Raleigh May Actually Have a Chance at Getting a MLB Team (2024)

No more spitballing—Raleigh could actually have a chance at getting a Major League Baseball team.

“It’s a no-brainer that an [MLB] team would make it here.” So maintains Lou Pascucci, who—alongside original partners Ryan Foose and Will Gadd—helped kick off the ongoing MLB Raleigh campaign in 2019 to toss Raleigh into the mix of cities being batted around for an expansion team.

What started as a pipe dream has become a full-fledged game plan in the race against other front-runner cities (think Nashville, Portland, Charlotte and Salt Lake City). And, now, that movement has, for starters, caught the attention of such significant fans as Gov. Roy Cooper, who said on the heels of the passage of the sports betting bill: “North Carolina is a prime location for an MLB team.”

The ultimate game changer, though, is Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon’s confirmation that an effort is underway, telling the North Carolina Sports Network Oct. 2: “I will lead a group to put our best foot forward to get a Major League Baseball team in North Carolina.” Adding, “I know I’m biased, but I think Raleigh is the best place in the country for a new MLB team. And when I say that, I think we have the facts to back that up.” Namely viable market data demonstrating Raleigh is in line—if not ahead of—current MLB cities in metrics like population, media market, growth and overall wealth.

Despite the big names now involved, Pascucci stresses the campaign wouldn’t have gotten this far if it wasn’t for staggering community support. “We knew this community was special; we knew they loved baseball and would be willing to put in the work to have this dream come to fruition,” he says.

MLB Raleigh took off via merch sales, events and partnerships with local businesses (see: Trophy Brewing’s collab Playball Pilsner), ultimately with every single dollar scored going right back into the community to the likes of the Boys & Girls Club of Wake County, A Place at the Table, and The Miracle League of the Triangle—which Pascucci says is in synergy with MLB’s own goals of giving back.

It’s this community support he hopes will be the deciding factor: “This market wants it, and I think that’s a real differentiator for Raleigh that ends up tipping the scale if it comes down to it.” And not only will an MLB team further community camaraderie, it’ll be super-beneficial to the city’s economy.

“We knew this community was special; we knew they loved baseball and would be willing to put in the work to have this dream come to fruition,” says Lou Pascucci.

Baseball is the third-most watched/followed sport after football and basketball, with 81 home baseball games played per year. Those games might keep Raleighites home during the summer, and, at the same time, attract people from out of town to come here—see: The Battery, the home of the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park, which hosted more than 10 million visitors last year alone. “Raleigh is losing a lot of money that could be staying here,” says Pascucci.

Next stop? Taking the movement statewide to get the backing needed to make MLB Raleigh a home run. “This would be the first grassroots community group in history to help bring the MLB team they’d be eventually rooting for,” says Pascucci. Here’s hoping they hit it out of the park. mlbraleigh.com

Inside Baseball

We tapped Eno Sarris, national baseball writer at The Athletic, for his take on Raleigh actually landing an MLB expansion team.

How realistic is an MLB team here? Together, the Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh-Durham corridor is the very best candidate for U.S. expansion, almost always coming in the top 20 in terms of industry size, population, population growth, proximity to other major league teams and—perhaps most importantly—TV market size. The problem for Raleigh might be that Charlotte is most likely for a stadium with higher scores on almost all of these metrics.

What should Raleigh do to score one? Differentiating Raleigh from Charlotte and proving population density is at least comparable is probably the biggest work. The Raleigh group already has a strong case in terms of numbers and stadium locations. The Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville TV market is the 23rd-biggest—only two spots behind Charlotte, whose population is more dense and centrally located. Both areas are growing at about the same rate. Raleigh may need to prove more Fayetteville residents will travel there over Charlotte.

Next steps? A political movement for funding a stadium might get the attention of baseball, which seems to have been a big driver in Vegas. Stadium funding and TV market size may be the two most important things to the commissioner.

*This Q&A has been lightly edited for style and space.

30
Current number of MLB teams

2
Number of teams MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred hopes to add to the current roster

1998
Last MLB expansion

6
Times expansion has occurred in Major League Baseball

4
Number of possible U.S. cities for an MLB expansion team Manfred named in 2018 (Portland, Vegas, Nashville, Charlotte)