U.S. cities with teams from four major sports
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In the United States, the four prominent major professional sports leagues are the following:
- Major League Baseball (MLB)
- National Football League (NFL)
- National Basketball Association (NBA)
- National Hockey League (NHL)
There are currently thirteen metropolitan areas that have at least one team in each major sports league. Their principal cities are often said to have the "Grand Slam." New York, the largest metropolis in the country, is the only one with at least two teams in each major sports league in its metro area; see discussion below.
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[edit] Overview by city
Teams that play outside city limits are indicated in italics.
The year of the most recent championship that each franchise won while in its current metropolitan area is indicated in parentheses.
The population ranking of the metropolitan area among all those of the United States is indicated in brackets.
Los Angeles [2], St. Louis [18], Kansas City and Cleveland [17] previously had teams in all four major sports leagues. All four leagues had a Los Angeles team from 1967 to 1994, St. Louis briefly had teams from all 4 sports from 1967 to 1968 when the Cardinals (MLB), Cardinals (NFL), Hawks (NBA), and the Blues (NHL) all called the city home, while Cleveland was a four-team city from 1974 to 1976 when the Indians (MLB), Browns (NFL), Cavaliers (NBA), and the Barons (NHL) all called the city home. San Francisco Bay Area [5] is the 5th largest in CSA metro ranking.
[edit] Discussion
Of these metropolitan areas, the only ones with a team in each sport that plays within the city limits of its principal city are Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, and Philadelphia. In the Twin Cities area, three of the teams play in Minneapolis and one plays in St. Paul, although all four teams are named after the state of Minnesota, not the individual cities. In the Bay Area, all teams play in one of the region's three major cities (San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose). All other areas have at least one sport represented solely by teams that play in a city's suburbs.
The most common sport to have two separate teams within one metropolitan area is baseball, with multiple teams in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Boston, St. Louis and Philadelphia also had two baseball franchises, but one franchise from each city relocated in the 1950s. As of 2006, Philadelphia is the largest TV market not to share two baseball teams.
The metropolitan area with the smallest population to have at least one team in each of the four major sports is the Denver area, the 22nd largest in population, with 2,196,028 people as of 2000. Additionally, Colorado is the least populous state to have a team in each major sport. However, as Denver is the nexus for a vast area of the Rocky Mountain region, the city's influence far exceeds its population ranking and therefore supports franchises in all four major professional sports.
The metropolitan area with the greatest population not to have at least one team in each of the four major sports is the Greater Los Angeles Area, the 2nd largest in population, with 17,545,623 people. This area has two baseball teams (the Dodgers and Angels), two basketball teams (the Lakers and Clippers), two hockey teams (the Kings and Ducks), but has not had an NFL franchise since 1994, when both of its franchises relocated (the Raiders to Oakland and the Rams to St. Louis). In 1999, the NFL wanted to grant its 32nd franchise to Los Angeles, but a workable ownership and stadium plan did not materialize, while Houston (which had lost its NFL franchise in a controversial relocation as well) did present such a plan and was awarded the Houston Texans franchise. Houston is the second-largest metropolitan area to not have a franchise in all four major professional sports; it lacks a NHL franchise.
If one considers the American Basketball Association a major professional sports league during its period of operation from 1967 to 1976, an additional city made the list: Pittsburgh. In addition to the MLB Pirates, the NFL Steelers and the NHL Penguins; Pittsburgh also hosted the ABA's Pittsburgh Condors, originally called the Pipers, from 1967 until the team's demise in 1972. Similarly, if the rival World Hockey Association is considered a major league, Houston made the list; the Houston Aeros operated throughout the WHA's existence from 1971 but was not accepted into the NHL during the NHL-WHA merger negotiations and folded before the merger in 1978.
The only city with at least two franchises in all four sports is New York, which is both the largest city and the largest metropolitan area in the country. Five of the metro area's nine major-sports franchises play outside the city limits: the NFL's Jets and Giants, the NBA's Nets, and the NHL's Devils all play in New Jersey; the NHL's Islanders play in Long Island. However, all teams retain "New York" in their name except the Devils and Nets. See List of New York metropolitan area sports teams. New York is also the only city to host at least one team in each sport throughout the entire period MLB, the NHL, the NFL and the NBA have coexisted (1946 to the present).
The most recent city to be added to this list is Washington, D.C., which, from the start of the 2005 baseball season, hosts the Nationals, formerly the Montreal Expos. Washington had not had an MLB team since 1972, when the Senators moved to Texas (however, it could be argued that the Baltimore Orioles previously served as Washington's baseball team, since the cities of Baltimore and Washington are less than 40 miles apart. In fact, the Orioles' dependence on the Washington market was great enough that Orioles owner Peter Angelos received concessions from MLB in exchange for his permitting a new team in Washington).
Among those states that do not have any metropolitan areas with a "Grand Slam", only Ohio has teams in all four major sports. New Jersey is the most populous state without representatives in all four major leagues operating within its territory, although North Carolina is the most populous state having none of its territory within a metropolitan area hosting teams in all four major leagues (it has three major league teams). While Northern Virginia residents have access to both Baltimore and Washington, D.C. sports teams, and southern Virginia residents have access to the Carolina Hurricanes, the one major-league team in the Raleigh-Durham area, Virginia remains the most populous state without a single big league team in any sport.
Of the four major leagues, three (MLB, the NBA and the NHL) have at least one team in Canada. Thus, although it is not an American city, Toronto is notable because in addition to MLB, NBA, and NHL teams it also has a professional football team, the Toronto Argonauts. The Argonauts play in the Canadian Football League, which is currently an all-Canadian circuit although the CFL had teams in the United States from 1993 until 1995. On the one hand, referring to the CFL a major league would be problematic since it has no current teams in the U.S., which leaves it with a much diminished revenue base compared to that of the NFL. On the other hand, although the possibility of an NFL team in Toronto has been discussed in the past [1] since it is much larger than many NFL cities, since early 1997 such a franchise has been precluded by the fact that the CFL and NFL have had a formal relationship which each other. For either league to place a team within the borders of the other nation would probably not be compatible with the spirit of the leagues' agreement.
[edit] Former Cities with teams in all four leagues
Los Angeles, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta, St. Louis and Kansas City are the only metropolitan areas that hosted teams in all four major sports leagues, only to later drop out of the four-sport club.
- Chicago had one NBA team fold in 1950, attracted an expansion franchise in 1961 only to see it move to Baltimore two years later. Chicago rejoined the 4-sport club for good in 1966 with the expansion Bulls.
- The Bay Area had teams in all four sports from the NHL expansion in 1967 until the Oakland Seals departed for Cleveland in 1974. It regained four-sport status when the expansion San Jose Sharks joined the NHL in 1991.
- Cleveland briefly held four-sport status when the Seals moved there in 1974, only to merge with the Minnesota North Stars organization in 1976. Cleveland, Los Angeles, Kansas City, and St. Louis are the only cities to lose four sport status without regaining it as of 2006.
- Minneapolis-St. Paul became a member with the arrival of an NBA franchise in 1989, only to see the North Stars depart for Dallas in 1993, putting that city in the club. The Twin Cities rejoined the club with NHL expansion in 2000.
- Atlanta had all 4 sports from 1972-1980, only to see its NHL team move to Calgary, Alberta. Atlanta rejoined in 1999 with the expansion Thrashers.
- Kansas City had all four sports from 1974-1976, with the MLB's Royals, the NFL's Chiefs, the NBA's Kings, and the NHL's Scouts. After two unsuccessful years in Kansas City, the Scouts relocated to Denver (and later, to New Jersey). The Kings moved to Sacramento in 1985.
