Why doesn't Indianapolis have more sports franchises? (Fort Wayne, South Bend: buy, high school)

[bingo3000]

Indianapolis is a growing Midwestern city, a lot of people are leaving Chicago, Detroit and other big blue collar industrial Midwestern cities for Indy.

The Indianapolis Colts, Indiana Pacers, the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball, etc. rule the roost.

Why isn't there more Indy sports franchises?

[ColdAilment]

Originally Posted by bingo3000

Indianapolis is a growing Midwestern city, a lot of people are leaving Chicago, Detroit and other big blue collar industrial Midwestern cities for Indy.

The Indianapolis Colts, Indiana Pacers, the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball, etc. rule the roost.

Why isn't there more Indy sports franchises?

There are.

The Fever for the WNBA
The Indians for AAA Baseball. Second oldest team
The Indy 11 for soccer
The Indy Fuel for minor league hockey

Then you have the Brickyard 400
And the most famous of them all the Indy 500

For collegiate the NCAA is headquartered in Indianapolis. Indianapolis has no major collegiate sports programs, but that is because the rest of the state fills that void. IU in nearby Bloomington, Purdue in West Lafayette, Ball State in Muncie, and Notre Dame in South Bend

[missik999]

Originally Posted by bingo3000

Indianapolis is a growing Midwestern city, a lot of people are leaving Chicago, Detroit and other big blue collar industrial Midwestern cities for Indy.

The Indianapolis Colts, Indiana Pacers, the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball, etc. rule the roost.

Why isn't there more Indy sports franchises?

What sports would you like to see? The only major league sports we are missing is MLB and NHL.

I would like to see an Indy MLB team but it won’t happen since Indy is within the Reds marketing area.

[Berteau]

A lot of people aren’t leaving other cities for Indy. And there are pro franchises in Indy. Having a nba and nfl team is a big deal.

[Chadro77]

Originally Posted by missik999

What sports would you like to see? The only major league sports we are missing is MLB and NHL.

I would like to see an Indy MLB team but it won’t happen since Indy is within the Reds marketing area.

I actually think an NHL franchise would be successful. I don't see it happening in the near future but, you never know.

I believe MLB is out, the region is saturated.

[Toxic Toast]

We have an appropriate number of teams given the population of the metro area.

[missik999]

Miami has all four major league sports teams and has half the population of Indy.

I can see Indy possibly getting an NHL team someday but sadly not an MLB team.

[tjfd88]

The Miami metropolitan area also has over 6 million people in it, that's nearly the entire population of Indiana. As mentioned ahead, we do have the appropriate number for an area our size.



NHL team is possible but I've always been under an impression that Fort Wayne has a bigger hockey following than Indy does. They've had a successful franchise with the Komets for many years while Indy had to restart with the Fuel only a few years ago, after having various versions of the Ice. That doesn't scream stability to me.



Soccer on the other hand, a MLS team seems doable. The Eleven do seem to be popular for a minor league team.

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

Originally Posted by tjfd88

The Miami metropolitan area also has over 6 million people in it, that's nearly the entire population of Indiana. As mentioned ahead, we do have the appropriate number for an area our size.



NHL team is possible but I've always been under an impression that Fort Wayne has a bigger hockey following than Indy does. They've had a successful franchise with the Komets for many years.

I quite well remember the Ft Wayne Komets games being broadcast on WOWO 1190 Radio back in the 1960's and 70's. That said, I don't remember seeing any of the highlights of the Komets games on Indianapolis television stations, or in the Muncie newspaper, and I don't remember any of my classmates talking about the Komets games the night before, not like they talked about the Cincinati Reds, or the Muncie Central Bearcats, or the Ball State Cardinals or the Indiana Pacers or the Chicago Bears. I think Ft Wayne was the one of the few towns in Indiana, if not the only town in Indiana, where hockey had somewhat of a following.

Once you get South of Ft Wayne and into Central Indiana, hockey was not as popular as soccer. Ball State had a soccer team but no hockey team, although they did have a field hockey team. We'd have about one week of soccer in gym class while hockey was never covered. Although bowling was covered. That's where I learned to keep score in bowling was in gym class in Muncie, I think I was in 9th grade.

Just goes to show how popular basketball and bowling is/was in Muncie.

[MortonR]

I remember going to Racer's games at Market Square arena. There were rarely more than a few thousand people in attendance. When we didn't have tickets comped by Merchant's Bank (a parent was employed there) we would just buy cheap seats then move down to the better sections after the first period.

The Pacers were much the same at the time - my high school basketball games could turn out more people than the Pacers.

RM