Most desirable markets for sports expansion

[thelakelander]

A new study by American City Business Journals (ACBJ) has determined that Los Angeles is easily the most attractive location in North America for a new professional sports franchise, specifically a team in the National Football League.

ACBJ analyzed 83 markets in the United States and Canada to determine if they have the financial ability to support new teams in baseball, football, basketball, hockey and soccer. It identified the following as the best options for either an expansion club or a team relocated from another city:

Major League Baseball (MLB): Montreal

National Football League (NFL): Los Angeles/Anaheim

National Basketball League (NBA): Las Vegas

National Hockey League (NHL): Houston

Major League Soccer (MLS): Las Vegas

Full article: http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/news/2015/04/09/sportmain.html

[thelakelander]

For you all and Mayor Brown, who would like to see an NBA team in Jax, this study claims that putting a team in Fort Myers would be a more viable option!

MARKETS WITH FULL CAPACITY (scores of 100)
Albany, 100
Austin, 100
Birmingham, 100
Cape Coral-Fort Myers, 100
Grand Rapids, 100
Harrisburg, 100
Hartford, 100
Honolulu, 100
Las Vegas, 100
Montreal, 100
Richmond, 100
Rochester, N.Y., 100
Tulsa, 100
Virginia Beach-Norfolk, 100

MARKETS WITH BORDERLINE CAPACITY (scores of 70-99)

Omaha, 98
Sarasota, 98
Seattle, 98
Albuquerque, 96
Dayton, 96
Fresno, 87
Little Rock, 82
Louisville, 78
Greensboro, 76
Quebec City, 76
Chattanooga, 73
El Paso, 73
Hamilton, 71

MARKETS WITH INADEQUATE CAPACITY (scores of 0-69)

Bakersfield, 69
Springfield, Mass., 69
Vancouver, 58
Greenville, 51
Calgary, 42
Jacksonville, 36
Knoxville, 33
Edmonton, 31
Madison, 31
Ottawa, 31
San Diego, 29
Tucson, 27
Columbus, 22
Des Moines, 20
Baton Rouge, 18
Columbia, 18
Syracuse, 11
Baltimore, 0
Buffalo, 0
Cincinnati, 0
Green Bay, 0
Kansas City, 0
Nashville, 0
Pittsburgh, 0
Raleigh-Durham, 0
St. Louis, 0
Tampa-St. Petersburg, 0
Winnipeg, 0

MARKETS WITH TEAMS

Atlanta, has 1 team
Boston, has 1 team
Charlotte, has 1 team
Chicago, has 1 team
Cleveland, has 1 team
Dallas, has 1 team
Denver, has 1 team
Detroit, has 1 team
Houston, has 1 team
Indianapolis, has 1 team
Los Angeles-Anaheim, has 2 teams
Memphis, has 1 team
Miami, has 1 team
Milwaukee, has 1 team
Minneapolis-St. Paul, has 1 team
New Orleans, has 1 team
New York-New Jersey, has 2 teams
Oklahoma City, has 1 team
Orlando, has 1 team
Philadelphia, has 1 team
Phoenix, has 1 team
Portland, has 1 team
Sacramento, has 1 team
Salt Lake City, has 1 team
San Antonio, has 1 team
San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, has 1 team
Toronto, has 1 team
Washington, has 1 team

http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/news/2015/04/09/capacity3.html

[thelakelander]

However, Jax is identified as being a perfect place for a MLS team:

http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/news/2015/04/09/capacity5.html

[coredumped]

I think we're a big baseball town, but the soccer fan base here has really surprised me. If Montreal gets a team I'm betting it would be the Tampa Rays.

Anyway, Jacksonville is a sports town, no doubt!

[JaxJersey-licious]

Better yet, why don't MLS just relegate the LA Chivas club and have the best USL/NASL team get promoted?

[Downtown Osprey]

I know it'll never happen, but I would love to have an MLB team in Jax.

[Tacachale]

Pretty interesting. Their methodology is intriguing. They're looking at this only from an economic standpoint, based on total personal income in each community's Combined Statistical Area, minus the economic requirements of the teams they already have. They aren't taking account of other factors like population, demographics, corporate sponsorship opportunities, or local interest in the different sports. Take any of those into account and the lists get much shorter. Jax would still probably stack up pretty well for MLS, though, assuming the Armada continue to perform strongly.

One good factor they do include is the number of Power 5 college teams. Raleigh-Durham looks to be sapped, even though they just have a hockey team, as they have *3* different Power 5 college teams. College is often left out when people talk about markets' suitability for sports teams.

[For_F-L-O-R-I-D-A]

Lakelander,

I have also found Lakeland to more of a Tampa Bay sports market with lots of Bucs/Lightning/Rays fans. Am I right on that?

Also, Manatee-Sarasota is also a Tampa Bay sports market. Bradenton is about 25 minutes from DT St. Pete.

[simms3]

Pretty interesting. Their methodology is intriguing. They're looking at this only from an economic standpoint, based on total personal income in each community's Combined Statistical Area, minus the economic requirements of the teams they already have. They aren't taking account of other factors like population, demographics, corporate sponsorship opportunities, or local interest in the different sports. Take any of those into account and the lists get much shorter. Jax would still probably stack up pretty well for MLS, though, assuming the Armada continue to perform strongly.

One good factor they do include is the number of Power 5 college teams. Raleigh-Durham looks to be sapped, even though they just have a hockey team, as they have *3* different Power 5 college teams. College is often left out when people talk about markets' suitability for sports teams.

College sports is a huge force.  Part of the reason the South in general is dominated by college sports teams and not professional sports teams is that the college teams took root in the south while the pros took root up north, and reversing that would at this point require reversing the psyche of an entire region/culture of people.

Just the sports mentality difference between a Jax and a Boston or SF from my experience is tremendous.  Jax seems way more college oriented, but just as much of a sports town as the other two (if not moreso, frankly).  Boston and SF are entirely professional sports oriented and hardly anyone at all gives a damn about college sports, even though there are college sports teams that do fairly well in either city/region.  For as many professional sports teams Atlanta has, it seems way more a college sports oriented town.  The Braves suffice as the entire Southeast's baseball team.  I'm absolutely positive the influence college sports has on the south is taken into consideration by professional leagues when they look at expanding.

Soccer is different because there is no college soccer like there's college football, basketball, or baseball.

[coredumped]

I'd say the south in general is more college oriented. Jax is really getting behind the jags though, could you imagine if they were good? I think all the bad talk nationally about the jags has helped fans take more pride in them.

And I'd love to see an MLB team here too   The ospreys have had an amazing baseball team for many years, the Suns are champions regularly, we've got good fans of baseball too!

[thelakelander]

Lakelander,

I have also found Lakeland to more of a Tampa Bay sports market with lots of Bucs/Lightning/Rays fans. Am I right on that?

Pretty much. Lakeland is closer to Tampa than St. Augustine is to DT Jax. It's literally on the Polk/Hillsborough County line. I believe Lakeland is also in the Bay Area's tv market. Growing up, we'd go to Bucs and Magic games. Never made the drive to St. Pete to catch a Rays game though.

[Tacachale]

The stats aren't perfect on the college angle. There are non-Power 5 colleges that have nearly the draw of Power 5 schools, and some Power 5 schools that barely move the needle. Looking at those cities, football and/or basketball at the University of Cincinnati, University of Memphis, USF, UCF, Tulane, Fresno State, and UCONN likely soak up a lot of the interest in their metro areas, as does college hockey in a number of places. That would have the effect of making places like Cincinnati, New Orleans and Tampa look even more crowded. And it doesn't touch on Canadian college sports or the CFL, which is still the second most popular sports league in Canada.

At any rate, it's an interesting look at one of the factors as to why sports teams go where they go.

[I-10east]

Some of these full capacity cities are very surprising like Albany and Hartford; They aren't exactly experiencing rapid, or even moderate growth. Albany or Hartford with NFL or NBA teams? Lets get real here...I here alot of people on PFT mentioning OKC as a NFL locale, and this study confirmed what I figured, zero chance. Jax has much of a chance getting NBA as OKC does getting a NFL team.

[copperfiend]

Jax is really getting behind the jags though, could you imagine if they were good? I think all the bad talk nationally about the jags has helped fans take more pride in them.

I think that was part of it. Also, the "second generation" of Jaguar fans fully supports the team the way many other fan bases do around the NFL. You go to a Jaguar game and it is a very young crowd. I'd guess one of the youngest in the NFL. And they are going to continue to grow up with the team and have kids that follow the team and so on.

Since Khan has bought the team, almost everything around them has improved. Now they just need to win some damn games. When they do, it will be something to see.

[I-10east]

^^^It's interesting that in the 2015 State of the Jaguars address, Mark Lamping said that Jax actually has an older overall fanbase. I can imagine that's mostly because Florida is a place where many retire, and that stat isn't necessarily indicative of the crowd that's going to EverBank Field on Sundays.