If America's professional sports leagues were established today, what cities would gain or lose teams? (Atlanta, people)
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I know about the college sports culture-just can't imagine living in it.
Don't knock till you try it! It's actually pretty fun.
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Buffalo's metro is a lot smaller than Providence (1.6M), smaller than Hartford (1.2 M), and not much bigger than Worcester (947k) or Bridgeport (943k)... And its on a decline in population and economy-wise.
As an MSA Hartford would be a better investment than Buffalo, easily.
Honestly, all of Southern NE is part of an MSA except Cape Cod, It amazing CT and RI don't have one team between them aside from the WNBA. But I guess UCONN and Providence basketball fill the void...
Again, the Bills have a huge fanbase in Rochester, which historically was a lot more white-collar and wealthier than Buffalo, plus you have their Canadian fanbase right next to Buffalo in Niagara-St. Catherines plus a large contingent of Bills fans in Toronto, which is only 90 miles away. Rochester is about an hour away from Buffalo and has a metro population of about 1 million people or so. So there are 2 million people in that region, plus 500,000 or so in the Niagara region, so roughly the size of Hartford-Springfield. Just looking at the city of Buffalo and its metro is short-sighted in this instance since the Bills fanbase goes well beyond the metro Buffalo area. I do agree that the team would just go to Toronto nowadays though.
I was shocked to learn that Toronto and Buffalo had similar metro populations as recently as the 1950s to give you an idea of Buffalo's status and how far its fallen, but they definitely diverged in different directions after that.
And Hartford couldn't even keep its NHL team, which moved to North Carolina, but the Bills are still in Buffalo mainly due to the aforementioned reasons. Hartford also has the issue of being sandwiched between Boston and New York's massive sports markets, Buffalo is much further away from Detroit, NYC, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, so the Bills have a huge catchment area as a result partially due to that.
Last edited by biscuit_head; 01-13-2021 at 02:55 PM..
Come on man...We just went over this in the thread, but it is next to 2 areas with 1 million people or more, not including nearby smaller areas. If you just added the Rochester metro to the Buffalo metro, it is just the Pittsburgh metro area in population and a little bit less in terms of land area. So, you have to look beyond just the metro area, especially given the pro sports it has.
Hartford couldn't keep its NHL team though.
So are several MSAs/NECTAS in New England (some of which I named), what's your point? You could easily put a 'New England' team in other areas of New England... I don't think Buffalo would have any advantage over those areas if we had a blank slate.
Nothing would go to Buffalo, and obviously go to Toronto. Who would put a pro team in a heavily abandoned, shrinking 260k city? Literally, who would ever do that? Has that even ever been done? lmao
Hartford just mismanaged and the NHL had to get into the SunBelt. Whalers gear is a hit and CT is a strong hockey state
Sure, but that doesn't have anything to do with Buffalo actually losing their team.
"If America's professional sports leagues were formed today"-that would result in no teams for Buffalo. That's pretty much irrefutable. I don't think a market like Buffalo (shrinking, smallest major city, aging, blighted, high crime, and 2 hours from a global behemoth) has ever attracted a pro sports team in modern history.
Thus they'd lose the teams they actually do have right now..
Any thoughts on these cities potentially receiving a professional sports team?
1. Richmond or Norfolk (Not too far from Washington, D.C. but Virginia is one of the biggest states without professional sports. A potential NBA team in Richmond or Norfolk, for example, could bring in fans from all of Virginia outside the D.C. area and possibly some portions of North Carolina, too.)
2. Louisville (Yes, it has the Kentucky Derby and it's a college basketball market, but I wonder if it could support an NBA or MLB team.)
3. Omaha (Not too far from Kansas City, but an Omaha professional team could draw in fans from nearby Great Plains markets such as Lincoln, Des Moines, Sioux Falls, etc. I wonder if Omaha could support at least one team.)
Don't knock till you try it! It's actually pretty fun.
Not knocking it I just literally couldn't imagine, the closest I've ever had to experience that was one weekend I had a colege track meet in Gainesville... lmaoo
Any thoughts on these cities potentially receiving a professional sports team?
1. Richmond or Norfolk (Not too far from Washington, D.C. but Virginia is one of the biggest states without professional sports. A potential NBA team in Richmond or Norfolk, for example, could bring in fans from all of Virginia outside the D.C. area and possibly some portions of North Carolina, too.)
2. Louisville (Yes, it has the Kentucky Derby and it's a college basketball market, but I wonder if it could support an NBA or MLB team.)
3. Omaha (Not too far from Kansas City, but an Omaha professional team could draw in fans from nearby Great Plains markets such as Lincoln, Des Moines, Sioux Falls, etc. I wonder if Omaha could support at least one team.)
Hampton Roads area would be a logical spot for an NBA team.
Louisville could maybe support MLB or NFL (if the Bengals dont exist)
Any thoughts on these cities potentially receiving a professional sports team?
1. Richmond or Norfolk (Not too far from Washington, D.C. but Virginia is one of the biggest states without professional sports. A potential NBA team in Richmond or Norfolk, for example, could bring in fans from all of Virginia outside the D.C. area and possibly some portions of North Carolina, too.)
2. Louisville (Yes, it has the Kentucky Derby and it's a college basketball market, but I wonder if it could support an NBA or MLB team.)
3. Omaha (Not too far from Kansas City, but an Omaha professional team could draw in fans from nearby Great Plains markets such as Lincoln, Des Moines, Sioux Falls, etc. I wonder if Omaha could support at least one team.)
1. Norfolk/VA Beach isn't as prosperous as other parts of Virginia, and way too transient to really have a team due to its strong military presence. Richmond is a smaller metro area (of 1.3 million ppl), so I could see it having an NBA team at the most.
2. Louisville is rabid for UL and UK basketball, no way the NBA would bother coming there. It's also too close to the Indianapolis market.
3. Omaha is a very small market, so I wonder what would work there.
Honestly, I would see Miami lose the NHL (I see more attendance at AHL games lol) and possibly the MLB (low attendance). Same thing with the NHL not being in Arizona, Columbus or Carolina (they are not strong hockey markets). I see Houston getting an NHL team, along with San Francisco, and maybe Austin or Portland.
Luckily, the Marlins rid themselves of Jeffrey Loria (who, prior, owned the Montreal Expos before leaving that city without a MLB franchise after relocating the team to Washington DC) and have new ownership led by Derek Jeter and are going nowhere--I don't think Jeter would put his $29M house in St Petersburg up for sale and purchase the 19th floor at the Grove at Grand Bay in Coconut Grove if he planned on owning the team for only 2 or 3 seasons and relocating the team.
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Originally Posted by djesus007
Honestly, I would see Miami lose the NHL (I see more attendance at AHL games lol) and possibly the MLB (low attendance). Same thing with the NHL not being in Arizona, Columbus or Carolina (they are not strong hockey markets). I see Houston getting an NHL team, along with San Francisco, and maybe Austin or Portland.
Last edited by elchevere; 01-13-2021 at 04:04 PM..
In 1975, the Golden State Warriors won the NBA title and had an average attendance of 8,799. That same year, the Kentucky Colonels won the ABA title and averaged 8,727. Louisville was likely headed to an NBA team except the Bulls wanted their star Gilmore so blocked them from merging. Indianapolis got the last spot instead. Kentucky is basketball-crazed enough, that I don’t doubt Louisville could support an NBA team.
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