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Posted By: Eric Brehm

It is true that teams from larger metropolitan areas, and with longer traditions, especially winning traditions, do have larger fan bases. When the Cubs come out to play the Rockies in Colorado, it seems like the Cubs fans at Coors Field are more numerous (or at least more vociferous) than the local Rockies ones. Many Chicagoans have moved to Colorado over the years.

But then Boston is a smaller metropolitan area than either Dallas, Houston, Miami, Washington DC, Atlanta, or Detroit, and the Indians have been around a long time. (The Diamondbacks and Rockies of course, have not.) There must be some wiggle room there to elevate the viewership base of teams other than the Red Sox and Yankees, but whether increased attention by the national media during the season would accomplish this, or how long it would take, I don't know.

Now why doesn't Los Angeles, the second biggest metro area in the country, even have an NFL team? That one has always puzzled me.