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The have metro around the same size as Cleveland and Pittsburgh which have 3 teams each. Could a Austin or Portland a city around their size support several pro teams? Is it the history the older cities have with the teams?
A very long tradition of being an influential city and a population that gives a damn....that's how. That's not easy to replicate in today's world, with Portland and Austin being sub-top-20 cities in the U.S. currently, while CLE, PIT and STL were top-10 cities in their hey-day when these leagues were forming.
The problem with Portland is they don't want anything to do with financing a new stadium. However, there is plenty of money to make it happen. But, beyond Phil Knight and Paul Allen, there isn't much there. Phil is more concerned with the Ducks, and Allen is more concerned with the Blazers. I don't see anything happening here in the next decade. Portland will NOT finance a new stadium, whether it be MLB or NFL. And even if they do, there no guarantee they will get a team.
This is not meant to offend... But Portland and Austin are both bigtime hipster/bro cities... And MLS gets a lot of support from that crowd.
Since MLS stretches through summer, you might be able to pair that up with either NBA or NHL and have a balanced support year round.
The issues arise when the sports start to overlap too much and you divide the attention of the city's fans... Instead of having a continuous flow of support year round.
St. Louis is hardly dying, and neither is Cleveland. Maybe you should visit before writing them off. And don't forget where all these new transplants to Austin and Portland are coming from-- St. Louis and Cleveland and Detroit and Chicago, etc-- cities with long sports traditions and fan loyalties. It's not like these newly transplanted Austin residents are going to forsake their home team allegiances to root for some start-up team in Austin just because they moved there.
I think Portland will land an NHL team within the next 6 or 7 years.
As far as a stadium goes its not only that taxpayers will not finance it but nobody can agree where to put it.
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