top 10 of the most populists cities in all of the United States, it certainly makes sense to have a new MLB team. And it certainly makes sense since we have the Spurs, Rampage, Missions, San Antonio FC, and our new American Alliance Football team, while not in the NFL, is another full professional team amongst our minor and semi-pro teams. While it was painful for the city to lose the Stars WNBA team for the female demographic of sports fans in this city, having a baseball team could attract minorities, or in our city’s case the majority Latino community, and it would be a big boost in image for the Majors. With MLB having games in Mexico, like series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, we have the potential to attract more Latino fans from Mexico and get more exposure for the league. The only thing preventing San Antonio is the fact that well, we’re not Hollywood with stars and glamour. Yeah, we may not have actors living here, sunny beaches, or even big name sports athletes outside of the Spurs. But hey, we have great tacos, we have the Alamo, Hill Country Vineyards, and the Riverwalk. But most of all, we’re a big city that still has that small town feel to it. Yes, mass transit is horrible and we complain about traffic at 5pm. But spending 30-45 minutes on I-10 to get home beats an hour and a half commute on the 101 freeway in Los Angeles at 5pm. As for downtown, we survive every year with our Battle of Flowers parade with smooth traffic managed by our police. Plus, the River Walk is now offering commute rides throughout the river. This year’s Men’s Basketball National Final Four brought in many visitors from all over. During the week leading up to the National Championship, San Antonio proved once again hospitality is a highlight of our city and can host fans of all kind. Also, going into April during the NBA season, visitors get a chance to see how this city lights up for our Spurs NBA Championship team. Just proves how die hard and loyal San Antonio is when it comes to this team. There might be some bumps in the road for San Antonio to get an MLB team, but we’ve been a possible location for an expansion team for a decade now. While the Missions finally made the jump from Double-A to Triple-A with a want by the league for a bigger stadium than Wolff to host Triple-A baseball, it might be too much out of our citizen’s pockets to fund an expanded or new baseball stadium. Whatever happens with MLB, it’s probably slated to be later rather than sooner for San Antonio to get a team. Hopefully with the recent move, the Missions can help prove San Antonio to be a future MLB city.