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MLB Draft First Round To Be Held at Football Stadium

The first round of the MLB Draft will take place in..... a football stadium?

Brady Farkas

MLB Draft First Round To Be Held at Football Stadium
MLB Draft First Round To Be Held at Football Stadium /
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Major League Baseball announced on Monday that the first round of the 2023 Draft will take place in.... a football stadium?

Yes, that's right. The first round of the MLB Draft will take place at Lumen Field in Seattle, the home of the Seattle Seahawks.

The MLB Draft is now part of All-Star weekend and with the all-star game in Seattle, the draft's first day takes center stage in that city.

Baseball Insider Sam Dykstra had the particulars in a Tweet:

"The first round of the 2023 Draft will officially be held at Lumen Field -- home of the Seattle Seahawks -- beginning at 7 pm ET/4 pm PT on Sunday, July 9, MLB announces."

As someone who is a Seattle sports fan, I think the fact that Seattle has the all-star game is great. It will be a great showcase for the city and it will be a lot of fun. That said, I don't really love this.

1) Why are you showcasing a football stadium on baseball's biggest stage? Football already has enough of the sports fan's attention. This should be all about baseball.

2) What if it rains? What happens then? Does the draft go into some meeting room in the bowels of the stadium? That wouldn't be very compelling.

3) Are you trying to fill the stadium with fans to watch the draft? Because it seems unlikely that 69,000 people come out to watch 30 names get called. At that rate, you risk a cavernous and empty look on television.

4) How will it even work technologically? Are you setting up 30 tables in the endzone? At the 50-yard-line?

I'm happy that Seattle has the game, the home run derby, the futures game, and the draft. It will be great, but I'd rather see the draft in a convention center and if we're inviting other sports to be a part of this, how about in the Climate Pledge Arena, where the Seattle Kraken play, which is indoors and seats just over 18,000?

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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