Publication claims quality of life issues not being good hurts some sports towns.
Publications or websites like Sports Business Journal, Forbes and Sportico put out what really are useless “best of” and “what teams are worth articles” on a periodic basis. Sports Business Journal decided to rate American sports cities with the best opportunity and environment to conduct sports business and interviewed numerous people to come up with its list. Dallas is the best sports city to do business according to the publication. Of course, Dallas the city doesn’t have a National Football League franchise or a Major League Baseball team or a Major League Soccer team. All are located in the Dallas vicinity. But the Sports Business Journal report sounded more like a political platform than a sports roundup. Avoid the big cities New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans, Detroit and Portland, Oregon because of the crime rate. Go to Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas because of the lower cost of living and lower taxes.
For what it is worth, New York is number two on the list followed by Charlotte, Minneapolis and Atlanta. Charlotte has a National Basketball Association team and a National Football League team, there is NASCAR and college basketball but no sign that Major League Baseball is setting up shop there. Indianapolis is at the 11th spot, maybe because the city pays the NBA Pacers to stay in the city. Tampa is number 13 on the list despite the fact the area cannot put together a stadium plan for MLB’s Rays. San Diego could not keep an NFL team in town, and has no hope of getting an NBA or NHL team, yet it is a better market than the three cities behind it in the Sports Business Journal rating, San Francisco, Seattle and Philadelphia. Perhaps the owners of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors or MLB’s Giants didn’t participate in the rankings. It is a silly survey.
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