Los Angeles and other major cities around the world lacking in sports teams

[RickJay]

@Maggie_the_Ocelot

You might be thinking of the Angels, which once were the California Angels and eventually became “The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim” or some similar nonsense. However, they’re still playing in the same stadium they were when they were the California Angels - they didn’t move, just shifted alliances.

The Angels actually started out as the Los Angeles Angels, then became the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, and now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, an appellation they gave themselves because they wanted millions of dollars of taxpayer money from Anaheim to renovate their stadium and promised to put “Anaheim” in their name, but later decided “Los Angeles” was better marketing.

[russian_heel]

@bump

That’s a technicality; they have UT-Austin, which for all intents and purposes, is a set of pro teams, and depending on the year and the sport, may have actually been paid players.

Plus, they’re 150 miles from Houston, and more or less fall within the Houston pro sports orbit, with the possible exception of the San Antonio Spurs. I’m not sure if Austinites follow the Rockets or the Spurs.

I’d say that San Antonio has to qualify as the biggest city without a large pro sports presence- they only have the one NBA team, which is the only major pro sports franchise for something like 250 miles in any direction (more, if you go north, south or west).

Austin is an hour and change north of San Antonio, and 3 hours from Houston, Id say more Spurs country.

Both San Antonio and Austin are major sports refugees. The problem with the NFL is this part of Texas is Cowboys domain; and you have the University of Texas in Austin.

Baseball, maybe, certainly I don’t see hockey being a big part of sports here especially if its not even in much bigger Houston. MLS, maybe, but what are you going to have soccer games in the middle of the summer when its 100+ degrees in the middle of the sachel?

If I live in San Antonio, BTW, with 5 NBA titles, Im not griping . . . .

[ISiddiqui]

Well, MLS is already in Houston. And San Antonio is trying it’s damnest to get an MLS expansion team (though they are firmly behind Sacramento for the next batch of expansion).

Anyways, some of these places do indeed have sports teams not that far away. Generally speaking, leagues are not all that interested in putting franchises less than 200 miles away from each other unless its in a really densely populated area (Mid-Atlantic, Chicago, LA).

FWIW, San Antonio is 200 miles from Houston (not 250+ miles).

[OneCentStamp]

@russian_heel

The problem with the NFL is this part of Texas is Cowboys domain

I lived in Houston from 2005-2010. Even in Houston, I’m pretty sure Cowboys merchandise outsells Texans merch by a pretty good margin. That probably dissuades team owners from thinking about relocating a third team to the state, or the league from dropping an expansion team there.

[kurtisokc]

Considering that it is the capital of the country and has a population of about 2 1/2 million one might expect that Brasilia should be represented in that country’s top soccer league. But according to the Wikipedia article the city currently is not represented in Serie A (the top level of Brazilian professional soccer), and apparently it has never had a club which has experienced sustained success at that level.