That honor is probably going to go to VA Beach/Norfolk. ~~2M metro population with no major pro sports.
That's one of the cities that COULD BE the "Largest City Without a Major League Sports Team" in America. I have a spreadsheet that includes the following: (And don't ask me why I have such a spreadsheet...) By CITY: Fort Worth (15), El Paso (22) By MSA: Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario (13), Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Newport News (37) By CSA: Virginia Beach/Norfolk (32), Greensboro/Winston Salem/High Point (33) By TV MARKET: Hartford/New Haven (33), West Palm Beach/Fort Pierce (37) I'm note sure of the dates the lists I culled these answers from were made. There are obvious flaws in using each of these to compare cities, but the TV Market list gives a list, in my opinion, that is most like what people think of when they think of "Cities." Peace. T
It depends on how you define a "city". And whether you want to say that they "have a team." City Limit population (by U.S. Census 2017 estimates: 15. Fort Worth 874,168 people 22. El Paso 683,577 29. Louisville 621,349 32. Albuquerque 558,545 33. Tucson 535,677 34. Fresno 527,438 MSA population (by U.S. Census 2017 estimates) 13. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 4,580,670 people 37. Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC 1,725,246 38. Providence-Warwick, RI-MA 1,621,122 44. Richmond, VA 1,294,204 45. Louisville, Jefferson County, KY-IN 1,293,953 47. Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT 1,210,259 49. Birmingham-Hoover, AL 1,149,807 51. Rochester, NY 1,077,948 52. Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI 1,059,113 BTW, Austin is #11 on the City Limit list and #31 on the MSA list.
@newtex Looks like I beat you to that by about 2 minutes... Great minds, or something like that... Peace. T
It depends on how you define city. I think the Virginia Tidewater is the largest metro area, but it splits its population between Norfolk and Virginia Beach (among others.) EDIT: OK, this got covered at the page turn. It's #2 if that Inland Empire is really, truly separate from LA and/or Orange County.
I always thought Chivas USA (if they changed their name) would have done much better if they moved to the Inland Empire. Well, much better than "dead" isn't saying a lot, but...
Gonna be honest here.. I don't think Chivas had a chance. That's regardless of where they were located and what their name was.. They just had a bad ownership group and while an excellent location and brand can overcome a lot of things, I'm not sure it can overcome a bad ownership group.
Wasn't the question "Largest City in the US without a major professional team"? Just sticking to soccer, that rules out all of the bolded above (assuming Rochester comes back)... Is there a USL Championship or USL 1 team in Riverside / San Bernardino?
"Major" usually means "major league", the top league in a particular sport, and specifically MLB, NHL, NFL, NBA, and now MLS. That's the criteria being used especially since this started with a question about Austin. Metro Austin already has minor league professional teams in soccer, baseball, basketball and hockey.
Austin Elite of Major League Rugby as well, but technically play in round rock at the dell diamond, and the league is just getting off the ground.
I thought about adding them but I don't know if MLR is considered a "major" league yet. I'd have the same qualms about Major League Lacrosse teams or even WNBA teams, for instance.
It depends on how one defines "city." City limits or metro area. Oh, and pet peeve here, largest is usually referencing size. So the largest city would be the one that covers the most area, not the most populous, which is what we are after here. End of peeve. Off the yop of my head, I would say Austin was never #1 and it was San Bernadino or something LA way. Well, half right, by city = Fort Worth, Texas. If you count that as part of Dallas (which you shouldn't if coubting by city), then it us El Paso. And by city, Austin was ibdeed the most populous without a major league team. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population BTW, the LARGEST city I could find was Anchorage, at over 1,700 square miles. Jacksonville next at around 750. By metro = Riverside/San Bernadino CA at 4.5 mill. If you count as part of LA (which it is not by MSA), then Virginia Beach at 1.7 mil. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_statistical_areas EDIT: Feel free to delete, should have scrolled to end before posting. Post adds nada other than Anchorage is HUGE.
Virginia Beach stands out for being nowhere near any major league teams. Riverside/San Bernardino is properly classified as a separate MSA, but you can get to Anaheim in about an hour on most days. The closest team to Virginia Beach is the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh. For anything else, it's DC. Both of those are 3+ hour drives.
Yeah. I never understood the logic of that position, either. It sounds a lot like a baseball discussion: He’s got the most RBIs of anyone NOT in the Hall of Fame. Well, good for him. When did that become a criterion?