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First SC metro to get a major league professional sports team

krazeeboi

By krazeeboi
in South Carolina

Which SC metropolitan area will be first to land a major league pro sports team?  

58 members have voted

  1. 1. Make your selection

    • Columbia
      19
    • Charleston-North Charleston
      15
    • Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson
      15
    • Myrtle Beach
      5
    • Other
      4

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  • 4 months later...
krazeeboi Gigalopolis

krazeeboi

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Hey guys, I just came across this article about markets which could sustain major league sports. Here are the data for our major metros (as defined in 2003), with the capacity of that metro to sustain a major legue team in that sport:

Charleston

NFL: 51%

MLB: 33%

NBA: 44%

NHL: 48%

MLS: 100%

Columbia:

NFL: 78%

MLB: 29%

NBA: 67%

NHL: 73%

MLS: 100%

Greenville (including Spartanburg and Anderson):

NFL: 100%

MLB: 38%

NBA: 88%

NHL: 95%

MLS: 100%

Myrtle Beach:

NFL: 70%

MLB: 26%

NBA: 60%

NHL: 65%

MLS: 100%

The methodology can be found here.

I was actually surprised to see Myrtle Beach's capacity for sustaining an NFL, NBA, and NHL team to be higher than that of Charleston. And obviously, MLS is a pretty novel market in this country.

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Spartan Gigalopolis

Spartan

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Interesting stuff. I think that one has to realize that MLS gets zero attention in the States, so adding a new team may not be that exciting :)

I think it would be great to see an NFL team in the Upstate :) I wonder if anyone of any importance will review this study and make some decisions based on it...

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goodbye Metropolitan Area

goodbye

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Very cool stuff, krazeeboi! I would LOVE to see Greenville become home to an MLS team. I have always been a huge fan of the game of soccer (the REAL football) and proudly support our local universities' teams, which consistently rank among the very top teams in the nation. :yahoo:

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breed Hamlet

breed

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I think it would be great to see an NFL team in the Upstate :) I wonder if anyone of any importance will review this study and make some decisions based on it...

Being an NFL fan, I often watch HBO's Inside the NFL. This season, there was alot of talk about relocating the New Orleans Saints. There was talk about how the owner wanted to move the team to San Antonio. I was taken aback this past season when Peter King said that New Orleans should re-locate to Greenville-Spartanburg rather than San Antonio based upon television market size, as Greenville's is #35 and San Antonio is #37.

Television market rankings

I'm pretty sure that he only brought up Greenville in a tongue-in-cheek manner, but I was still floored when I heard it.

However, the NFL is probably the easiest sport for a smaller market to support, considering it is cheaper to run, revenues are shared, and salaries are capped.

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Spartan Gigalopolis

Spartan

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Being an NFL fan, I often watch HBO's Inside the NFL. This season, there was alot of talk about relocating the New Orleans Saints. There was talk about how the owner wanted to move the team to San Antonio. I was taken aback this past season when Peter King said that New Orleans should re-locate to Greenville-Spartanburg rather than San Antonio based upon television market size, as Greenville's is #35 and San Antonio is #37.

I'm pretty sure that he only brought up Greenville in a tongue-in-cheek manner, but I was still floored when I heard it.

Of course, San Antonio is one city. Our DMA includes the Upstate Cities and Western NC (Asheville) and some NE Georgia counties.

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krazeeboi Gigalopolis

krazeeboi

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Being an NFL fan, I often watch HBO's Inside the NFL. This season, there was alot of talk about relocating the New Orleans Saints. There was talk about how the owner wanted to move the team to San Antonio. I was taken aback this past season when Peter King said that New Orleans should re-locate to Greenville-Spartanburg rather than San Antonio based upon television market size, as Greenville's is #35 and San Antonio is #37.

Television market rankings

I'm pretty sure that he only brought up Greenville in a tongue-in-cheek manner, but I was still floored when I heard it.

However, the NFL is probably the easiest sport for a smaller market to support, considering it is cheaper to run, revenues are shared, and salaries are capped.

Wow. Even if it was meant sarcastically, it was good for GSP to get a mention in the same breath as pro football.

Also, NFL teams only play a few home games a year, and those are on weekends; that makes it easier to support as well.

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Charleston native Burg

Charleston native

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Interesting stuff. I think that one has to realize that MLS gets zero attention in the States, so adding a new team may not be that exciting :)

I think it would be great to see an NFL team in the Upstate :) I wonder if anyone of any importance will review this study and make some decisions based on it...

IMO, I think the study had some holes in it. They looked at average income of the population only, and not what is most important: proximity to other pro franchise markets and college markets. I think the percentages would have come down significantly with Cola and G'ville if they used that variable. Chas would have gone down as well, but not as much, considering that it is the farthest from a city with a major franchise and the college market is not as significant as in SC's other cities. In the end, most of the cities' percentages would have been relatively the same.

I don't want to be a constant cheerleader, but I think many people underestimate my hometown in almost every aspect including sports teams. Chas has virtually been the first city in the state to get any minor league franchise. It has been the first SC city to get minor league hockey, A-League soccer (just one step down from MLS), and this year, the first city to get an NIFL (National Indoor Football League) team, the Chas Sandsharks. The team has an excellent website. Since AF2 disbanded, this league is replacing it, and it stands to become a minor league for the NFL, which has contributed investment into it. Prominent NFL players such as Oronde Gadsden have part ownership.

My point is that BizJournal's analysis maybe had some good points, such as the income levels, but it ignores the fact that Cola is part of an NFL market with the Panthers and it is dominated by the university's sports market. G'ville is sandwiched between 2 major NFL markets and is also significantly part of Clemson's sports market. As usual, my hometown gets hosed only because of the perception that it is a tourist town where most jobs are tourism-related...hopefully, this will change in time.

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UrbanSoutherner Whistle-Stop

UrbanSoutherner

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Personally, I think major league sports teams are highly overrated as a civic improvement. I think most cities spend too much being blackmailed by team owners for new stadiums and such. It is one of my pet peeves. That said, I think all of SC's cities are too small and will likely be too small for the foreseeable future to land a major league team. Plus having Charlotte on the state line overshadows SC cities in terms of attracting major league teams. I think Charlotte's teams effectively function as teams for the Carolinas jointly. Again, I do not see that as a bad thing.

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breed Hamlet

breed

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Personally, I think major league sports teams are highly overrated as a civic improvement.

I think alot of cities expect too much from them. They are what they are: routine increases in temporary density and a little national noteriety.

If well developed and built into an urban fabric, they can be a key part of a larger development plan. But a stand-alone park, especially in the middle of nowhere, provides very few secondary benefits.

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  • 4 weeks later...
803metlife Hamlet

803metlife

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Charlotte teams do not jointly represent n.c. and s.c..I wish everyone wakes up and realize n.c. is a whole different state. I'm glad n.c. has there lottery meaning they don't need s.c.. S.C. needs N.C. to do almost anything professional sports,shopping,concerts,fine dining. I've never seen a state so dependent on another state in my life. This is a question I have for s.c. forums?? Did we really think that N.C. was going to let us get a lottery before them. Our lottery bill was past in 99. N.C. never made a big deal out of a lottery until we got ours. And after reading a couple Charlotte forums I can tell you if any s.c. cities out rank Charlotte it's a big deal. Personally I don't believe s.c. with have any professional team anytime soon. But eveyone can always drive 1hr30-3hrs to Charlotte :D (have fun)!!

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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Honestly I think you are making a bigger deal out of NC vs SC than it is. SC does not depend upon NC. There are major sports teams in Mecklenburg county because it is the only county in the two states that have almost a million people in it. That fact that it is in NC is irrelevant.

Also, they have been trying to pass a lottery in NC for more than a decade not when SC started one, but when Virginia did.

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Spartan Gigalopolis

Spartan

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Charlotte teams do not jointly represent n.c. and s.c..I wish everyone wakes up and realize n.c. is a whole different state. I'm glad n.c. has there lottery meaning they don't need s.c.. S.C. needs N.C. to do almost anything professional sports,shopping,concerts,fine dining. I've never seen a state so dependent on another state in my life. This is a question I have for s.c. forums?? Did we really think that N.C. was going to let us get a lottery before them. Our lottery bill was past in 99. N.C. never made a big deal out of a lottery until we got ours. And after reading a couple Charlotte forums I can tell you if any s.c. cities out rank Charlotte it's a big deal. Personally I don't believe s.c. with have any professional team anytime soon. But eveyone can always drive 1hr30-3hrs to Charlotte :D (have fun)!!

I have to disagree here. I don't really see what the lotter has to do with professional sports, but whatever.

Yeah NC is another state, but we share a common name and history. I have no problem with Charlotte being the host city to most Carolina-based professional teams. I do take issue with smalelr cities (like Raleigh) having professional teams though. Charlotte is a central location for both Carolinas, and is simply the logical choice. I would not go to a Hurricanes game simply because its in Raleigh and I don't want to drive that far, but I may consider driving to Charlotte.

Lets not forget that the Carolina Panthers (yep thats both Carolinas) is based in Charlotte and trains in Spartanburg during the summer.

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