What are the most important cities in USA without a professional soccer team ( in MLS, NASL, USL NPSL and PDL ) ? Austin, Honolulu, Anchorage, Fort Worth, El Paso, Memphis, Las Vegas, Baltimore..........
"Important" is a tricky word. The largest metro areas without a pro team (which does not include the amateur leagues PDL or NPSL) are: #13: Riverside, California - that is east of LA. #14: Detroit #17: San Diego #21 Baltimore #29 Las Vegas #31 Austin #32 Cleveland #36 Nashville - getting a USL team next year #37 Virginia Beach #38 Providence, RI #39 Milwaukee #42 Memphis #46 New Orleans #47 Hartford, CT #49 Birmingham, AL #50 Buffalo, NY Fort Worth is part of the Dallas metro area. Honolulu is #54, El Paso is #68, and Anchorage is #133.
Would be very interested how they define "metro area". Not sure what definition has Riverside larger than San Diego (or Detroit for that matter).
That list is from the U.S. Census Bureau. Metro area is defined as a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Another phrase used is a contiguous area of relatively high population density. Basically a metro ends where the continuous development stops. The Census tends to use counties as the limits of these areas but not always. Riverside-San Bernadino-Ontario CA MSA - 4.5 million people It includes Riverside and San Bernadino counties. That's a huge area. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI MSA - 4.3 million people It includes part or all of Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties. San Diego-Carlsbad, CA MSA - 3.3 million people It is San Diego county. The Nielsen TV market list, which also has some issues in how things are divided up, would look like this: #13 Detroit #19 Cleveland-Akron #26 Baltimore #28 San Diego #29 Nashville* #30 Hartford #35 Milwaukee #37 Greenvll-Spart-Ashevll-And, SC #38 West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce (which they separate from Miami) #39 Austin #40 Las Vegas #42 Norfolk-Portsmth-Newpt Nws, VA #44 Grand Rapids-Kalmzoo-B.Crk, MI #45 Birmingham (Ann and Tusc), AL #46 Greensboro-H.Point-W.Salem, NC #48 Albuquerque-Santa Fe #50 New Orleans Honolulu is #65, El Paso is #92, and Anchorage is #147.
Or, if you look at GDP instead of population -- which may be an indicator of the city's disposable income available for pro sports -- you get the following top-50 MSAs: #13 Detroit #17 San Diego #19 Baltimore #24 Riverside (part of greater LA area) #27 Cleveland #32 Austin #34 Nashville (will have USL team in 2018) #36 Milwaukee #37 Bridgeport (part of greater NYC area) #38 Las Vegas #39 Virginia Beach #40 Hartford #41 New Orleans #42 Providence (but NE Revolution is almost halfway from Boston to Providence) #47 Memphis #50 Birmingham Honolulu is #51, El Paso is #88, Anchorage is #90 by that metric. Again nowhere near "important"...
Or, looking at the Global Cities Index, which measures both global and regional economic importance of cities: Beta-: San Diego Gamma+: Cleveland, Detroit Gamma: Austin Gamma-: Baltimore High sufficiency: Hartford, Milwaukee Sufficiency: Birmingham, Des Moines, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Madison, Memphis, New Orleans, Omaha, Palo Alto (part of Bay Area), Providence (near NE Revolution) El Paso and Anchorage are not listed at all. Admittedly this list differs substantially from others, because it's weighted heavily toward regional financial centers and transportation hubs even if they have relatively small populations (hence Des Moines making it onto the list). It might still be relevant if we're talking about the overall geographic footprint.
Anybody who groups Fort Pierce with Miami is wrong. Radio markets sometimes separate parts of a TV market. For radio markets there's Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, and Fort Pierce-Stuart-Vero Beach. I understand grouping West Palm Beach with Miami, but Fort Pierce is closer to Orlando than to Miami. Nobody would call Hartford part of the New York City market, and Rentschler Field in East Hartford is closer to Madison Square Garden in Manhattan than Fort Pierce is to Miami.
In terms of importance that would be New Orleans. There are very few cities in the world more strategically located for trade. They didn't turn that swamp into a city for the hell of it.
New Orleans is NFL country. Good luck ever having a successful MLS team there. The Saints run in that city's blood.
Here's a map which appears to be missing OKC. I'll throw a few out there. El Paso, Western Texas (rumored future bid for USL expansion by owners of FC Juarez) Omaha, gateway to the north (USL ownership group formed) Las Vegas (USL expansion team 2018) Fresno, Central Valley (average NPSL attendance 2016 - 3,441)
Maybe in NASL : http://midfieldpress.com/2017/07/21/nasl-nisa-usl-expansion-news-rumors-tracker-july-2017-edition/
Without market research it's impossible to say but I would speculate that both san bernadino/Ontario and Riverside could each support a USL club. The demographics favor it anyway.
Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metro Area NY (The Capital District) Pop: 1,170,483 59th biggest media market and very little competition. Top 5 things to do in The Capital District 1. Zero Gravity Laser Tag 2. Adirondack Winery 3. Nine Pin Ciderworks 4. Rare Form Brewing Company 5. Go somewhere else
I wouldn't recommend Albany-Schenectady-Troy for MLS, but I could see NASL or USL having a club there. It's a bigger Nielsen radio market than two cities with USL clubs, Charleston and Reno. It would be the nearest club for fans in two other Top 100 markets, Syracuse and Springfield, and could also attract fans from Poughkeepsie and Newburgh which are in between New York City and Albany.
Albany had a USL team for about 4 years then they played in the PDL for 1 before folding. Albanys wiki page actually says the city has poor support for their sports teams.
Does the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Hampton roads area have a soccer team at any level? If I remember correctly it is the largest metropolitan area that doesn't have a team in any of the top 4 US sports leagues.
Used to have a USL team, the Virginia Beach Mariners, which self-relegated to the PDL, played there for some years as the Hampton Roads Piranhas and then the Virginia Beach Piranhas, and finally folded in 2014.
We have a D4 team in NPSL called Virginia Beach City FC. They have been around for about 4 years and have done fairly well for themselves. I heard someone say that they have talked to USL about moving to the new USL3 but I can't find anything to back up that claim. We are the second largest metro w/o a team behind Austin but they have a bigtime college and we don't. Sports team like to use the area as a bargaining tool against other cities; Hornets and Expos and we lost out on two separate NHL team Preds and Canes. But I'm not bitter or anything.
Combined Statistical Area (CSA) is a good definition as opposed to metro statistical area (MSA). It is broader. San Bernadino is included with LA. San Jose with San Francisco. Baltimore with DC. Providence with Boston. It is not perfect. International borders cut it off. Tijuana is not combined with SD. Nor Windsor with Detroit. It appears to be a US census term, and Canadian & Mexican census has no analog. Victoria not included with Vancouver, for instance. Also, some US cities do not have a larger CSA to be included in, and remain MSAs (Phoenix). Lastly, you have to draw the line somewhere, and some areas some would think that should be one area are not (Cleveland & Youngstown). If one goes by CSA instead of MSA, all of MLS' teams are in the top 32. The largest CSA without a club, future expansion scheduled, or an MLS bid, is Cleveland.