A study from a University of Connecticut professor — using criteria not usually stressed in market-evaluation studies — says Connecticut is capable of supporting Major League Baseball, but no one, including the professor, thinks it will ever happen.
A study from a University of Connecticut professor — using criteria not usually stressed in market-evaluation studies — says Connecticut is capable of supporting Major League Baseball, but no one, including the professor, thinks it will ever happen.
Combining population and per-capita income with proximity to existing markets, Steven P. Lanza estimated that the greater Stamford market would be a better MLB market than Columbus, Indianapolis, Denver or Milwaukee. The choice of criteria, which lacks any inclusion of potential corporate support, is weird: proximity to other teams may have been a factor when teams traveled by trains but isn't close to being a criteria now.
And his choice of markets, quite honestly, is a little screwy. Including Columbus and Indianapolis but not Las Vegas, Jersey or even Portland shows he was stacking the odds in favor of Stamford — Stamford! — and not for any realistic alternatives. Why this half-baked "study" is receiving any traction at all is beyond us, but judging by our email it's turned into a joke in baseball circles.
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