Which cities would be good for sports teams?

[kphoger]

Kansas City - where I live - needs an NBA and/or NHL team! We already have an arena downtown. I want to go to some games there!

Would be better if actually based in Kansas side.

I've tried to be respectful of your comments, no matter how off-the-wall they seemed, but this is just downright dirty-rotten meanness on your part.

Put the stadium next to the Kansas Speedway.

[DTComposer]

Green Bay is not a small market team. Their market is Wisconsin, pop. 5.9 million. They have unwavering support throughout the state and aren't really competing with any other team (unlike, for example, the Steelers, who have to compete with the Eagles). It's just a unique situation in that the team is not based in the state's largest city.

Nearly the entire Internet disagrees with you, including the NFL's own website.  https://operations.nfl.com/learn-the-game/nfl-basics/team-histories/national-football-conference/north/green-bay-packers/

Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Tampa, New Orleans, and Cincinnati, despite being larger cities, are smaller markets than the Packers market. Denver, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Tennessee, and Minnesota are roughly the same. Still others are difficult to evaluate, such as Cleveland (dispersion of Browns vs. Bengals fans throughout Ohio), Kansas City (dispersion of fans throughout eastern Missouri since the Rams left), and Vegas (how many Bay Area, and even LA, fans still support the Raiders).

Several cities you listed here are in direct conflict with your assertion of Green Bay.  Buffalo is a small market team, but when combined with other NW NY areas and the Toronto market, they have a sizeable draw. 

On the other hand, and to your point, the New Orleans Saints, while in a reasonably sizable city, have nearly no market outside of their base city unlike most other markets.

I guess nearly the entire internet is wrong then. Wisconsin is all Packers fans everywhere, the league knows that, the networks know that, anyone who lives/has lived there knows that.

Those cities are not in direct conflict with my assertion of Green Bay (except I will give you Buffalo). Those other teams are boxed closer in by other NFL cities and do not have a whole state with the population of Wisconsin, including large metro area (i.e. Milwaukee) all to themselves. Basically what I'm saying is that the Packers market of Wisconsin is larger than, for example, the Bengals market of southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky.

This is a skosh unscientific, but if I use the "fandom" map here (yes, I know it's nine years old):
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/the-geography-of-nfl-fandom/379729/

And map some of the teams out using:
https://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/mapping/popest/pes-v3/

You get these approximate numbers:
Saints: 11.0 million
Steelers: 8.9 million
Buccaneers: 8.7 million
Packers: 7.1 million
Browns: 6.9 million
Bengals: 4.4 million
Bills: 2.6 million (doesn't include fans in Canada)
Jaguars: 2.3 million

[Big John]

Green Bay is not a small market team. Their market is Wisconsin, pop. 5.9 million. They have unwavering support throughout the state and aren't really competing with any other team (unlike, for example, the Steelers, who have to compete with the Eagles). It's just a unique situation in that the team is not based in the state's largest city.

Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Tampa, New Orleans, and Cincinnati, despite being larger cities, are smaller markets than the Packers market. Denver, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Tennessee, and Minnesota are roughly the same. Still others are difficult to evaluate, such as Cleveland (dispersion of Browns vs. Bengals fans throughout Ohio), Kansas City (dispersion of fans throughout eastern Missouri since the Rams left), and Vegas (how many Bay Area, and even LA, fans still support the Raiders).

Plus it wasn't uncommon for the Packers historically play a couple games in Milwaukee.  I always viewed the Packers as decidedly representative of the Milwaukee market in the NFL.

3 games a year through 1994.

[triplemultiplex]

Kansas City - where I live - needs an NBA and/or NHL team! We already have an arena downtown. I want to go to some games there!

Would be better if actually based in Kansas side.

I've tried to be respectful of your comments, no matter how off-the-wall they seemed, but this is just downright dirty-rotten meanness on your part.

Put the stadium next to the Kansas Speedway.

Put the stadium in the middle of the loop of Kansas Speedway.
Then have a race the same day as a baseball game to create the world's most boring sports crossover event.

[kphoger]

Kansas City - where I live - needs an NBA and/or NHL team! We already have an arena downtown. I want to go to some games there!

Would be better if actually based in Kansas side.

I've tried to be respectful of your comments, no matter how off-the-wall they seemed, but this is just downright dirty-rotten meanness on your part.

Put the stadium next to the Kansas Speedway.

Put the stadium in the middle of the loop of Kansas Speedway.
Then have a race the same day as a baseball game to create the world's most boring sports crossover event.

Are you implying that this NBA and/or NHL team would play baseball?

[Flint1979]

Green Bay is not a small market team. Their market is Wisconsin, pop. 5.9 million. They have unwavering support throughout the state and aren't really competing with any other team (unlike, for example, the Steelers, who have to compete with the Eagles). It's just a unique situation in that the team is not based in the state's largest city.

Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Tampa, New Orleans, and Cincinnati, despite being larger cities, are smaller markets than the Packers market. Denver, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Tennessee, and Minnesota are roughly the same. Still others are difficult to evaluate, such as Cleveland (dispersion of Browns vs. Bengals fans throughout Ohio), Kansas City (dispersion of fans throughout eastern Missouri since the Rams left), and Vegas (how many Bay Area, and even LA, fans still support the Raiders).

As someone who has been to Wisconsin several times in my life and have traveled through Wisconsin on a Sunday when the Packers are playing I totally agree. I've been in Madison and Eau Claire on a Sunday morning before a Packers game and everyone had Packers clothing on. Green Bay is one of those small original NFL towns that hung on simply because the entire state is their market as well as the western U.P. of Michigan. I have also been there on a Sunday before a Packers game and it's just like Wisconsin.

I'm not sure where in the U.P. the line is between the Packers and Lions though but probably somewhere in the middle.

[Henry]

Orlando could now use an NFL team since they transformed the ole Toilet Bowl into the Camping World Stadium.

That's one reason why the city council renovated the icky stadium, to hopefully attract some owner to bring a franchise to O Town.

Orlando Breakers in Coach?

Only if the Buccaneers get tired of Tampa Bay!

[Max Rockatansky]

Orlando could now use an NFL team since they transformed the ole Toilet Bowl into the Camping World Stadium.

That's one reason why the city council renovated the icky stadium, to hopefully attract some owner to bring a franchise to O Town.

Orlando Breakers in Coach?

Only if the Buccaneers get tired of Tampa Bay!

I always thought the Orlando Breakers were a stand in for the Jacksonville Jaguars.  The first two seasons of the fictional team and real team are very similar.

[DandyDan]

Kansas City - where I live - needs an NBA and/or NHL team! We already have an arena downtown. I want to go to some games there!

I personally speculate that once the NHL gets tired of the Coyotes playing in a college arena that Kansas City would get them, assuming Houston doesn't get them first.

[Flint1979]

I've been to Red Wings games at Little Caesars Arena and can't imagine watching an NHL game in a building that seats like 4,000 people.

[triplemultiplex]

I've been to Red Wings games at Little Caesars Arena and can't imagine watching an NHL game in a building that seats like 4,000 people.

That's hockey in the Sun Belt for you.

[Henry]

Orlando could now use an NFL team since they transformed the ole Toilet Bowl into the Camping World Stadium.

That's one reason why the city council renovated the icky stadium, to hopefully attract some owner to bring a franchise to O Town.

Orlando Breakers in Coach?

Only if the Buccaneers get tired of Tampa Bay!

I always thought the Orlando Breakers were a stand in for the Jacksonville Jaguars.  The first two seasons of the fictional team and real team are very similar.

Now that you bring that tidbit up, I do recall the wildcard game the Breakers played against the Buffalo Bills from the final season of the show, and it does make sense that they would be substituted for the Jaguars in this alternate timeline, as in real life, the Jags' playoff debut also came against the Bills in the same round. While it would be nice to have an NFL team in Orlando, I still maintain that it will never happen as long as the Buccaneers remain in Tampa (after all, it is their territory too!).

[Flint1979]

I've been to Red Wings games at Little Caesars Arena and can't imagine watching an NHL game in a building that seats like 4,000 people.

That's hockey in the Sun Belt for you.

A couple teams seem to do ok in the South but it's not for every market. I personally think the Coyotes should have moved 20 years ago as it was pretty obvious it wasn't going to work out back then. They shouldn't have ever left Winnipeg and at that point the Thrashers could have moved to a different city.

[Big John]

Orlando could now use an NFL team since they transformed the ole Toilet Bowl into the Camping World Stadium.

That's one reason why the city council renovated the icky stadium, to hopefully attract some owner to bring a franchise to O Town.

Orlando Breakers in Coach?

Only if the Buccaneers get tired of Tampa Bay!

I always thought the Orlando Breakers were a stand in for the Jacksonville Jaguars.  The first two seasons of the fictional team and real team are very similar.

Now that you bring that tidbit up, I do recall the wildcard game the Breakers played against the Buffalo Bills from the final season of the show, and it does make sense that they would be substituted for the Jaguars in this alternate timeline, as in real life, the Jags' playoff debut also came against the Bills in the same round. While it would be nice to have an NFL team in Orlando, I still maintain that it will never happen as long as the Buccaneers remain in Tampa (after all, it is their territory too!).

They also had an episode where they beat the Packers at Lambeau Field.  This was during the time the Packers had a long actual home winning streak.

[Poiponen13]

In major leagues of "new sports", such as volleyball, team handball, water polo and floorball, maybe some teams would be located in samller markets such as Kalispell, Lakeland, Hagerstown, Roanoke, Honolulu, Fairbanks, Medicine Hat and Thunder Bay. They would be like Hoffenheim in German soccer - a very small place with very big team.

[Hunty2022]

In major leagues of "new sports", such as volleyball, team handball, water polo and floorball, maybe some teams would be located in samller markets such as Kalispell, Lakeland, Hagerstown, Roanoke, Honolulu, Fairbanks, Medicine Hat and Thunder Bay. They would be like Hoffenheim in German soccer - a very small place with very big team.

I really feel like Stanardsville, VA should have a team in that league. It would create a rivalry with Roanoke. Give the small town an NFL team for the fun of it.

Call the team the Stanardsville Golden Horseshoes.

[Scott5114]

Medicine Hat

A new league should be started that only admits towns with names of hats in them. Medicine Hat AB, Mexican Hat UT, Hatboro PA, and Fez, Morocco would all play in this league.

[hotdogPi]

Medicine Hat

A new league should be started that only admits towns with names of hats in them. Medicine Hat AB, Mexican Hat UT, Hatboro PA, and Fez, Morocco would all play in this league.

There's a Hatfield, Massachusetts along the I-91 corridor. It would be a good place for a team because all the universities in the area would provide talent for the team.

[1995hoo]

Medicine Hat

A new league should be started that only admits towns with names of hats in them. Medicine Hat AB, Mexican Hat UT, Hatboro PA, and Fez, Morocco would all play in this league.

The French seaside town of Cap d'Agde lends itself to all sorts of mildly titillating notions in this respect.

[GaryV]

Derby, NY

Chatham MA, MI and ON

Chattanooga, TN

[Big John]

Hattiesburg, MS

[cockroachking]

Hatfield, PA
Chatham, NY
Great Cacapon, WV
Capitol Heights, MD
Toukley, NSW, Australia
Trilby, FL
Garrison, NY
Garrisonville, VA
Stetson, ME
Ascot, UK
Ascot Corner, QC

[kphoger]

In major leagues of "new sports", such as volleyball, team handball, water polo and floorball, maybe some teams would be located in samller markets such as Kalispell, Lakeland, Hagerstown, Roanoke, Honolulu, Fairbanks, Medicine Hat and Thunder Bay. They would be like Hoffenheim in German soccer - a very small place with very big team.

You're really just an idiot now, aren't you?

Why on earth would sports that are already unpopular be more likely to survive in smaller markets?  The supposed fan base is already smaller by virtue of the city size, and now you're going to reduce that to nil by having the sport be one that nobody in that city cares about.

[hotdogPi]

I don't think a small city necessarily means a small market. For example, a hypothetical Xenia team in the Alphabet League would have the fanbases of Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton, which is a decent size.

Lakeland makes perfect sense for someone who wants both the Tampa and Orlando markets.

[kphoger]

I don't think a small city necessarily means a small market. For example, a hypothetical Xenia team in the Alphabet League would have the fanbases of Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton, which is a decent size.

Lakeland makes perfect sense for someone who wants both the Tampa and Orlando markets.

My suspicion is that such teams would end up being named the Cincinnati ____ or the Columbus ____ rather than the Xenia ____, and the Tampa ____ or the Orlando ____ rather than the Lakeland ____, just with stadiums that are a bit far out from the city.