Ok, I follow you, but to assume it costs the same to support Team X in X market is the same as Team Y in Y market is asinine.
They are using what it would cost to support a team properly, not how much it costs to support that particular team. Obviously the Yankees cost more to support than the Rays.
However, their aren't enough soccer fans in Minnesota to make a difference. Having grown up and lived more than half my life in Minnesota I think it's all bull with the Vikings ownership interested in an MLS team. It's just a ploy to justify getting a new stadium built for the Vikings. With so many teams and other avenues of amuzement to choose from I just don't see the support for a MLS team. Come'on when the Strikers and Kicks where around they died a slow death without the continued fan interest. Minnesota fans like to jump on a bandwagon for a while when it's hot, then it's off to what is hot next, with one exception, hockey.
Came across this today. I'm not sure if it's showed up on Big Soccer before (or this thread for that matter. Not sure I've read all 50 pages). It's a listing of youth soccer participation rates for all states. http://iub.academia.edu/BJPheasant/...pation_and_Development_Rates_for_youth_soccer I'm not introducing this as an attempt to "bring in the kiddies," but thinking more along the lines that if youth soccer participation rates are high in an area currently, they were high ten-twenty years ago, and that might indicate a good number of adults who understand and appreciate the game today. None of this is definitive, but it's interesting information. A few things stand out to me: Minnesota at #11 is the highest area with a corresponding metro area. And with neighboring South and North Dakota showing a surprising level of participation, it makes me rethink my opinion of the Twin Cities as a borderline MLS site. A number of cities that are considered prime targets for expansion: Miami, St. Louis, Las Vegas, Nashville, Phoenix--have abysmal youth participation rates. I'm not sure this means anything for somewhere like Las Vegas, where everyone came from somewhere else, but it does make me wonder if somewhere like St. Louis is somewhat over-hyped.
Definitely interesting information. And you are right about what this says about the hype surrounding St Louis. Perhaps it is not the soccer stronghold that it once was. A lot of things may have changed over the last half century or so. For example, hockey has a lot larger presence and higher quality in St Louis now compared to the 1960s.
No, neither one of you are "right about what (you think) this says about the hype surrounding St Louis". You're looking at rates for Missouri as a whole, not St. Louis. Two very different animals.