Why do some cities have two teams in the same sport while many other cities have no professional team?

Answer 1

Cities with Two Teams, Cities with NoneIt all comes down to money. Some large urban centres (New York, Los Angeles and Chicago) have such a large populations that they can sustain two sports teams, like the Yankees and Mets, or the White Sox and Cubs. Other smaller cities, for example Memphis, have such a low population in comparison the the others that they can not even sustain 1 professional sports team. Take Baseball for example, the yearly salaries for the average baseball team is about 70-80 million per year. The average stadium holds 38-60 thousand people per game, for Memphis that's about 10% of the population. Chances are that a baseball team in Memphis would not sell enought tickets or merchandise to break even. Given this there is no reason for investors to put money down in smaller cities.