I saw some rankings that actually paired each metro's disposable income level with the demand for new sporting opportunities. Basically it came out to be the metros with the highest amount of disposable income that people were dying to spend on sports. I know, it's kind of a wordy statistic. Well the lowest cities on this list were New York, Buffalo, and Tampa.
The highest cities on this list were cities like Charlotte, Los Angeles, Washington, and San Antonio. OKC was also among the top 30 tied with Louisville, KY (and this was done last year so it was including the Hornets).
Certain franchises require certain levels of committment. The MLB is the largest committment to pro sports that a city can make. 100 games a season, and you need to draw at least 25,000 each game and towards the beginning and end of the season 45,000 is more fitting. The NBA, with about 50 games needing at least 18,000/game is a relatively mid-size committment. The NFL is not that big a committment, and any large metro with a major college stadium and demand could easily support an NFL team. The problem with MLS and NHL is that it's sort of hard sometimes to get people to really care about their home team...
Anyway my point is that OKC could easily support more teams, but I am by no way advocating that OKC could support a full slate of sporting franchises. The problem so many have is perception of OKC as having nothing to being expected something of. People don't realize that there's a middle road you have to cross first. Oklahoma City has been at the top of all of the minor league lists for so many of the last years, our minor league hockey team draws crowds of 15,000/game, as do most RedHawk (Ranger's AAA partner) games. You're not simply adding games, your upgrading games. Attendance is not the key issue in OKC, because there's no question that Okies will turn out for a pro game in a bigger fashion than they do minor games, which wasn't too shabby itself.
This is the same for San Antonio, and was the same for Charlotte in the 90s. But that's not to suggest that every expansion market is prime. Look at Portland, fixing to loose its only pro team, KC failing to provide for the Royals, and Tampa, and Buffalo, and so many other cities that just don't put bacon on the table.
The oddest thing is that the cities that are the best supporters of pro sports are declining Midwestern cities. The best supported franchise of the entire nation in any league has got to be the Reds. I don't care what people say about the Spurs, there is no doubt that Cincy puts out time after time for the Reds than any other city supports their teams.
The highest cities on this list were cities like Charlotte, Los Angeles, Washington, and San Antonio. OKC was also among the top 30 tied with Louisville, KY (and this was done last year so it was including the Hornets).
Certain franchises require certain levels of committment. The MLB is the largest committment to pro sports that a city can make. 100 games a season, and you need to draw at least 25,000 each game and towards the beginning and end of the season 45,000 is more fitting. The NBA, with about 50 games needing at least 18,000/game is a relatively mid-size committment. The NFL is not that big a committment, and any large metro with a major college stadium and demand could easily support an NFL team. The problem with MLS and NHL is that it's sort of hard sometimes to get people to really care about their home team...
Anyway my point is that OKC could easily support more teams, but I am by no way advocating that OKC could support a full slate of sporting franchises. The problem so many have is perception of OKC as having nothing to being expected something of. People don't realize that there's a middle road you have to cross first. Oklahoma City has been at the top of all of the minor league lists for so many of the last years, our minor league hockey team draws crowds of 15,000/game, as do most RedHawk (Ranger's AAA partner) games. You're not simply adding games, your upgrading games. Attendance is not the key issue in OKC, because there's no question that Okies will turn out for a pro game in a bigger fashion than they do minor games, which wasn't too shabby itself.
This is the same for San Antonio, and was the same for Charlotte in the 90s. But that's not to suggest that every expansion market is prime. Look at Portland, fixing to loose its only pro team, KC failing to provide for the Royals, and Tampa, and Buffalo, and so many other cities that just don't put bacon on the table.
The oddest thing is that the cities that are the best supporters of pro sports are declining Midwestern cities. The best supported franchise of the entire nation in any league has got to be the Reds. I don't care what people say about the Spurs, there is no doubt that Cincy puts out time after time for the Reds than any other city supports their teams.