Will there ever be a major league franchise in an unusual location?

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by ardecila

It's an interesting question... Lots of things are possible. But most of the leagues have reached unwieldy size, so any further expansion might require a total re-organization into tiers along the lines of soccer in England.

Tiers would imply promotion and relegation, which will never ever happen here. Too much money is at stake to risk sending an entire underperforming team down to a lower level.
Most soccer leagues in the world have a promotion/relegation system, but MLS won't do it here, even though they have less money than other leagues and even though they keep adding more teams. it's still too much to risk. If they won't do it, no f-ing way will the more established sports leagues even entertain the idea.

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by SpawnOfVulcan

I've always thought it would be an interesting experiment to put a team in Mobile. The nearby areas of Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula and Pensacola combine with Mobile for population of around 1.5 million.

Of course, I'd love for Birmingham to have a team, but I wouldn't consider us getting a franchise to be unusual given our population. We're in the happy group of top 50 metros with Providence, Hartford, and Richmond who have the population and money. At least we're going to be getting a G-League team after our arena is finished being renovated.

Mobile is definitely an interesting location. How far of a drive is Pensacola and Gulfport from Mobile? It seems like less than an hour for either.

[Nomad9]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Mobile is definitely an interesting location. How far of a drive is Pensacola and Gulfport from Mobile? It seems like less than an hour for either.

Pensacola is only about 45 or so mins from Mobile, and Gulfport is a similar distance, but the problem is that coastal MS, AL, and the FL panhandle are not high income, so I’m not sure that kind of dispersed, middle class population base would support a pro team.

[Razor]

Just stumbled onto this article, and remembered there was some sort of similar theme on here. Thought I should do a drive by and link it.

https://www.stadiumtalk.com/s/future...m=msn-can-home

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by Nomad9

Pensacola is only about 45 or so mins from Mobile, and Gulfport is a similar distance, but the problem is that coastal MS, AL, and the FL panhandle are not high income, so I’m not sure that kind of dispersed, middle class population base would support a pro team.

Thank you for providing the timeage. I agree that, since each metro itself is not particularly high income, wealth is an issue. But, in Alabama’s and Florida’s coastal communities there is a higher level of wealth. People who hold real estate on, live on, and winter in hold a lot of money. Winter-birds who would want to leave the monotony of the beach for a day, and might not have an American pro-team they care for might be interested. Btw, counties like Baldwin in Alabama and Escambia & Santa Rosa in Florida have wealthy enough communities that likely have relatively high median income.

I think the MS, AL, FL mid- Gulf Coast question is similar to Vegas. The difference is distance, IMO. Maybe if the stadium, or arena, was built in Baldwin County (between the more populous metros) along with ALDOT actually getting around to constructing a Mobile River bridge could prove more successful than having the facility in Mobile (being more convenient to Pensacola).

Again, unlikely... interesting, yeah... worth looking into, maybe...

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by Razor

Just stumbled onto this article, and remembered there was some sort of similar theme on here. Thought I should do a drive by and link it.

https://www.stadiumtalk.com/s/future...m=msn-can-home

YAAAASSSS. I truly believe Birmingham is a great candidate for an NBA franchise. A city with the highest viewership of the NBA playoffs outside of cities with NBA teams. A large, overhauled arena. Enough wealth in the metro. No teams within 100 miles. A sport that isn’t football.

Once our G-League team moves in, I think it will prove how accommodating the city could be to a franchise.

[ThePhun1]

Originally Posted by Razor

Just stumbled onto this article, and remembered there was some sort of similar theme on here. Thought I should do a drive by and link it.

https://www.stadiumtalk.com/s/future...m=msn-can-home

I have number of issues with that article, including that it appears to have been written by an amateur. Who quotes city population figures when determining how big a market is?

[BG918]

I think you could put an NBA team in both Louisville and Birmingham and they would be successful. Another location that could work is Richmond and/or Norfolk. Not sure which location would be better but would pull from the other nearby metro, as well as fast-growing southern suburbs of DC.

[S Car Go]

I think the NFL is just uniquely suited to that sort of thing, since they only need fill a stadium 8 times, and it's almost always in the middle of a weekend day. It could expand by 10 teams, 20 teams, and still be able to fill stadiums. Of course, the quality of play would drop substantially, but people still love college football so...

Baseball suffers the most, needing to fill a stadium ten times as often, throughout the week.

[isaidso]

There already are major league franchises in unusual locations. Phoenix, Miami, Tampa, and Vegas in the NHL are good examples.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

speaking of minor league baseball, i find it a little surprising that there are some pretty large metro areas in US/Canada that not only don't have MLB, but don't even have AAA or AA minor league baseball (particularly the first 4 on the list below):

Montreal
Vancouver
Portland
Orlando
Calgary
Edmonton
Ottawa
New Orleans
Grand Rapids


those are some pretty big population centers being passed over by higher-level minor league baseball.

Edmonton had AAA up until 2004, Calgary had AAA up until 2002, and Ottawa had AAA up until 2007. The Vancouver Canadians (baseball) play in the NW League, while Montreal won't support baseball unless it's MLB. Montreal was Canada's premier city for most of Canada's history, a city that for a century was home to Canada's establishment, a city that hosted the Summer Olympics. It's just not going to register if its AAA or AA. It would be akin to taking the Mets/Yankees out of New York then expecting New Yorkers to follow AAA or AA. Say what you will but that's the reality of it.

This said, baseball has hit an all time low in Canada. Apart from a few pockets, the sport is in slow steady decline nationally. The Jays get a lot of support but beyond that 1 team there's not a lot of baseball other than recreational leagues. I think MLB would do well in both Montreal and Vancouver but there's little interest at the grassroots level.

[mhays]

The NFL would NEVER expand substantially. Adding another 10 teams wouldn't increase TV revenue that much, certainly not by 1/3, meaning less revenue per team. And they'd be scraping the bottom of the barrel for local revenues in less-lucrative places. And thinning out the talent. And doing all that in an era where concussion-awareness will gradually reduce the talent pool anyway.

[S Car Go]

Originally Posted by mhays

The NFL would NEVER expand substantially. Adding another 10 teams wouldn't increase TV revenue that much, certainly not by 1/3, meaning less revenue per team. And they'd be scraping the bottom of the barrel for local revenues in less-lucrative places. And thinning out the talent. And doing all that in an era where concussion-awareness will gradually reduce the talent pool anyway.

I know it wouldn't just saying from a local support standpoint, the NFL would be fine. Every other league in most other locations would have trouble. Of course, the NBA could expand to Europe and it would be fine as far as that goes, there would just be a bunch of other problems associated with it.