and NFL and NHL. Having both of the US's major NW cities be big 4 cities would make for unreal rivalries if the Timbers-Sounders rivalry is any indication of what's to come in other sports.
The problem with Mexico city is desirability. There are players that don't want to move to CANADA. Moving your family to Mexico, with a different culture and language barrier would be a pretty tough ask for a lot of players....
Yeah, the only way CDMX gets a team is if it's MLB since a large portion of MLB players speak Spanish natively already. Not to mention MLB plays a series or two there every year these days.
@@utopiaOKC CDMX has a lower crime rate than numerous US cities and its murder rate is 82% lower than that of New Orleans, for example. It's even safer than fucking Austin, a well-below-average crime rate city. The drug crime rate is overblown as well. The cartel is almost non-existent there unless you specifically look for it yourself. No it isn't perfect and yes there are other things to consider but the idea that Mexico City is a dangerous shithole is thinly veiled xenophobia, honestly.
@@utopiaOKCKidnapping for ransom would be more likely and or Mexican mobsters, which do exist, but not so much cartels. Cartels operating majority in Mexico City or Guadalajara is like then trying to operate,like they do in Sinaloa for example, would be like them trying that in New York and LA. They’re not that stupid
How can it be fastest growing if it's forgotten about? That's right. There is a difference between fastest growing and popular. Example: League A had 50 viewers last year. This year they have 150 viewers. That's only 100 more viewers, but it's 200% growth. League B had 10000 viewers last year. This year they have 5000 more. That's only a 50% growth but it's 5000 more viewers. League A would be considered the fast growing league, but League b is killing it. Fastest growing I a term made up to "impress the investors" sort of speak.
@@barryfinkle1755you're not calling out BS, you're creating it. MLS does not represent the summation of soccer in the United States. as such, soccer as a sport can be both the fastest growing and one of the more popular sports in the country, without MLS being one of the most popular because the majority of soccer fandom here goes towards the Premier League, Champions League, Liga MX, etc.
Yup, SDFC (for now) will play their first game in the 2025 season (season after next) and will play in the stadium recently built (Snap Dragon stadium) for the SD Women’s MLS team and SDSU football team.
Austin won’t get NHL because the University of Texas and the city won’t let it happen. The issue came up when the new UT arena was in the planning stage. It’s no accident that the new arena was built just a bit too small for NHL to be viable. Furthermore, Q2 Stadium should have been downtown. But Austin doesn’t let that happen. Also, it’s no accident that the local AAA team (Round Rock) and G-League and AHL teams are way out in the northern suburbs. UT doesn’t want the competition. And UT probably thought Austin FC wouldn’t be competition to them. So they won’t let that “mistake” happen again.
you’re gonna need an owner who wants to push for an arena. columbus went through something very similar in the late 90s… OSU built value city arena for their teams, but it’s also big enough to be the city’s concert venue. the city shot down public funding for a downtown arena, but the blue jackets ownership group privately funded a downtown arena.
Pro sports are trashy keep them out of Austin . You ever been to a NFL game ? It's the dreggs of society paying thru the nose to cheer on ppl far wealthier than themselves. Smooth brain activity. College sports actually serves some societal function. It's affirming the bond you have with your educational cohort
I think you are right about UT using their influence in resisting pro sports to protect their college athletics, but I think MLS and NHL would work because UT (Big 12/SEC affiliations) has no established financial or cultural programs in soccer or hockey.
The main reason why Columbus and Alabama are both so underrepresented in pro sports is mainly because they're two of the largest hotspots for college football in the country. I've lived in Columbus my whole life and the Buckeyes are easily an order of magnitude more popular than either the Blue Jackets or the Crew. If you look up Stadiums by Capacity on wikipedia, college football teams take up 8 of the 10 largest stadiums in the entire world. Meanwhile, the largest stadium for an American pro team (Metlife) comes in way down at number 28. For the record, Columbus already has the 5th largest stadium on the planet. Austin TX and Tuscaloosa AL are in 9th and 10th place respectively.
I'm in Tuscaloosa and you're exactly right. CFB will always be king down here. There's even some resentment towards pro leagues as we see the modern athlete and that it's only about the money. Love of the game has gone by the wayside it seems. As fanatical college fans it just irks us. Birmingham's population is constantly declining as well due to the unbelievable crime rates. I went to UFC 68 in Columbus way back in '06 I think. We went out and bar hopped around the campus downtown and had a great weekend. I wore my Bama hoodie and got some questions but no problems. That's pretty rare lol. Columbus is cool in my book.
Another extreme case in point is my state of Oklahoma (and we are satisfied with that way, no complaints) We enjoy the Sooners or pokes, but the tradition, pageantry, lore, ties to alma mater, the place you loved for 4 years during your youth, it all means a lot more than pro sports to us. I don’t ever recall sitting around after an MLB game and singing alma mater with seniors playing in their last game havin tears streaming down their face as much as the old 81 year old season ticket holders in the stands do the same. College football is what soccer is to Europe.
ATX and San Antonio need to operate as one market, and they could support all five sports. North Carolina needs to embrace statewide teams based in either Charlotte or Raleigh. Charlotte has the NFL, NBA, and MLS, let Raleigh have the NHL with the Canes and move an MLB team there. The fact that MLB doesn’t have a team in NC or TN is so strange…
The Rays aren't letting a team post C-19 and MiLB's restructuring move into Raleigh. That would be a competitive disadvantage. The Bulls are the Bulls AAA team.
Great video AND you did your homework!!!! The Oakland As is a unique situation. When a team moves, it’s usually the fans fault, the city’s fault, or the ownerships fault…. Although this is definitely the ownership’s fault, it’s usually to bad decisions, bad management, being cheap etc… but this is different as they did this on purpose. Point being, they couldn’t move to San Jose, because it will generally be the same fans, who the organization has already intentionally pissed off.
They can’t move to SJ because the Giants have the rights to Santa Clara county because the A’s gave it to them when the Giants were thinking of moving to Tampa Bay
I’m from the Inland Empire, we mostly just associate ourselves as LA because we are really just far East LA. Saying that we are a whole separate market is like saying the Angels and Ducks aren’t LA just because they are Orange County. The closest we have to pro sports is probably the Pomona Drag strip and the now 3 defunct NASCAR tracks, with the most recent being Fontana earlier this year.
@@eastsidetactown that’s not the IE, that’s the desert, the Ontario Reign is an example of a hockey team in the IE, and as a Reign season-ticket holder, they sell the place out. The IE fits the “Far East LA” so much that a Reign season ticket come with a free Kings game because we are that close, whereas Palm Springs is closer to AZ than LA.
So much of the IE is just basically people from SD,OC or LA who moved here for cheaper housing. Also it's pretty geographically spread out.Someone in Murietta/Temecula has a closer drive to San Diego then they do if they wanted to drive to the Auto Club in Fontana. Certain area's are good locations for live events(Ontario) but even if IE pop grows to a 8-9 million it's hard to see a real push for a team because the 2 Counties in IE(Riverside and San Bernidino) seem entirely disconnected as our most of the cities.
Montreal has got to be a favorite for MLB. Tampa Bay isnt drawing despite the fact they have a contending team and furthermore they're pretty isolated in their division with New York, Boston, Toronto & Baltimore all relatively close. A relocation would solve that and create a massive rivalry with Toronto and Montreal. The problem is, who in Montreal has the money to support them and there would be some pressure to name them the expos after the old team. Montreal would also need a new stadium, olympic stadium could be used on a temporary basis but you're on borrowed time playing there.
In other words the thing they want is for the Nats to come back to Montreal and no other team?? Like if the Rays went to Montreal and called themselves the Expos no one would want that?
The issue with Tampa is less a matter of no support, and more a matter of getting to the stadium itself is a BITCH to do. Unless you live in St. Pete proper, that's a half hour drive, BEST case scenario. While the Bucs and Lightning aren't selling out every single game, they're not exactly empty either. The support is there if the Rays remove their heads from their asses and build the new place in Tampa proper.
They strike a partnership with Sacramento State and build a new MLS/College Football stadium at about 20k-30k seat stadium. Promote sac state and cal-davis to Mountain West.
@@daltonsideas I think NBA, NHL or NFL. They already have their own baseball league in Mexico and its a decent quality league, so I dont think Mexico would be interested in MLB..... or MLS (for obvious reasons).
I live in San Marcos just south of Austin and an MLB team make a ton of sense. The Round Rock Express minor league baseball team is very successful. A team in south Austin around exit 227 on I-35 would be ideal to attract San Antonio fans. NBA will expand to LV with Seattle. Although I think they should expand to Louisville & Seattle. I doubt the NBA will put a team in Mexico City due to the altitude, even though they have a G League team. If the Coyotes relocate Austin would be great but more than likely it would be Houston to give the Dallas Stars a natural rival. Houston is a lot more of an international city and having strong ties with Canada due to oil, there are lots of Canadiens in Houston who would go to games. At own time the Edmonton Oilers considers relocating to Houston as leverage to get a new arena. NFL will probably expand to the UK, Germany & Toronto in the future.
@edwardwayner451 It'll be pretty hard for the nfl to expand internationally. Europe is too far away for more than a few exhibition games and Canada wants to preserve the cfl.
Several European countries have their own leagues as well that they'd likely want to protect, Most notably the Russian based KHL. If per chance the NFL ever expands to Toronto, that'll be the end of the CFL.
As a Seattle native, I can comfortably say that we need an NBA team. Lots of talent (Paolo Banchero, Dejounte Murray, Jamal Crawford) is from our city, and having a team just makes sense. If you go outside into areas such as downtown or any given mall, you're bound to see someone with a Gary Payton or Shawn Kemp jersey. Plus, the market would also likely flow over to places like Tacoma and Vancouver (Canada), so that would also help the expansion.
Omaha Nebraska may not be in that top 50 markets but they have shown time and time again with their minor league teams that they can and will support a team. For example look at the UFL football team the Omaha Nighthawks they were the only team sold out games. I am not saying NFL to Omaha but NBA NHL or MLS would be great fits and well supported.
@@railfanmaximstill7279the worry about an NFL team in Nebraska is that the football market is pretty much entirely owned by the Cornhuskers. Obviously there’s nothing stopping people from being fans of both an NFL team and a college team, but in an area that isn’t overly wealthy, it would be hard for both teams to consistently sell out games. The percentage of people in Nebraska that could afford to attend multiple Nebraska games and multiple NFL games a year is probably a lot smaller than it is in other areas. Part of the reason the Nighthawks sold out games and why the Stormchasers are so popular is just the fact that minor league sports are cheap as hell to go to
@@tbow13gbr22Yes, but how much reach does Univ of NE have from Lincoln to Omaha? Especially with a satellite campus already there (Univ of Ne - Omaha)? I think if Green Bay folks can afford to see their team and Ohio can have two NFL teams, I don't see how being overtly wealthy can make a difference. If the Omaha area gets an NFL stadium, I'm sure Berkshire Hathaway and/or Buffet would have something to do with it. I'd love to see who'd win the naming rights, with the number of fortune 500 Furthermore, Omaha has been home to the College World Series since 1950. Sports fans aren't really strangers to this place. Granted KC is rather close and would probably not want a team biting into their fanbase, but since they're the only reps of the true Midwest/Heartland, especially with the Rams back in L.A., they can afford it. Right across the river in Council Bluffs are 3 casinos, 2 belonging to Caesers Ent., that could honestly use the extra foot traffic and Sportbook money to upgrade and renovate. Hell, put the stadium in Council Bluffs, like how the Jets and Giants play in NJ, lol. I'm sure they can plop it somewhere along I-29 and I-80. Then Nebraska and Iowa can have their own Heroes Game house. Local hs football teams can play their state championships there, they can house a pro NHL team, etc. The only negatives I see are that there is already a 20 yr old $291m indoor arena/conference center across from the CWS stadium that's been part of the identity of the downtown area, plus UNO just built their $88m collegiate arena 8 yrs ago. As expensive as these new NFL stadiums are, $1b ++ for the last 5, I can't see any deal being struck in this current economy to build a stadium from scratch. I do believe, however, as Omaha being a former transportation hub that still has a decent Amtrak station; a small but capable airport; and is centralized along a well-built highway system that can handle the traffic, as long as the city/country/state can manage the severe winters, there should be no issue getting fans to this stadium - even for non-NFL events like concerts, rodeos, fights, and local hs football championships.
Faulty logic. Owners want the arena full at half your paycheck prices, not minor league prices. Besides, the one real minor league team plays several miles from downtown (the lower division soccer team plays there too, sadly). Your hockey is junior, not minor pro… and I’m giving you a pass on the former minor pro hockey team, because the Calgary Flames ran it, and they’ve left a LONG trail of disappointing affiliations. However, you haven’t tried again. Let’s also put it this way. There is a downtown ballpark… for the College World Series, and the Storm Chasers deem it too big for them. Creighton gets good crowds for the downtown arena. UNO has a hockey arena about twice as big as where the Lancers play. Creighton has a more-than-respectable soccer stadium; I wish Union Omaha played there. ALL of that put together demonstrates that Omaha is a serious college sports market. Since Lincoln is about 55 minutes away, I don’t see that changing in your lifetime.
@@PCSPounder but minor leagues and colleges are notoriously local. Pro [football] fans travel and can have sizeable out of market fans. Even when no one showed up to post-San Diego Chargers LA games, the stadium was full of away team jerseys. Hell, London doesn't even have a team, and tons show up to watch. The point isn't necessarily to only get the paychecks of the locals but to get into the wallets of people traveling in.
When mentioning Birmingham Although the market seems ripe for a major league team, the entire south already has their interest in college football, maybe an oversight considering that the college football market is larger than Soccer and Hockey in attendance and viewership.
I don’t think alabama can support a major league sports program. Unlike Tennessee and North Carolina, who have many pro teams. Alabama gives so much to its college programs that the pro organization would be highly under supported.
Great video! I liked the editing style and the amount of work you put in is apparent. 6:07 Funnily enough this nearly happened in the late 90s/early 2000s with the Patriots before Gillette Stadium got built. There was a deal to move them to Hartford (and some previous negotiations with Providence) that ultimately fell through and the team ended up staying in Foxborough and building a new stadium.
Kansas City has very dedicated sports fans, and its strange that there is no NBA team. However, within an hour of KC is KU, a premier basketball school with a lot of fans in the area. But outside the influence of KU is a rapidly growing metro area neglected in this video: Omaha, Nebraska. It has a lot of minor league teams, but also fills in the void of there not being any nearby NBA teams.
I was sad to see he left out Nebraska in this video. Born and raised in Lincoln, I could definitely see a pro team from any major league call Omaha/Lincoln home. Omaha is getting a pro volleyball team soon, sorry, don't remember the league name, so that's a start. Lincoln has proven they can support major sports, they just packed in 92,003 fans to see a college volleyball game. BTW that is the largest crowd ever for a women's sporting event! Not just in the state or country, but worldwide.
Here's one for you... Jacksonville. We only have one sports team down here and have fans that actually would root for a sports team. Plus with the new renovation coming to the Jags field we could show the country a legitimate fan base. I would say most likely give DUUVAL either an MLS or NHL team in my opinion.
There's supposed to be two pro soccer teams coming to town. Jax Armada are bringing back their senior team in the D3 MLS Next Pro. As well as, Tim Tebow and others are creating a new team in Jax for the USL Championship, whivh is D2. You can support one of them with hopes they move to MLS or hope MLS comes to town, a la San Diego.
I've always heard the Jaguars regularly don't sell out their own games and that's why they're the sacrificial lamb for all the international games every year lol.
The Midwest deserves more professional sports. Maybe somewhere like Omaha that’s growing pretty well with over a million people in the metro area and the only closest city being Kansas City, 3 and a half hours away. Understandably not the NFL, but they could have any other pro sport, like if they put an MLB team there they could easily use the current CWS stadium there, it’s certainly large enough. Biggest hole on the map is the dead north, that pocket of Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana
The problem with the "dead north" is the population just isn't there. They tend to follow the teams from the "nearby" larger markets. For example, a lot of northwest Montana follow the the Seattle area teams while southwest Montana orients towards Salt Lake City or Denver. There are some professional teams in that area but are mostly Pioneer League (A) or similar minor league baseball teams. Distance don't help here either as to goto a game involves a long drive which can be difficult at best in the winter. There isn't the tax base to support a publicly funded (or partial funding) arena or stadium large enough for a major league team. Note: I am a native of this area (Montana)
Louisville definitely deserves a professional team, them losing the Kentucky Colonels after the ABA-NBA merger should be seen as more controversial than San Diego losing the Chargers or St. Louis losing the Rams. They had the highest winning percentage in the league, and made the playoffs every season
The Chicago Bulls kept the Colonels out of the NBA so that they could steal Artis Gilmore. The St. Louis Spirits wanted to sell their team to a group from Utah, buy the Colonels and move them to Buffalo to replace the Braves. These St. Louis owners got a ridiculous deal giving them 1/7 of the TV revenue of the Nets, Nuggets, Spurs & Pacers for every year of the NBA's existence.
I’m from the “metro” Louisville area and I think they should probably get like maybe a nhl team because they lean towards Chicago St Louis and Cincinnati and for Football it’s the Colts and I think that Louisville would be a good hockey market.
A heads up for Providence, there's a bit of a "sick of Boston" feel in the city in recent years. Providence is looking for a summer team of their own major or minor league. It's not a matter of lack of support, the P-Bruins (AHL Boston) do pretty well with attendance. The only reason why the Pawsox moved from neighboring Pawtucket was mainly to get Boston's AAA team into MA.
A little story… before the Portland Timbers reached MLS, they were in what’s now the USL, started out with small crowds, but as people caught on- in a younger market- started hitting 15,000 crowds somewhat regularly. So we like to say that Seattle (whose USL crowds were small) got fans because they got MLS, while Portland got MLS because we have fans. But the point; both cities had an influx of young people in the early 2000s that helped soccer in both cities. The share of younger adults in Providence is bigger than it was in Portland when our boom happened. So Rhode Island FC, which starts up next year… it’ll be big enough.
Needing is one thing, wanting is another. For all these towns, save your money don’t build a billionaire a building; don’t screw over your hotels and tourism visitors.
I bet no one knows where the hell this is but hear me out: The biggest city in Iowa, Des Moines, needs an NFL team called the Des Moines Dragons. Greenways smaller than Des Moines and has a team. Give me a team guys. Please.
I think Seattle and Kansas would be prime candidates for NBA expansion. Kansas is a thriving basketball market (look at the Kings before they moved and the current KU/KState basketball Support) but haven’t had a team since the 60s. Public support would be outrageously high.
Hartford Connecticut use to have a NHL team with the Hartford Whalers from 1979 to 1997. In 1997, the Whalers franchise relocated to North Carolina, where they became the Carolina Hurricanes.
Being from NE I can’t imagine Massachusetts (Boston) letting any team leave the area. New England is Boston I guess.. and priority in the market is Boston who get first say. I’m not even from Rhode Island and Connecticut but I would be surprised if the Revs ever left the Foxborough area especially while under the ownership of Robert Kraft. But Hartford has a USL team so that’s something!
Charlotte or Raleigh needs an MLB team....I'm in NC and I'm so tired of trying to choose between other teams that are so far away it means nothing to me...
Charlotte and Nashville are the top two eastern cities for MLB expansion, with Salt Lake City and Vancouver being the western options now that Oakland presumably took Vegas. I think both Charlotte and Nashville are good options, but I'd lean Nashville personally only because it's a little further inland son can saturate a few more people in that CIN-STL-ATL deadzone. Four hours from each. Athletics or Brewers (who are looking for a new stadium) should move to Charlotte, if you ask me. Put the Rays in Orlando while you're at it.
@@verde7595 We don't need more inland teams there's a TON of inland teams we need a team for the South EAST everyone west of Charlotte already has a team. Charlotte is the best spot otherwise it's just another team way out of reach of anyone in those Southeastern seaboard states.
This was interesting. Another idea I've tried to make work on Excel was to have all 50 state capitals have teams, though admittedly I was only focusing on the MLS. Maybe one day this could be the topic for a "What If" style video, rather than the realistic "This might actually happen" style you went with here.
Another thing in favour of creating NBA franchises in Seattle and Mexico City is that it would balance the conferences. Those two teams would be put on the West and then New Orleans and Memphis would shift to the East which makes much more sense geographically.
Don't forget Major League Cricket and Major League rugby. These are smaller sports in the US, but growing, and ideal for a town that isn't big enough for NFL/ MLB etc. Cricket is especially suitable for very hot states, and rugby would be a good fit for Montreal, rugby is pretty big in France, which is currently hosting the Rugby World Cup. Getting into these leagues early is relatively cheap, and one day they could be another MLS, who knows.
The MLR in particular needs to swallow their pride a little and go for smaller markets. Instead of the Toronto Arrows, go for Hamilton, or smaller even, every growing American sports league had to do it. Want a French Canadian team? Foster a rugby culture in Saint-Jérôme, get a whole town behind a sport? Try Annapolis instead of Baltimore, or Charleston WV where Appalachian State has a college rugby program, the absolute largest a city hosting rugby in the US should be to get a city following it is something like Savannah GA/ Ann Arbour at 120000-150000 people
Cricket is aiming for specific populations. There’s a Miami-area park because of the Caribbean/West Indies influence. There are parks planned for San Jose and suburban Seattle due to the Asian Indian population growth on the west coast (fastest growing immigrant group in the Bay Area per latest statistics).
Recently visited KC and besides the royals and chiefs, the city has huge potential for either an NHL or NBA team that would attract people, folks from Missouri and Kansas.
Richmond is too small and too close to DC to host major sports. But what they can become is a minor league sports hotbed. They are on the verge of building a new indoor arena and a new minor league baseball stadium for their existing AA team, the Richmond Flying Squirrels. I could see an ECHL or even AHL team moving into the new arena.
This is kinda where i see the future of Sports in Salem OR going as well (especially if the AFL can succeed there), with their main role being to host the affiliates of Portland's major teams.
I was going to say that I think Hampton Roads (Norfolk/VA Beach metro) would be better for an MLS team. Its further from DC so it is not really in that market, and the metro has a bigger population than Richmond (comparable to other metros with MLS such as Cincinnati, especially when you add in Richmond).
Nooooooo, please give me a major league team to root for that isn't from DC 🤢 Just culturally, we are very different places: most people in DC are chasing money or status, and obsessed with their careers. We actually enjoy life and the arts down here. I would LOVE to have an MLS team to root for against DC United. And to the comments above, we had a minor league hockey team-first named the Renegades, then the River Dogs-and that failed when the city couldn't fix/replace the aging Colosseum. It doesn't look like a real deal for a new arena is coming anytime soon, so upgrading the Kickers and their facilities to MLS levels would be a better investment imo. HOWEVER: Don Garber (MLS Commissioner) will NEVER let us get an MLS franchise here, I'm just calling that right now.
Hartford, CT needs a pro team. Maybe NHL. The Whalers never should have left. That was like the Colts moving from Baltimore to Indianapolis, or the Browns moving from Cleveland to Baltimore.
@@bootmii98 like the Sea Unicorns? and you're right Bring back the Whalers. Carolina should not be using the old jerseys! They lost that right when they were using retired numbers actively
I live in southern Ct it takes me a hour to get Msg to see the Rangers or an hour go to the mall in Hartford take your pick, if you live in eastern Ct your a hour from Boston tuff sell to bring back the Whale
He mentioned this with VA beach, since VA Beach is the largest city in the Hampton Roads metro area. Even then, as far as sports markets go, Richmond would be the easier choice, and the two major metro areas are close enough that fandom would easily be shared between the two. Hampton Roads fans would root for a team in Richmond, and vice versa.
@@iStealEBTCards he brought up after a certain point that the metro area isn't the only defining factor, and that these sports teams have a much wider reach than just the city that they're based in. He specifically mentioned Minnesotan sports teams having fans not just in the Twin Cities, but as far west as some of Montana, and down south into Iowa. A team in Richmond would have much wider reach into the rest of Virginia and into West Virginia than a team in Hampton Roads would, but Hampton Roads is still close enough that people there would still most likely root for a team in Richmond.
Excellent video! One thing I’d add is an expansion MLB team in Salt Lake City makes more sense to me than Louisville, both geographically and population-wise, subscribed!
No Montréal?Theres a decent amount of Nba players from there and basketball is the biggest sport there and we already have a sports team in the MLS and NHL and a good CFL team so the city has experience with sports
Richmond getting an MLS team would be such a good idea. I'm from Virginia Beach, but agree with you that it probably shouldn't get a team. Technically the "downtown" of Virginia Beach is actually Norfolk VA, but if a major sports team were to emerge for the area, I don't believe the infrastructure exists to really support the influx of traffic and gameday moments compared to bigger cities. The Oceanfront is limited by smaller roads and few points of entry, the town center of Virginia Beach is too small to justify a major sports investment. Norfolk has it's own development issues where singular bridges and connection points serve as massive choke points, however there is a highly underutilized light rail from Virginia Beach to Norfolk that could serve as a conduit for a team. If any kind of sports team were to make the entire Hampton Roads area it's home, it would have be a more "compact" sport like Baseball. Richmond getting an MLS team would be huge, though. First of all MLS is still small enough to justify trying to invest in these lesser markets. Second of all, Virginia has a rich soccer culture in the suburban areas. Lots of kids spend their years playing soccer in clubs and then transition to their school teams. If there was an MLS team in the state of VA to aspire to, it would likely have good local prospects within 5-10 years.
The NHL is rumored to be looking to expand to 36 teams, Bettman will do everything in his power to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix. If a franchise moves, that kind of indicates that its league is not ready to expand. Phoenix is a massive metro area and TV market, and with the Coyotes finally taking positive steps (as of this comment, they are in the Wild Card picture and their team is young), now would be a weird time to call it quits. The Coyotes have been looking at moving to Mesa, a much better area than Glendale (Closer to the 101 and 202 for easy commuting, closer to Scottsdale where most the valley's hockey fans are) and there's very little indication that Mesa would fall through. There's also been interest in North Phoenix (again, closer to Scottsdale, where most of the valley's fans are). The Yotes are likely staying in Phoenix. That said, with a 36 team NHL in the league's plans, I think that makes another Texas team kind of inevitable, whether that's in Austin, or more likely, Houston. The other three teams likely go to Quebec City, Salt Lake City a take-your-pick wild card city. I've heard it'll be Atlanta, but I doubt that. I'd love to see a Milwaukee team, personally, Wisconsin has so much hockey culture and they'd have an immediate rivalry with the Blackhawks and Wild.
Phoenix needs an MLS team. If you look at a map there's a huge hole in MLS teams. With the closest being in LA, Salt lake, and Dallas relative to Phoenix
Great video. I would suggest using combined statistical areas perhaps next time instead of metros, in addition to the geomapping you did… this would help fix some of the issues with SF/San Jose, DC/Balt, and Boston/Prov… just an idea
I'm a little surprised you didn't mention Houston for the NHL. We're the fifth largest metro in the US, with over 7 million residents, and we had an IHL and AHL team, the Aeros. We're also the largest metro in the US without one. The Toyota Center (home of the Rockets) is getting refurbished, and the plans include equipment for ice. That being said, I'm not sure it's a good idea. I'm skeptical about how an NHL team would draw here. But maybe because I don't follow hockey.
Actually Houston's at the top of the list to get the Coyotes, some think that's why they were transferred from the west to central division. The only thing standing in the way is Gary Betman(the league comissioner, in case you didn't know) & his stubbornness in keeping the Coyotes in Zona.
Well, Houston would be the most likely city to receive an NHL Team, if a franchise had to relocate. However, the only competitive cities that could tweet the move would be Kansas City, Milwaukee, Portland, San Diego, or San Antonio. Of course some people would think Atlanta, Hartford, or Quebec City, but they don’t deserve a team. In the end, I have to say Houston is the most deserving, because they were the only city that competed against Seattle for the Final Expansion Team, and the most likely city to carry on the Team Name: Houston Coyotes.
@@l-wolverine2211 How does Quebec City not deserve a team? They already have an arena & hungry fan base that actually lives, breaths & eats hockey that will still show up when their team sucks.
@@chizorama 3 Reasons; - The Nordics failed almost every season, and even they didn’t move to Colorado I. The mid-90’s, they most likely wouldn’t have won the Stanley Cup. - The Fanbase isn’t as big as you think, especially when you don’t have much of a Fanbase, and how most fans from Quebec City would rather go to a Montreal Canadians game. - The Arena Income would definitely not take in a lot of money, considering that most Canadian Teams aren’t even making enough money to fill in the arenas as of 2023, compared to most major cities in in Canada & USA. That’s why I listed the cities I mentioned, because there a lot more income that could be generated with a population of over 1million, if you include all of the Metropolitan areas surrounding each city. I don’t see Quebec City as a contender, at least not for another 10-20 years, compared to a big city, like Houston.
@@l-wolverine2211 Please provide your source? Their fanbase showed up every season, they left due to their crappy owner(the real reason Lindros refused to play there). Haven't heard anything about any Canadian team struggling with their markets, all I see are die hards showing up no matter how the team is doing, Ottawa might have been the only exception with their former owner. The Nordique fan base was well established along with rivalries, the only thing they were lacking was media support, just like most American teams in non hockey regions.
Although of course a bit of a wild card depending on a lot, but another “league” to consider would be NCAA. A lot of the places missing major sports teams have a college/university they tend to support. Of course isn’t the same thing for most people, but if you’re a fan of college sports it certainly can come close or can feel the same. A good example for me would be North Dakota with hockey, UConn with basketball, UT in Austin etc
Solid work! I cackled at your NC state v. Refs joke! I agree with you that ATX would be a good place to move the Coyotes. The NHL can potentially strike lightning twice with being the 1st big four league there, like they were with Vegas. I like how you pointed out that location is just as integral as population. Where I differ is that Louisville is a MUCH better fit for the NBA than the MLB, as it's too close to the Reds and Kentucky breathes basketball.
MLS might expand for relegation to be allowed with the bottom two teams in each conference being sent to the minors, but all four semi finalists in the post season being sent to MLS major division.
Virginia Beach is a small city, but it is apart of the Hampton Roads City cluster (Including Portsmouth, Norfolk, Suffolk, Newport News, Chesapeake, etc.) VB has to be considered with the populations of all those areas as well.
Actually the Atlanta teams had reasons to leave, flames because ATL wasn’t the ATL we know today and the thrashers didn’t have a arena and Winnipeg ownership bought them, the thrashers did have a fan base it was that they weren’t good enough. Ilya and heatley was there it’s sad we won’t see those powder blue grails back on the ice
I think the NBA would do well in Columbus, and our former mayor was working behind the scenes to get us in line for an expansion team because hockey just doesn't have the following here that they hoped it would. I also think MLB would work here, but the Reds and Indians have worked hard to make sure that never happens, all the while using us a bargaining chip when they want something from their cities - the infamous "I have a proposal from a group in Columbus..." that those owners trot out when they want leverage in their respective city.
Cincinnati would gladly take the jackets. Would love to have nba here too. Columbus is just in a bad place geographically. Owners think they spread out while sprinkling in some Columbus fans to Cincinnati and Cleveland. Pretty smart actually. They figured they'd get nhl fans from Cincinnati and Cleveland which I'm sure they probably have but I'd love to see cincinnati get a team and have an in state instant rival. I think fc cincinnati is a perfect example. They saw how crazy fans went when we got a usl team and when they went to mls the fan base remained huge. The cyclones aren't cutting it. There's talk of a new arena being built so hopefully we can get 1 more professional team in there.
Nascar has major tracks that house two major events per year in a larger number of the cities you mention here. i think the market for that should have taken into consideration for some of these cities. like raleigh for example. there are special specific city laws spawned from noise complaints alone because of nascar in the 1950s.
Would LOVE to see more expansion into Mexico/Caribbean for baseball. San Juan would be amazing for Puerto Rico, & if relations with Cuba normalized, down the road an MLB expansion team in Havana would be LIT. Mexico City has the best economics & population to support a team but the problem there is physics - the altitude means that it would probably be even more of a hitters' park than Coors Field. Separately I would love a revival of the Asian Series to make it more like Champions League in soccer/football in Europe, as a way to develop Asian baseball together NFL Europe I'm sorry I just don't care for
RIP GR, we're growing fast though, definitely not big enough for any major teams at,, but the michigan panthers can definitly be supported by West Michigan. I'm also pretty sure the the whitecaps and griffens are the high on the most attended minor league teams in the nation so we have that going for us as well.
I'm not sure if this is an unpopular opinion but the NHL has more or less maxed out the potential of the sun belt and more likely exceeded. I would probably move The Phoenix Coyotes and the Anaheim Ducks to Canada where about half the fans are. (Coyotes to Quebec City, Ducks to maybe become the 2nd team in Toronto or maybe Hamilton, there is a CFL team with a lot of passionate fans). Miami might be a relocation if their success doesn't last. I can see them go to Connecticut or Rhode Island. More Realistically, The Coytes could end up in Salt Lake City.
Moving the Coyotes to Quebec sounds like a good idea on paper, but you have to consider the fact that the Nordiques moved because of low ticket sales. Maybe it's possible for them to succeed, but I don't think Gary Bettman will move the Coyotes anywhere.
I really hope the NHL stays at 32 teams for the near future. I know they'll expand because $$$ but i can hope. 32 is perfect. Exactly half the league makes the playoffs. 4 divions of 8 teams each works out to have a fairly balanced 84 game season too.
Really? St. Louis had the Hawks until attendance plummeted once they got a NHL team. The ABA team that followed played in a mostly empty arena. It would appear that St. Louis doesn't care that much for pro basketball.
Richmond could totally host an MLS team. Just previously it was announced that the city watches the most English Premier League out of any US city, and soccer is a huge deal there.
3:04 - I can think of so many NWSL teams, probably all 14(?) of them if you give me enough time. To give you just three right now off the top, KC Current, Orlando Pride, NC Courage. I understand I’m the exception to this rule and your point here is well taken. I also genuinely hope that women’s sports generate more revenue in the near future, and I think we’re headed in the right direction on that front.
its a minor league market. state of nebraska is only 2 million. omaha is about a million. ill throw in half of south dakota and a quarter of iowa… that barely gets you over 3 million.
@@universenerdd eh nebraska football is huge. it’s college but it’s the de facto pro team for the state. omaha market is way smaller than KC, which is why KC gets the pro teams
Here's an interesting twist to add to your sports saturation calculations (and one that I've been thinking about for a long time): race tracks. Between NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula One, IMSA, WEC, and MotoGP, you've got six major racing leagues that race in North America. Plus plenty of "Minor" leagues like the NHRA, GT World Challenge America, NASCAR Xfinity and Truck series, MotoAmerica. And each has a schedule that shifts from year to year. Its pretty hard to figure it all out, but, for example, would Richmond really score as low as they do if you factor in 2 full NASCAR weekends each year? What if IndyCar went there too? Austin sees NASCAR, F1, MotoGP, and WEC next year, so does that increase it's score enough to be considered "saturated"? Just some things I've been trying to figure out for the last few years.
0:12 well yeah because its not as expensive to watch a soccer game in any nation than a NFL game. Soccer merch, tickets and streaming services are at a fair price. If we wanna compare how big the leagues actually are we have to look at viewership, saled merch and players. All 5 of these European leagues are way bigger than all US Sports leagues combined. The aberage viewership numbers for a regular season match in the EPL and La Liga have more than NFL and all 5 if these leagues have always atleast 2 or 3 teams than play each other 2 times a season and those games always get 700milion viewers which is 7 times more than the superbowl. These leagues don’t have playoffs but a second competition which is single game elimination and if rivals face each other (especially real v barca, milan v inter or manu v liverpool) they get these super high viewerships again and the final of these competitions also get super high viewership numbers. There is also the UCL where the best teams from the european leagues face eachother and these games also get more views than the superbowl. Even in South America games between River Plate v Boca Juniors or Flamengo v Corinthians have higher viewership numbers. Teams like real madrid and barcelona are literally the most well supported sports teams in the world and american sports teams don’t even come close to them, not just these 2 but also from england, france and south america they have way more fans than all the US Sports teams combined. The most well known American Athlete is Christian Pulisic but hes not even a top 40 in soccer. Lebron james maybe is the most well known in America but Christian Pulisic is the most well know Us Athlete in the world. But he still doesn’t come close to Ronaldo, Messi and many others. Im not saying the NFL is a small league but it’s definitely not bigger than the leagues you mentioned. I think the MLS is the only league in America which could potentially reach the high viewership numbers as the european leagues because its soccer. Inter Miami thanks to Messi became the most well known sports team from America which is proof enough that the NFL and NBA don’t come close to soccer leagues
Revolution probably won’t move because there really aren’t any stadiums either in Hartford and Providence. That being said a small town called Weymouth has an abandoned tarmac in a residential area so you could move there, and it’s closer to Boston than Boston to Foxboro.
In my opinion, I think each sports league should focus on reaching as many markets as possible, which means having as many teams as possible. However u don’t want to overdo it because then nobody will be able to keep track of so many teams. My golden number for any sports league is actually 40. That way, you can include as many cities as possible and can also have even numbered divisions, and most importantly, have just enough teams so that the public can keep track of the league. Here are my proposals for where each each of my 3 favorite sports leagues should either expand or relocate teams to: NFL: 1) San Diego (Move the Chargers) 2) St. Louis 3) San Antonio 4) Orlando 5) Portland 6) Austin 7) Memphis 8) Oklahoma City 9) Salt Lake City 10) Toronto (Honorable Mention) NBA: 1) San Diego (Move the Clippers) 2) Las Vegas (Move the Kings) 3) Seattle (Bring back the Sonics) 4) Pittsburgh 5) Vancouver 6) Nashville 7) Kansas City 8) St. Louis 9) Columbus 10) Cincinnati 11) Baltimore 12) Tampa Bay 13) Montreal (Honorable Mention) MLB: 1) Las Vegas (Move the A's) 2) Montreal (Bring back the Expos) 3) Portland 4) Nashville 5) Salt Lake City 6) Raleigh 7) New Orleans 8) Vancouver 9) Orlando 10) San Antonio 11) Indianapolis 12) Memphis (Honorable Mention) 13) Oklahoma City (Honorable Mention) 14) Columbus (Honorable Mention) 15) Charlotte (Honorable Mention) 16) Austin (Honorable Mention)
The only problem I can see with the idea of giving Indy (Indianapolis for any non-Hoosier) an MLB team is the fact that it’s got likely the most market share of anything on this list. You have the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Guardians, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Milwaukee Brewers. That is 8 teams that can claim to have a market share within the Midwest region alone let alone Indiana or Indianapolis. There’s a reason I doubt any MLB team is coming to the Midwest (any state whose borders are formed by the Great Lakes, Ohio River, or Mississippi River but not including Pennsylvania and New York) anytime soon.
Thank you for actually considering MLS within the top sports leagues in America. Too many people don't realize how big the league is truly getting and it's really annoying when people say the league isn't a major league despite literally having the best player in the entire world of soccer playing within it.
Seattle needs an NBA team and Portland needs a MLB team.
portland baseball would undeniably be very fun
@@mugsy9028and they’d have some sick unis no doubt
And a Mariners rivalry would be great
and NFL and NHL. Having both of the US's major NW cities be big 4 cities would make for unreal rivalries if the Timbers-Sounders rivalry is any indication of what's to come in other sports.
Maybe the could arrange a trade
The problem with Mexico city is desirability. There are players that don't want to move to CANADA. Moving your family to Mexico, with a different culture and language barrier would be a pretty tough ask for a lot of players....
Yeah, the only way CDMX gets a team is if it's MLB since a large portion of MLB players speak Spanish natively already. Not to mention MLB plays a series or two there every year these days.
Plus the propaganda, but also very real threat of the cartel.
@@utopiaOKCthe cartel has little influence in cdmx it has more petty crimes
@@utopiaOKC CDMX has a lower crime rate than numerous US cities and its murder rate is 82% lower than that of New Orleans, for example. It's even safer than fucking Austin, a well-below-average crime rate city.
The drug crime rate is overblown as well. The cartel is almost non-existent there unless you specifically look for it yourself.
No it isn't perfect and yes there are other things to consider but the idea that Mexico City is a dangerous shithole is thinly veiled xenophobia, honestly.
@@utopiaOKCKidnapping for ransom would be more likely and or Mexican mobsters, which do exist, but not so much cartels. Cartels operating majority in Mexico City or Guadalajara is like then trying to operate,like they do in Sinaloa for example, would be like them trying that in New York and LA. They’re not that stupid
Seattle needs an NBA team again
Sonics. And strip thunder of all the banners
Seattle whales
Idk i think Oklahoma City Seahawks sounds better even tho it makes no sense
Fr
all the rumors I have heard have Seattle and Las Vegas getting teams after the NBA finalizes the media deal!
thank u for mentioning mls. most americans forget how rapidly the sport is growing here
How can it be fastest growing if it's forgotten about? That's right. There is a difference between fastest growing and popular.
Example: League A had 50 viewers last year. This year they have 150 viewers. That's only 100 more viewers, but it's 200% growth.
League B had 10000 viewers last year. This year they have 5000 more. That's only a 50% growth but it's 5000 more viewers.
League A would be considered the fast growing league, but League b is killing it.
Fastest growing I a term made up to "impress the investors" sort of speak.
@@barryfinkle1755 bro just say you don't like soccer gah damn
@@saphdubs8393 I love soccer. Huge fan of both domestic and international. I have teams I follow from multiple leagues. I just call out bs.
@@barryfinkle1755laces out Finkle
@@barryfinkle1755you're not calling out BS, you're creating it. MLS does not represent the summation of soccer in the United States. as such, soccer as a sport can be both the fastest growing and one of the more popular sports in the country, without MLS being one of the most popular because the majority of soccer fandom here goes towards the Premier League, Champions League, Liga MX, etc.
San Diego just got an MLS team.
Soon NHL team maybe with the new arena Stan Korenke is building in SD.
The MLS MIGHT also add Sacramento Republic.
I hear the Clippers’ G League team would be moving from Ontario CA (Inland Empire) to Oceanside CA (San Diego)
Yup, SDFC (for now) will play their first game in the 2025 season (season after next) and will play in the stadium recently built (Snap Dragon stadium) for the SD Women’s MLS team and SDSU football team.
Nfl did ur city dirty the nba did too
Austin won’t get NHL because the University of Texas and the city won’t let it happen.
The issue came up when the new UT arena was in the planning stage. It’s no accident that the new arena was built just a bit too small for NHL to be viable.
Furthermore, Q2 Stadium should have been downtown. But Austin doesn’t let that happen. Also, it’s no accident that the local AAA team (Round Rock) and G-League and AHL teams are way out in the northern suburbs. UT doesn’t want the competition. And UT probably thought Austin FC wouldn’t be competition to them. So they won’t let that “mistake” happen again.
As an European this sounds like collusion and should be illegal. Hearing this I hope Austin FC outgrows UT 😀
you’re gonna need an owner who wants to push for an arena. columbus went through something very similar in the late 90s… OSU built value city arena for their teams, but it’s also big enough to be the city’s concert venue.
the city shot down public funding for a downtown arena, but the blue jackets ownership group privately funded a downtown arena.
Pro sports are trashy keep them out of Austin . You ever been to a NFL game ? It's the dreggs of society paying thru the nose to cheer on ppl far wealthier than themselves. Smooth brain activity. College sports actually serves some societal function. It's affirming the bond you have with your educational cohort
I think you are right about UT using their influence in resisting pro sports to protect their college athletics, but I think MLS and NHL would work because UT (Big 12/SEC affiliations) has no established financial or cultural programs in soccer or hockey.
@@andrewunderwood8534does it really matter? hockey season is like the exact same time as basketball season; it's still competition.
The main reason why Columbus and Alabama are both so underrepresented in pro sports is mainly because they're two of the largest hotspots for college football in the country. I've lived in Columbus my whole life and the Buckeyes are easily an order of magnitude more popular than either the Blue Jackets or the Crew.
If you look up Stadiums by Capacity on wikipedia, college football teams take up 8 of the 10 largest stadiums in the entire world. Meanwhile, the largest stadium for an American pro team (Metlife) comes in way down at number 28.
For the record, Columbus already has the 5th largest stadium on the planet. Austin TX and Tuscaloosa AL are in 9th and 10th place respectively.
I'm in Tuscaloosa and you're exactly right. CFB will always be king down here. There's even some resentment towards pro leagues as we see the modern athlete and that it's only about the money. Love of the game has gone by the wayside it seems. As fanatical college fans it just irks us. Birmingham's population is constantly declining as well due to the unbelievable crime rates. I went to UFC 68 in Columbus way back in '06 I think. We went out and bar hopped around the campus downtown and had a great weekend. I wore my Bama hoodie and got some questions but no problems. That's pretty rare lol. Columbus is cool in my book.
Same with Austin and the University of Texas.
Another extreme case in point is my state of Oklahoma (and we are satisfied with that way, no complaints)
We enjoy the Sooners or pokes, but the tradition, pageantry, lore, ties to alma mater, the place you loved for 4 years during your youth, it all means a lot more than pro sports to us. I don’t ever recall sitting around after an MLB game and singing alma mater with seniors playing in their last game havin tears streaming down their face as much as the old 81 year old season ticket holders in the stands do the same.
College football is what soccer is to Europe.
I'm from the Youngstown area, and the Buckeyes are nearly as popular as the Browns in the state, let alone our MLS team and hockey team.
Husky stadium (UW) is always loud 🥰
ATX and San Antonio need to operate as one market, and they could support all five sports. North Carolina needs to embrace statewide teams based in either Charlotte or Raleigh. Charlotte has the NFL, NBA, and MLS, let Raleigh have the NHL with the Canes and move an MLB team there. The fact that MLB doesn’t have a team in NC or TN is so strange…
Distance is too far. Getting between the two is a serious pain with driving 35 being the only option.
@@spyronosthis is so untrue
The Rays aren't letting a team post C-19 and MiLB's restructuring move into Raleigh. That would be a competitive disadvantage. The Bulls are the Bulls AAA team.
@@spyronosuntrue there within 100 miles of each other Dallas-Fort Worth does the exact same they're only 50 miles from each other
Hill Country sports
Great video AND you did your homework!!!! The Oakland As is a unique situation. When a team moves, it’s usually the fans fault, the city’s fault, or the ownerships fault…. Although this is definitely the ownership’s fault, it’s usually to bad decisions, bad management, being cheap etc… but this is different as they did this on purpose. Point being, they couldn’t move to San Jose, because it will generally be the same fans, who the organization has already intentionally pissed off.
They can’t move to SJ because the Giants have the rights to Santa Clara county because the A’s gave it to them when the Giants were thinking of moving to Tampa Bay
Did the Santa Clara council get a voice on who their "baseball rights" were being given to?@@elijahmiller6925
I’m from the Inland Empire, we mostly just associate ourselves as LA because we are really just far East LA. Saying that we are a whole separate market is like saying the Angels and Ducks aren’t LA just because they are Orange County. The closest we have to pro sports is probably the Pomona Drag strip and the now 3 defunct NASCAR tracks, with the most recent being Fontana earlier this year.
Please tell this to people from Orange County....😅
@@richardn1524 Unrelated but we need the Clippers to move to OC!
Well i know the CV Firebirds are a hit in Palm Springs they broke AHL attendance records in the playoffs
@@eastsidetactown that’s not the IE, that’s the desert, the Ontario Reign is an example of a hockey team in the IE, and as a Reign season-ticket holder, they sell the place out. The IE fits the “Far East LA” so much that a Reign season ticket come with a free Kings game because we are that close, whereas Palm Springs is closer to AZ than LA.
So much of the IE is just basically people from SD,OC or LA who moved here for cheaper housing. Also it's pretty geographically spread out.Someone in Murietta/Temecula has a closer drive to San Diego then they do if they wanted to drive to the Auto Club in Fontana. Certain area's are good locations for live events(Ontario) but even if IE pop grows to a 8-9 million it's hard to see a real push for a team because the 2 Counties in IE(Riverside and San Bernidino) seem entirely disconnected as our most of the cities.
Montreal has got to be a favorite for MLB. Tampa Bay isnt drawing despite the fact they have a contending team and furthermore they're pretty isolated in their division with New York, Boston, Toronto & Baltimore all relatively close. A relocation would solve that and create a massive rivalry with Toronto and Montreal. The problem is, who in Montreal has the money to support them and there would be some pressure to name them the expos after the old team. Montreal would also need a new stadium, olympic stadium could be used on a temporary basis but you're on borrowed time playing there.
Tampa bay just made a deal for a new stadium
Montreal wouldn’t let that happen because of all the shit that happened with the expos at this point they just want the expos back
In other words the thing they want is for the Nats to come back to Montreal and no other team?? Like if the Rays went to Montreal and called themselves the Expos no one would want that?
Rays are in St. Pete and ain't no one in Florida cares
The issue with Tampa is less a matter of no support, and more a matter of getting to the stadium itself is a BITCH to do. Unless you live in St. Pete proper, that's a half hour drive, BEST case scenario. While the Bucs and Lightning aren't selling out every single game, they're not exactly empty either. The support is there if the Rays remove their heads from their asses and build the new place in Tampa proper.
Sac should’ve had its MLS team already TWICE 😭
They strike a partnership with Sacramento State and build a new MLS/College Football stadium at about 20k-30k seat stadium. Promote sac state and cal-davis to Mountain West.
Fr
Oakland A's should've moved to Sac
Monterrey, Mexico is another option for expansion. It's close to the border, a modern city with a big enough population and alot of money.
Very true, could definitely be a good fit for the MLB or NBA.
@@daltonsideas I think NBA, NHL or NFL. They already have their own baseball league in Mexico and its a decent quality league, so I dont think Mexico would be interested in MLB..... or MLS (for obvious reasons).
I live in San Marcos just south of Austin and an MLB team make a ton of sense. The Round Rock Express minor league baseball team is very successful. A team in south Austin around exit 227 on I-35 would be ideal to attract San Antonio fans. NBA will expand to LV with Seattle. Although I think they should expand to Louisville & Seattle. I doubt the NBA will put a team in Mexico City due to the altitude, even though they have a G League team. If the Coyotes relocate Austin would be great but more than likely it would be Houston to give the Dallas Stars a natural rival. Houston is a lot more of an international city and having strong ties with Canada due to oil, there are lots of Canadiens in Houston who would go to games. At own time the Edmonton Oilers considers relocating to Houston as leverage to get a new arena. NFL will probably expand to the UK, Germany & Toronto in the future.
@edwardwayner451 It'll be pretty hard for the nfl to expand internationally. Europe is too far away for more than a few exhibition games and Canada wants to preserve the cfl.
Several European countries have their own leagues as well that they'd likely want to protect, Most notably the Russian based KHL. If per chance the NFL ever expands to Toronto, that'll be the end of the CFL.
As a Seattle native, I can comfortably say that we need an NBA team. Lots of talent (Paolo Banchero, Dejounte Murray, Jamal Crawford) is from our city, and having a team just makes sense. If you go outside into areas such as downtown or any given mall, you're bound to see someone with a Gary Payton or Shawn Kemp jersey. Plus, the market would also likely flow over to places like Tacoma and Vancouver (Canada), so that would also help the expansion.
Vancouver should get its own team
you sound like you weren't old enough to grasp why they left in the first place lol
Seattle is a basketball city. You guys defo need a team. Its been too long
@@sea4our I am aware of the fact that they left due to arena expansion conflicts with the city, but since then it has gotten renovated.
Omaha Nebraska may not be in that top 50 markets but they have shown time and time again with their minor league teams that they can and will support a team. For example look at the UFL football team the Omaha Nighthawks they were the only team sold out games. I am not saying NFL to Omaha but NBA NHL or MLS would be great fits and well supported.
NFL to Omaha or Lincoln actually wouldn't be a bad Idea because the fans will go to a game to support their team even if they suck
@@railfanmaximstill7279the worry about an NFL team in Nebraska is that the football market is pretty much entirely owned by the Cornhuskers. Obviously there’s nothing stopping people from being fans of both an NFL team and a college team, but in an area that isn’t overly wealthy, it would be hard for both teams to consistently sell out games. The percentage of people in Nebraska that could afford to attend multiple Nebraska games and multiple NFL games a year is probably a lot smaller than it is in other areas. Part of the reason the Nighthawks sold out games and why the Stormchasers are so popular is just the fact that minor league sports are cheap as hell to go to
@@tbow13gbr22Yes, but how much reach does Univ of NE have from Lincoln to Omaha? Especially with a satellite campus already there (Univ of Ne - Omaha)?
I think if Green Bay folks can afford to see their team and Ohio can have two NFL teams, I don't see how being overtly wealthy can make a difference. If the Omaha area gets an NFL stadium, I'm sure Berkshire Hathaway and/or Buffet would have something to do with it. I'd love to see who'd win the naming rights, with the number of fortune 500
Furthermore, Omaha has been home to the College World Series since 1950. Sports fans aren't really strangers to this place. Granted KC is rather close and would probably not want a team biting into their fanbase, but since they're the only reps of the true Midwest/Heartland, especially with the Rams back in L.A., they can afford it.
Right across the river in Council Bluffs are 3 casinos, 2 belonging to Caesers Ent., that could honestly use the extra foot traffic and Sportbook money to upgrade and renovate. Hell, put the stadium in Council Bluffs, like how the Jets and Giants play in NJ, lol. I'm sure they can plop it somewhere along I-29 and I-80. Then Nebraska and Iowa can have their own Heroes Game house. Local hs football teams can play their state championships there, they can house a pro NHL team, etc.
The only negatives I see are that there is already a 20 yr old $291m indoor arena/conference center across from the CWS stadium that's been part of the identity of the downtown area, plus UNO just built their $88m collegiate arena 8 yrs ago. As expensive as these new NFL stadiums are, $1b ++ for the last 5, I can't see any deal being struck in this current economy to build a stadium from scratch.
I do believe, however, as Omaha being a former transportation hub that still has a decent Amtrak station; a small but capable airport; and is centralized along a well-built highway system that can handle the traffic, as long as the city/country/state can manage the severe winters, there should be no issue getting fans to this stadium - even for non-NFL events like concerts, rodeos, fights, and local hs football championships.
Faulty logic. Owners want the arena full at half your paycheck prices, not minor league prices.
Besides, the one real minor league team plays several miles from downtown (the lower division soccer team plays there too, sadly). Your hockey is junior, not minor pro… and I’m giving you a pass on the former minor pro hockey team, because the Calgary Flames ran it, and they’ve left a LONG trail of disappointing affiliations. However, you haven’t tried again.
Let’s also put it this way. There is a downtown ballpark… for the College World Series, and the Storm Chasers deem it too big for them. Creighton gets good crowds for the downtown arena. UNO has a hockey arena about twice as big as where the Lancers play. Creighton has a more-than-respectable soccer stadium; I wish Union Omaha played there. ALL of that put together demonstrates that Omaha is a serious college sports market. Since Lincoln is about 55 minutes away, I don’t see that changing in your lifetime.
@@PCSPounder but minor leagues and colleges are notoriously local. Pro [football] fans travel and can have sizeable out of market fans. Even when no one showed up to post-San Diego Chargers LA games, the stadium was full of away team jerseys. Hell, London doesn't even have a team, and tons show up to watch. The point isn't necessarily to only get the paychecks of the locals but to get into the wallets of people traveling in.
When mentioning Birmingham Although the market seems ripe for a major league team, the entire south already has their interest in college football, maybe an oversight considering that the college football market is larger than Soccer and Hockey in attendance and viewership.
I don’t think alabama can support a major league sports program. Unlike Tennessee and North Carolina, who have many pro teams. Alabama gives so much to its college programs that the pro organization would be highly under supported.
Great video! I liked the editing style and the amount of work you put in is apparent.
6:07 Funnily enough this nearly happened in the late 90s/early 2000s with the Patriots before Gillette Stadium got built. There was a deal to move them to Hartford (and some previous negotiations with Providence) that ultimately fell through and the team ended up staying in Foxborough and building a new stadium.
Kansas City has very dedicated sports fans, and its strange that there is no NBA team. However, within an hour of KC is KU, a premier basketball school with a lot of fans in the area. But outside the influence of KU is a rapidly growing metro area neglected in this video: Omaha, Nebraska. It has a lot of minor league teams, but also fills in the void of there not being any nearby NBA teams.
I was sad to see he left out Nebraska in this video. Born and raised in Lincoln, I could definitely see a pro team from any major league call Omaha/Lincoln home. Omaha is getting a pro volleyball team soon, sorry, don't remember the league name, so that's a start. Lincoln has proven they can support major sports, they just packed in 92,003 fans to see a college volleyball game. BTW that is the largest crowd ever for a women's sporting event! Not just in the state or country, but worldwide.
Omaha might be able to support a pro team BUT I’ll be damned if the county wants to raise taxes to pay for it.
They used to have a team. The Sacramento Kings used to be Kansas City Kings.
Richmond Kickers are also the longest continuously running professional soccer team in the US.
Here's one for you... Jacksonville. We only have one sports team down here and have fans that actually would root for a sports team. Plus with the new renovation coming to the Jags field we could show the country a legitimate fan base. I would say most likely give DUUVAL either an MLS or NHL team in my opinion.
There's supposed to be two pro soccer teams coming to town. Jax Armada are bringing back their senior team in the D3 MLS Next Pro. As well as, Tim Tebow and others are creating a new team in Jax for the USL Championship, whivh is D2. You can support one of them with hopes they move to MLS or hope MLS comes to town, a la San Diego.
That's a strong college town. It'd be hard to work that. To me at least.
I would love if the MLS came to Jacksonville but it’s not happening.
I've always heard the Jaguars regularly don't sell out their own games and that's why they're the sacrificial lamb for all the international games every year lol.
The Midwest deserves more professional sports. Maybe somewhere like Omaha that’s growing pretty well with over a million people in the metro area and the only closest city being Kansas City, 3 and a half hours away. Understandably not the NFL, but they could have any other pro sport, like if they put an MLB team there they could easily use the current CWS stadium there, it’s certainly large enough. Biggest hole on the map is the dead north, that pocket of Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana
The problem with the "dead north" is the population just isn't there. They tend to follow the teams from the "nearby" larger markets. For example, a lot of northwest Montana follow the the Seattle area teams while southwest Montana orients towards Salt Lake City or Denver. There are some professional teams in that area but are mostly Pioneer League (A) or similar minor league baseball teams. Distance don't help here either as to goto a game involves a long drive which can be difficult at best in the winter. There isn't the tax base to support a publicly funded (or partial funding) arena or stadium large enough for a major league team. Note: I am a native of this area (Montana)
Louisville definitely deserves a professional team, them losing the Kentucky Colonels after the ABA-NBA merger should be seen as more controversial than San Diego losing the Chargers or St. Louis losing the Rams. They had the highest winning percentage in the league, and made the playoffs every season
The Chicago Bulls kept the Colonels out of the NBA so that they could steal Artis Gilmore. The St. Louis Spirits wanted to sell their team to a group from Utah, buy the Colonels and move them to Buffalo to replace the Braves. These St. Louis owners got a ridiculous deal giving them 1/7 of the TV revenue of the Nets, Nuggets, Spurs & Pacers for every year of the NBA's existence.
I’m from the “metro” Louisville area and I think they should probably get like maybe a nhl team because they lean towards Chicago St Louis and Cincinnati and for Football it’s the Colts and I think that Louisville would be a good hockey market.
Great video! Lots of details, I can tell a bunch of research went into this! Keep up the good work
Bro the problem with the Austin MLS team is that they didn't include any parking at all for the stadium
that was to help embrace public transportation
A heads up for Providence, there's a bit of a "sick of Boston" feel in the city in recent years. Providence is looking for a summer team of their own major or minor league. It's not a matter of lack of support, the P-Bruins (AHL Boston) do pretty well with attendance. The only reason why the Pawsox moved from neighboring Pawtucket was mainly to get Boston's AAA team into MA.
P-Bruins have been top 5 in attendance in the AHL for a while now. It’s a good watch too and at a good price.
A little story… before the Portland Timbers reached MLS, they were in what’s now the USL, started out with small crowds, but as people caught on- in a younger market- started hitting 15,000 crowds somewhat regularly. So we like to say that Seattle (whose USL crowds were small) got fans because they got MLS, while Portland got MLS because we have fans. But the point; both cities had an influx of young people in the early 2000s that helped soccer in both cities.
The share of younger adults in Providence is bigger than it was in Portland when our boom happened.
So Rhode Island FC, which starts up next year… it’ll be big enough.
You forgot the MLC (Major League Cricket). 😆
Needing is one thing, wanting is another. For all these towns, save your money don’t build a billionaire a building; don’t screw over your hotels and tourism visitors.
Orlando seems like a no brainier to have an MLB and NFL team. Makes more sense than Jacksonville to have an NFL team.
I bet no one knows where the hell this is but hear me out: The biggest city in Iowa, Des Moines, needs an NFL team called the Des Moines Dragons. Greenways smaller than Des Moines and has a team. Give me a team guys. Please.
I think Seattle and Kansas would be prime candidates for NBA expansion. Kansas is a thriving basketball market (look at the Kings before they moved and the current KU/KState basketball Support) but haven’t had a team since the 60s. Public support would be outrageously high.
Hartford Connecticut use to have a NHL team with the Hartford Whalers from 1979 to 1997. In 1997, the Whalers franchise relocated to North Carolina, where they became the Carolina Hurricanes.
Being from NE I can’t imagine Massachusetts (Boston) letting any team leave the area.
New England is Boston I guess.. and priority in the market is Boston who get first say. I’m not even from Rhode Island and Connecticut but I would be surprised if the Revs ever left the Foxborough area especially while under the ownership of Robert Kraft.
But Hartford has a USL team so that’s something!
The commitment and effort that went into this video
Charlotte or Raleigh needs an MLB team....I'm in NC and I'm so tired of trying to choose between other teams that are so far away it means nothing to me...
Charlotte and Nashville are the top two eastern cities for MLB expansion, with Salt Lake City and Vancouver being the western options now that Oakland presumably took Vegas.
I think both Charlotte and Nashville are good options, but I'd lean Nashville personally only because it's a little further inland son can saturate a few more people in that CIN-STL-ATL deadzone. Four hours from each. Athletics or Brewers (who are looking for a new stadium) should move to Charlotte, if you ask me. Put the Rays in Orlando while you're at it.
@@verde7595Nashville already has a AAA team and the Brewers wouldn't let that happen. Even Charlotte has a AAA team.
@@verde7595 Tom Dundon has expressed interest in getting a team. I wouldn't be surprised if he pushed for one in Raleigh instead of Charlotte.
@@verde7595 We don't need more inland teams there's a TON of inland teams we need a team for the South EAST everyone west of Charlotte already has a team. Charlotte is the best spot otherwise it's just another team way out of reach of anyone in those Southeastern seaboard states.
This was interesting. Another idea I've tried to make work on Excel was to have all 50 state capitals have teams, though admittedly I was only focusing on the MLS. Maybe one day this could be the topic for a "What If" style video, rather than the realistic "This might actually happen" style you went with here.
Another thing in favour of creating NBA franchises in Seattle and Mexico City is that it would balance the conferences. Those two teams would be put on the West and then New Orleans and Memphis would shift to the East which makes much more sense geographically.
bro cited bronx science school newspaper
Don't forget Major League Cricket and Major League rugby. These are smaller sports in the US, but growing, and ideal for a town that isn't big enough for NFL/ MLB etc. Cricket is especially suitable for very hot states, and rugby would be a good fit for Montreal, rugby is pretty big in France, which is currently hosting the Rugby World Cup. Getting into these leagues early is relatively cheap, and one day they could be another MLS, who knows.
The MLR in particular needs to swallow their pride a little and go for smaller markets. Instead of the Toronto Arrows, go for Hamilton, or smaller even, every growing American sports league had to do it. Want a French Canadian team? Foster a rugby culture in Saint-Jérôme, get a whole town behind a sport? Try Annapolis instead of Baltimore, or Charleston WV where Appalachian State has a college rugby program, the absolute largest a city hosting rugby in the US should be to get a city following it is something like Savannah GA/ Ann Arbour at 120000-150000 people
Cricket is aiming for specific populations. There’s a Miami-area park because of the Caribbean/West Indies influence. There are parks planned for San Jose and suburban Seattle due to the Asian Indian population growth on the west coast (fastest growing immigrant group in the Bay Area per latest statistics).
Imagine having such a lack of taste that you pay for a baseball or murican football.
Recently visited KC and besides the royals and chiefs, the city has huge potential for either an NHL or NBA team that would attract people, folks from Missouri and Kansas.
Richmond is too small and too close to DC to host major sports. But what they can become is a minor league sports hotbed. They are on the verge of building a new indoor arena and a new minor league baseball stadium for their existing AA team, the Richmond Flying Squirrels.
I could see an ECHL or even AHL team moving into the new arena.
Completely fucking disagree, if Dan fucking big nose can move the WASHINGTON commandants to landover MARYLAND richmond is viable
This is kinda where i see the future of Sports in Salem OR going as well (especially if the AFL can succeed there), with their main role being to host the affiliates of Portland's major teams.
Fair. If we had an AHL team I’d still go.
I was going to say that I think Hampton Roads (Norfolk/VA Beach metro) would be better for an MLS team. Its further from DC so it is not really in that market, and the metro has a bigger population than Richmond (comparable to other metros with MLS such as Cincinnati, especially when you add in Richmond).
Nooooooo, please give me a major league team to root for that isn't from DC 🤢 Just culturally, we are very different places: most people in DC are chasing money or status, and obsessed with their careers. We actually enjoy life and the arts down here. I would LOVE to have an MLS team to root for against DC United.
And to the comments above, we had a minor league hockey team-first named the Renegades, then the River Dogs-and that failed when the city couldn't fix/replace the aging Colosseum. It doesn't look like a real deal for a new arena is coming anytime soon, so upgrading the Kickers and their facilities to MLS levels would be a better investment imo. HOWEVER: Don Garber (MLS Commissioner) will NEVER let us get an MLS franchise here, I'm just calling that right now.
Hartford, CT needs a pro team. Maybe NHL. The Whalers never should have left. That was like the Colts moving from Baltimore to Indianapolis, or the Browns moving from Cleveland to Baltimore.
You’ve got minor league baseball but that’s pretty much it
Hartford and Providence will have to share a team in like Norwich.
@@bootmii98 like the Sea Unicorns? and you're right Bring back the Whalers. Carolina should not be using the old jerseys! They lost that right when they were using retired numbers actively
Indeed, I would move Phoenix Coyotes back to Hartford and rename them as the Hartford Whalers
I live in southern Ct it takes me a hour to get Msg to see the Rangers or an hour go to the mall in Hartford take your pick, if you live in eastern Ct your a hour from Boston tuff sell to bring back the Whale
Appreciate the work on this as I know this would have taken a LONG time.
Speaking as a canadian I'd like too see the NHL add teams in Saskatoon, Québec City and Halifax.
What about Norfolk, Va? The Tidewater area is over 1M strong. And has a large military presence that would get behind a team.
He mentioned this with VA beach, since VA Beach is the largest city in the Hampton Roads metro area. Even then, as far as sports markets go, Richmond would be the easier choice, and the two major metro areas are close enough that fandom would easily be shared between the two. Hampton Roads fans would root for a team in Richmond, and vice versa.
Yeah I have no idea what this guy is talking about with Richmond over Virginia Beach. VB’s metro has 500,000 more people than Richmond’s 💀
@@iStealEBTCards he brought up after a certain point that the metro area isn't the only defining factor, and that these sports teams have a much wider reach than just the city that they're based in. He specifically mentioned Minnesotan sports teams having fans not just in the Twin Cities, but as far west as some of Montana, and down south into Iowa. A team in Richmond would have much wider reach into the rest of Virginia and into West Virginia than a team in Hampton Roads would, but Hampton Roads is still close enough that people there would still most likely root for a team in Richmond.
Omaha Nebraska could really use a football team. XFL or USFL should do it.
Nah. Theyre too small for the market. Besides all the people there already behind Cornhuskers.
Can Fort Worth please at least get an amateur league team or something?
Albuquerque, New Mexico? Maybe.. please..
Excellent video! One thing I’d add is an expansion MLB team in Salt Lake City makes more sense to me than Louisville, both geographically and population-wise, subscribed!
As far as the NBA expanding to 32 teams, these are the most likely cities in my POV:
- Seattle
- Las Vegas
- Vancouver
- Kansas City
- St. Louis
Louisville too. That's basketball town there
@@kimyona9746 It’s possible, since Louisville has been on a meteoric metropolitan rise these last several years.
bring back the Sonics!!!!
No Montréal?Theres a decent amount of Nba players from there and basketball is the biggest sport there and we already have a sports team in the MLS and NHL and a good CFL team so the city has experience with sports
@@vonelgamer3071 After the mess that happened with the Expos in MLB, I don’t think Montreal would be a good choice
Richmond getting an MLS team would be such a good idea. I'm from Virginia Beach, but agree with you that it probably shouldn't get a team. Technically the "downtown" of Virginia Beach is actually Norfolk VA, but if a major sports team were to emerge for the area, I don't believe the infrastructure exists to really support the influx of traffic and gameday moments compared to bigger cities. The Oceanfront is limited by smaller roads and few points of entry, the town center of Virginia Beach is too small to justify a major sports investment. Norfolk has it's own development issues where singular bridges and connection points serve as massive choke points, however there is a highly underutilized light rail from Virginia Beach to Norfolk that could serve as a conduit for a team. If any kind of sports team were to make the entire Hampton Roads area it's home, it would have be a more "compact" sport like Baseball.
Richmond getting an MLS team would be huge, though. First of all MLS is still small enough to justify trying to invest in these lesser markets. Second of all, Virginia has a rich soccer culture in the suburban areas. Lots of kids spend their years playing soccer in clubs and then transition to their school teams. If there was an MLS team in the state of VA to aspire to, it would likely have good local prospects within 5-10 years.
As a Washington state citizen
I don’t watch much basketball but I would love to see the sonics make a return
Please NBA come to Seattle 🙏🏻
I am loyal to Seattle and Washington for sports! All the rumors I've read say that Seattle and Las Vegas are the top two choices for NBA expansion.
Oakland didnt blow a 3-team lead, they used to have an nhl team. They blew a 4 team lead. Yikes
The NHL is rumored to be looking to expand to 36 teams, Bettman will do everything in his power to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix. If a franchise moves, that kind of indicates that its league is not ready to expand. Phoenix is a massive metro area and TV market, and with the Coyotes finally taking positive steps (as of this comment, they are in the Wild Card picture and their team is young), now would be a weird time to call it quits. The Coyotes have been looking at moving to Mesa, a much better area than Glendale (Closer to the 101 and 202 for easy commuting, closer to Scottsdale where most the valley's hockey fans are) and there's very little indication that Mesa would fall through. There's also been interest in North Phoenix (again, closer to Scottsdale, where most of the valley's fans are). The Yotes are likely staying in Phoenix.
That said, with a 36 team NHL in the league's plans, I think that makes another Texas team kind of inevitable, whether that's in Austin, or more likely, Houston. The other three teams likely go to Quebec City, Salt Lake City a take-your-pick wild card city. I've heard it'll be Atlanta, but I doubt that. I'd love to see a Milwaukee team, personally, Wisconsin has so much hockey culture and they'd have an immediate rivalry with the Blackhawks and Wild.
Phoenix needs an MLS team. If you look at a map there's a huge hole in MLS teams. With the closest being in LA, Salt lake, and Dallas relative to Phoenix
They’ll be shoved into State Farm arena cause that sounds too hot already.
Nobody deserves an mls team more than Phoenix.
I was thinking El Paso or maybe some team in Nebraska repping the whole state
Great video. I would suggest using combined statistical areas perhaps next time instead of metros, in addition to the geomapping you did… this would help fix some of the issues with SF/San Jose, DC/Balt, and Boston/Prov… just an idea
I'm a little surprised you didn't mention Houston for the NHL. We're the fifth largest metro in the US, with over 7 million residents, and we had an IHL and AHL team, the Aeros. We're also the largest metro in the US without one. The Toyota Center (home of the Rockets) is getting refurbished, and the plans include equipment for ice. That being said, I'm not sure it's a good idea. I'm skeptical about how an NHL team would draw here. But maybe because I don't follow hockey.
Actually Houston's at the top of the list to get the Coyotes, some think that's why they were transferred from the west to central division. The only thing standing in the way is Gary Betman(the league comissioner, in case you didn't know) & his stubbornness in keeping the Coyotes in Zona.
Well, Houston would be the most likely city to receive an NHL Team, if a franchise had to relocate. However, the only competitive cities that could tweet the move would be Kansas City, Milwaukee, Portland, San Diego, or San Antonio. Of course some people would think Atlanta, Hartford, or Quebec City, but they don’t deserve a team. In the end, I have to say Houston is the most deserving, because they were the only city that competed against Seattle for the Final Expansion Team, and the most likely city to carry on the Team Name: Houston Coyotes.
@@l-wolverine2211 How does Quebec City not deserve a team? They already have an arena & hungry fan base that actually lives, breaths & eats hockey that will still show up when their team sucks.
@@chizorama 3 Reasons;
- The Nordics failed almost every season, and even they didn’t move to Colorado I. The mid-90’s, they most likely wouldn’t have won the Stanley Cup.
- The Fanbase isn’t as big as you think, especially when you don’t have much of a Fanbase, and how most fans from Quebec City would rather go to a Montreal Canadians game.
- The Arena Income would definitely not take in a lot of money, considering that most Canadian Teams aren’t even making enough money to fill in the arenas as of 2023, compared to most major cities in in Canada & USA.
That’s why I listed the cities I mentioned, because there a lot more income that could be generated with a population of over 1million, if you include all of the Metropolitan areas surrounding each city. I don’t see Quebec City as a contender, at least not for another 10-20 years, compared to a big city, like Houston.
@@l-wolverine2211 Please provide your source? Their fanbase showed up every season, they left due to their crappy owner(the real reason Lindros refused to play there). Haven't heard anything about any Canadian team struggling with their markets, all I see are die hards showing up no matter how the team is doing, Ottawa might have been the only exception with their former owner. The Nordique fan base was well established along with rivalries, the only thing they were lacking was media support, just like most American teams in non hockey regions.
This channel deserves way more subs, this was amazing
As far as the Arizona Coyotes relocating, these are the 5 worthy candidates:
- Houston
- San Diego
- San Antonio
- Kansas City
- Milwaukee
There not relocating
@@allstar2709 They moved to utah
@@TheCook43 hopefully they have strong market for them
Although of course a bit of a wild card depending on a lot, but another “league” to consider would be NCAA. A lot of the places missing major sports teams have a college/university they tend to support. Of course isn’t the same thing for most people, but if you’re a fan of college sports it certainly can come close or can feel the same. A good example for me would be North Dakota with hockey, UConn with basketball, UT in Austin etc
Solid work! I cackled at your NC state v. Refs joke! I agree with you that ATX would be a good place to move the Coyotes. The NHL can potentially strike lightning twice with being the 1st big four league there, like they were with Vegas.
I like how you pointed out that location is just as integral as population. Where I differ is that Louisville is a MUCH better fit for the NBA than the MLB, as it's too close to the Reds and Kentucky breathes basketball.
Honestly, Kansas City is ripe for an NHL franchise. They have an arena built and a massive gap in the market.
MLS expansions: Arizona, Sacramento, Richmond, Baltimore, Detroit, Edmonton
MLS might expand for relegation to be allowed with the bottom two teams in each conference being sent to the minors, but all four semi finalists in the post season being sent to MLS major division.
Virginia Beach is a small city, but it is apart of the Hampton Roads City cluster (Including Portsmouth, Norfolk, Suffolk, Newport News, Chesapeake, etc.) VB has to be considered with the populations of all those areas as well.
They did try to get the Expos to move there and also attempted to get an NHL expansion team.
@@_joestop5 yeah i heard originally nashville predators was gonna be here in virginia beach until they chose nashville
Dalton, thanks for posting this video! Really loved it!
You will not see a MLB team in Kentucky with the Cincinnati Reds .
nba would be the better fit in louisville. kentucky loves their basketball. i think nashville should’ve been the other expansion team for the MLB.
Milwaukee and Quebec CIty should have NHL teams.
Actually the Atlanta teams had reasons to leave, flames because ATL wasn’t the ATL we know today and the thrashers didn’t have a arena and Winnipeg ownership bought them, the thrashers did have a fan base it was that they weren’t good enough. Ilya and heatley was there it’s sad we won’t see those powder blue grails back on the ice
“I don’t thing anyone’s goosin’ to pack up and move” great line with a great podcast word
Pretty cut and dry if you ask me
I think the NBA would do well in Columbus, and our former mayor was working behind the scenes to get us in line for an expansion team because hockey just doesn't have the following here that they hoped it would. I also think MLB would work here, but the Reds and Indians have worked hard to make sure that never happens, all the while using us a bargaining chip when they want something from their cities - the infamous "I have a proposal from a group in Columbus..." that those owners trot out when they want leverage in their respective city.
Cincinnati would gladly take the jackets. Would love to have nba here too. Columbus is just in a bad place geographically. Owners think they spread out while sprinkling in some Columbus fans to Cincinnati and Cleveland. Pretty smart actually.
They figured they'd get nhl fans from Cincinnati and Cleveland which I'm sure they probably have but I'd love to see cincinnati get a team and have an in state instant rival. I think fc cincinnati is a perfect example. They saw how crazy fans went when we got a usl team and when they went to mls the fan base remained huge. The cyclones aren't cutting it. There's talk of a new arena being built so hopefully we can get 1 more professional team in there.
Real Madrid will have an nba franchise in Columbus
Remenber this in 15 years
Nascar has major tracks that house two major events per year in a larger number of the cities you mention here. i think the market for that should have taken into consideration for some of these cities. like raleigh for example. there are special specific city laws spawned from noise complaints alone because of nascar in the 1950s.
As a Birminghamian, I would love an NHL team like the Bulls in the WHA, but sadly I don't see it happening. Instead we support our SPHL Bulls
I think either BHM or HSV could support an NHL team
You should have done CSA (Combined Statistical Areas) vs. MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) to get a more accurate TV/Sports Market
Would LOVE to see more expansion into Mexico/Caribbean for baseball. San Juan would be amazing for Puerto Rico, & if relations with Cuba normalized, down the road an MLB expansion team in Havana would be LIT. Mexico City has the best economics & population to support a team but the problem there is physics - the altitude means that it would probably be even more of a hitters' park than Coors Field.
Separately I would love a revival of the Asian Series to make it more like Champions League in soccer/football in Europe, as a way to develop Asian baseball together
NFL Europe I'm sorry I just don't care for
Post Castro Cuba for MLB would be a natural.
A great way to jump from collectivist to free market.
RIP GR, we're growing fast though, definitely not big enough for any major teams at,, but the michigan panthers can definitly be supported by West Michigan. I'm also pretty sure the the whitecaps and griffens are the high on the most attended minor league teams in the nation so we have that going for us as well.
I'm not sure if this is an unpopular opinion but the NHL has more or less maxed out the potential of the sun belt and more likely exceeded. I would probably move The Phoenix Coyotes and the Anaheim Ducks to Canada where about half the fans are. (Coyotes to Quebec City, Ducks to maybe become the 2nd team in Toronto or maybe Hamilton, there is a CFL team with a lot of passionate fans). Miami might be a relocation if their success doesn't last. I can see them go to Connecticut or Rhode Island.
More Realistically, The Coytes could end up in Salt Lake City.
Moving the Coyotes to Quebec sounds like a good idea on paper, but you have to consider the fact that the Nordiques moved because of low ticket sales. Maybe it's possible for them to succeed, but I don't think Gary Bettman will move the Coyotes anywhere.
It would be an amazing idea to put an MLS team in Richmond purely because of Ted Lasso
I really hope the NHL stays at 32 teams for the near future. I know they'll expand because $$$ but i can hope.
32 is perfect. Exactly half the league makes the playoffs. 4 divions of 8 teams each works out to have a fairly balanced 84 game season too.
Or 6 divisions of 6
No city NEEDS professional sports teams!
Exactly, why not spend money on infrastructure and health care? The USA is such a joke.
Yes we do👹we even have a stadium we built hoping for one but never got one😔
@@billbaird2273because the government is a travesty now give us a football team👹👹👹
St Louis needs an NBA team. we would sell out every game
Really? St. Louis had the Hawks until attendance plummeted once they got a NHL team. The ABA team that followed played in a mostly empty arena. It would appear that St. Louis doesn't care that much for pro basketball.
@@KenHenderson-n1c that was decades ago
Richmond could totally host an MLS team. Just previously it was announced that the city watches the most English Premier League out of any US city, and soccer is a huge deal there.
Doubt any NFL teams would move away any time soon.
Subscribed bc you’re a Chargers fan and you go through the same heartbreak I do every year with this team.
I just want a major sports team in Arkansas 😭
3:04 - I can think of so many NWSL teams, probably all 14(?) of them if you give me enough time. To give you just three right now off the top, KC Current, Orlando Pride, NC Courage. I understand I’m the exception to this rule and your point here is well taken. I also genuinely hope that women’s sports generate more revenue in the near future, and I think we’re headed in the right direction on that front.
Omaha Nebraska. The only real option
Way too small
@@chuckinhouston9952 not really. It's the 38th biggest city in the US and represents the biggest untapped region
its a minor league market. state of nebraska is only 2 million. omaha is about a million. ill throw in half of south dakota and a quarter of iowa… that barely gets you over 3 million.
@@UserName-ts3sp that doesnt consider the fact that it would be their only sports team. equivalent to a 10 million market
@@universenerdd eh nebraska football is huge. it’s college but it’s the de facto pro team for the state. omaha market is way smaller than KC, which is why KC gets the pro teams
Here's an interesting twist to add to your sports saturation calculations (and one that I've been thinking about for a long time): race tracks. Between NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula One, IMSA, WEC, and MotoGP, you've got six major racing leagues that race in North America. Plus plenty of "Minor" leagues like the NHRA, GT World Challenge America, NASCAR Xfinity and Truck series, MotoAmerica. And each has a schedule that shifts from year to year.
Its pretty hard to figure it all out, but, for example, would Richmond really score as low as they do if you factor in 2 full NASCAR weekends each year? What if IndyCar went there too? Austin sees NASCAR, F1, MotoGP, and WEC next year, so does that increase it's score enough to be considered "saturated"?
Just some things I've been trying to figure out for the last few years.
0:12 well yeah because its not as expensive to watch a soccer game in any nation than a NFL game. Soccer merch, tickets and streaming services are at a fair price. If we wanna compare how big the leagues actually are we have to look at viewership, saled merch and players. All 5 of these European leagues are way bigger than all US Sports leagues combined. The aberage viewership numbers for a regular season match in the EPL and La Liga have more than NFL and all 5 if these leagues have always atleast 2 or 3 teams than play each other 2 times a season and those games always get 700milion viewers which is 7 times more than the superbowl.
These leagues don’t have playoffs but a second competition which is single game elimination and if rivals face each other (especially real v barca, milan v inter or manu v liverpool) they get these super high viewerships again and the final of these competitions also get super high viewership numbers. There is also the UCL where the best teams from the european leagues face eachother and these games also get more views than the superbowl. Even in South America games between River Plate v Boca Juniors or Flamengo v Corinthians have higher viewership numbers.
Teams like real madrid and barcelona are literally the most well supported sports teams in the world and american sports teams don’t even come close to them, not just these 2 but also from england, france and south america they have way more fans than all the US Sports teams combined.
The most well known American Athlete is Christian Pulisic but hes not even a top 40 in soccer. Lebron james maybe is the most well known in America but Christian Pulisic is the most well know Us Athlete in the world. But he still doesn’t come close to Ronaldo, Messi and many others.
Im not saying the NFL is a small league but it’s definitely not bigger than the leagues you mentioned.
I think the MLS is the only league in America which could potentially reach the high viewership numbers as the european leagues because its soccer.
Inter Miami thanks to Messi became the most well known sports team from America which is proof enough that the NFL and NBA don’t come close to soccer leagues
im an american. who tf is that supposed #1 athlete from our country? never heard of them
ive always been intrested in this topic glad you made this
Its only a question of time before Quebec City gets a NHL franchise. Bettman might not do it but his successor prolly will
Bettman hates Canada, so it'll have to be the next person.
Revolution probably won’t move because there really aren’t any stadiums either in Hartford and Providence. That being said a small town called Weymouth has an abandoned tarmac in a residential area so you could move there, and it’s closer to Boston than Boston to Foxboro.
In my opinion, I think each sports league should focus on reaching as many markets as possible, which means having as many teams as possible. However u don’t want to overdo it because then nobody will be able to keep track of so many teams. My golden number for any sports league is actually 40. That way, you can include as many cities as possible and can also have even numbered divisions, and most importantly, have just enough teams so that the public can keep track of the league. Here are my proposals for where each each of my 3 favorite sports leagues should either expand or relocate teams to:
NFL:
1) San Diego (Move the Chargers)
2) St. Louis
3) San Antonio
4) Orlando
5) Portland
6) Austin
7) Memphis
8) Oklahoma City
9) Salt Lake City
10) Toronto (Honorable Mention)
NBA:
1) San Diego (Move the Clippers)
2) Las Vegas (Move the Kings)
3) Seattle (Bring back the Sonics)
4) Pittsburgh
5) Vancouver
6) Nashville
7) Kansas City
8) St. Louis
9) Columbus
10) Cincinnati
11) Baltimore
12) Tampa Bay
13) Montreal (Honorable Mention)
MLB:
1) Las Vegas (Move the A's)
2) Montreal (Bring back the Expos)
3) Portland
4) Nashville
5) Salt Lake City
6) Raleigh
7) New Orleans
8) Vancouver
9) Orlando
10) San Antonio
11) Indianapolis
12) Memphis (Honorable Mention)
13) Oklahoma City (Honorable Mention)
14) Columbus (Honorable Mention)
15) Charlotte (Honorable Mention)
16) Austin (Honorable Mention)
The only problem I can see with the idea of giving Indy (Indianapolis for any non-Hoosier) an MLB team is the fact that it’s got likely the most market share of anything on this list. You have the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Guardians, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Milwaukee Brewers. That is 8 teams that can claim to have a market share within the Midwest region alone let alone Indiana or Indianapolis. There’s a reason I doubt any MLB team is coming to the Midwest (any state whose borders are formed by the Great Lakes, Ohio River, or Mississippi River but not including Pennsylvania and New York) anytime soon.
Iowa needs a pro sports
Here is a solution: wrestling becoming a professional league. Every city is open!
Love that the background in the beginning was from Peanuts.
pretty good video bro. solid information. good work!
Amazing video dude, seriously!
Thank you for actually considering MLS within the top sports leagues in America. Too many people don't realize how big the league is truly getting and it's really annoying when people say the league isn't a major league despite literally having the best player in the entire world of soccer playing within it.
Put baseball in Raleigh pleaseeeee
This was way more in depth than I thought it would be