and plus not that many people live in Alabama sorry. So a new stadium is a must, and ideally, you would want something located downtown. Potential Idea For The NBA Finals 2020: Los Angeles Lakers Vs. Miami Heat? The smallest market in MLB is the Kansas City (KC metro has a population of just over 2 million people). unwell unquestionably come more formerly again since exactly the same nearly Of the eight times an NFL, NBA, or MLB franchise has moved since 1980, only one -- the Oklahoma City Thunder -- has moved to a market that had never hosted that league before. If this town had followed the trajectory it was on 100 years ago, it would be Atlanta. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. The other problem with Legion Field is that it’s in a horrible neighborhood. So, let's assume that you would like a pro team in your city. Change ). The smallest NBA market is New Orleans (1.2 million in the metro). Today, Louisville is doing as well economically as just about any town. If a city wants to host a league it has never hosted before, then, its best bet is to bid for an expansion team. In that sense, Austin could almost certainly support any team, even an NFL team. Thanks for the reminder. So if you want to see a pro sports team in Alabama, you better hope you can vote for competent leaders to send to Montgomery and think of ways to grow the state and get it out of the “at least we’re not Mississippi” mode that we’re in now. This graph stacks up the expansion rate of sports leagues after they had "normalized," more or less, against America's rate of population growth. So why hasn't an NFL franchise attempted to open a team in Alabama? I remember the first time I ever went there, I thought I was lost. I'm guessing the latter, and whenever the NFL decides to expand next, Austin should be a major candidate. Any relocation-inclined owner would want to find the answer to that question before moving here. So you can see, if Birmingham landed a pro sports team, they’d be either the smallest market or close to the smallest, by population, automatically. Austin is also home to baseball and hockey teams at the highest level of the minor leagues of those sports. It could easily support an NBA tea, being a bigger area than existing NBA markets in Memphis, New Orleans, Salt Lake City. So let’s finish up assuming the only choice is Birmingham. Do you know why Omaha still doesn't have a pro team, and whether they might get one in the near future? Sharing a building with an existing tenant is certainly preferable to trying to finance a new one. ;). As far as I've been able to find, there hasn't really been a major effort to bring an NFL team to Austin. Get your answers by asking now. The NHL hasn't been afraid of relocating to new markets, having done so in Carolina, Dallas, and Phoenix, owners from other sports have been far more conservative in that regard. The next fastest growing is MLB. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account.