As an ex-pat of Charlotte, the AAA stadium is in a wonderful downtown location, not yet 10 years old, and completely incapable of being expanded to the ~30,000 capacity a MLB stadium would need.
As you said, money talks, but part of any deal for a MLB team would be compensating the AAA franchise for lost business. Great city, but in no way would it support a White Sox AAA team and a new MLB team. That Truist Park will need to have its debt serviced for another few decades.
All good points. The wild card is Don Beaver, who's almost 80 and owns a not insignificant chunk of the Pirates, as well as several other minor league teams. He can't sue MLB or other owners due to that. Also, even if you value the Knights at the high end of estimates, $50m is not going to stop a team that's likely going to have a $1B+ expansion fee.
On the stadium, I would think that it would have to be torn down and rebuilt on the same location. I haven't been to Charlotte since 2018, but it seems possible with how I remember the site and looking at it on Google.
As an ex-pat of Charlotte, the AAA stadium is in a wonderful downtown location, not yet 10 years old, and completely incapable of being expanded to the ~30,000 capacity a MLB stadium would need.
As you said, money talks, but part of any deal for a MLB team would be compensating the AAA franchise for lost business. Great city, but in no way would it support a White Sox AAA team and a new MLB team. That Truist Park will need to have its debt serviced for another few decades.
All good points. The wild card is Don Beaver, who's almost 80 and owns a not insignificant chunk of the Pirates, as well as several other minor league teams. He can't sue MLB or other owners due to that. Also, even if you value the Knights at the high end of estimates, $50m is not going to stop a team that's likely going to have a $1B+ expansion fee.
On the stadium, I would think that it would have to be torn down and rebuilt on the same location. I haven't been to Charlotte since 2018, but it seems possible with how I remember the site and looking at it on Google.