For example, Silver's study concluded that Edmonton's media market had nearly the same number of avid hockey fans as that of Philadelphia, despite the Philadelphia market having more than four times the population of the Edmonton market. Also, it is the 10th most followed sport in the world.Basketball's competitions organized under the National Basketball Association (NBA). Both the NBA and MLS have higher concentrations of teams in the western United States than the other major leagues. After the regular season, the highest-ranking teams enter playoff games. MLB prevented the Continental League from getting off the ground in 1961–62 by placing teams in four of that league's proposed cities by either expansion or relocation. It was founded as the Basketball Association of America in 1946, and adopted its current name in 1949, when the BAA partially absorbed the rival National Basketball League. The NFL has the largest TV contracts, and earns over $6 billion annually from its contracts with Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN and DirecTV for the 2014 through 2022 seasons. The CFL has had either eight or nine teams in operation since its inception except for the 1994 and 1995 seasons in which the league temporarily expanded into the United States. The NHL has been the dominant professional sports league in Canada, and was first established in Canada in 1917. The first west coast major-league franchise was the NFL's Los Angeles Rams, who moved from Cleveland in 1946. Basketball was invented in 1891 and its first professional league formed in the 1920s. [57][a][b] MLS has since announced plans to expand to 30 teams by 2023, and set the expansion fee for the 28th and 29th teams (ultimately Sacramento Republic FC and St. Louis City SC) at $200 million. After a brief lockout during the 2011 off-season, the owners and union signed a new CBA that imposed a hard salary cap of $120 million in the 2011 season, but temporarily suspended the salary floor, which returned in the 2013 season at 89% of the cap. [116] The NFL had promoted the game abroad through NFL Europe, but NFL Europe was unprofitable and ceased operations in 2007. All of the top four major leagues exhibit stability in most of their franchises. Although America’s Major League Soccer (MLS) takes the 18th spot on our list, its revenues are well below the major European football leagues. Because the NFL shares all of its television revenue equally, and most of its teams sell out their stadiums, some NFL owners are seen as less reluctant to share their territories. The second major trend that you should notice is that the top 5 positions are dominated by American/Canadian sports leagues. The MLS, founded in 1993, is a professional soccer league authorized by the United States Soccer Federation.