Metropolitan statistical area	2025 census	2020 census	% change	Pop change	NBA
New York–Newark–Jersey City, NY-NJ MSA	20,112,448	20,081,935	0.15%	30,513	Knicks, Nets
Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim, CA MSA	12,844,441	13,200,998	-2.70%	-356,557	Lakers, Clippers
Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL-IN MSA	9,434,123	9,449,351	-0.16%	-15,228	Bulls
Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington, TX MSA	8,477,157	7,637,387	11.00%	839,770	Mavericks
Houston–Pasadena–The Woodlands, TX MSA	7,904,627	7,149,642	10.56%	754,985	Rockets
Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell, GA MSA	6,482,182	6,104,803	6.18%	377,379	Hawks
Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA	6,465,724	6,278,542	2.98%	187,182	Wizards
Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach, FL MSA	6,391,072	6,138,333	4.12%	252,739	Heat
Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA	6,329,118	6,245,051	1.35%	84,067	76ers
Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler, AZ MSA	5,228,938	4,845,832	7.91%	383,106	Suns
Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA-NH MSA	5,034,221	4,941,632	1.87%	92,589	Celtics
Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario, CA MSA	4,769,007	4,599,839	3.68%	169,168	(Lakers Country)
San Francisco–Oakland–Fremont, CA MSA	4,630,041	4,749,008	-2.51%	-118,967	Warriors
Detroit–Warren–Dearborn, MI MSA	4,390,913	4,392,041	-0.03%	-1,128	Pistons
Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue, WA MSA	4,161,883	4,018,762	3.56%	143,121
Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington, MN-WI MSA	3,790,295	3,690,261	2.71%	100,034	Timberwolves
Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater, FL MSA	3,418,895	3,175,275	7.67%	243,620
San Diego–Chula Vista–Carlsbad, CA MSA	3,282,248	3,298,634	-0.50%	-16,386
Denver–Aurora–Centennial, CO MSA	3,092,037	2,963,821	4.33%	128,216	Nuggets
Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, FL MSA	2,957,672	2,673,376	10.63%	284,296	Magic
Charlotte–Concord–Gastonia, NC-SC MSA	2,938,830	2,660,329	10.47%	278,501	Hornets
Baltimore–Columbia–Towson, MD MSA	2,857,781	2,844,510	0.47%	13,271	(Wizards Country)
St. Louis, MO-IL MSA	2,814,421	2,820,253	-0.21%	-5,832
San Antonio–New Braunfels, TX MSA	2,813,140	2,558,143	9.97%	254,997	Spurs
Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos, TX MSA	2,620,945	2,283,371	14.78%	337,574	(Spurs Country)
Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, OR-WA MSA	2,542,282	2,512,859	1.17%	29,423	Trailblazers
Sacramento–Roseville–Folsom, CA MSA	2,477,274	2,397,382	3.33%	79,892	Kings
Pittsburgh, PA MSA	2,421,992	2,457,000	-1.42%	-35,008
Las Vegas–Henderson–North Las Vegas, NV MSA	2,407,226	2,265,461	6.26%	141,765
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN MSA	2,312,858	2,249,797	2.80%	63,061
Kansas City, MO-KS MSA	2,270,682	2,192,035	3.59%	78,647
Columbus, OH MSA	2,242,028	2,138,926	4.82%	103,102
Indianapolis–Carmel–Greenwood, IN MSA	2,205,695	2,089,653	5.55%	116,042	Pacers
Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN MSA	2,197,416	2,014,444	9.08%	182,972
Cleveland, OH MSA	2,165,775	2,185,825	-0.92%	-20,050	Cavaliers
San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara, CA MSA	1,984,473	2,000,468	-0.80%	-15,995
Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News, VA-NC, MSA	1,797,213	1,780,059	0.96%	17,154
Jacksonville, FL MSA	1,785,500	1,605,848	11.19%	179,652
Providence–Warwick, RI-MA MSA	1,708,161	1,676,579	1.88%	31,582
Raleigh–Cary, NC MSA	1,595,720	1,413,982	12.85%	181,738
Milwaukee–Waukesha, WI MSA	1,575,010	1,574,731	0.02%	279	Bucks
Oklahoma City, OK MSA	1,512,813	1,425,695	6.11%	87,118	Thunder
Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN MSA	1,402,509	1,362,180	2.96%	40,329
Richmond, VA MSA	1,389,338	1,314,434	5.70%	74,904
Memphis, TN-MS-AR MSA	1,341,412	1,345,425	-0.30%	-4,013	Grizzlies
Salt Lake City–Murray, UT MSA	1,308,377	1,257,936	4.01%	50,441	Jazz
Fresno, CA MSA	1,203,383	1,164,909	3.30%	38,474
Birmingham, AL MSA	1,197,766	1,180,631	1.45%	17,135
Grand Rapids–Wyoming–Kentwood, MI MSA	1,183,645	1,150,015	2.92%	33,630
Hartford–West Hartford–East Hartford, CT MSA	1,171,426	1,150,473	1.82%	20,953
Buffalo–Cheektowaga, NY MSA	1,155,653	1,166,902	-0.96%	-11,249
Tucson, AZ MSA	1,074,685	1,043,433	3.00%	31,252
Tulsa, OK MSA	1,069,273	1,015,331	5.31%	53,942
Rochester, NY MSA	1,056,149	1,065,361	-0.86%	-9,212
Greenville–Anderson–Greer, SC MSA	1,014,101	928,195	9.26%	85,906
Omaha, NE-IA MSA	1,009,836	967,604	4.36%	42,232
Urban Honolulu, HI MSA	988,703	1,016,508	-2.74%	-27,805
Bridgeport–Stamford–Danbury, CT MSA	978,179	946,327	3.37%	31,852
New Orleans–Metairie, LA MSA	970,849	1,007,275	-3.62%	-36,426	Pelicans
Knoxville, TN MSA	968,137	903,300	7.18%	64,837

careaboutit

1038 | 12 hours ago

They should put a team in Seattle. I bet they’d have a great fanbase and cool logo and colors

Sixaxist | Cavaliers

397 | 12 hours ago

Counterpoint: They should put a team in Alaska to raise the skill-floor of the average player by everyone actively trying so that they don’t get traded to Alaska.

DecentDiver458

128 | 12 hours ago

How about Galveston

lalakingmalibog | Mavericks

98 | 11 hours ago

Hell yeah. The Galveston Galvatrons. They can wear our old trash bag jerseys

Xenosnake

19 | 10 hours ago

Got a nice creek there too

DecentDiver458

9 | 10 hours ago

Definitely not a river, if it had a river you could fish in it

VirgoJack

21 | 8 hours ago

The Galveston Dirty Waters

Momik | Timberwolves

7 | 7 hours ago

The Galveston Chemical Sunsets

NazRyuuzaki

2 | 6 hours ago

Galveston Chuckers

NexusTR | NOP

13 | 7 hours ago

This is what relegation is for.

Momik | Timberwolves

6 | 7 hours ago

Or! Put a team in Alaska so when the dipshit billionaire owner tries to move, they have father to go before hitting a nonsense place (read: Oklahoma)

ZADEXON | Cavaliers

4 | 5 hours ago

We have the Jazz for that.

kikikza | Knicks

3 | 6 hours ago

The old Doug Dimmadome strategy

Defendyouranswer

58 | 12 hours ago

Maybe they could have a cool name like the supersonics or something

lalakingmalibog | Mavericks

14 | 12 hours ago

I bet they’ll have cool songs written about them

geoforceman | Jazz

3 | 5 hours ago

Why would they name their team after a fast food drive-in?

HoBaggyPants

10 | 12 hours ago

The Seattle Sea Turtles!

gamers542 | Grizzlies

4 | 8 hours ago

Turtle power!

ATXBeermaker | Spurs

7 | 7 hours ago

With the aerospace industry being so vital to the area, they could probably come up with a pretty cool team name, too. Something like the Seattle UltraFast!

solarxbear | LAL

4 | 6 hours ago

SuperSonics is the best name of all time in any sport

Trent_Rockero

2 | 5 hours ago

I’m sure they could have an awesome name, something alliterative maybe? I’m drawing a blank now but maybe someone can help me out.

TheMias24 | Suns

850 | 12 hours ago

San Diego Clippers would’ve been perfect. It’s wild to me so many teams would rather be the second or third most popular team in LA than have all of San Diego cheer for them.

fancyjaguar | Lakers

488 | 12 hours ago

There are richer clients in LA to sell suites too. It’s a business, never forget it.

brnccnt7

154 | 12 hours ago

Exactly

And these billionaires like to move their teams to LA knowing the valuation will grow exponentially

Look at the Rams and Chargers value since moving from their cities

ATXBeermaker | Spurs

58 | 7 hours ago

Then why don’t all the teams move to LA, huh?! Checkmate, dummy. /s

RFFF1996 | Thunder

61 | 7 hours ago

You joke but that is how you get thinghs like new york/new jersey area having like 4 nhl teams

DimaggioDunks

33 | 6 hours ago

You joke, but Iceland basically concentrated its entire soccer league in Reykjavík.

Most corrupt soccer Federation in the world

JwubalubaDubdub | Pistons

38 | 6 hours ago

I don’t doubt that they are corrupt, but the next largest city outside of the Reykjavik region is Akureyri, with a population of 19,000. It makes perfect sense why the entire league would be concentrated in the Reykjavik region.

S1MCB | Heat

21 | 5 hours ago

Sure but last years final 8 with Reykjavík FC, FC Reykjavík, Sporting Reykjavík, Real Reykjavík, Reykjavík Red Bulls, Reykjavík City, Reykjavík United, and the Reykjavík Rock Lobsters was kino

ob_knoxious | Wizards

7 | 5 hours ago

And now we have the interesting offseason of which team will land the top player transfers. The Qatar backed team, Saudi backed team, UAE backed team, Bahrain backed team, Azerbaijan backed team, American Sports mega conglomerate backed team, and branded energy drink team will really be in a bidding war with each other.

RFFF1996 | Thunder

14 | 5 hours ago

That is very understamdable for iceland specifically lol and other tiny countries that have one overwhelmingly big city [rrlatively] to the rest of the country. I would expect somethimgh similar in mongolia or uruguay

The one who is kind of criminal is argentina, buenos aires is huge [1/3rd of argentina] but it has a disproportionate presence in football of like more than half the teams and all od the historically succesful ones depsite argentina habing some other decently sized cities

Supersumo2 | Supersonics

7 | 5 hours ago

That’s not surprising at all, something like 65% of the population lives in the Greater Reykjavik area

ATXBeermaker | Spurs

5 | 5 hours ago

Iceland has a population less than that of Wyoming, and about 65% of Icelandic people live in Reykjavík. If NYC had 220M people, it would make sense for it to have its own league.

qchisq | 76ers

3 | 5 hours ago

This is KA erasure

Knicksin7bby | Knicks

5 | 4 hours ago

you should see how many soccer teams london has

Stuck_in_a_thing

2 | 4 hours ago

The Chargers didn’t grow faster than the general NFL growth. Meaning the move had no positive impact. They would have had the same valuation growth in San Diego as they would still track the growth of the entire NFL.

For the move to be positive they would have had to grow faster than that.

Momik | Timberwolves

5 | 6 hours ago

It is a business, but businesses can look and act differently depending on context. Right now the league is a giant multibillion-dollar monopoly, pretending it’s a free market of franchises to skirt around antitrust law. So the way these franchises operate and relate to each other is absolutely not what a ‘business’ is supposed to look like.

But regulating the league as it actually is might give fans and cities a bit more power in this process.

Xsy | Jazz

5 | 3 hours ago

Not saying it actually compares to LA, but San Diego isn’t really lacking in stupidly rich people either, though.

Blutrumpeter

137 | 12 hours ago

Because there’s like 4 San Diegos in LA. You can have only 25% of LA fans like your team and it’ll equal the support of all of San Diego. Not to mention that some of San Diego is going to choose between the LA teams just because they’re both in SoCal and you can get TV deals there. Putting a team in San Diego likely loses you the LA market and the inland empire. Not saying San Diego doesn’t deserve a team, just saying it’s financially smarter to put the second team in LA

SmileyPiesUntilIDrop | West

52 | 12 hours ago

Laker fandom is huge in SD,in a way that does not exist for the Dodgers,Angels,Kings,Clippers or any of the NCAA teams. You also have to factor in a lot of military and Uni graduate transplants who’s fandom is to teams in other states. I really doubt SD get’s another NBA franchise unless they proactively go YIMBY and get a population boom.

El_Bolto | San Diego Clippers

62 | 8 hours ago

Im a San Diego native and this aint true. The NBA is non existent in san diego. Yeah there’s some Lakers fan but its not a huge fan base. Its first and foremost a Padres and Soccer town.

TYLERvsBEER | Celtics

41 | 8 hours ago

The padres are benefiting BIG time from the vacuum left after the chargers went to LA.

Check out SDSU men’s basketball games though for a look into basketball fandom, those games are LOUD.

El_Bolto | San Diego Clippers

33 | 7 hours ago

SDSU made the national championship and barely anyone i knew watched the game. The Padres make the wildcard and the city shuts down. Mexico plays a world cup group stage game and we held one of the largest viewing parties of all time.

Its not comparable. I’ve hooped my whole life and San Diego is just not a basketball town. Most people who live here dont even remember the clippers being in the city lol

InclinationCompass | Lakers

5 | 4 hours ago

All my SDSU alum-mates watched the Aztecs in the championship game. It was a pretty big deal for us.

mochanari

2 | 3 hours ago

Just about the only ones who cared are SDSU students and alum. And a lot of students in a bad way, because it drove up costs for housing and tuition…

InclinationCompass | Lakers

2 | 4 hours ago

Yea, I grew up in SD, and most NBA fans here are Lakers fans. The preseason games always sell out here at the Sports Arena.

I guess it’s because most of us grew up watching th Lakers when they were good, because we didn’t have a local team. Then it just stuck with me into adulthood.

SwizzGod | Lakers

4 | 9 hours ago

This isn’t true at all

bluemagic124 | Clippers

62 | 12 hours ago

It’s crazy to me San Diego lost 2 teams; it’s such a nice place with beautiful weather.

There’s probably only a handful of NBA cities that I would take over San Diego.

GuacKiller

124 | 11 hours ago

Props to SD residents not letting billionaires strongarm their city for taxpayer money.

bluemagic124 | Clippers

34 | 11 hours ago

For real, fuck em

Various_Injury66

12 | 7 hours ago

They are already cutting acces to public bathrooms and have a huge budget deficit in San Diego. Fucking imagine if we had to pay for some billionaires play thing on top of that.

DHighmore | Hornets

10 | 11 hours ago

If you count the ABA they lost 3 pro teams in a little over a decade.

GotMoFans | Grizzlies

27 | 8 hours ago

San Diego metro has 3 million people (plus 2 million in Metro Tijuana).

Greater Los Angeles has 18 million people (if you include the Inland Empire).

So basically when you sell the 783,000 tickets to all the regular season Lakers games, you still have many millions more people to sell NBA tickets to than you’d have in San Diego.

That’s why it didn’t matter that the Chargers left a rabid fanbase in San Diego for Los Angeles. LA is just too massive as a market.

The Kings were going to move to Anaheim and be the third team in the market over considering San Diego (before the Maloofs sold the team and an arena deal was done).

Justice502 | Heat

3 | 2 hours ago

I mean this is why you make expansion teams and keep the chargers in San Diego.

Because no /s why not just move every team to LA

Overall-Palpitation6 | Grizzlies

15 | 10 hours ago

As someone who lives outside of the US, I’ve never understood why San Diego isn’t a bigger sports market, and why several pro teams have moved away from there. Given the demographics of who lives there, it’s a way of tapping into the Hispanic and Asian-American markets as well.

Valleyboi7

39 | 9 hours ago

Most Mexican Americans rep LA teams since it’s so ingrained in the culture. Hell I live in AZ and most Mexicans I know are Lakers, dodgers, and raiders fans even tho they were born and raised here.

22797 | Warriors

12 | 6 hours ago

As someone who lives in SD, there’s just not a sports culture. I think they’re could be if someone gave a shit, because the moment the Padres started spending in the late 2010s early 2020s, the amount of Padres stuff everywhere has exploded. But NBA fandom is non existent, the NFL has scorned them twice and keeps trying to push LA teams. The top 3 favorite NFL teams in SD are easily the Chargers, 49ers, and Raiders and I’m not even sure if the Chargers are #1 anymore

Responsible-Pop-136

10 | 5 hours ago

It’s a big city but has no surrounding areas to draw fans from. Blocked by LA/Mexico/Desert and the Pacific Ocean. So the total population is small for a major sports team.

A city like Indy is smaller, but gets to draw from a shitton of smaller towns. And SD doesnt have a great corporate base to sell high end tickets to

FarWestEros | HOU

19 | 8 hours ago

“All of San Diego” definitely does not cheer for their sports teams.

It is a heavy ‘transplant’ city, so the visitors often have healthy fan support in attendance.

Responsible-Pop-136

7 | 5 hours ago

The Padres literally lead baseball in attendance the last 5 years (as measured by % of stadium filled)

skunkbot | Cavaliers

3 | 3 hours ago

There is some Padres allure as an “F you” to the Chargers leaving. I saw the same thing happen in Cleveland when the Browns left, the Indians games sold out for like 300 games in a row.

innocuous_gorilla | Cavaliers

3 | 5 hours ago

I’m always surprised no owners in the NFL/NBA/NHL try to move a second team to Chicago. I don’t know if it would or wouldn’t work out, but owners seems to love playing second fiddle in a big city.

TraMaI | Bulls

3 | 4 hours ago

I would assume this is due to higher taxes and very few building opportunities inside the city proper, at least in recent years. I’ve always wondered this, too, though, especially with how much many Bulls fans hate Jerry’s cheap ass. I’m sure there’s a ton of people who would jump ship given the opportunity.

park7911 | Warriors

289 | 12 hours ago

I know that they’re technically regarded as separate territories, but San Jose-Santa Clara Sunnyvale should be grouped with the other Bay Area markets and countries.

It’s well within the Warriors market and in their TV market too.

SirNed_Of_Flanders

104 | 8 hours ago

That’s why using combined statistical areas (CSA) rather than metropolitan areas is better for determining what populated places dont have NBA teams. CSA’s include metropolitan areas that are close together

Under CSA’s, San Jose and SF are in the same CSA. Like Riverside-San Bernardino are in the LA CSA umbrella

studio_sally | Hawks

8 | 5 hours ago

CSA is a little better for some of these measures, but for actual sports markets DMAs are probably the better unit.

FuckTheStateofOhio | San Francisco Warriors

8 | 4 hours ago

100%. And in that case, the largest DMAs without an NBA team are, in order:

Tampa
Seattle
Raleigh-Durham
St. Louis
Nashville
Pittsburgh
Baltimore
San Diego
Hartford-New Haven
Kansas City
Austin
Columbus
Greenville-Spartanburg
Cincinnati
West Palm Beach
Las Vegas
Jacksonville
Harrisburg
Grand Rapids
Norfolk
Birmingham (AL)
Greensboro
Albequerque
Louisville

All of the above are larger markets than the two smallest NBA markets (New Orleans & Memphis).

Edit: skipped Vegas, in my head they already have a team next expansion round

Plagda

49 | 12 hours ago

It used to be. The Bay Area used to be like the 4th-5th biggest market but they separated them for some reason. Also separated the north bay as well.

The_Nutz16 | Warriors

37 | 11 hours ago

That’s not true when it comes to basketball cause the Warriors own all those markets

Plagda

7 | 6 hours ago

I didn’t mean market I meant metro area. It’s still part of the combined statistical metro area but split San Jose from San Francisco- Oakland metro area.

WarsawWarHero | Supersonics

2 | 5 hours ago

How do the Sharks do out there?

RoRo24 | Warriors

3 | 5 hours ago

Sharks are from San Jose. I think it’s kind of the same story though, they own the Bay Area market as much as hockey can

lachalacha | Cavaliers

3 | 4 hours ago

A lot of these markets are separated out. Cleveland and Akron are two different markets according to the MSAs OP is using..

mrgpsingh1999 | Lakers

2 | 3 hours ago

That’s why it made no sense to me when people acted like the Warriors were only Oakland’s team

hotsauce126 | Heat

158 | 12 hours ago

Unfortunately for Tampa even though a lot of us see Orlando as another land it’s probably going to keep us from ever getting a team

xixi_90

86 | 11 hours ago

You’re probably right, 1.5 hr is just too close

nbaistheworst

37 | 9 hours ago

Less than 75 miles from the Orlando city limits

2min2mid

42 | 8 hours ago

Basically 2 hr and a 10% chance of getting into an accident each way with I4 traffic

naughtyobama

24 | 7 hours ago

The traffic is the problem. With no traffic, it’s 45 minutes to an hour away. If we could have good public transport, it wouldn’t even be a thing. Orlando and tampa are what people think about when they think about central florida.

TheLightningPanda | UTA

6 | 5 hours ago

Whole heartedly agree. Sister cities that generally tend to have a fantastic relationship, with the occasional argument about which is better.

I wish there were a way for us to share teams. Would love to share the Buccs and Magic with each other lol

skiabay | Suns

5 | 5 hours ago

If we had fast, frequent train service between Tampa and Orlando it wouldn’t be so bad.

bwakaflocka | Hawks

4 | 4 hours ago

florida would be very well served if the brightline actually completes its proposed expansions to tampa and jacksonville (and if it stops hitting people as well)

jambr380

44 | 8 hours ago

People from Orlando feel the same about baseball, football, and hockey. The Orlando ‘Dreamers’ are desperately trying to get a team (or should I say trying to get the Rays), have seemingly infinite money to put up, and still can’t get it done.

Basically, if you’re a resident of Orlando or Tampa, you just have to be a fan of those teams and be willing to travel. Maybe someday in our lifetimes they’ll make it possible to drive on I-4 without sitting an ungodly amount of traffic

TheLightningPanda | UTA

15 | 5 hours ago

The fact that there isn’t a high speed train between the two cities is an absolute farce.

We’re only 75 miles or so apart from city limit to city limit. Orlando wants access to the beach, a pleasant downtown, and the football/hockey/baseball teams. Tampa wants access to the theme parks, the hyper-local establishments, and the Magic.

And… we all love each other. Other than UCF/USF, the relationship is there to make it happen. I wish we could have nice things.

jambr380

5 | 4 hours ago

I don’t want to get political, but public transit/high speed rail isn’t typically a priority for republican leadership. I’m always so envious of northern cities with how much interconnectivity there is in the city and between other cities

kiddfrank

9 | 7 hours ago

I honestly don’t think there is a very big market for nba in Tampa. This city loves its hockey. I can’t see an nba team taking away attendance from the lightning, and I don’t know if we have the sports passion to support a successful hockey and basketball team.

cult0cage | Heat

3 | 4 hours ago

Also I think when the Raptors were here during the Pandemic almost no one went to games. I know it was a different time but it wasn’t a good look for us as far as prospects of being a host city lol

I say this as an NBA fan who lives in Tampa and desperately wants a team here. I’d get rid of the Lightning in a heartbeat if I could but I know I’m in the overwhelming minority there.

Glittery_Kittens | Magic

4 | 2 hours ago

With the way things are going, the I-4 corridor will be a single metropolis within the next decade.

K33nser

4 | 8 hours ago

Just another reason to hate the Orlando “Let’s not offer Shaq the Max” Tragic.

tlj2494 | Celtics

3 | 8 hours ago

Plus I think looking at how much the rays have struggled with attendance I’m not sure it’s a great sign

wallace6464 | Spurs

22 | 8 hours ago

The lightning would be the better comparison, super nice arena in downtown Tampa and the city loves it. The rays are over the causeway in Saint pete

rando5star

20 | 7 hours ago

I do think a lot of that is them being in St Pete. The more centrally located Lightning and Bucs have consistently decent to strong attendance numbers. The rays are just far from the bulk of the population, with next to no public transit to get there

TJ514402 | Bulls

16 | 8 hours ago

The Rays play in St Pete not Tampa.

I would feel more comfortable judging Tampa if the shitty stadium was in Tampa proper.

BaconRapscallion | Rockets

82 | 11 hours ago

I know they’re not American but I feel Montreal should’ve been the second nod, logistics issues be damned (besides Seattle of course). If they were on this list, they’d have the biggest metro population here, while also having an arena (Bell Centre) whose capacity would dwarf all other NBA arenas.

Besides them, I’d give a nod to St. Louis as well. They’ve had an NBA team before, have a nice metro size and aren’t in a relatively close proximity to an NBA team/market (unlike Tampa and San Diego)

xixi_90

71 | 11 hours ago

Vancouver BC needs an NBA team back too. The 1st attempt was botched

disterb | 76ers

22 | 9 hours ago

vancouverite here. yes, please.

Euthy | Spurs

38 | 9 hours ago

Have you been to St. Louis lately? It feels like they’re setting up to film a post-apocalyptic zombie movie. I’ve never seen such a clearly dying city.

jambr380

13 | 8 hours ago

Yeah, I think St. Louis is still a cool place to visit, and it’s interesting to see how it was once a big and thriving city, but I can’t imagine an NBA team ever going there again.

I guess we’re talking more about market size than just how much buzz the actual city has, though, and the region is more stagnant rather than losing population like the city

PleasantTrust522 | 76ers

4 | 7 hours ago

You know ball!

JordanHawkinsMVP | United States

3 | 6 hours ago

Mexico City>>>

XxX_22marc_XxX | Celtics

77 | 12 hours ago

Providence is also firmly Celtics country

TheWix | Celtics

53 | 12 hours ago

Yea, dunno how this was decided. Most of New England will be Celtics except maybe the riffraff down in Southern Connecticut.

XxX_22marc_XxX | Celtics

9 | 12 hours ago

Yeah even Hartford is majority Celtics

TheWix | Celtics

3 | 12 hours ago

Hell, they used to play games there during the season.

JMEEKER86 | Japan

2 | 5 hours ago

All counties are Celtics counties except for Fairfield which goes to the Knicks and New Haven which is split ⁵⁰⁄₅₀. Same goes for the divide between Red Sox and Yankees, Patriots and Giants, and Bruins and Rangers (Mets, Jets, Islanders, and Devils fans are very rare in CT and are mostly hipsters rooting for them just to be different).

onlyhereforpcmr | Wizards

4 | 5 hours ago

New Haven down is Knicks territory, the moment you go anymore east on I-95 or north on I-91 it turns completely green

BkniBottomTranqulity | Lakers

3 | 10 hours ago

Doesn’t make it the same metro area

XxX_22marc_XxX | Celtics

16 | 9 hours ago

Providence, like San Bernardino (Lakers Country) is to LA, is part of Boston’s CSA (Combined Statistical Area).

chirpz88 | Celtics

8 | 8 hours ago

It does make it pretty hard to expand a franchise to there though. You need a place that likes the sport, doesn’t have a huge fan attachment to another franchise, and has a population to support it.

Putting a franchise in Providence would be like putting a team in Brooklyn. Sure you’ve got a team, but no one gives a shit.

Opening_Bluebird_952

2 | 5 hours ago

Providence getting an NBA team would be hilarious.

lonny__breaux | Toronto Huskies

52 | 12 hours ago

Fuck Tampa lmfao.

Zeeron1 | Thunder

15 | 11 hours ago

What did Tampa do?

fastheadcrab | Raptors

23 | 9 hours ago

Raps played there during Covid due to the strict regulations in Toronto at the time and Tampa treated the team like garbage.

The team was also awful so there’s also some irrational hatred associated with that place lol

DrTangBosley | DET

28 | 9 hours ago

Well the Raps went 27-45 in Tampa. People lost interest fast.

fastheadcrab | Raptors

2 | 7 hours ago

Teams have losing years. Doesn’t excuse the rude behavior of the fanbase. It’s not like the Raps deliberately decided to be shit in order to spite Tampa or Floridians.

The Pelicans (old Hornets) played in OKC after Katrina and the team sold out nearly every game despite being bad and not making the playoffs.

HesiPullup | Suns

4 | 7 hours ago

Tampa is like 1.5 hours from Orlando so odds are most of them are pretty hardcore Magic fans (correct me if I’m wrong). OKC to the next closest NBA city is out of the state and twice that far so it makes sense that they’d embrace an NBA team

TheLightningPanda | UTA

3 | 5 hours ago

“Hardcore” is maybe a stretch, but yeah it’s Magic country. Orlando and Tampa have 0 overlap on big 4 league teams. Tampa have the football/baseball/hockey, we have the basketball.

I would say Orlando gets more outside influence from other cities (plenty of Jags and Fins fans here, for example), but generally both cities just have the same 4 teams. They’re a bigger sports city than us though, by quite a bit.

NexusTR | NOP

2 | 6 hours ago

CP3 was ROTY that year, but the Hornets went 39-43 that year.

comics_jump | Mavericks

14 | 8 hours ago

I went to a game and raps played like shit

embiidshortroll

3 | 6 hours ago

It was every game and it was awesome. I even got to watch the raptors get booed the whole clutch and overtime when they somehow out choked Westbrook in his triple double record game

Artimusjones88 | Raptors

4 | 7 hours ago

We the South! Still have my shirts, loved the logo

Ok_Friendship_6340 | 76ers

53 | 12 hours ago

Urban Honolulu needs a team

fastheadcrab | Raptors

11 | 9 hours ago

Siberia needs NBA expansion

TempAcct724 | Jazz

43 | 8 hours ago

Which is why Combined Statistical Area is a better indicator than Metro Area for NBA franchise markets.

Riverside is included in the Los Angeles-Long Beach CSA and the Orlando-Lakeland-Deltona CSA has 1.3M more people than the Tampa-St. Pete metro area just 1.5 hours away.

Riotroom | Bulls

5 | 4 hours ago

Crazy LA CSA engulfs everything within an hour and half and people say San Diego is too close at 2-2.5 hours

studio_sally | Hawks

2 | 5 hours ago

If you’re gonna use CSA for market analysis you might as well jump up to DMA instead

Interest-Lumpy | San Diego Clippers

36 | 12 hours ago

Still holdin out hope for that SD team

jm0127 | Raptors

28 | 11 hours ago

They’ll move it to LA and you’ll love it

Interest-Lumpy | San Diego Clippers

15 | 10 hours ago

For some reason, I think I would hate it.

zewayofjay | Spurs

9 | 9 hours ago

The greatest city in the history of mankind. Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they actually named it “Sandiago”

Cute_Pomegranate_538

2 | 6 hours ago

What does that mean in German?

miqcie | Supersonics

2 | 6 hours ago

you have the Skyforce!

Aggrokid

30 | 12 hours ago

Nice table.

So if we exclude areas with nearby teams or earmarked for expansion, the best available location for El Cheapo is St Louis?

Round_Law_1645

15 | 9 hours ago

Simmons thinks Missouri is in play. One of Dundon’s ownership group is from St. Louis. Simmons mentioned Kansas City. KC, Missouri might be interested in offsetting some of the loss of the Chiefs heading to Kansas.

Thunderhorsey

3 | 6 hours ago

A team would do well in KC, I feel like their market ratings are always near the top of whichever league their teams are playing in. Of course it is one of the smallest markets that would even been considered for a team.

peayness | Vancouver Grizzlies

19 | 7 hours ago

Tennessee cannot support a second team, and it’s in everyone’s best interests to make Basketball work in the blackest city in America

Iraydren | Lakers

17 | 6 hours ago

No love for Pittsburgh in this thread

penguinfandev01

8 | 4 hours ago

A girl (and bandwagon Sixers fan) can dream

YUMA_HOUSE | Nets

6 | 3 hours ago

I went to college in Pittsburgh and honestly idk if there’s enough want for an NBA team lol. That city is very firmly Steelers and Pens.

penguinfandev01

3 | 2 hours ago

who needs the NBA when you have WPIAL finals at the Pete and the opportunity to make fun of butler county ?? (joking but barely)

SirNed_Of_Flanders

1 | 14 minutes ago

Nah as a Sixers guy it feels good know Philly has this over Pittsburgh

Plus i bet Shapiro was able to offer Lebron a Lebron James day in PA bc there’s only the Sixers in PA

PianoJealous307

11 | 12 hours ago

New York metropolitan area is so big that I would not be surprised if somebody will try to put a 3th team there.

lalakingmalibog | Mavericks

48 | 11 hours ago

Thirth

DoubleBlade759 | Knicks

11 | 11 hours ago

Jersey needs a team again 🙏

Patient_Tradition294

2 | 3 hours ago

Nets moving back to NJ is the most obvious move that needs to be made in sports. Nets fans in NY are treated worse than Clipper fans in LA lol. NY liberty have more respect and fans than the Nets.

Current Nets fans would still be able to attend their games and NJ nets fan would be happy again.

CarolinaRod06 | Hornets

9 | 6 hours ago

NBA teams have territorial rights where they can single-handedly veto a team moving within 75 miles of their arena. The Knicks and Nets will both block any team trying to move into that area. Go further north and the Celtics will block them. Go south and 76ers and wizards will block them.

Oshiruuko

7 | 6 hours ago

The entire city across all 5 boroughs are passionat Knicks fans. Nobody even likes the Nets I can’t see the point of a third team

TempAcct724 | Jazz

11 | 8 hours ago

You’re just going to ignore that Riverside, CA is larger than all three of those metros?

TheRealAmeil

12 | 8 hours ago

Its part of the larger LA metro area, but OP lists it separately but also as Laker country. What’s funny is that while San Diego is not part of the LA metro area, there are tons of Lakers fans there. Yet OP lists San Diego as without a team.

Curious-Jackfruit-92

11 | 7 hours ago

MSA not a great measurement for this. For example Durham is next to Raleigh but different MSA as people who live in Durham mostly work there (Duke,UNC etc) but can drive 20 minutes to a hurricane’s game.

indreams159

8 | 11 hours ago

Vegas is an absolute hell hole

nbaistheworst

4 | 9 hours ago

And yet the billionaires are lining up to compete for the expansion team there

JimC29 | NBA

3 | 4 hours ago

Maybe but it’s the perfect market for a team. It’s a destination city where people will to see their favorite team. It’s the same reason so many performers do residences there.

lunatocracy | Spurs

7 | 6 hours ago

Baltimore is not “Wizards Country”

Hell, DC is barely a Wizards Town.

CutieIbushi | Knicks

2 | 4 hours ago

Agreed. The Caps have some traction in Baltimore, but Wizards aren’t even a blip on the radar.

hunterleigh | Wizards

8 | 7 hours ago

Population isn’t irrelevant but it’s not actually the best metric. You need to look at media market size and the value of the potential audience from a revenue standpoint. That means you need to look at how wealthy the people are and how lucrative their local media rights deals will be. The population is part of that but only part.

NexusTR | NOP

6 | 8 hours ago

Damn who would have guessed that New Orleans has a diminishing population. Smallest metro in the league. Certainly that would affect the attendance…

thatdamndave

4 | 9 hours ago

Everyone would laugh but a team in Columbus would sell out every game for a decade.

Antisystemization | Cavaliers

2 | 5 hours ago

I was downvoted and actively made fun of a week ago for saying this. Columbus was actively pushing for a team around 2010 and was willing to renovate the NHL stadium to make it work.

Ohio is a land of sports fandom and Cinci and Dayton folks are much more likely to go to Cbus than the Cleve.

Cbus on its own is a larger market than six current NBA teams and could draw southwest Ohio basketball fans too.

BloodSugarSexMagix | Heat

4 | 8 hours ago

I want Seattle & Vancouver to get their teams back and for Montreal, Tampa, Pittsburgh, SD & St Louis to be considered for future expansion

1twhe

4 | 12 hours ago

Tampa is close to Orlando.

San Diego is close to LA (already 2 teams). Of course, the Clippers were originally in San Diego and only controversially moved to LA because of Donald Sterling.

miqcie | Supersonics

4 | 6 hours ago

If I were emperor:
- remove anti-trust exemptions for professional sport leagues
- allow community ownership of clubs.
- promotion/relegation

London has 6 clubs in the premier league for this season and 17 clubs total across all leagues. 1.6M per premier league and about 500k per all clubs.

edit: decouple college sports from their university. Professionalize. They are 99% professional anyways with NIL.

Willing_Ad_699 | Lakers

3 | 5 hours ago

I think San Diego would work, Tampa less so with the transient population.

panther553212 | Thunder

2 | 4 hours ago

Just saying that if Austin is “San Antonio Country” Then San Diego should be “LA Country” as they are about the same distance away.

Difficult_Tackle9505

3 | 8 hours ago

Knoxville! Knoxville!

NotJoeyWheeler | 76ers

2 | 8 hours ago

with all their basketball history it’s actually an interesting idea but I feel like the majority of the city is so UT-focused I can’t imagine an NBA team doing all that well

Opening_Bluebird_952

2 | 5 hours ago

I vote for the Chattanooga Choo-Choos.

olenikp

3 | 5 hours ago

As a San Diegan, I think our metro is even larger due to Tijuana metro (+2.3m) which is not included. I think there would be a non-insignificant amount of money that would flow North if a team were to come.

The Midway rising project in Midway is a little baffling because they’re planning a 16k attendance arena would be the smallest in the NBA if they really wanted to get into the mix.

YOIMREALLYHAPPY4YOU | Raptors

3 | 2 hours ago

Toronto at 7.1 million would be top 6. Montreal with 4.5 million people, would be above Pistons & Vancouver has over 3 million, would be above the Nuggets.

Mutombo_says_NO | Celtics

2 | 7 hours ago

Missing out on Seattle w the tech boom and moving to New Orleans and OKC is such whiff

Engrish_Major | San Francisco Warriors

2 | 6 hours ago

As a Bay Area resident it’s really weird to group Fremont with SF and the rest of the peninsula by itself. Put together I think we’re 5-7 or something like that.

Yay Area out.

fredinNH | Celtics

2 | 6 hours ago

Not America but Montreal would be an amazing place for a team.

Im_fairly_tired | Jazz

2 | 6 hours ago

Just Salt Lake City - Murray is grouped together? It really should be the whole Wasatch Front, Ogden to Spanish Fork. It’s one of the most densely populated suburban sprawls in the country and is why professional sports teams can support themselves in what is otherwise a low population state.

notafunhater | Jazz

2 | 4 hours ago

I thought the same. The SLC-Ogden-Provo CSA is 2.7 million people.

Im_fairly_tired | Jazz

2 | 2 hours ago

Did a little digging and our population density as a metro area if you include the whole Wasatch Corridor (which makes sense, Ogden is not a different media market than Provo) is in the top 10 for the US. If you measure by how many people in a metro area can travel to the team stadium in less than an hour, then we’re in the top 20. Starts to make sense why we have a few pro sports teams and might get another one in the next decade.

AdCorrect1854

1 | 12 hours ago

Seattle is a lock, but this really shows how wild it is that Vegas and Nashville aren’t already on here.

preddevils6 | Grizzlies

15 | 11 hours ago

Nashville doesn’t give a fuck about basketball. Basketball is the 5th most popular sport there.

Aeronova20 | Magic

3 | 8 hours ago

they also love their MLS team

TempAcct724 | Jazz

7 | 8 hours ago

Nashville is begging for an MLB team.

They don’t give a shit about getting an NBA team. And they aren’t putting a second team in Tennessee while the Grizzlies are still there.

CarolinaRod06 | Hornets

3 | 6 hours ago

Nashville has a Metro population of 2.1 million. They have an NFL team who’s dead last in attendance. They also have an NHL and MLS team. That area isn’t large enough to support another professional team.

penis_showing_game | Kings

2 | 4 hours ago

It’s because 2 NBA teams in Tennessee is an absolutely absurd proposition. The only way it makes sense to have a team in Nashville is if they move the Grizzlies.

Outside_Lifeguard380 | Knicks

1 | 8 hours ago

Only team that really worked on sd was the padres

mangoribbean

1 | 6 hours ago

Virginia has 0 professional sports teams. Not since a couple years in the 70s with the ABA. People keep saying DC teams when the majority of people don’t live near there

cjones2010

1 | 6 hours ago

Nashville would be a cool city to have one

NoNouns

1 | 6 hours ago

Da heck. Greenville, SC is on this list?

BloodyPants | Mavericks

1 | 6 hours ago

The Seattle Super Sounders

_Harlan_Pepper_

1 | 4 hours ago

Is Austin the largest metro without a big four team now? I think it used to be VA Beach

mcy33zy

1 | 4 hours ago

Going to continue to beat the drum for San Diego.

We lost our team way before Seattle and San Diego is a far superior city. NBA players will actually want to live and will sign as free agents here.

No-Original-1982

1 | 4 hours ago

San Diego had the clippers

FuckTheStateofOhio | San Francisco Warriors

1 | 4 hours ago

Metro area isn’t a great measure of a fandom’s reach. A much better measure is the media market reach (DMA). These are the largest DMAs without an NBA team are, in order: Tampa Seattle Raleigh-Durham St. Louis Nashville Pittsburgh Baltimore San Diego Hartford-New Haven Columbus Greenville-Spartanburg Cincinnati West Palm Beach Jacksonville Harrisburg Grand Rapids Norfolk Birmingham (AL) Greensboro Albequerque Louisville All of the above are larger markets than the two smallest NBA markets (New Orleans & Memphis).

Even_Rip2317

1 | 4 hours ago

We’re just going to ignore riverside?

PositiveCoyote100

1 | 4 hours ago

I think the TV market is actually more relevant.

Raleigh (22nd), St Louis (24th), Pittsburgh (27th), and Baltimore (29th) would all come before San Diego.

BorrowtheUniverse

1 | 3 hours ago

grouping this shit with hyphens is so stupid

DynamicProxy

1 | 3 hours ago

After Seattle and Vegas, he next expansion, whenever it happens, will be Somewhere in Canada (Montreal or Vancouver) and Mexico City. Done deal.

ben_chowd | Knicks

1 | 3 hours ago

move the Pelicans to Seattle please

Top metro areas in the US without an NBA team: 1) Seattle, 2) Tampa, 3) San Diego.