Another possible reason is that Austin may not want a pro sports team. Surprised, and often wondered, about Las Vegas not having a pro team! Not everyone can fly 1,000 miles to attend every game, as LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer does. Although individual sports such as golf, tennis, and auto racing are also very popular, the term is usually limited to team sports.. What major league US/Canada professional sports teams have won a playoff series after being down zero games to three? Quiz by inderweg. That will place them in the San Jose metro area and lower the number of teams in San Francisco-Oakland to four. The NFL is the only one of America’s major sports leagues without a team in Canada. So which teams should go? With a little help from the good folks at Nielsen, we found the five largest television markets without a baseball team and made a case for each: Indianapolis Television market size: 1.09 million It also explains Missouri having more than 2x as many sports teams as Indiana, even though Indiana is larger than Missouri. While this may be a ploy to gain leverage in negotiations over a publicly funded stadium in St. Louis, there are plenty of reasons to believe Mr. Kroenke is for real. About JetPunk. It’s the third-largest MSA without a pro sports team, trailing Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario … Of the 22 most populous states in America, 21 of them have at least two sports teams from the Big Four. Bottom Line: San Antonio. The Los Angeles metro area is close enough to Riverside that fans who are willing to sit in traffic for a few hours could conceivably attend a game, but a combined Riverside-LA market would then be able to support more than the six teams the region currently has. Austin is the largest city in America without a single major sports franchise. Yet, with a metro area population greater than all but three states, the New York City metro area could actually support two more major sports franchises. The Texas capital is similar in size to Columbus and Nashville, two cities that the NHL entered before the other three major pro leagues. (Ever been to Green Bay?) top cities without nfl team 55 items ranked. How Much Do I Need to Save for Retirement? Last updated: May 22, 2014. Virginia Beach, VA. Of the 22 most populous states in America, 21 of them have at least … This is a tricky question. Furthermore, two of those teams (the Tigers and the Lions) are playing in relatively new stadiums. Nine of the thirteen cities with teams in each of the Big Four professional sports leagues also have a team in a fifth professional sports league: Major League Soccer (MLS). Houston is one large city. That story had a happy ending but if our model is correct, the next may not. The largest city in the United States without a team in one of the four major pro sports leagues, Austin could make sense for the NHL. Indeed, the LA-Riverside metro would have a population nearly as large as that of the New York City metro, which has nine teams (and, as described below, could support two more). Meanwhile, Green Bay, Wisconsin—home of the well-known Packers—is the smallest city in America with a pro sports team (just 100,000 residents). Move the Pittsburgh Steelers to Las Vegas. That’s right, according to our model the metro with the highest number of sports franchises should have even more. Maybe Jerry Jones is considering a relocation? The Patriots are the new guys in town, having just arrived in 1960. If its current growth rate holds, Austin may well come off of this list one day. Take the talents of the Cleveland Indians to Austin Texas. As it turns out, Atlanta has exactly three big-four franchises, which means the difference between the value predicted by our model and the actual value – this is called a residual – was basically zero. That being said, if you set history aside and consider only market size and income, Pittsburgh should probably have just one professional sports team, not three. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the mean household income in the area is $136,000. top cities without nfl team 55 items ranked. The Buffalo metro area is just the 49th most populous in the U.S., yet it has more sports teams than 19 of those metros. New Mexico is one of the fastest-growing states, yet does not have a professional sports team to its name just yet. US States by Borders in 30 Seconds. en-1. Lastly, there’s the question of a stadium, specifically where to build one and how to pay for it. It’s a proud sports city, one that should have an NFL team for good. And that Riverside-San Bernardino has zero? More . The University of Texas sports teams have massive arenas that draw huge crowds even when the teams are losing. As of the beginning of 2015, there were five major franchises in the San Francisco-Oakland metro area. They function as a de facto pro sports franchise. The Texas capital is similar in size to Columbus and Nashville, two cities that the NHL entered before the other three major pro leagues. Between the Steelers, the Pirates and the Penguins, Steel City has 14 championships, more than any other city that does not have (or has not had) a team in each of the four major men’s leagues. Don’t be surprised if they move. ... Vegas is the biggest city without pro sports. Oakland is home to the world champion Golden State Warriors, the A’s and the Raiders, while San Francisco has the Giants and the 49ers. If history is a reason for a sports team to stay put, then don’t expect Pittsburgh to lose one of their three major pro sports franchises any time soon. The city of Norfolk made a bid for an NHL team in the late 90s, which was eventually rejected by the league in 1997. (This one may actually happen.). The resulting model looks like this: Number of Teams = -0.81 + (0.532/1,000,000) * (population) + (0.1123/10,000) * (mean household income). It was the 20th largest city in the country. San Jose is already a professional sports city, playing host to the San Jose Sharks of the NHL. That being said, we wouldn’t bet against one of the big four leagues rolling the dice on Vegas in the near future. - Overall US Population Rank: #11. Another hot-weather hockey town, but in this one the fans have warmed to the ice rink, while cooling toward a more traditional pastime. Ownership of the St. Louis Rams is mulling a move to LA and indeed already owns a patch of land on which to build a stadium. (Although, to be fair, Washington D.C. has three sports teams, all of which practice in Northern Virginia.) Green Bay has a population of just 305,000 people. Added 7 years ago by guest, -1 points . Somehow, the Packers sell out every single game. That’s bad news for Tampa, where our model suggests there should be one or two pro sports teams, not three. It is a ridiculous thought. Our model2 predicted that an additional two million people in a metro area on average leads to one extra franchise, as does an additional $90,000 in mean household income. So… there could be a debate over whether New Jersey has an NFL team or not. There are currently 24 U.S. states without major sports teams, when major league sports are defined as Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL). Simply put, teams in the other leagues do not have the same effect on a market as a team in one of the big four leagues. Of all the cities on this list, Los Angeles is the one most likely to get a team in the near future. Name all US cities that are home to professional sports teams. Some might say it already has an NFL team. Current Rams owner Stan Kroenke has expressed his desire to move the team to Los Angeles. In June, the city of Glendale (where the Coyotes have been playing) terminated the team’s lease agreement, meaning the Coyotes currently have no place to play in 2015. That number is up 14 percent from 2017, tied for the largest jump amongst the top-50 most valuable te… Among the travails through which Cleveland has suffered was the temporary loss of the Browns, who moved to Baltimore but were replaced three years later (as part of settlement between the city and the NFL) by an expansion team. These are the smallest cities (2010 Census) that have at least one of the four major sports (not counting suburbs of large cities): #262 - Green Bay #125 - Salt Lake City #79 - Orlando #76 - St. Petersburg #70 - Buffalo These are the smallest metropolitan areas with at least one of the four major sports: Birmingham is the most populated city in Alabama. The term "major league" was first used in 1921 in reference to Major … The other reason is that sports commissioners are nervous about placing their leagues next to the gambling capital of America. Perhaps more than any other city on this list, Buffalo reflects the painful clash of past with present. The average attendance at Tampa Bay Lightning games in the 2014-2015 season was nearly 19,000, eighth highest in the NHL. The term "major league" was first used in 1921 in reference to Major … Indianapolis. Bank of America® Travel Rewards Visa® Credit Card Review, Capital One® Quicksilver® Cash Rewards Credit Card Review, willing to sit in traffic for a few hours, 7 Mistakes Everyone Makes When Hiring a Financial Advisor, 20 Questions to Tell If You're Ready to Retire, The Worst Way to Withdraw From Your Retirement Accounts. While market size is important, it’s far from the only consideration. When the 2015 NFL season begins, however, the 49ers will no longer be playing in San Francisco. He has even purchased a stadium-sized plot of land in the City of Angels in a perfect location for the former-LA football team to play. Indians, Browns and Cavaliers fans: which team would you keep? An award-winning writer with more than two decades of experience in real estate. The fans there love the Sharks. To determine the optimal number of sports teams in U.S. cities, we looked at data on population and mean household income for each of America’s largest 100 metro areas. The result is messy and in some cases just plain weird. San Antonio. The league generated $13 billion and has 29 of the top 50 most valuable sports franchisesin the world. Historically, the National Hockey League has struggled to get sports fans in warm-weather cities to take an interest in a game that is played on a frozen pond. This reflects both the size of a given market and the amount of income after taxes the people in that market have to spend on tickets, gear and (generally outrageously expensive) stadium concessions. However, that was not the case for every city. Moving to Denver? When the Buffalo Bills came to town in 1960, the city of Buffalo had a population of 530,000. Although individual sports such as golf, tennis, and auto racing are also very popular, the term is usually limited to team sports.. While there is no full-time professional sports franchise in Oxnard, they do get an NFL team for a few months a year. Louis is the third-largest metro area without an NBA team, after Seattle and San Diego. State: Texas. The NYC area is home to two NFL football teams, two major league baseball teams, two pro basketball teams and three NHL franchises. Meanwhile, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders have floated a plan to share a stadium in Los Angeles. Virginia Beach is the largest city in Virginia, which in turn is the largest state without a professional sports team. Indeed, our model found that the Mile-High City should probably have just two teams. The largest city in America’s largest state ... San Antonio should be confident they can sustain a professional team if they received one. Austin is only the fifth-largest urban area without a pro sports team, trailing Riverside-San Bernadino CA, Virginia Beach VA, Las Vegas NV, and Providence RI. Print or download this PDF. That's a lot of potential hockey fans. The city's other Big Four teams are the Detroit Lions (NFL), Detroit Tigers (MLB) and Detroit Red Wings (NHL). That will bring the total of teams in the LA metro area to at least 7, almost exactly the number projected by our model. Have a question? Move the Oakland Raiders and the Denver Nuggets to Riverside, making them Riverside Raiders and the Riverside Nuggets (makes sense, right?). If California isn't underrepresented in terms of NFL teams, Texas is, and San Antonio is an obvious choice of where to go next. Keeping in mind that this a purely hypothetical exercise, intended only for entertainment purposes, here is how we would propose rearranging the professional sports landscape in order to bring some balance to the cities listed above: 1. Send the Phoenix Coyotes to Bridgeport, where it actually snows. According to our model, a metro area like Atlanta, with 5.5 million people and mean household income of $80,000 should have about three pro sports teams. 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