Going back to the original list, Minnesota has the Vikings, T-Wolves, Wild, and Twins.
And Denver
I was going to say Milwaukee but then I realized that the Packers (Football) are Green Bay :smack:, would you accept… Bucks (Basketball), Admirals (Hockey), Brewers (Baseball) and Waves (Soccer)?
If you’re willing to count Baltimore/Washington, that area too, I believe.
What happened to Atlanta’s MLS team? What was it… the Atlanta Ruckus or something? That would have made 5 sports. Ah, I haven’t lived in my hometown for a couple of years now - and didn’t pay one bit of attention to MLS when I was there - so the team coulda folded years ago.
Assuming we’re going with metropolitan areas - I mean, Foxboro or Tempe by themselves are not the reasons those teams are there - let’s see what we have so far:
New York
Chicago
Detroit
Houston
Dallas
Denver
Boston
Philadelphia
Minneapolis
San Francisco - Oakland
Atlanta
Phoenix
Miami
Baltimore - Washington
Toronto, if you want to give them credit for the CFL team
I think that’s it. Cities that fall just one team short:
Los Angeles - No football team
Seattle - No hockey team
St. Louis - No basketball team
Tampa-St Petersburg - No basketball team
Toronto - No football team if you don’t give them CFL credit
Cleveland - No hockey team
Milwaukee - No hockey team
Dahlnor, the Panthers do not play in Miami. They play in Sunrise, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale. I guess it’s close enough to Miami to count, so I’d count it, but it’s one of the most suburban teams in pro sports.
RickJay, strike Houston from that list. No NHL Hockey team.
I’m also not sure I’d count the San Jose Sharks as a San Francisco-Oakland team. Maybe some Bay Area natives would like to weigh in on whether they consider San Jose to be part of their “metroplex” or a distinct entity.
Also, Pittsburgh, lacking only NBA basketball, belongs on your “near-miss” list.
No football either, Wisconsin’s football is in Green Bay, but you really couldn’t tell that driving through the yellow and green state.
Yes, San Jose is generally considered part of the Bay Area. In fact, it probably should be considered on equal footing with SF / Oakland. The population of the actual city of San Jose is now greater than that of the city of San Francisco, and far greater than the city of Oakland. Drive up the 101 corridor between San Jose and San Francisco, and you will have no trouble seeing it as one unbroken metropolitan area (if I was actually going between them, I’d use 280, but 101 illustrates the point better).
That said, this area only just barely has an NBA basketball team, not that I care that much. The less said about the Golden State Warriors the better.
If you count Ft. Lauderdale as part of Metro Miami, I think you have to give Tampa Bay the Orlando Magic.
Milwaukee has the Admirals.
That’s AHL. I think the OP meant to limit it to MLB / NBA / NFL / NHL franchises. If we start allowing minor leagues, LOTS of cities will qualify.
Yeah, but they play like about 1 1/2 teams.
yabob:
That’s the reason I was unsure…because San Jose is so big and populous, I wasn’t sure if Bay Area natives considered it “just another part” of the Bay Area or if its regional identity (Silicon Valley?) was distinct.
They may not play great basketball, but they provide great entertainment at an incredible price. My family took in a Warriors game in January 2003 as part of our trip to Northern California, and my kids had a fantastic time. In addition, we got our four seats plus cokes and a bag of potato chips for only $60.00. (And a hot dog could have come with that too, but we declined it since it wasn’t Kosher.)
Don’t dis the Warriors! Most sports teams forget that they’re part of the entertainment industry.
Sometimes South Bay (San Jose / Silicon Valley) does like to assert its own identity, but when people say “Bay Area” they generally mean an extraordinarily large umbrella, and seemingly getting bigger all the time - the “textbook” definition is the nine counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma.
Sunrise, where the Panthers play, is about 25 miles from Miami. Orlando is a good 75, 80 miles from St. Petersburg. I don’t think those are comparable.
What’s this metro area stuff? 
Is there any city other than Denver that actually has all four teams playing within the actual city limits?
In Philadelphia, all four teams actually play in Philadelphia…and all within a three block radius.
That’s a pretty sizable nitpick. Tempe is to Phoenix like…I don’t know, Wrigleyville is to Chicago.
I’d say Phoenix qualifies.
wolfman:
In addition to Denver and Philadelphia, I believe all of Atlanta’s, Chicago’s, Minneapolis’s and Detroit’s teams play within their respective city’s limits.