Could Raleigh land MLB expansion team? Hurricanes owner wants in

By Brian Murphy, WRAL

Major League Baseball seems likely to expand by two teams in the relatively near future.

The owner of the Carolina Hurricanes wants Raleigh and North Carolina to be in that conversation.

“It’s clear to me now that this works,” Dundon told WRAL on Tuesday.

But it is early in the process of putting together an ownership group and identifying potential stadium locations, he said. It could be years not months. Dundon said MLB’s rule changes, designed to speed up the game, have made an impression on him.

“We got to get fans and sponsors and business to work together to see what our best proposal is and no one can do it better than us,” Dundon told WRAL.

The North Carolina Sports Network first reported on Dundon’s interest in MLB.

Earlier this summer, Dundon signed a long-term lease with the Centennial Authority to keep the Hurricanes at Raleigh’s PNC Arena for another 20 years. A $300-million renovation is planned for the arena. As part of the agreement, Dundon got the rights to develop the land around PNC Arena.

Under Dundon, who took control of the Hurricanes in early 2018, Carolina has reached the playoffs in five consecutive season, including two trips to the Eastern Conference Final. The Hurricanes averaged 19,526 fans per game last year, near 100 percent of capacity and second-best in the NHL.

“If we do our part, the fans come,” Dundon said.

MLB Raleigh, a group trying to bring MLB to the city, has been in existence for several years. It says its mission is to “bring together the community around baseball, while showing viability and support for putting Raleigh in the conversation for a Major League team.”

“Whenever anything is brought up, expansion across any sport, it’s ‘Who is leading this charge?” and it has to be a billionaire,” said Ryan Foose, a representative of MLB Raleigh. “Not only does Tom have financial means, he has connections. He’s also proven with the Canes that he can take it and elevate it.”

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said earlier this year that he hoped to have an expansion committee created by the end of the year. With the Oakland A’s likely moving to Las Vegas and the Tampa Bay Rays reaching an agreement for a new ballpark, the two most volatile franchise/city situations have been addressed, one of the key prerequisites for beginning expansion discussions.

“I hope shortly thereafter, we will put together an expansion committee and start talking internally first, about the issues associated with expansion,” Manfred told reporters in at the All-Star Game in July. “Obviously, there are economic issues, you’re talking about diminishing the central revenue available to each and the 30 clubs making it 32.”

A new MLB franchise is likely to cost $2 billion in expansion fees, making a deep-pocketed owner one of the keys to landing a team.

“If I ever say $2 billion is easy, then I’ve lost all perspective in life,” Dundon told WRAL. “It’s doable. That won’t be our problem.”

Charlotte, Portland, Nashville, Montreal and Salt Lake City are considered potential candidates for expansion. The Athletic included those cities in a series of stories on MLB expansion earlier this year.

A stadium, or stadium plans, is another key for MLB expansion. Raleigh and the Triangle does not have baseball stadium large enough to house an MLB team. Durham Bulls Athletic Park, home of the Rays’ Class AAA affiliate, has a seating capacity of 10,000.

Raleigh and Wake County collect taxes on hotel stays and prepared food and beverage that can be used for sporting venues. But the city and county recently allocated much of their funding for PNC Arena improvements, a soccer venue in Cary, a new downtown Raleigh hotel and improvements to the convention center.

“No future dollars are currently allocated for any kind of new major stadium or venue of any kind,” said Scott Dupree, executive director of the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance.

North Carolina has 10.6 million people as of July 1, 2022, according to the latest U.S. Census estimates. Wake County’s population was 1.17 million as of the same date.