⚾️ Why MLB Won't Expand to Baseball's Favorite City

The Indianapolis Colts just built three swimming pools inside Lucas Oil Stadium, complete with over 2 million gallons of water. The venue will host the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials from June 15 to 23.

But you’re telling me NFL stadiums aren’t willing to install natural grass instead of artificial turf?

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: Panthers’ $800M Stadium Proposal Falls Flat

📉 Biggest Loser: Why MLB Won’t Expand to Its Best Option

🏆 Winner’s Circle: How to Build a 34,000-Seat Stadium in 106 Days

🗞 The Big Story

This is the most expensive NFL stadium renovation of all time, but the plan doesn’t even solve fans’ biggest problem.

Background: Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper just requested $650 million of taxpayer money for renovations to Bank of America Stadium.

The stadium was originally built in 1996, but it hasn’t undergone any significant upgrades since then.

This means that everything from the seats to the bathrooms to the team store is nearly 30 years old, and even the team’s own players have called the facilities “the worst in the NFL.”

The Proposal: The stadium would be renovated in three stages between 2025 and 2029, costing over $800 million.

Stage one will feature most of the renovations, including:

• Upgraded bowl seating

• New social patio on the 500 level

• New public areas outside the stadium

• Upgraded video boards and audio equipment

• Upgraded escalators and elevators

• Upgraded restrooms

• Expanded team store

This phase alone would cost an estimated $677 million, with Tepper Sports & Entertainment covering the difference.

David Tepper has committed to just $150 million for the renovations through 2029, although his total contributions, including previous projects and future maintenance through 2039, will total $688M.

Home Sweet Home: As part of this proposal, Tepper would agree to keep the team in Charlotte for the next 20 years, although he has an out at the 15-year mark if he chooses to use it.

Something’s Missing: Even after announcing all of these changes, fans are noticing that Tepper left one feature they were hopeful for out of the renovation plans:

A roof.

The previous “Most-Expensive Renovation in NFL History” was the $500 million renovation of Hard Rock Stadium, which was completed in 2017. As part of this project, the Dolphins added a $350 million, 14-acre shade canopy to their 30-year-old stadium.

Tepper had previously teased the possible addition of a roof or at least some sun protection, which was left out of this round of renovations.

The city is scheduled to vote on this proposal on June 24th.

📉 Biggest Loser

Major League Baseball is about to expand, and there’s an obvious choice of where they should put their next team.

But here’s why they’re not going to do it…

Background: Last week, a former Oakland A’s executive told Front Office Sports that there’s one city the MLB should be considering and it’s “not even close.”

It has a population of over 22 million people who consistently rank baseball as their number one sport. They just built a new, ultra-modern $116.5 million stadium, and MLB already plays regular-season games here.

So what’s the issue?

Well, it’s the fact that this is Mexico City, but it’s not being opposed for the reasons you might think.

Why it Would Work: Historically, concerns about putting an American pro sports team in a foreign country have been about safety, culture, or logistics.

However, since 2019, Mexico City has seen a sharp decrease in homicides and has welcomed millions of Americans who have moved there since 2020.

As for culture, Mexico has produced 146 major league players since 1933 and is conveniently located in the central time zone, making travel relatively easy.

Not to mention, as recently as last year, the Padres and the Giants played regular-season games in Mexico City in front of sold-out crowds.

So what are the downsides?

Why it Wouldn’t Work: For starters, the new multi-million dollar stadium can only hold 20,000 fans, which would make it the smallest field by capacity in the MLB. However, now that the A’s are playing in a minor league stadium, that might not be a huge problem anymore.

But then there’s the issue of weather, Mexico City averages 43 days of rain in July and August alone, not to mention high summer heats and their new stadium isn’t covered.

However, the largest obstacle the MLB would have to overcome is financial.

Not only would an expansion franchise likely cost over $1 billion, but the average salary for a Mexico City resident is only about $9,000 USD per year.

This would make it extremely difficult for a franchise here to support itself on the same level as American teams across 81 regular-season home games when fans can’t afford to spend as much on tickets, concessions, and merchandise.

Which is a bummer because watching a baseball game in this environment looks electric.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

How did Long Island turn an empty park into a 34,000-person cricket stadium in less than four months, and how much did it cost them to do it?

Background: Eisenhower Park, just outside New York City, is set to be one of three American sites for the upcoming T20 Cricket World Cup.

The event, which will last almost the entire month of June, will play eight matches at the newly constructed field, which was built in just 106 days, of which 27 days had rain or snow.

Each one of the components used to build the temporary 75-foot-tall stadium has been rented from a different event, including:

• F1 Vegas Grand Prix

• Pro Golf Tournaments

• Tennis Tournaments

However, the most important step of this whole build was made from scratch: The playing surface.

Planting the Seed: During the three-month construction process, a company in Florida called the LandTek Group was growing an entire cricket field and ten pitches.

In cricket, a “pitch” is the grass that sits between the bowler and the batter, and this area of the field requires a firmer surface because of the bowler’s constant 90 mph bouncing pitches.

Once this grass was grown, it was transported on 20 truck trailers and driven nearly 1,300 miles from Florida to Long Island, where it was then laid over drainage and irrigation systems onto a laser-graded base.

Even though the stadium will be broken down after the event concludes on June 29th, the grass will remain, providing recreational cricketers in the area with a " world-class” playing surface.

Cost: The International Cricket Committee declined to disclose the project's cost, although it did say that “this facility needs to pay for itself through ticket sales.”

However, Forbes reported that this entire build cost the ICC an estimated $30 million. That means each of the eight matches would need to earn at least $3.75 million for the stadium to break even.

If all eight matches sell out, that's an average of $110 per person, but given that a standard ticket starts at $175 and many of the event’s top matches are already sold out, not to mention premium hospitality options, that doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a problem.

📊 Charts of the Week

Crazy but true: Dick Sporting Goods’ stock has outperformed FAANG over the past five years. Riley from Sportsball will explain why this week.

Consider subscribing to his newsletter here.

⏱ In Other News

• Who knew Vince Lombardi was an ally?

• The Best (Worst) Promotion of All Time: 10-Cent Beer Night

• The Dov Kleiman Saga Continues

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👋 Happy Friday! This will be my last high school baseball update for a while.

The last we spoke, I said we’d either be eliminated or advance to the next round. Spoiler: we lost.

I did, however, nail the score prediction:

Only, we lost 7-3. If only we didn’t strike out looking five times…

⚾️ Why MLB Won't Expand to Baseball's Favorite City