1. GIS Assistance in Choosing Locations for New Sports Teams

2. Goals
To examine the layout of current stadiums for the big four sports:
MLB: Major League Baseball
NBA: National Basketball Association
NFL: National Football League
NHL: National Hockey League
To use GIS to choose locations for new teams in case of league expansion

3. Data Collection
Google Earth used to locate latitude/longitude pairs for stadiums
ESRI provided shapefiles of Census tracts (by state) and demographic data for each tract
ESRI data had to be joined and appended, and tract identifier numbers had to be reformatted
Census Bureau Summary File 3 data for per capita income for all Census tracts
“Geo within geo” tool was helpful but downloading data was still very repetitive and time consuming

4. Game Plan
Each Census tract was joined to a sports team based on the shortest distance from an edge of the tract to the stadium
Some sports teams share stadiums; in that case, the teams were combined into one entity
e.g., Clippers and Lakers, Jets and Giants

5. Calculations
To properly assess the value of a given sports franchise, several data points were calculated:
Total population
Total annual wealth of population
Per capita income of population
Average distance of population from stadium
Average distance of wealth from stadium
Maximum distance in population group from stadium
Percentage of fans in the same state as the stadium

6. Projection
Equidistant projection used for accuracy of distance calculations:
Map Projection Name: Equidistant Conic
Standard Parallel:
Standard Parallel:
Longitude of Central Meridian:
Latitude of Projection Origin:

7. Scope of Data Calculations made only with contiguous U.S. data
Alaska and Hawaii radically throw off distance calculations
Maximum Distance from Census Tract to Closest Stadium
AT&T Park
(San Francisco Giants)
Safeco Field (Seattle Mariners)
All 50 States
5,060 km
5,223 km
Lower 48 States
535 km
998 km

8. Conic Projection of MLB Stadiums

9. Fan Base Maps: MLB

10. Fan Base Maps: NBA

11. Fan Base Maps: NFL

12. Fan Base Maps: NHL

13. Calculation Caveats
Assumption that people in any given Census tract will root for the team located closest to that tract is not always true
e.g., during Michael Jordan’s reign, Chicago Bulls fans were found all over the U.S., not just near Chicago
Sometimes driving distances are much greater than “as the crow flies” distance calculations
Cities with multiple teams
Missing information about Canada

14. MLB Map Detail

15. Calculations Data available:
2000 Census population for tracts
2000 Census per capita income for tracts
Total money = population * per capita income
Population distance = sum (population * distance) / total population
Total money distance = sum (total money * distance) / total money

16. Sample Calculations Table: MLB

17. Calculation: Furthest Tract
Calculation of how far the fan base spreads

18. MLB Extents

19. MLB Extents (Detail) (Note gap in Montana Census tracts)

20. Calculation: In-State Fan Base (1)
Percentage of fans who are part of a fan base that live in the same state as the stadium
Several problems with this calculation, e.g.:
Some New York teams play in New Jersey
Count Washington, DC as a state?
Missing Canada data

21. Calculation: In-State Fan Base (2)
Not counting Washington, DC teams:

22. MLB In-State Fan Base

23. MLB In-State Fan Base (Detail)

24. Calculation: Total Population
Total population indicates the size of a team’s potential fan base
Excluding Canadian teams and halving population totals for teams that share a stadium:

25. NBA Total Population

26. Calculation: Total Money
Total money indicates the wealth of a team’s potential fan base
Ranks match those of total population except for the NFL
San Francisco 49ers have the highest per capita income in the league ($32,610), so despite having the smallest fan base, they are ranked third from the bottom in total wealth (in front of the Green Bay Packers and the Jacksonville Jaguars)

27. NBA Total Money

28. Calculation: Population and Total Money Distances
The difference between the average distance of a fan to the stadium and the average distance of wealth to the stadium indicates how wealth is distributed around the stadium’s host city

29. Per Capita Income by Census Tract

30. Denver Broncos (NFL) Population distance: 326 km Wealth distance: 287 km

31. Synthesizing the Data (1)
A useful map combines all sports teams of the four major leagues and shows how close Census tracts are to any team
Gives a geographic sense of what areas of the country are lacking representative teams

32. Census Tract Distance to Major Sports Teams (Darker Green Indicates Further Distance)

33. Least Representative Census Tract Tract (population 1,589) is the furthest from any sports team, Watford City, ND is 828 km from the Minnesota Timberwolves

34. Synthesizing the Data (2)
One way to locate where a new stadium should be located (for the NFL):
Plot all major cities and towns and then remove those that are within 100 km of a current stadium
100 km is an arbitrary number but stadiums should not be placed too close together (though the Washington Redskins and Baltimore Ravens play 46 km from each other)

35. U.S. Cities with 100 km NFL Stadium Radii Removed

36. Synthesizing the Data (3)
Create 40 km buffers around each city point
Calculate the total population within the buffer
40 km is an arbitrary number but could serve as the size of a city large enough to host a sports team

37. U.S. City 40 km Buffers

38. Synthesizing the Data (4)
By plotting only buffers that meet a given criterion, possible locations for a sports team can be determined

39. Metropolitan Areas with a Population Greater than 500,000 without an NFL Team

40. Metropolitan Areas with a Population Greater than 1,000,000 without an NFL Team
Portland
Milwaukee
Columbus
Los Angeles
Virginia Beach
San Antonio

41. Final Analysis for Metropolitan Areas with a Population Over 1,000,000
A table with statistics shows that Los Angeles is easily the best choice for a new football team
Further analysis could plot how fan base distributions change with the addition of a team to Los Angeles or other cities