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There is rumor going around that Larry Ellison wants to buy an NBA team and bring it to San Jose-I hear its the team from Charlotte?
That would give us 1 NHL team, 2 MLB teams, 2 football teams and 2 NBA teams.
7 teams in all(if we get that 2nd NBA team)
don't forget about the bay area's mls team, the san jose earthquakes. i know the OP didn't mention major league soccer specifically, but since it's a league that has been rapidly growing in popularity, it deserves a mention.
if the earthquakes are ever able to build a new soccer-specific stadium, i expect them to have sellouts on a regular basis.
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Also, the Sacramento Kings are trying to move to Orange County so LA might soon have 2 NBA teams.
the LA area already has two teams - the lakers and the clippers. the kings would make it a three team nba market.
The Bay Area already has two football teams and two baseball teams.
DMV has two football teams and two baseball teams, since DC and Bmore are part of the same UA. IMO, Philly, Boston, and Miami could support more pro teams.
I strongly disagree about New England supporting another baseball team, I just don't see any other baseball team being able to get a fan base out there, I think the best bet for another franchise in New England would be either a NHL or NFL in that order.
we're going to have to agree to disagree on this.
have you ever lived in new england? i have, so i can speak from firsthand experience. it's a region that's absolutely insane about baseball and IMO is underserved by only having one team in the sport.
i really believe that there are enough transplants (including an enormous student population) and casual baseball fans in boston who would support a second team in the region. as long as the stadium were state-of-the-art and in an accessible location with mass transit, i think it would do ok. it may not necessarily be as strong as the red sox, but i think it could survive.
you'd be amazed at the number of people who have a mild-to-strong interest in a given sport but are not fans of the successful or popular team in their city/region because they're weary of the excessive hype and bandwagon element surrounding that team. others may claim to support the popular team in their area, but only on a casual/fairweather basis just because there are no other options.
remember, the red sox play in a stadium that is always sold out, has one of the smallest capacities in mlb, and charges some of the highest ticket prices in the league. especially since 2004, getting a ticket (especially a non-standing room ticket) to a red sox game has been a major pain in the neck. so there's a ton of pent-up demand in that city/market for live baseball games, especially if the tickets are cheaper than at fenway and the stadium is in a good, easily accessible neighborhood.
in other words, there's always a niche that can be exploited, provided that the market in question is large enough and has sufficient disposable income and corporate support. and boston clearly meets all three criteria to support a second team in one of the sports leagues - so why not baseball, the most passionately followed and extensively covered sport in the region?
in a two-team market like nyc, la, or chicago, someone with this "anti-frontrunner" mindset (or who simply wants to go a stadium closer to his residence) can root for the "anti-yankees" (mets), "anti-lakers" (clippers), or "anti-cubs" (white sox). of course, all of these teams already have a legitimate group of die-hard fans (especially the mets and white sox), but they also attract more than a few casual fans and transplants. i've seen it firsthand in nyc with the mets and in los angeles with the clippers.
of course, the yanks, lakers, and cubs attract plenty of casual fans and transplants, too. but what i'm saying is that in markets with multiple teams in a single sport, the less popular/less hyped team can carry a surprisingly strong allure for a lot of people (especially transplants) who don't have an emotional investment in the more popular team. again, i bring up the los angeles clippers as an example of this - there are many of us who could never, ever root for the lakers under any circumstance, but don't mind catching a clipper game now and then because they're everything the lakers are not.
you know, when the dodgers and giants moved out of nyc after the 1957 season, the yankees did everything in their power to try to block a replacement team from setting up shop in the city. they wanted the entire nyc market to themselves, and tried to make an argument similar to yours.
similarly, the ny rangers didn't want competition in the local hockey market, so they made life difficult for the expansion islanders in the early '70s. later on, both teams tried to block the devils, arguing that three hockey teams would never work in the nyc market. yet all three teams have carved out their own niches with their own fanbases. sure, the isles are struggling nowadays, but in their heyday they drew quite well; if they ever get a new facility and improve on the ice, you'll see all of their dormant fans come back to the arena.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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None of the above. Besides the Bay Area & DMV which already have more teams than just 4, none of the others can support another team until their population gets to like 8 Million or so, all of them are just too small to be markets with more teams. The closest right now would have to be Boston when you exclude DMV, Bay Area, Chicago, Los Angeles, & New York.
None of the above. Besides the Bay Area & DMV which already have more teams than just 4, none of the others can support another team until their population gets to like 8 Million or so, all of them are just too small to be markets with more teams. The closest right now would have to be Boston when you exclude DMV, Bay Area, Chicago, Los Angeles, & New York.
Philadelphia is the fourth largest media market, behind only NYC, LA, and Chicago.
I don't see Baltimore as part of the DMV but that's just me.
And I hope a second major league team never comes to Philly, in any category. I'm all for minor league teams though. There are a bunch of minor league baseball teams in the Philly suburbs which do really well, for example.
The D.C./Bmore area has two football and two baseball teams 30 minutes apart. I don't know if Baltimore could support basketball and hockey but that would give us 8 teams. D.C. has NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS teams.
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