# Opinion - There's NOT ENOUGH teams in professional American sports **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 5, 2022, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512 "2022-03-05T08:35:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512/61 "2022-03-09T05:27:23Z")
> [@Hawkeyeop](#): > > Every team can compete in baseball and in fact almost all teams have been in the playoffs in the last decade. 21 years. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512/62 "2022-03-09T06:29:03Z")
I just found out that while the major league baseball season lasts 26 weeks, an NFL season last 35 weeks. Using algebra, I can tell that that gives them time to play 218 games. I can’t be bothered to wait a whole week between opportunities to root for my favorite team. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512/63 "2022-03-09T06:52:27Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Particularly in the lower levels of the minors, it’s very common for the farm teams to recruit “host families” to help provide their underpaid players with living arrangements and meals. I’m in a market that hosts a baseball team that doesn’t even rise to the level of single-A baseball. (Lethbridge Bulls, of the Western Canadian Baseball League.) The team is made up of US college players, who are just looking to play through the summer. Local host families take the players in, so they have a place to stay while they are in Lethbridge, before going back to school in the US, in the fall. Bulls’ baseball is surprisingly good. I’ve been to a number of their games, and they are just as exciting as anything I’ve seen in an MLB stadium. It is certainly popular locally. These guys may never make the majors, or even the minors, but they sure are entertaining us Lethbridge sports fans. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512/64 "2022-03-09T07:35:41Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I just found out that while the major league baseball season lasts 26 weeks, an NFL season last 35 weeks. I don’t know where you got that from. The first game of the season will be September 8, the last game of the season will be January 8. That is only 17 1/2 weeks. If you want to extend it to the postseason (which most teams won’t be playing in), that only adds a handful of weeks to a total of 22. The football season is shorter than a baseball season, if a baseball season is 28 weeks long. (From what I’ve read, baseball lasts 26 1/2 weeks, not 28, so still quite a bit longer than football.) > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I can’t be bothered to wait a whole week between opportunities to root for my favorite team. Football is a brutal sport. Players can barely play every week. When you have a short week, and say you have to play on Sunday and then play again the following Thursday, it can get dicey. One of the things that bothers me about baseball is that there are so many games, each game on its own is fairly inconsequential. Often in football your ranking in your division or conference is dependent on the outcome of a single game. A couple of series in baseball is roughly the equivalent of a single game in football. So just think of how long of a wait you have from the beginning of two series in baseball to the next pair of series if you want to compare the two products. Also, you can’t really watch all of the games (or at least there is no way I could); many take place in the middle of a work day, for example. In football, every single game matters and each is aired at a time when most fans with jobs will probably be able to see them. This is kind of like comparing bananas to bunches of bananas, in a sense. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512/65 "2022-03-09T08:51:48Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > > > I just found out that while the major league baseball season lasts 26 weeks, an NFL season last 35 weeks. > > I don’t know where you got that from. The first game of the season will be September 8, the last game of the season will be January 8. That is only 17 1/2 weeks. D’oh! I asked Siri how many weeks from September 8 to January 8, and she told me how many weeks from January 8 to September 8! That’ll teach me. Okay, 106 games. > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I can’t be bothered to wait a whole week between opportunities to root for my favorite team. > [@](#): > > Football is a brutal sport. It doesn’t HAVE to be. They COULD be a bit more careful and considerate. > [@](#): > > Also, you can’t really watch all of the games (or at least there is no way I could) WHY would I even WANT to watch a game that my favorite team isn’t even playing in? Do people DO that? > [@](#): > > This is kind of like comparing bananas to bunches of bananas, in a sense. You’re right about the bananas part, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512/66 "2022-03-09T09:05:13Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > WHY would I even WANT to watch a game that my favorite team isn’t even playing in? Do people DO that? What I meant was, I couldn’t watch every game for _my_ team in the MLB (at least not live). There are too many in the year, and not all are at a convenient time. A couple of hours a week for games after work or on the weekend is just right. It devalues games for me to be oversaturated with them. It’s like eating cake 5 times a week. You can’t watch every single game for every team in football either; often multiple games are playing at the same time (at least on Sundays) and the best you could do if you want to keep track of them via highlights that just show certain special plays. (NFL RedZone is a subscription service that’ll do that for you.) As a football fan, generally you watch your team’s games, and then a handful of others that interest you (either because they are on prime time, or it’s a rival of your team, or maybe you have players from your fantasy football team in the game). ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512/67 "2022-03-09T11:56:57Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > WHY would I even WANT to watch a game that my favorite team isn’t even playing in? Do people DO that? Absolutely - all the time. I find it amazing when people don’t. The league is full of amazing players who play a game I love to watch. Why wouldn’t I want to watch Tatis Jr. face Walker Buehler? A friend and I drove to Cincinnati because the Angels were playing, just to be able to watch Mike Trout play in person (it was his birthday, which was nice - and he apparently does nothing but hit HRs on his birthday). Have you never tuned in to watch Juan Soto hit?! It’s a thing of beauty. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512/68 "2022-03-09T14:06:22Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > There’s a pretty decent list of sports cities that quit on a shitty organization until it left or folded only to come back and support a new team well a few years > (or decades) later. Heck, the Nationals seem to be doing well, even though Washington DC had 2 teams leave. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512/69 "2022-03-09T14:09:57Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > WHY would I even WANT to watch a game that my favorite team isn’t even playing in? Do people DO that? This seems like a very baseball fan sort of answer 😃 . And evidence of how the game has become more localized. When it comes to the NFL and NBA there is ample evidence people watch games that their favorite team isn’t playing in, and not just the playoffs. There are great teams and players that people want to watch, even though they aren’t on their teams. ---
**Author:** ![ThatCanadianGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@ThatCanadianGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThatCanadianGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512/70 "2022-03-10T01:59:02Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I would think the Blue Jays would see a lot of opportunity in Canadian rivals. They would want a new Canadian team in the American League. I don’t think so. The Blue Jays were OK with contracting the Expos. When they came into existence, they wanted all of Canada to themselves, except Quebec. It’s one reason the Expos declined over time. A big market for them was the Ottawa area but now the Expos could not broadcast television there since Ottawa is in Ontario. For SD friends who don’t know, Ottawa is a short two-hour drive from Montreal while Toronto is 4.5 hours. The Expos until the Blue Jays came along had all of Canada to themselves. They were actually a fairly rich team because of it. They offered Reggie Jackson more money than the Yankees as they could afford him easily. The Jays just slowly cut into that and broadcast area had a huge effect. It’s a major reason I fear a new team in Montreal would fail. So why would the Jays want a Canadian rival, even one at the other end of the country cutting into their revenues? I believe they would fight establishing a Vancouver team. ---
**Author:** ![ThatCanadianGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@ThatCanadianGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThatCanadianGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512/71 "2022-03-10T02:11:44Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > Do you have a cite for this? I’m just curious. It seems like a pretty good summer job for a 20-year-old. A good summer job? Players are trying to reach the majors and sacrificing a few years of living dirt poor to get there. I don’t think most see it as a summer job nor even a job. Just a step to reach a goal where the rewards will be worth it, at least for a few years for most of them. The good thing is MLB is rectifying things as you researched but these guys still don’t make that much. That $700 per week salary is just for five months of the year, IF they are in AAA and remain there all season. ---
**Author:** ![ThatCanadianGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@ThatCanadianGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThatCanadianGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512/72 "2022-03-10T02:32:32Z")
You are mis-remembering and greatly exaggerating so I’m calling you out on this. Montreal had good crowds in years they had a winning team. Maybe not the averages you’d like to see today but back in the day, they had years they had more attendance than some so-called big market teams. Reference: [Montreal Expos attendance per year - ExposNation](http://exposnation.com/en/montreal-expos-attendance-per-year/) 1980s: 4 years above NL average. 1990s: none but a few were close. I think 1991 was the year a beam fell off the stadium and the Expos had to play the whole of September on the road. The 1994 strike year was their last averaging over 20,000 per game and it was better than 1993. It likely would have gone up another thousand as they had the best record. They had a few good years after the strike considering they got rid of all their good players. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opinion-theres-not-enough-teams-in-professional-american-sports/960512.md?page=3)