Mets Triple-A affiliate coming to Syracuse in 2019!

[Edgy MD]

Your all-time Syracuse Chiefs single-season home run leader? Hank Sauer! Hammering Hank hit 50 (50!) along with 141 RBI (141!) in 1947. War and other circumstances had kept the guy to 47 games in the majors to that point, but his magic season catapulted him to a big league career of 288 homers, all but seven hit after the age of 30.

Want to grab a bite to eat or host an event while visiting NBT Bank Stadium? Try the Hank Sauer Room, known for its upscale amenities! With a full cocktail bar, large screen TVs and décor rich in baseball history, your guest won't soon forget their night at the ballpark!

Try the Sauer-kraut!

[Guest d'Kong76]

Ceetar wrote: they can take the bus back to AAA, but I'd like the call-ups to get to Queens pronto!

Syracuse has a fine airport; not sure how big the market is for shuttling
planes back and forth to Syracuse (unlike Boston or Washington).

[RealityChuck]

d'Kong76 wrote: they can take the bus back to AAA, but I'd like the call-ups to get to Queens pronto! Syracuse has a fine airport; not sure how big the market is for shuttling planes back and forth to Syracuse (unlike Boston or Washington).

Google shows plenty of flights each day. They take about 1 1/2 hours. You could call someone up at 10:00 a.m. and he could be on the field for a day game.

[Ceetar]

According to Travelocity for a random Tuesday there are 3 direct flights from Syracuse to LGA.

~6, 10, and 2. Technically those are all too early for a 'day of' callup if someone shows up to the stadium for the night game and is broken and getting DLd. Of course you could always send them to JFK, it's not like it's that much farther.

Of course, Buffalo isn't better in terms of 'direct to LGA'

Mets should call up sponsor Delta and try to get a 3:30 SYR-LGA flight on the books. Offer 'em a banner ad in the Syracuse stadium.

[Benjamin Grimm]

It's not just about flights to New York. One advantage that Las Vegas has is that you can probably get a direct flight from there to any big league city where the Mets might be playing.

Getting a flight from Syracuse to Cincinnati, or to San Diego, might require making a connection.

[Ceetar]

well, to be honest, it was never really about the travel. That's why there's taxi squads. No one shows up to the park and suddenly goes on the DL unless they were expecting the possibility and then you bring a guy over early just in case anyway. The park itself and the conditions for pitchers in the PCL were undoubtedly of bigger concern.

[Frayed Knot]

But are we sure that Brooklyn is off the table?

Well I was talking about how some fans thought the "solution" to the Tides ending their agreement with the Mets was to just unilaterally make Coney Island their AAA squad.

As far as if Brooklyn is off the table as a future AAA site? -- well it would certainly clear the population base minimum although the stadium capacity would need to be upped by 50% or more.
Not sure how practical/possible that is.

But that still leaves the MFY veto and I don't think they'd view Staten Island as a very good locale for AAA so would probably balk at the swap.
Would they agree if the Mets told them that they'd raise no objection to any future Yanqui AAA team in Yonkers? White Plains?, Jersey City? Yeah maybe.

Not really sure if either ML team even wants their AAA team that close. Short-Season A ball is one thing but AAA seems like a bit of overkill, no?
What they have now (or will have) are satellite NYM & MFY bases in mid-NYS in the Mets case and NJ & Eastern PA for the Yanx which expand their fan base rather than concentrate it.
On the other hand Atlanta went for the smaller nest option so who knows.





On the travel thing: NYM brass would mention the part about how much easier it was to get flights out of LV as compared to most if not all AAA cities as an advantage to having their team way
out there ... but I think we all suspect that was just them trying to dress up the situation.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think the availability of flights out of Vegas probably is an advantage over some other Pacific Coast League cities, and probably some International League cities too, but it's heavily outweighed by a bunch of over factors. Maybe it's more of a mitigation than an advantage.

And now, a Top Ten List. The Ten Most Populated Cities in New York State:

1. New York City 8,550,405
2. Buffalo 261,025
3. Rochester 210,855
4. Yonkers 197,399
5. Syracuse 145,151
6. Albany 97,660
7. New Rochelle 77,606
8. Mount Vernon 67,780
9. Schenectady 66,273
10 Utica Oneida 62,110


Rochester and Buffalo already have Triple-A franchises. Yonkers is too close to New York. Albany is 150 miles from New York, compared to 246 for Syracuse. I guess that city might be an option. They're currently a short-season Single-A city, and I'm sure they'd love to make the jump to Triple-A. I think, though, that it's more likely that the Mets will leverage Syracuse into improving or replacing the ballpark there.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Surprised Yonkers is fourth, but of course they don't count everyone.

[Guest 41Forever]

For the discussion about travel, do you think the Triple-A teams fly commercial, or do they have chartered flights?

[nymr83]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: 6. Albany 97,660 Albany is 150 miles from New York, compared to 246 for Syracuse. I guess that city might be an option. They're currently a short-season Single-A city, and I'm sure they'd love to make the jump to Triple-A. I think, though, that it's more likely that the Mets will leverage Syracuse into improving or replacing the ballpark there.

97k doesn't tell the full story for Albany though, there are something like 15-20 colleges in the area plus the state government and all the hangers on that go with it.... All of which are out of session during the heart of baseball season, depressing the potential attendance base.

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Albany is 150 miles from New York, compared to 246 for Syracuse. I guess that city might be an option. They're currently a short-season Single-A city, and I'm sure they'd love to make the jump to Triple-A.

There doesn't seem to be any team in Albany these days (acc to BB-Ref) not since 2002 as an independent league team.
The last time they were in an affiliated league was in the AA Eastern Lg from 1983-1994.
That was the city the Yanx abandoned for Trenton and they've not had a team since.
The park, which had been a depression-era WPA project, has since been demolished.
I once played golf on the grounds of that park which was briefly turned into a (not very good) golf course after its baseball days were done.
IIRC you teed off from the 1st hole with the skeleton of the stadium at your back.

So not only do they not have the track record of Syracuse but they'd have to start from scratch with a new building.

[Benjamin Grimm]

It's kind of funny that the Mets haven't even moved to Syracuse yet and we're already plotting their exit.

I think that, chances are, they'll be in Syracuse well beyond 2025.

[nymr83]

Which would be just fine. The Mets threw around their cash to vastly improve their AAA situation permanently. Awesome.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I agree. It's great that they'll soon be done with the Pacific Coast League.

[Farmer Ted]

I thought Hartford could be a contender for the Mets AAA team when this Tides-Bisons,-Zephyrs-51s musical chairs fiasco started. Just 110 miles to Citi Field and currently a AA town with the Yard Goats affiliated with the Rockies. Brand spanking new stadium with over 6,000 max.

[Frayed Knot]

Farmer Ted wrote: Brand spanking new stadium with over 6,000 max.

Which is about half the size of a typical AAA park.
Making a quick check of all the Int'l Lg stadiums finds they all seem to be in the 10 - 17 K range so I'm guessing that 10K is probably the minimum requirement for that league.
Not sure if the city of Hartford itself -- pop = 125K and now only the 4th largest city within Connecticut behind Bridgeport, New Haven, and Stamford -- would qualify.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Purchase price of the Chiefs is reportedly $18 million. (That's almost as much as the Mets sold for in 1980.)

That $18 million will become $18 million if David Wright retires.

[Valadius]

About damn time the AAA affiliate made any kind of sense again.

I could go for either the Syracuse Sicilians or the Syracuse Spartans.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The sale to the Mets was officially approved by the Syracuse Chiefs shareholders today.

http://www.syracuse.com/chiefs/index.ssf/2017/11/syracuse_chiefs_shareholders_approve_sale_to_new_york_mets.html

[Guest d'Kong76]

I'm very happy about this, I hope it works out well and lasts for years and years.

[Frayed Knot]

Simply the fact that they now own it means that the version of musical cities that's gone on with the AAA affiliate since the breakup with Norfolk has come to an end.
That it's doing so in the right part of the country and in a city with a lengthy history of supporting that level of baseball makes it better still.

The only way this moves again in the near future is if the 'pons get a better deal/stadium from some other city but, as we discussed before (probably earlier in this thread) there just aren't a lot
of logical choices that are obviously superior. I think there may be some pressure put on the the city/county/state to upgrade or replace the facility once the honeymoon period is over, but
hopefully that gets solved with proper negotiations rather than threats although as GHW Bush (aka: Gropin' George) once said, "watch your wallets".

[Ceetar]

Cuomo mentions this in the State of the State, says they'll be the Syracuse Mets but like, immediately? or in 2019 when the Mets actually take over?

Or is he just stating, in the state of the state, what we already know, that the Mets have agreed to terms? That seems more likely.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Cuomo: Syracuse Chiefs will become Syracuse Mets in 2019

Chiefs General Manager Jason Smorol, asked about Cuomo's speech, would confirm only that the team will change its name in 2019 when the Mets move their Triple-A affiliate from Las Vegas to Syracuse. He would not disclose the new name. "We'll have more to say about it later," Smorol said. "I don't think right now is the time to delve into that. When we're ready to make the official announcement, we'll make the official announcement.''

[Edgy MD]

What a mess for the Nats.

[Fman99]

Syracuse Mets, love it. I will buy fucktons of merch that say that.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't know. I have a feeling that they'll end up with some stupid "marketable" name, like "Spaghetti Thumpers" or something like that.

[Ceetar]

I'm on team "it's own identity" over just calling them the Mets. they're not the Mets, they're players that want to be the Mets. can keep sky chiefs though.

[nymr83]

Edgy MD wrote: What a mess for the Nats.

ain't it great?