Paul T. Gray, Jr.

Russellville High School

Russellville, Arkansaspaul.gray@russellvilleschools.net

Sports can be an effective vehicle to teach geography

Many students can really identify with sports

Using local or regional teams can be a way to make geographic concepts more real

Most importantly, sports teams are about place, regional, cultural, urban, locational and economic issues

The NFLhttp://www.sportsgrid.com/nfl/u-s-map-redrawn-nfl-allegiances/

The NFL by county http://www.footballsfuture.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=514689&start=0

The NBAhttp://www.basketballforum.com/nba-forum/451361-great-nba-team-map.html

MLBhttp://hittoleftfield.com/2012/06/27/on-relocation-part-2-of-4-major-league-baseball/

The NHLhttp://hoosierhockey.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/commenter-discussion-the-united-states-of-hockey/

MLS

Sports Team Location and Weber’s Least Cost Theory Weber eliminated labor mobility and varying

wage rates He calculated the “pulls” exerted on each point

of manufacturing He indicated companies wanted to minimize

costs in three major areas In professional sports location we may want to

call this, “How Much Stuff Will Your City Give Me to Locate Here Theory/Model” or “The Sports Team Blackmails Your City for what it wants.”

Weber’s Least Cost Theory – 3 primary factors of location (to minimize costs)

Transportation – the lowest possible costs in moving raw materials to the factory and the finished product to market

Labor – this reduces profits, therefore owners may want to move farther from raw materials and markets

Agglomeration – like industries clustering in the same area(s) can reduce costs. Existing infrastructure (transport, water, educated/skilled labor, buildings, etc.)

Deglomeration – what happens when too much agglomeration takes place?

Other Factors – political stability, cheap energy, local receptiveness (locating a prison), taxation (exemptions and, free land), climate (LA and film industry), local mores (brewery, sex shops, etc.), owner’s local connections to area (locates even though not the cheapest or most productive location)

The “other factors” can be especially important in sports team location

Central Place Theory

Low order goods High order goods – e.g. sports Population Threshold - # of people Market Threshold – amount of $ in the place/area Range or Range of Sale Multiplier Effects (of sports team location)

I am an NFL fan I was driving up to Canada via Detroit a

few summers ago Began thinking about how close Detroit,

Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, etc. are to each other

Wondered who is a fan of whom in certain places

I asked some students to try to map central places with hexagons

Have students experiment with Central Place and thresholds and ranges

Income thresholds in pro sports – these are essentially disposable incomes in MSAswww.bizjournals.com/specials/2006/0213/

$89.2B - Major League Baseball $38.4B - National Basketball Association $35.7B - National Hockey League $33.0B - National Football League $16.1B - Major League Soccer

What about Central Place factors of location using sports?

According to Hinch & Higham in Sports Tourism Development

Sports teams are centrally located and there to provide outlets for the hinterlands

Greater number of sports provided, the higher order the location

Sports Tourism Development Hinch and Higham continued Low-order sports (e.g. soccer) can locate in

lower order thresholds Higher order locations are fewer and more

widely spaced (Christaller) with higher thresholds

Major League Baseball has the most higher order cities (largest populations)

The NFL has many more cities in the mid- and lower order (lower populations)

Ironically (or not given the NFL’s player pay structure), 6 of the last 8 Super Bowl winners were small market teams

Sports Tourism Development Hinch and Higham continued

Finally, a hierarchy of sports locations exists to:

1. Provide consumers who wish to minimize their travel to obtain the sports they want

2. Producers of sports need to maintain a minimum threshold to survive

3. Many times, city leaders do not ask these questions – they just want a team without evaluating pros and cons

4. The risk today is almost entirely on cities – not the teams

Central Place in the geography of sports

John Bale in Sports Geography says: A MLB team needs a threshold of 1 million

fan visits each year to be viable Bale says this number is not realistic for

most metro areas

According to Bale, the Central Place approach to sports team location has assumptions (just like the models we teach):

1. Even population distribution

2. Homogeneous plane surface

3. Economic rationality We all know irregularities abound How about an example or two?

Smaller Market cities with successful teams

ICE HOCKEY A Canadian Metropolitan Statistical Area of

3.5M people will average 4,000 more fans per game than a comparable U.S. MSA (Bale)

SOCCER Rochester, NY is a soccer-crazy hotbed

capable of a pro teamFOOTBALL

Green Bay & Pittsburgh are football townsBASEBALL

St. Louis and Cincinnati are baseball townsBASKETBALL

Memphis is a basketball hotbed

What about teaching the “other” factors of location using sports? According to a Federal Reserve Bank of

Kansas City Report: 1 extra day of sunny weather per year

means $7-12 more spending This means $14-24M more spending in a

metro area of 2 million population US population has shifted South and West

over the past 50-60 years Many of the teams have moved or

expanded to the Sun Belt

A Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Report continued

Metropolitan areas which lost a franchise are more likely to finance a new stadium (Quality of Life issue? Inferiority complex w/o a team?)

Part of being a first-rate city is having pro sports (and opera, museums, etc.)

However, bond supporters and teams only show positive impact numbers

Actually, this study found there are negative indicators of having a pro sports team

A Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Report continued

For example, Maryland residents get about $1M/year in revenue from the Baltimore Ravens

The public cost of the Ravens stadium is $14M/year

Washington residents get $3.8 to $5.1M compared to $28M annual cost for the Mariners’ stadium

So, the question becomes…what benefits do teams bring to the community at large?

Some of these benefits are tangible and others less tangible

Teams have always moved or the leagues expanded

Population shifts – Ft. Wayne Pistons become Detroit Pistons

Local Disputes – Baltimore Colts move to Indianapolis due to pending MD law and Cleveland Browns move to Baltimore in dispute over stadium ownership

New Stadium – too many to mention Expansion – growing and shifting populations All the above and personal problems – Norman

Green moves the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas

The most overextended sports market – at least on paper?http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/on-numbers/scott-thomas/2011/08/denver-is-most-overextended-market.html DENVER with 5 teams

The Denver needs total personal income (TPI) of $209.3 billion to provide an adequate base for its five teams

Denver’s actual TPI is $121.9 billion, yielding an income deficit of $87.4 billion

Still, Denver is a pretty good sports town. The Rockies seem safe now given some winning seasons of late

The other overextended marketshttp://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/on-numbers/scott-thomas/2011/08/denver-is-most-overextended-market.html

Rank City # teams TPI Deficit

2 Cleveland 3 ($71.445)

3 Pittsburgh 3 ($56.676)

4 Tampa-St. Petersburg

3 ($54.119)

5 Kansas City 3 ($52.292)

6 Milwaukee 2 ($51.806)

7 St. Louis 3 ($42.294)

8 Phoenix 4 ($41.069)

9 Minneapolis-St. Paul

4 ($39.400)

10 Cincinnati 2 ($37.524)

MLB teams most likely to move Oakland A’s

1. Stadium is a wreck (note sewage backups in locker rooms in June 2013)

2. The money is in the west and south bay

3. Those moving to Oakland are escaping high rents of San Francisco

Where will they go?

1. Most likely San Jose

2. If not there – Sacramento or Portland

MLB teams most likely to move Tampa Bay Rays

1. Tropicana Field is the worst baseball venue in the world

2. The physical location of the Trop in St. Petersburg is very hard to get to

3. Good play the last few years has kept moving talk down

Where will they go?

1. Most likely Tampa

2. If not there – Charlotte or Orlando

NBA team most likely to move Sacramento Kings

1. NBA will not expand anytime soon, so movement will be based on money and population shifts

2. With the Warriors moving to a new arena in SF, there’s nowhere close to go

Where will they go?

1. On paper, the move should be to Kansas City, but KC has lost the NBA before – the Kings to Sacramento

2. KC has an NBA-ready arena already built

3. Las Vegas is another potential NBA city. There’s plenty of money

4. There are also lots of LA Laker fans and casinos and gambling in Vegas – potential NBA owners are wary

Los Angeles and the NFLhttp://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/on-numbers/scott-thomas/2011/08/los-angeles-is-the-clear-choice.html

A study determined that an NFL team requires an income base of $36.7 billion

The Los Angeles area has $220.3 billion in available personal income after meeting the needs of its other pro-sports franchises

On paper, that’s enough to support 6 NFL teams

What about the intangibles or “other” factors of location for LA?

NFL teams most likely to move to LA

Jacksonville, Buffalo, St. Louis, Oakland, New Orleans

1. Jacksonville is a very small market (3rd smallest) and fan support has been low

2. Buffalo is the 2nd smallest NFL market (tied with New Orleans) with little success in recent years

3. St. Louis is a mid-market size. Recent sale to Missourian Stan Kroenke (also owner of Nuggets, Rapids, Avalanche, Mammoth and Arsenal) makes Rams’ move less likely

4. Oakland’s stadium is a wreck. They’ve won in LA before

5. New Orleans–all is well right now in this 2nd smallest NFL market. N.O.’s population has shrunk. They’d better win

Where will they go?

1. Los Angeles

2. Still, will people consistently come to NFL games in LA?

This is one of the major drivers of an LA team - NFL Potential TV Viewership

We moved and everyone seems happy Baltimore Orioles moved to the CBD

from the suburbs and the Baltimore Ravens came to the CBD

Cleveland Browns (after expansion) and Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Cavaliers built new venues in the CBD

These cases involved building new ball parks and/or stadia in downtown areas as part of a larger urban revitalization effort

We moved and not everyone is happy Dallas Cowboys The Cowboys moved to suburban Arlington

between Dallas and Ft. Worth This moved promised many larger developments

around Cowboy Stadium (with the Texas Ranger park just down the street)

Large-scale (high-end hotels, restaurants, etc.) developments have not come – example??

Super Bowl XLV – Green Bay stayed in Ft. Worth (Omni) and Pittsburgh stayed in Dallas (Omni Mandalay Bay - Irving)

Other factors in sports teams location

Missouri joined the SEC in 2012. Located as the most northwest SEC team, travel expenses in the SEC increased from just under $5 million annually to $7 million.

Non-revenue Mizzou teams (not football or basketball) spent as many as 11 days on the road, which affects competiveness and academics

In 1994, the Rams decided to leave Los Angeles Down the list of factors the Rams mentioned in a St.

Louis Post-Dispatch article for moving…… Travel costs of a coastal team, or as we would teach in

APHG – Centrality The Rams said they could save at least a quarter of a

million dollars in travel alone Rams’ owner at the time, the late Georgia Frontiere, a

native of St. Louis

Who travels to most? Coastal teams.

The NFL West Coast teams Seattle – 33,586 miles San Diego – 28,298 miles Oakland – 27,721 miles Source:

www.stlouistoday.com/blogs/sports-around-the-horns/2007/08/rams-are-miles-high-in-nfl 8-11-07

Who travels the least?

Northeastern teams New York Jets – 9,186 miles Buffalo – 9,972 miles Source:

www.stlouistoday.com/blogs/sports-around-the-horns/2007/08/rams-are-miles-high-in-nfl 8-11-07

In 2012, who traveled the most and least?

MOST – Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders

LEAST – Indianapolis Colts, Washington Redskins, Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers – centrality to other teams

Teams traveling under 1,000 miles for a game win 43 percent of the time. The number drops to 40.3 percent when teams travel between 1,000 and 1,999 miles, and plummets to 39.8 percent when they travel over 2,000 miles.

3% may not sound like much unless you miss the playoffs by one game

Another way to teach location and central place is to map team allegiance is by…

Number and location of radio stations which carry a team

Students could map the Cleveland Browns network

OHIO

AKRON / WAKR-AM 1590 ASHLAND / WNCO-AM 1340 ASHTABULA / WFUN-AM 970 ATHENS / WATH-AM 970 BUCYRUS / WQEL-FM 92.7 CADIZ / WCDK-AM 1430 CANTON / WHBC-AM 1480 CELINA / WKKI-FM 94.3 CHILLICOTHE / WCHI-AM 1350 CLEVELAND / WMMS-FM 100.7 / WTAM-AM 1100 COLUMBUS / WFJX-FM 105.7 DAYTON / WONE-FM 97.5 DEFIANCE / WDFM-FM 98.1 DOVER / WJER-FM 101.7 ELYRIA / WEOL-AM 930 FINDLAY / WQTL-FM 106.3 FOSTORIA / WFOB-AM 1430 LIMA / WBUK-FM 106.3 MANSFIELD / WMAN-AM 1400 MARIETTA / WJAW-FM 100.9 MARION / WMRN-AM 1490 MOUNT VERNON / WMVO-AM 1300 NEWARK / WHTH-AM 790 PAINESVILLE / WBKC-AM 1460

PORTSMOUTH / WNXT-AM 1260 SANDUSKY / WMJK-FM 100.9 / WLEC-AM 1450 TOLEDO / WIOT-FM 104.7 WOOSTER / WQKT-FM 104.5 YOUNGSTOWN / WNCD-FM 93.3 / WKBN-AM 570 ZANESVILLE / WHIZ-AM 1240

OTHER STATES

KENTUCKY

LEXINGTON / WLAP-AM 630

NEW YORK

HORNELL / WLEA-AM 1480 ROCHESTER / WYSL-AM 1040

PENNSYLVANIA

CORRY / WEYZ-AM 1530 / WWCB-AM 1370 ERIE / WJET-AM 1400

WEST VIRGINIA

PARKERSBURG / WJAW-FM 100.9

Cincinnati Bengal Radio Network

Listen to the game on one of these 2013 Bengals Radio Affiliates:

OHIO Athens WATH-AM 970 Canton WTIG-AM 990 Celina WCSM-FM 96.7 Chillicothe WBEX-AM 1490 Cincinnati WCKY-AM

WEBN-FM

WLW-AM 1530

Columbus WBWR-FM 105.7 Dayton WTUE-FM 104.7 Findlay WBVI-FM 96.7 Hillsboro WSRW-AM 1590 Lima WIMA-AM 1150 Logan WLGN-AM 1510 Marietta WMOA-AM 1490 Middleport WMPO-AM 1390 Mt. Vernon WMVO-AM 1300 Portsmouth WIOI-AM 1010 Washington Court House WCHO-FM 105.5 Zanesville WHIZ-AM 1240

KENTUCKY Ashland WCMI-AM 1340 Cynthiana WCYN-FM 102.3 Lexington WBVX-FM 92.1 Louisville WKRD-AM 790 Somerset WTLO-AM 1480

INDIANA Washington WAMW-FM 107.9

WEST VIRGINIA Huntington WRVC-AM 930 Ravenswood WMOV-AM 1360

There is much more one can do with sports and APHG Cultural issues Geography of team monikers Migration issues Gender issues Race and Ethnicity Globalization

Thank You and Questions

Selected Sources Bale, J. Sports Geography. (2003), 2nd Ed. Routledge. Carlino, G., & Coulson, N. E. (2002). Working paper No. 02–12: Compensating

differentials and the social benefits of the NFL (No. 02–12). Philadelphia: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Hinch, T. and Higham, Sports Tourism Development, (2004). Cromwell Press. Rappaport, J., & Wilkerson, C. (2001). What are the benefits of hosting a major league

sports franchise? Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, (First Quarter), 55–86.

Santo, C. (2005). The economic impact of sports stadiums: Recasting the analysis in context. The Journal of Urban Affairs, 177-191.

http://hittoleftfield.com/2012/06/27/on-relocation-part-2-of-4-major-league-baseball/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._cities_with_teams_from_four_major_league_sports http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relocation_of_professional_sports_teams http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/mizzou/more-on-mizzou-s-facilities-facelift/

article_f125d834-44cf-53df-a5ca-e6225693b8ce.html http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d82a53b24/article/oakland-raiders-will-travel-

the-most-miles-in-2012 http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/on-numbers/scott-thomas/2011/08/denver-is-

most-overextended-market.html