Reading the USFL thread, I wondered which 4 former USFL and WFL markets the NFL could expand into, bringing the league to 36 teams, and 6 divsions.
Putting 2 teams in Los Angeles is the obvious answer. Chicago could support, and has been pushing for, a second team as well. Salt Lake City, Portland and Albuquerque would get consideration just for some more western balance. Don’t forget Canadian expansion as well. The CFL would fight it and the NFL has a history of respecting the sanctity of the CFL, but Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver could all easily support teams.
That said, Jacksonville, Carolina and a few other eastern teams are struggling a bit to draw and will be relocated before there’s further expansion.
Only LA and Portland seem like realistic markets.
Memphis? splits the regional market with the Titans, Colts, Rams & Chiefs, same with Birmingham, except maybe swap the Colts or Rams for Chiefs and Jags.
Similar cases can be made for Tulsa (Dallas, KC, Tenn); Orlando (Jags, Fins)
Honolulu is just too damn far for scheduling purposes.
San Antonio gains what? The Cowboys have all the blowhards and the Texans have the coasties not beholden to the Saints, so there’s all your Texans gone already. Better to put a team in Santa Fe or some such.
I don’t think LA is in the expansion discussion, just because it’s used as leverage by every owner who’s trying to get a new stadium bond issue passed. Add in the fact that two teams have left LA in the past (3 if you want to count the Chargers, who played one season there), and I doubt LA is a candidate for expansion. I do think the next team that’s moved (Jacksonville is my guess) goes there.
Oklahoma and Alabama are college football territory, and I think an NFL team in either state would play second fiddle to the Big12 or the SEC, respectively. The NFL isn’t interested in that, so I think they’re out. Memphis too, but to a lesser extent. If the league wants to try to break into that market, I think Oklahoma City is the place to do it.
If you draw a triangle between Miama, Tampa, and Jacksonville, Orlando sits right in the middle of it. That part of Florida’s already at market saturation, and the teams that are there are having trouble selling out. No go there.
picker is right that Honolulu is just too far.
San Antonio and Portland could probably both support teams, and it would be good for the league to have a few more teams out west. Travel would be a pain, but I’d be happy as a fan with a few more options for the 4:00 game. A second team in Chicago could probably work (what do the McCaskeys think about that?), and I think a team would do well (over Dan Snyder’s foot-stamping hissyfit) in Richmond, Virginia as well.
I just don’t see the NFL expanding anytime in the near future. Put a team, maybe two in LA? Sure, but almost certainly through relocation ranther than expansion. There are a couple of smaller markets which I think are questionable in the long term for their ability to support a team. (Sorry Jacksonville and Buffalo.) I think the league likes the current 32-team set up, and there is no real reason to divide the pie up any further.
Engi-I agree completely with your post. I thought Tulsa and Birmingham would be too small, I forgot the college factor. I think LA and San Antonio are best bets, along with Portland.
LA and San Antonio. I can’t see the others being viable. Salt Lake City and Las Vegas would be options, and maybe Oklahoma City. Anyway, this means Jacksonville keeps a team, which isn’t a good long term prospect, or LA gets an expansion team and the Jaguars.
I bet Buffalo and Cleveland would like a team, too, but they’re probably not viable, either.
Vegas won’t get a team as long as sports gambling is legal there, and gambling brings in a lot more money for a lot more people than an NFL team would.
I don’t see the NFL going past 32 teams anyway. It works well for scheduling, it doesn’t over-saturate the market, doesn’t risk letting in an additional 212 players that aren’t good enough, etc. One day, a team may move to LA, and then all these other cities are still there as options for relocation when a team needs to steal from the local tax base.
That was mean, not unfunny, just mean. 
36 works better for an 18 game schedule. 10 division games, 1 other in conference division (6 games), 2 interconference games. (2 games)
San Antonio could support a team easily. Most fans there root for the Cowboys. I wonder how much say owners have in making decisions for expansion teams. Jerry Jones would fight tooth and nail to keep a new team out of both San Antonio and Tulsa, as both those markets lean heavily toward the Cowboys.
A San Antonio team with Hispanic owners and a mascot appealing to the city’s Hispanic heritage would be a big hit. Most Mexican immigrants are Cowboys fans anyway since Cowboys games were one of the few teams broadcast and replayed on Mexican TV markets. Jones would hate to lose them.
ThisNFL fan census map might help see where the gaps in fan coverage are, compared to a population density map.
Carolina is 6th in the league in attendance. They are struggling in many areas, but attendance isn’t one of them.
Interesting map. I wasn’t aware the NFL had moved Chicago to Iowa and New York City to Pennsylvania.
Yeah, the colored fan areas look correct but it looks like all the cities were shifted left about 300 miles. Didn’t notice at first.
Oakland’s right in the middle of the Sierras!
I don’t think Montreal could support an NFL team that easily. Any stadium would have to be built outside the city (or what, the Big Owe?) and that’s already a bit of a nonstarter. Football support and fandom just isn’t that big here; the Alouettes, a top team in the CFL, can’t even sell out a 25000 seat stadium. It’s all-Habs all the time here, and any other sport is a distant second. We don’t grow up playing football - we dream that our kids will raise Stanley, but no one much thinks about the Lombardi trophy or the Grey Cup.
The only real option in Canada is, IMHO, Toronto, and even they can’t get much support for the Bills (I know…it’s the Bills) a couple of times a year. I’m not sure many games a season would work out.
Besides, I don’t want the NFL in Canada. I’m one of those who thinks the CFL is a better game and I want to see the CFL grow instead of importing the American version.
From all that’s been written about the idea of an 18-game schedule in the past year and a half, I think it’s pretty safe to say that it’s not going to happen any time soon. The NFLPA would fight tooth-and-nail against it, and while there’s a fair amount of fan annoyance with four preseason games (and season ticket holders who are forced to also buy full-price tickets for preseason games), I’ve never seen any evidence that there’s a huge groundswell of fan interest in an 18-game schedule.