It was great to see Tim Raines finally get his due with his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday. At the end of the induction, Harold Reynolds said on MLB Network that this "closes the book on the Montreal Expos." It also led to the speculation about when/if MLB expands again and Montreal gets its team back.
Now, MLB expansion is not even remotely near the horizon. They're perfectly content with 30 teams and six divisions. And, since baseball is the one sport where they can't make an odd number work, the addition of Montreal would obviously have to include a 32nd team. And the location of that 32nd team is also not so obvious.
The inevitable 32nd team in the NHL is also based in the Province of Quebec. With the Vegas Golden Knights officially joining the league this season, the NHL currently has 31 teams. They can make that work for a couple seasons, but everyone knows they're eventually going to add another one and make the number of teams even again. And the most likely location for that 32nd team is Quebec City, which lost the Nordiques to Denver 20 years ago.
Since then, the economic situation in Canada has changed, and they have a beautiful, new, NHL-ready arena in Quebec City. Frankly, I'm surprised that the new Nordiques (Nouveau Nordiques?) weren't granted an expansion franchise at the same time as the Golden Knights. But they will soon.
Unfortunately for Seattle, their chances of getting their team back are significantly less than Quebec's. The situation with the Sonics is very similar to the one with the Expos. The NBA doesn't seem to be in any sort of a rush to expand anytime soon. When and if they do, Seattle will be right at the top of the list (frankly, the Sonics never should've moved to Oklahoma City in the first place). But, similar to baseball, the location of the 32nd team is far less clear. Although, I'm sure there would be plenty of cities lining up to get an NBA franchise. And if I had to guess, the NBA is more likely to expand to 32 than MLB is. (The chances of the NFL expanding beyond 32 are about as slim, if not slimmer, than the chances of MLB going to 32.)
So, let's for a second assume the Sonics are returning to the NBA and there's another expansion team to be had. Where would it land? Your first thought is that since Seattle would obviously be placed in the Western Conference, the other expansion team would have to be based in the East, which would favor a city like Tampa (which is the largest media market in the U.S. without an NBA team) or Baltimore or even Pittsburgh. But with teams already in Washington and Orlando, you'd have to think they'd want to go to a completely untapped area. And I'm not sure if there's that much desire in Pittsburgh for an NBA team. Louisville and Cincinnati are interesting options, and Louisville at least would open up a new market.
But I'd have to think that the NBA would look beyond those boundaries knowing that, if they needed to, flipping Memphis to the Eastern Conference is always an option (and convincing a reasonably good NBA team to join the Eastern Conference probably isn't that hard a sell). Although, I wouldn't go too far. I'd head to the Midwest. Missouri specifically. I'd put a team in either St. Louis, which is the larger media market, or Kansas City, which is basketball-mad (and was once the home of the Kings). And there's always Las Vegas, which, after waiting this long to get its first pro team, would have two by then.
I think a Seattle-Kansas City NBA expansion isn't really that far-fetched actually. Because the clamoring for the Sonics to come back gets louder with each passing year, and expansion would put more money in the pockets of the 30 existing owners (not to mention the players), which you know they would like the sound of. Logistically, it would actually be pretty easy to figure out, too. Here are my proposed divisions in a 32-team NBA:
Eastern Conference -- Atlantic: Charlotte, Cleveland, Toronto, Washington; Central: Chicago, Detroit, Indiana, Milwaukee; Northeast: Boston, Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia; Southeast: Atlanta, Orlando, Memphis, Miami
Western Conference -- Midwest: Kansas City, Minnesota, New Orleans, Oklahoma City; Northwest: Denver, Portland, Seattle, Utah; Southwest: Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio; Pacific: Golden State, Clippers, Lakers, Sacramento
Again, Baseball has no interest in going to 32 teams at the moment, which is why Montreal will continue to be left out in the cold. But if they were to add Montreal and another team, there would be a couple options. Because there are a few Triple A markets that are actually larger than MLB markets.
Although, since the other expansion team would go in the American League (Montreal would obviously rejoin the NL), you'd have to think of where it would make sense to add an AL team. That means Charlotte, Indianapolis and New Orleans would likely be out. Portland and Salt Lake City would be intriguing possibilities, though. Then you'd have another team on the West Coast so that the two Texas clubs can get a little break on the travel.
Logistically, that would be a nightmare, though. Not only would you have to figure out who's in the wild card game, you'd have to change up the division alignment, which would upset some teams who would be separated from their rivals, as you can see below. Fortunately, we're not gonna have to worry about any of this for a while. Because, as much as I'd love to see Major League Baseball return to Montreal, those Blue Jays exhibition games in March are likely the closest they're gonna come.
American League -- East: Baltimore, Boston, Yankees, Toronto; Central: White Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota; South: Houston, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Texas; West: Angels, Oakland, Portland, Seattle
National League -- East: Montreal, Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh; Central: Cubs, Cincinnati, Colorado, Milwaukee; South: Atlanta, Miami, St. Louis, Washington; West: Arizona, Dodgers, San Diego, San Francisco
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