Can a state/area have too many teams for one sport?

[Big Lutz]

This has been something that has been bugging me for a long time, and it is that some states in the U.S. have a glut of sports teams while others have few if not none at all. For example lets look at the NBA in California.

Los Angeles Lakers
Los Angeles Clippers
Golden State Warriors
Sacramento Kings


Four out of the five teams in the Pacific coast are located in one state, while Washington, Oregon, and Nevada have nothing in terms of a NBA team.

Baseball is even worse when it comes to teams located in one state with California having five.

San Diego Padres
Los Angeles Angels
San Fransico Giants
Oakland A's
and the Los Angeles Dodgers

The same could be said for New York with the NFL having the: Buffalo Bills, New York Giants, and New York Jets.

So does it bug anyone else that a city can have two teams for one sport while entire states have none? And some states having as many as 3 or 4 or even 5 teams for one sport? Also I am curious if something similar is seen in Europe with football teams.

 

[Hunter Blade]

Definitely. Chicago's White Sox and Cubs. Those arguments during baseball seasons are horrible and get violent when drunk people are involved.

 

[John Understands]

Oh my, yes California. I don't care how large it is - with 5 major league baseball teams - some should move to Oregon.

 

[Serperiority]

I think a reason for these would be to add rivalries to the teams. It also adds more identity to areas with significant differences to the current sports team (such as the A's for Oakland and the Giants for SF)

An odd situation happens twice because of this. The Lakers and the Clippers both share Staples Center for home while in football, the Jets and Giants share the same stadium (I think, I don't follow football...)

Four out of the five teams in the Pacific coast are located in one state, while Washington, Oregon, and Nevada have nothing in terms of a NBA team.

Washington might get it's own basketball team again as the Sacramento Kings have been rumored to be moving to Seattle.

 

[Legacy]

It's all about T.V. ratings and marketing and ultimately, $$$, my friends. Los Angeles is the largest T.V. market in the country, which is why so many teams reside in California, New York, Texas, etc.

States like Oregon, Idaho, Washington, etc. with less marketing appeal don't get sports teams because owners of professional teams want to be in a profitable area.

It sucks, but yeah, money makes pro sports go.

 

[Lord Clowncrete]

Areas with high interest in the sport or wealth generally have the most teams. London has Chelsea, spurs, Arsenal, Qpr, West Ham and Fulham. That's six teams out of 20 from the same city in 1 league and many more in lower tiers! Now In India where I live, 8 or 9 of the 14 clubs in the top flight come from 2 tiny states, where football is popular.

But why should any state or city have only one team? All the London teams mentioned above have their unique histories and the derbies add the excitement to the game. Some of the most watched games from the Pl are the derbies like the Manchester one, United vs Liverpool, North London derby and obviously the most exciting matches as well. Same in Italy(Milan derby) and here, the Kolkata derby.

Having "representation" from every area just for the sake of it is just ridiculous. Why should there be a cap on the number of teams from the same region? What if there are multiple quality teams from the same region? Should one be removed just because one already exists? That sort of goes against sporting spirit to me..

 

[DerMißingno]

I thought this image of football fandoms seemed relevant:

Spoiler

It looks like the team with the least representation is the Jets, which are almost completely overshadowed by the Giants except for one county on Long Island.

Here is the ]source.

 

[Emaxxy]

It's not likely they'll move the Cubs or Sox out of Chicago because both teams have a lot of history plus there is still a lot of Cubs fans even though they're so bad. History can count too not just ratings.

 

[Pokealchemist]

Well, in Moscow on 5 Soccer teams: Spartak, Dynamo, CSKA, Lokomotiv, Torpedo.
However, the city is very big.

About NFL: Farmers Field will start to build in the spring. Thus, football in LA to come back. (information from Wikipedia)

 

[Emaxxy]

About NFL: Farmers Field will start to build in the spring. Thus, football in LA to come back. (information from Wikipedia)

Also to add on either the Raiders or Rams will return also the Chargers may move there

 

[蜃気楼]

Just to add Oregon does have a basketball team, and Washington did have up until recently