Metropolitan Statistical Areas.
On a related note, the population figures Icarus brought up for Kansas City and Seattle were for within their city limits. The actual populations of their metropolitan areas are as follows:
Kansas City: 1,967,405
Seattle: 3,263,497
Of course, as Hostile Dialect said, the actual markets for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Seattle Seahawks are much bigger and include fans in different states that are hundreds of miles from cities where the NFL franchises are located.
As are the Giants and Jets in a joint venture.
Not sure about the new Dallas stadium, though. I know Jerry Jones never misses an opportunity to crow about how it’s a billion dollar stadium. Is he paying for it, or are the taxpayers?
Lots of taxpayer dollars in there.
Can’t fins the numbers, but it was going to be in Fair Park until Laura Miller wouldn’t cave to his demands, while Arlington was willing to pass a hotel tax to help pay for Jerry World.
Ticket sales aren’t the biggest source of revenue for NFL teams.
A ring of stupidity. It’s a preposterous name. Which city are they in?
I think he’s being facetious. Nobody actually thinks that “The The Angels Angels of Anaheim” is a good name.
They’re in Anaheim.
That said, the name is no more preposterous than the New York Giants or New York Jets, who play in New Jersey…
These not only sound absolutely moronic, but seems like a HUGE slap in the face of the actual host town. “Okay, you guys deal with the traffic and stadium cost and police overtime and all that, but don’t tell anyone we’re together!”
It’s funny, as the A’s and 49ers are looking to move, it seems most A’s fans want them to keep the Oakland name if they move to Fremont, but 49er fans would be furious if they went to Santa Clara and kept the San Francisco name (personally, I’ll just become a Raider fan).
Um, Memphis doesn’t have an NFL team. The Titans play in Nashville. When they first moved from Houston (as the Oilers) they played in Memphis while waiting for their new stadium to be built in Nashville; but attendance was so low that they moved to Nashville early and played at Vanderbuilt University for a season before the new stadium (now LP Field) was done.
We’ve had this discussion repeatedly on this board. I’m surprised you’re still baffled.
Here’s the basic outline:
In England, every locality, whether big or small is already represented by a club at some level of play that holds the loyalty of the locals.
In the United States, only the top level of play counts; clubs in the lower leagues can claim little interest or loyalty. Imagine an English football league in which the fans care only about the Premiership and couldn’t give a shit about the clubs in the lower divisions. In the United States, sports fans barely acknowledge that the lower leagues even exist. In fact, if all you have is a lower league club, then it’s a kind of a matter of shame, because you aren’t a “major league city.”
Thus, every serious sports fan wants a club in the top league and is willing to accept one by hook or by crook, even if it is through stealing a team from another locality.
So when a team moves, it can count on the automatic loyalty of the new city. As for the old city, well, they didn’t pay for a stadium with taxpayer money, so fuck 'em. Maybe they will learn their lesson and build one so they can steal a team from another place.
“Fairly nice”? When Dallas is in the same division as New York and Baltimore is in the same division as Cincinnati? Granted it’s slightly less preposterous than previously, but it’s still geographically idiotic.
I didn’t say they were.
Well, where would YOU put Dallas? The NFC South is set; I suppose in the AFC South you could replace Indy with Dallas, but then where would Indy go? To the NFC North, while Baltimore goes to the NFC East?
Hey… that might work…
Ticket and concession sales are the biggest source of profit for teams, in that TV deals pretty much cover player salaries and merchandise revenue is shared. Normal seat sales are shared at 60/40 between the home and away team, while luxury boxes are not, hence the push for more and more boxes in stadiums.
Nothing to contribute here other than that I have not, nor have I ever been, a gangbanger. 
I was actually happy when the Raiders went back to Oakland. Because of the stupid television rights issues, home games weren’t broadcast locally unless the Colisseum sold out. And if I recall correctly, the Colisseum was set up for 90,000+ seats when the Raiders were here. Which is to say, I never got to see any home games on television. And I sure as hell couldn’t afford the cost of a NFL admission ticket on a regular basis back then. Now, I get to see the Raiders on TV almost every week (excluding during the playoffs, of course). So it’s a win-win for me!
That being said, if we ever did get a franchise here in LA, I would likely support them by attending and rooting for them. But I’m not holding my breath. And I don’t care that much. Football season is essentially a mild nuisance that falls between the MLB playoffs and the start of Spring Training as far as I’m concerned.
I even had Arsenal as my example before thinking that somebody was bound to mention Woolwich Arsenal, so I changed it to Newcastle Utd.
I haven’t necessarily read every thread in SDMB history, and I don’t recall reading one on this precise subject. But anyway, your answer doesn’t explain it:
“…teams in the lower leagues can claim little interest or loyalty… fans care only about the [big league] and couldn’t give a shit about the clubs in the lower divisions… fans barely acknowledge that the lower leagues even exist”
OK, but how come? In England, fickle fans are dismissed as “glory hunters” by those who consider themselves true supporters. We do have them - when modest club Blackburn Rovers had their moment in the sun in the 90s, you would suddenly see lots of brand new lifelong fans walking around in blue and white team shirts, all over the country.
But you’re mistaken in equating this with “glory hunting.” We also have lots of fans who latch onto a team when they’re doing well. But that’s not the same thing. (And anyway, what does that matter to either the league or the team? Revenue is revenue, regardless of whether it comes from glory hunters or from genuine lifelong fans.)
But this isn’t glory hunting. When you are a sports fan and the sport you love finally puts a big league team in your town, your natural loyalty goes to your local big-league team. There will be a small number of holdouts who stick with their distant-city loyalties, but their numbers will diminish over time as any new fans will automatically direct their loyalties to the local club.
Subtract an “s” and you have the current Raiders situation.
I wouldn’t say it’s always that simple. There were like 7,000 people in Montreal on hand to see Tony Gwynn collect hit #3,000. I shed no tears for Montreal losing its team.
The new alignment is based more on preserving old rivalries and possibly creating new ones than on minimzing travel distances (and I think that’s the right strategy - sports fanship depends on rivalries, and fans rarely go to road games anyway).
Dallas is in the same division as New York, Philly, and Washington because they’ve *always * been (the expansion owners wanted a cut of the eastern teams’ TV ratings), but those are real rivalries now. Miami has always been in the same division as the Pats, Bills, and Jets - those rivalries are real. Baltimore was put in the same division as Cleveland in the hopes of creating an old-Browns vs. new-Browns rivalry, which hasn’t happened, but still preserves the Cleveland-Pittsburgh and Cleveland-Cincinnati rivalries that the league merger created, and are just as real and strong as any other. Etc.