How come there's no professional franchises in Hawaii? (baseball, athletics, leagues)

[mickey mouse is dead]

I think Honolulu would benefit from an MLB team, or an NFL team. Is there a specific reason why there's no professional team?

[lovingthegreen]

Originally Posted by mickey mouse is dead

I think Honolulu would benefit from an MLB team, or an NFL team. Is there a specific reason why there's no professional team?

Two main reasons. One is that it is not that big of a market - around the size of Fresno and Albuquerque, neither of which is going to have a major league team anytime soon. Table of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The other is that the costs of flying teams to and from Hawaii can get expensive. Even with that said, however, I think the market size is the bigger factor. Just glancing through that list I don't believe any market smaller than Honolulu has a MLB or NFL team outside of Green Bay (definitely an exception to the rule). In fact, very few metropolitan areas that are near Honolulu population-wise to the other direction on that list (slightly more-populated places) have teams.

I know Honolulu used to have a AAA baseball team and that the islands give great support to UH athletics, but I just don't believe the population numbers are there to support a MLB or NFL team.

[ThroatGuzzler]

Try flying from Boston to Honolulu and you'll know why. And plus, there's plenty of markets on the mainland which haven't even been tapped into yet.. (Las Vegas, Albeq, etc)

[RjRobb2]

It's simple - there have been no ownership groups to come forward and bid for expansion team or try to buy an existing team.

The reason for that is that anyone that does that would be a fool because the team would fail miserably. The Hawaiin market is small and the cost of travel would be ridiculous and the team that plays there would be at a huge disadvantage from having long flights all the time. That takes a toll on a person's health.

[OdeToArsenal47]

There are also many other markets in the US that could be tapped before Hawaii, IMHO.

-Las Vegas (if you can dance around issues of sports gambling)
-Austin
-Louisville
-Richmond
-Birmingham (a small NFL team would be HUGE here)
-Riverside/San Bernardino area

I'd put a team in all of these places before Honolulu and if you put teams in all of these cities, the leagues would be about as expanded as possible without to much dilution of the talent.

[Allen281713832]

the same reason that las vegas doesn't have one. Owners consider Hawaii a tourist attraction more then a city when residence.

[Pancho Zarape]

How come there's no professional franchises in Hawaii?

The best answer would be as others have mentioned: too small of a market. However, even if it could support a pro team, I personally wouldn't wish that kind of abuse on Hawaii!