Well San Antonio tried to do that with the Alamodome and that didn't work out so well. However, Austin FC spent their own money to build O2 arena and I think they are one of the top MLS teams in revenue. Round Rock Express is one of the more profitable farm teams also. The spurs does pretty well in attendance, we don't even need to talk about the burnt orange pro team that gets 110K people to come every week. At the end of the day, Austin feels that they can get the revenue from Formula 1, Texas games, and music festivals. They probably aren't wrong.
I think either city would be very supportive of a MLB team, but MLB politics, not Texas politics, won’t let it happen. Both the Astros and Rangers have huge fan contingents in both cities. Why would they want more competition for those dollars? I believe Nashville will get one of the franchises. They are one of the fastest growing cities in the country and are wildly enthusiastic sports fans. They are also a huge tourist city. I’m guessing Canada gets the other one, although San Antonio is more deserving.
UT also has huge influence and wants no pro sports to dilute their dominance in the city. UT Baseball is a lot harder to sell, for example, if there are 81 MLB home games in town.
The actual city limits of Orlando might be different, but when you get in to the suburbs it's still heavily retirees During the summer months Orlando is all tourists cause most of the winter residents are up north. That's why even though it's peak Disney season, you can go play top of the line golf courses all over Orlando for less than half the cost of what they cost during the winter. If anything Miami has more permanent residents with such a high migrant population there
There are no baseball teams in markets where they’re the only professional sports team. Thats not the case with any other pro league out there. 81 home games, corporate support, 40k+ seats, TV/radio deals committing to 162 games…. It requires a lot and theres a reason why only major market cities accommodate.
Not sure if the first statement is true unless accounting for minor league hockey. Though minor league baseball would make the second sentence untrue if we're counting minor league teams. Granted, the overall point is true that it takes a lot to support 81 baseball games and one exception shouldn't change that.
And technically Oakland for the last few years… but they both had other pro teams prior and the Padres would have suffered the same fate as the A’s (and the Chargers) had Petco not been built when it was built.
Professional teams at the highest level (that also require the same corporate support and disposable income amongst residents for season tickets, etc.).
The Chargers left. I don't know about other Pro teams. But it may prove the point of the conjecture which I will rephrase as 'it takes a very large market to support a MLB team and it almost always attracts a team or teams from other pro sports leagues.'
Charlotte and Nashville are the only 2 I can think of that have the corporate base and population. Vegas, yeah, but **** them on principle. Charlotte is tough because the Braves will fight it. Nashville is tough, but mostly because **** Nashville (see Vegas)
