I'm not liking the sound of this.
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...would play as visitors against the Marlins in San Juan from July 28-30.
"We are planning something for July, but we're still working out the details," said MLBI Latin America assistant Angelica Pimentel.
Dan and Mbaamin had a very interesting discussion about the economics of this to both clubs in yesterday's Chum Bucket.
But when I heard about it, flashing red lights went off in my head. The last team with low attendance who lost home games in order to play in Puerto Rico didn't stick around in that market for very long after that.
When a team already has a small number of fans who attend the games, it only serves to alienate the loyal attendees when their 81 game package now becomes 78 -- and trust me, they won't see any kind of a refund. Holding the contest in another locale other than the home stadium doesn't produce more Marlins fans, it just erodes the fan base that presently exist.
Maybe it is just about internationalizing the game and I'm reading way too much into this. But that isn't what happened with the Expos and I'm hoping MLB isn't following the same blueprint with the Marlins.
Either way, this is not good news.