re: Future Pro Sports Cities?

I don’t disagree with your sentiment, but who is going to those games? The entire region you’re talking about is dirt poor. Dudes aren’t going to be getting season tickets from the Dominican and head to San Juan when they can barely afford plantains.

Although I guess Miami averages 700 fans per game so it really doesn’t matter.

In the end you need a new stadium. How is that going to be built? And who is paying for it? Then you have to fill it, independent of how many players would want to play there.

Louisville had a good chance to land an existing NBA franchise that will relocate, or an expansion team. Plenty corporate money to throw around. UPS, Ford, Humana, Papa John's GE

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I’d look for future expansion to be in cities that already have other professional teams like Austin, Montreal, Las Vegas, etc.

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Austin area can barely support RR Express, so I doubt an MLB team would survive.

San Antonio would be a better option for NFL or MLB.

As for Austin, they have both MLS and Major League Rugby. -- that probably maximizes out the Austin professional team support.

Unless they develop a "I moved from California" league... Austin would destroy everyone.

I always thought that Indianapolis would be a cool MLB city

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I always thought that Indianapolis would be a cool MLB city

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An MSA with ~2 million people that already has franchises in 2 of the 3 largest leagues in the country. That is the definition of a tapped out MSA as far as corporate dollars, marginal attention and wallet spend for fans, etc. Same reason why St. Louis, Cincinnati, KC, or Pittsburgh aren't getting an NBA franchise any time soon. Cleveland and Milwaukee (counting the Packers) are the exceptions to the rule for MSA's in that size range, and that's largely because they historically were much bigger and more prominent cities than they are today, and the franchises are generally quite old with fanbases spread across the country.

Central Texas has been thrown out there as a fairly obvious expansion candidate, as has Virginia Beach, but I'll throw in another one: Inland Empire in southern California. It's an MSA of 4.5+M all on its own and is a decent ways away from LA proper. I am surprised a league hasn't given a franchise in that area a go yet, even with the dominance of LA franchises around.

LOL

yeah, go to places where the players and their families can be kidnapped at any moment, with Police probably being involved and tipping off the kidnappers.

fricking geniuses, how about Johannesburg next?

bro, that stadium is a joke

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The EPL, which isn't even domestic, rivals the NHL in viewership. MLS viewership is steadily growing and will get a big boost in the next few years with the 2026 World cup, 2028 Olympics, potential RO16 squad for 2022, and an increase in games played between US and Mexican teams in the next few years. There is a shite load of money going into the MLS righ tnow.

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Lulz

MLS gets bad ratings, and the World Cup will kill it but people won’t be turning in to watch MLS players. MLS doesn’t have a bunch of WC quality players to make people be interested in it

As for money going into MLS…

It’s a Ponzi scheme. The league is actually loosing money big time. Only a handful of the franchises make a profit.

The only reason it looks like the league is getting money is bc of the franchise fees are be shown as profit. But those will eventually go away, especially since the league is already to big.

The only reason a bunch of these owners start teams is bc owning a MLS franchise gets you ownership into the entire US soccer media market.

They are making money off the EPL, World Cup, Euros etc….

Not MLS

Does the RDU area have a major team? That seems like a good spot but the close proximity to Charlotte hurts.

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Does the RDU area have a major team? That seems like a good spot but the close proximity to Charlotte hurt

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We have the NHL Hurricanes. AAA Bulls. Both draw well.