"Relocation as Vaporware"

Maury Brown give the most complete review so far of the relocation options available to the MLB teams considering it. Some choice quotes...

"When MLB awarded the Expos to D.C., the owners lost their last best leveraging city. All the markets left are, at best, small to mid-market with most of them falling into the former. While all things can change--with political winds shifting on a dime over the course of a vote in selected relocation cities--as it stands now, these teams clamoring for new stadiums (borne on the back of heavy public subsidy) are threatening their home cities with an empty gun."

"At this point in time, MLB is on extremely solid footing. Revenues and profits are up substantially, and with that, there comes less urgency for clubs to have to seriously consider relocation. After all, those clubs that have mentioned or acted in a manner that would lead to relocation would be foregoing their larger home markets for smaller untested markets. When times are good, as they are now for most all the clubs, why risk it? Yes, they say, but we can't be competitive. We're bleeding red trying to compete in facilities that don't generate sufficient local revenues. Well, to that I say, look at how much money the current revenue sharing system is distributing to these clubs. The Royals, that club that could have relocated if improvements to Kauffman were not made, pulled in a reported $55 million in revenue sharing last year." (HardballTimes)