(Redirected from Major sports)
'Major professional sports league', or simply 'major league', is the term used in
North America to refer to the highest professional division in any
team sport. The term "major league" was probably first used in reference to the top flight of professional
American baseball. The designation of major league is as opposed to
minor league, which are lower division and/or developmental leagues below the major league in the national sport-tier hierarchy; and
amateur leagues, in which the
athletes receive no salary. The designation as to whether a league is a major or minor league is made by the
national or international governing body for that sport, not by the popular perception of that sport (e.g., TV ratings or number of articles in the daily newspaper). In any country or region, the top major leagues generally will have the best
athletes, the largest-capacity
stadiums, the largest and most active
fan bases, the most lucrative
television contracts, and, therefore, the largest revenues and player salaries. In North America, the top major leagues are generally accepted to be: the
NFL,
MLB, the
NBA, and the
NHL. Prominent major leagues outside the "Big Four" are
Major League Soccer (MLS), the
Canadian Football League (CFL), the
National Lacrosse League (NLL),
Major League Lacrosse (MLL), the
WNBA and the
Arena Football League (AFL); in Mexico, the
Primera Division of the FMF holds dominant sway over that country's sporting landscape.
Unlike similar sports leagues around the world (with
Australian leagues as a notable exception), those in the United States and Canada do not use the system of
promotion and relegation. Rather, their structures are characterized by the use of ''franchises'' and closed membership; the same teams compete in the leagues each year. The Mexican football (soccer) league uses a promotion and relegation system.
Note that in North America, the term "major league" is usually limited to
team sports, even though individual-driven spectator sports such as
golf,
tennis and
auto racing are also very popular.
The Big Four: NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA
Thus, the most commonly accepted list of the top four major leagues in North America is:
★ The
National Football League (32 teams as of
2007, founded in 1920). The NFL partially absorbed the
All-America Football Conference in 1949 and merged with the
American Football League in 1970.
★
Major League Baseball (30 teams as of 2007, constituent leagues began cooperation in 1903). MLB is divided into the
American League (founded in 1901) and the
National League (founded in 1876). The two are effectively merged on an organizational level and have shared a single Commissioner since 1920.
★ The
National Basketball Association (30 teams as of 2007, founded in 1946). The NBA partially absorbed the rival
National Basketball League in 1949. The NBA partially absorbed the rival
American Basketball Association in 1976.
★ The
National Hockey League (30 teams as of 2007, founded in 1917). The NHL partially absorbed the rival
World Hockey Association in 1979.
Since the four major leagues listed above are those listed as the top four major leagues, the sports they play (
baseball,
basketball,
American football and
ice hockey) are often referred to as the top four "major professional sports" or even just the top four "major sports" in North America ("the Big 4"). As of
2005,
thirteen American metropolitan areas have at least one team in each of the top four major leagues; these cities are sometimes said to have a ''
Grand Slam''.
The best players can become
cultural icons to tens of millions of North Americans because the leagues enjoy a dominant place in
U.S. popular culture combined with a significant (and dominant with the NHL) place in
Canadian popular culture.
Finances
The top four major leagues each have revenues that can be many times greater than the payrolls of less popular major leagues in North America. In terms of overall league revenue, the NFL, MLB and the NBA (in that order) rank as the three of the four most lucrative sports leagues in the world, the fourth being the
Premier League of
English soccer. Based on June 2006
exchange rates the NHL ranks as the world's fifth most lucrative league - it was only slightly behind behind the Premier League until
2007 however the English league's new TV deal combined with the
British pound's rapid appreciation against the
U.S. dollar have created a substantial disparity between the Premiership and the NHL, and may even pull Premiership revenues ahead of the NBA's. Also, the Premier League has only 20 clubs - at roughly US$180 million the Premier League's average annual ''per-team'' revenues are expected to pull ahead of MLB in
2007-08 on the strength of its new TV deal, and will only be about $20 million behind the NFL.
[1]
However, when comparing the finances of a North American professional league to those of a European soccer league, it is perhaps worth noting that like all of the more prominent European leagues, the top clubs of the English Premier League derive significant revenues from competitions sanctioned by
UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, the most lucrative sich competition being the
UEFA Champions League with the
UEFA Cup also being significant. The English league clubs also compete in two major
knock-out competitons against teams from lower English leagues - these being the
Football League Cup (against teams from
The Football League only and technically still sanctioned by that league) and the
FA Cup (against several hundred professional, semi-professional and amateur teams and sanctioned by
The Football Association, the governing body for
English soccer and the Premier League). All matches in these competitions take place within the same timeframe as the Premier League's "regular season" except for the finals of the Champions League, UEFA Cup and FA Cup which take place a week or two after the Premiership season ends. By contrast, other than the odd exhibition game teams in the Big Four North American leagues do not play in competitions not sanctioned by the league itself, or play games against teams from other leagues, thus almost all sports-derived revenue for a North American professional franchise (including from such sources as merchandise sales) can be said to be derived from the club's league membership. On the other hand, the English Premier League determines its league champion solely on the basis of "regular season" standing - it does not have championship
play-offs after the
regular season like the North American leagues, which are a major source of revenue especially for the teams that qualify.
If one were to strictly exclude all team revenues not derived from competition sanctioned directly by the league when doing a comparison, then even with its new TV deal the Premier League would likely rank fourth worldwide in gross revenue (behind the NBA) and third in per-club revenue (behind MLB) from 2007-08. However, such an exclusion would be highly questionable since an English soccer club's access to these lucrative "outside" sources are largely dependent on performance in the Premier League. As with the lucrative play-offs in North America, qualification for all Champions League positions and most of the less lucrative UEFA Cup places is determined solely by league standing. A club's membership in the Premier League also entitles to enter the domestic cups at later (and thus more lucrative) stages - in the case of the League Cup a team's qualification for European competition is also relevant in determining what stage it will enter.
Other major leagues
MLS
Major League Soccer is the most popular major league in North America after the NHL in terms of popularity, attendance, facilities, and media coverage. While
soccer is a giant of sports participation in the U.S. (particularly among youth of grade school age), it has yet to achieve the same level of success as a spectator sport at the professional level. The most popular year was the league's inaugural season in 1996, which posted impressive attendance numbers. After bottoming out, MLS has now experienced consistent growth, stabilization, and a recent expansion over the past couple of years, as well as a huge amount of publicity and coverage with the landmark signing of world soccer superstar
David Beckham in 2007 for $50 million in direct salary plus $200 million in other income over five years. Beckham's addition has been followed by other stars such as returning American captain
Claudio Reyna, Mexican legend
Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Colombian striker
Juan Pablo Angel, and beloved Argentinian
Guillermo Barros Schelotto. Furthermore, it has new national TV deals with
ESPN,
HDNet,
Fox Soccer Channel, and Univision (
Telefutura). Lastly, two new
soccer-specific stadiums opened in 2007, these being
DSG Park and
BMO Field, while
Red Bull Park and
Sandy Stadium are scheduled for 2008. MLS has also changed the name of many of its professional teams to closely resemble the style of team names in more popular leagues overseas; for instance, the Dallas Burn changed their name to
FC Dallas to more closely reflect the tradition of soccer around the world.
[1]
AFL
The
Arena Football League is the highest level of play in
Indoor/
Arena styles of play. Since being formed in 1987 it has stabilized itself as a serious league and threw out the old ideas that it was just a fad. In recent years it has seen attendance increase dramatically. Typically a team will play in hockey or basketball arenas. It has recently signed a new television deal wih
ESPN after their
NBC contract ran out. The AFL also has a minor league system in the form of
arenafootball2.
CFL
The
Canadian Football League is the highest level of play in
Canadian football and the second most popular sports league in Canada after the NHL.
[2] Average per-game CFL attendance
ranks sixth of all professional leagues in the world, and third in North America. The CFL championship trophy, the
Grey Cup, was first awarded in 1909 and has a rich history comparable to the NHL's
Stanley Cup.
The CFL was founded in
1958, however most of the teams competed in its two main antecedent leagues in the decades prior to that year. It was only in
1981 that these organizations (then known as the
Eastern and
Western Football Conferences) were legally dissolved into the CFL. Of the eight current teams, seven have competed continuously in the same city since
1954 or earlier. The oldest extant teams (
Hamilton and
Toronto) trace their origins to the late
1860s and early
1870s, which ranks them amongst the oldest sports teams still in existence.
The CFL can be prone to receiving a negative perception from
gridiron football fans because of its close proximity and relative similarity to the NFL, the world's richest sports league. Although the U.S. league has the highest per-game attendance of any sports league in the world, the primary source of the disparity between CFL and NFL team revenues is the leagues' television contracts (the U.S. television market is ten times that of Canada). However, the CFL plays on a
larger field and with substantially different rules compared to the NFL, and as a result exploits a largely different pool of talent, where speed is typically valued over size.
MLL/NLL
Major League Lacrosse and the
National Lacrosse League are other major leagues in North America, though they have not yet achieved MLS' level of success. MLL is outdoor, starting in the year 2001 it is much younger, and plays in many college football and MLS stadiums, while the NLL is indoor, older, and plays in many NBA, NHL, and smaller arenas. Which is more successful is debatable, though each have some level of success.
Traits of the top North American major leagues
Franchise stability
All of the top four major leagues exhibit the stability of most of their
franchises. No team from any of the top four major leagues has collapsed outright in decades. Although all of the top four major leagues have had at least one franchise relocate to another city in the last decade,
relocation of teams is generally uncommon compared to the less successful major leagues in North American history. It should be noted that all four of the top major leagues have had frequent franchise collapses and relocations in their early histories, but these events became much less frequent by the time these major leagues reached their "top four" status.
The major leagues in North America are different from most leagues outside North America in that there is no
promotion and relegation system. The same teams compete in the leagues each year. The worst teams are not relegated each year to a second tier league, to be replaced by the best teams from the second tier league. One could even argue the worst teams are ''rewarded'' for their futility, as the worst teams receive a higher position in the following year's draft for new players, which in football and basketball, usually consists of players who have played the sport in college. A notable result of the "closed shop" aspect of the major leagues is that the franchises have average book values that are considerably more than those of the clubs of the Premier League (which as noted above has comparable average team revenues to the major North American leagues but also a relegation system).
The most recent team from one of the top four major leagues to fold outright were the
original Baltimore Bullets in 1955, while the last team to cease operations were the
Cleveland Barons (formerly the California Golden Seals), which were merged into the
Minnesota North Stars (now the
Dallas Stars) organization in 1978, two years after moving to
Ohio from
California. The last NHL team to fold outright were the
New York Americans in 1942. (The NBA and NHL did however, merge with rival leagues in the 1970s. During these mergers only four franchises in each rival league, the
American Basketball Association and
World Hockey Association, survived: the remaining ABA and WHA franchises went out of business.) The last NFL team to fold were the
Dallas Texans in 1952 and no MLB team has folded since 1899, when four
National League teams ceased to exist.
The top four major leagues all expanded within the last decade and currently have either 30 or, in the case of the NFL, 32 teams. The newest major league team is the
Charlotte Bobcats, who joined the NBA in 2004. The newest NFL team is the
Houston Texans, who became the NFL's 32nd team in 2002 after the NFL was unable to find a viable ownership group and stadium plan in
Los Angeles. The newest NHL teams are the
Columbus Blue Jackets and
Minnesota Wild, who began play in 2000, while the newest MLB teams are the
Arizona Diamondbacks and
Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who joined the NL and AL respectively in 1998.
Recent expansion franchises have commanded huge entry fees, which are generally held to represent the price the new team must pay to gain its share of the existing teams' often guaranteed revenue streams. The Houston Texans paid an unprecedented
$700 million to join the NFL. By comparison, the Charlotte Bobcats paid $300 million to join the NBA. The Diamondbacks and Devil Rays paid $130 million each to join MLB while the Blue Jackets and Wild paid $80 million each to join the NHL.
Many sports analysts and owners believe that 30 is the optimal number of teams for a major league, which is only two below the maximum number any league has ever had. Thus, future expansion is by no means certain, especially by the NFL which is now over the 30-team threshold. The NFL is still anxious to return to Los Angeles (see below) but many believe that NFL officials would privately prefer to re-locate an existing team in order to avoid altering its current eight four-team division alignment. Even if expansion franchises could continue to command huge fees, as more teams join the leagues the owners' share of the fees is constantly reduced. Even if large markets remain without a team, a point could still be reached where one-time expansion revenues are offset by chronic stresses such as a drain on the talent pool (which could have a noticeable impact on the quality of play and thus start turning off fans) and saturation of the national television market (if the leagues are unable to negotiate higher fees from the television networks, then additional teams will simply cause the existing television revenue to be split into smaller shares).
Franchise locations
Major leagues tend to have franchises only in the largest cities and most heavily-populated market areas, although this is not always true. Most teams are in metro areas having populations over two million — all but one metropolitan area of this size or larger have at least one team. This typically means at least one franchise (and often two) per league in each of the
New York City,
Chicago, and
Los Angeles areas. There are two major exceptions: The NFL has not had a franchise in L.A. since 1995 and the
Green Bay Packers survive in professional sports' smallest metropolitan area (less than 300,000) thanks to a unique community ownership, and their proximity to the larger
Milwaukee area, not to mention the loyalty of their
fanbase. The Packers are the last remaining link to the NFL's small-town Midwest roots — many such teams existed in the NFL before 1934; since then only the Packers remain.
The
Utah Jazz are located in the smallest television market of any U.S. team (the Green Bay Packers' television market includes the much larger city of Milwaukee 120 miles / 200 km to its south). They relocated during a turbulent period in NBA history and have enjoyed strong support from a very large geographical area devoid of other major sports teams.
Utah is also the least populous state with a team.
Professional sports leagues as we know them today evolved during the decades between the
Civil War and
World War II, when the
railroad was the main means of intercity transportation. As a result, virtually all major league teams were concentrated in the northeastern quarter of the
United States, within roughly the radius of a day-long train ride. No MLB teams existed south or west of
St. Louis, the NFL was confined to the
Great Lakes and the
Northeast, and the NBA (which didn't exist before 1946) spanned from the
Quad Cities to
Boston. The NHL remained confined to six cities in the Northeast, Great Lakes and eastern
Canada, though during its earliest years it contested the
Stanley Cup at season's end with teams from western Canada and the
Pacific Northwest. College,
minor league and
amateur teams existed from coast to coast in all four sports, but rarely played outside of their home region for
regular season games.
As travel and settlement patterns changed, so did the geography of professional sports. With the arguable exception of the western hockey teams which competed for the Stanley Cup in the early 20th century, there were no major league teams in the far west until after World War II. The first
west coast major-league franchise was the NFL's
Los Angeles Rams, who moved from
Cleveland in 1946. The same year, the
All-America Football Conference began play, with teams in
Los Angeles and
San Francisco (not to mention the
Miami Seahawks, who became the only southern-based major league franchise, although
Louisville, Kentucky had previously had shortlived
baseball and
football teams). Baseball would not extend west until 1958 in the controversial move of both New York-based National League franchises. The NBA would follow in 1960 with the move of the
Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles, while the NHL would not have a west coast presence until it
doubled in size in 1967. With the exception of the
Los Angeles Kings, the NHL's initial franchises in the Southern and Western United States were ultimately unsuccessful — teams in Oakland, Atlanta, Kansas City and Denver all relocated. From 1982 until 1991, the Kings were the only U.S.-based NHL franchise south of St. Louis and/or west of
Bloomington,
Minnesota.
Since then, as newer, fast-growing
Sunbelt areas such as
Phoenix and
Dallas became prominent, the major sports leagues expanded or franchises relocated (usually quite controversially) to service these communities. Most major areas are well-represented, with all but seven continental U.S. metropolitan agglomerations over one million people hosting at least one major sports franchise. As of 2006, the largest metropolitan area without a major professional sports franchise is
California's
Inland Empire. However, since this area is adjacent to the Los Angeles metro area and serves as a local market for those teams, no major league franchise is likely to move there without purporting to represent L.A. The most populous independent metropolitan area outside of a major franchise's local market is the
Hampton Roads region of
Virginia, nearly 200 miles from the nearest major sports teams in
Washington, D.C. and
Raleigh, North Carolina. It previously hosted a successful franchise in the
American Basketball Association. Virginia is also the most populous state without a team within its borders.
Another large metropolitan area without any major league franchises is
Las Vegas, which is expected to surpass the Hampton Roads area in metropolitan population before the 2010 Census to become the largest metropolis without a franchise. Despite the area's explosive growth, all four leagues are wary of placing a team there due to the city's legal gambling industry, which includes
sports betting. In the U.S., for a professional sports organization to have any association, real or perceived, with gambling interests has been
taboo ever since the
1919 Black Sox scandal. All four leagues forbid their teams or personnel to have any type of contact or association with gambling interests and any connection between professional sports and gambling, no matter how benign, quickly gains the attention of law enforcement. Additionally, the city's abundance of entertainment options might make it difficult for a Las Vegas-based team to attract a large and stable fan base. The NBA hosted its
2007 All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas, at which point both the league and the city expressed interest in locating a team there. However, NBA Commissioner
David Stern says the city will need a new arena larger and more modern than the
Thomas & Mack Center before it will even host another All-Star Weekend.
[3] While the event was initially regarded as successful and incident-free, media reports of criminal incidents (including two shootings related to the event) that began to surface after the conclusion of the weekend may hurt the city's chances of gaining an NBA or any major league team.
[4]
When the WHA and NHL merged, the NHL inherited teams in Canadian metro areas that were under one million in population at the time, these being
Edmonton,
Winnipeg and
Quebec City. The NHL later added teams in
Calgary (via relocation from
Atlanta) and
Ottawa (via expansion). The distinctive place
hockey holds in
Canadian culture allowed these franchises to compete with teams in larger cities for some time. However, the teams in
Winnipeg and
Quebec City were eventually moved to the U.S. The three remaining "small market" Canadian teams have survived largely because their markets are growing rapidly — all three metro areas in question are now over one million in population and are thus comparable in size to some of the smaller American metro areas with teams in other leagues such as
Salt Lake City,
Jacksonville and
Memphis.
Although Calgary and Edmonton remain the two smallest television markets of any of the major leagues as of 2006, any "small market" disadvantage in the two
Albertan cities has been largely off-set in recent years by the fact that the
oil-driven Albertan economy is
one of the fastest growing in the world, and not uncoincidentally Alberta also has an unusually large proportion of high-income earners. High resource prices have contributed to a rapid appreciation of the
Canadian dollar against its U.S. counterpart, mitigating the financial problems brought on by unfavourable
exchange rates which plagued many Canadian franchises in the
1990s. Alberta's
GDP per capita is the highest of any
Canadian province or
U.S. state even after exchange rates are taken into account. Alberta's total GDP is over C$200 billion as of 2005 and expected to exceed US$200 billion in 2006, surpassing
Indiana which, perhaps not coincidentally, also has two teams. Alberta's economy is well over twice the size of Utah's (less than $90 billion as of 2006), thus it is not difficult to explain how Alberta can support two major league teams if Indiana can also support two and Utah can support one.
The first Major League Baseball team in Canada was the
Montreal Expos, who began play in 1969 and were one of the most unprofitable franchises in the sport. They became the
Washington Nationals in 2005. The
Toronto Blue Jays, who began play in 1977, have done much better.
The
Toronto Huskies were a charter member of what is now known as the NBA, but they only lasted from 1946 to 1947. The NBA returned to Toronto in 1995 when the
Raptors joined the league. The same year, the
Vancouver Grizzlies began play: they moved to Memphis in 2001.
The NHL has operated on both sides of the Canadian-American border since 1924, and there were strong American-based clubs even before the NHL was founded in 1917. The first US-based club to compete for the Stanley Cup was the
Portland Rosebuds of the
Pacific Coast Hockey League, who lost the 1916 series to the
Montreal Canadiens (then of the
National Hockey Association). The next year, the PCHA's
Seattle Metropolitans took the Cup away from the Canadiens. The
Boston Bruins are the oldest US-based franchise in the NHL, having played in the league since 1924.
The NFL has never attempted to enter the Canadian market, leaving Canada to the
Canadian Football League, which plays under significantly different rules than those used in the United States. The CFL was formed in the 1950s from the merger of two competing leagues, one based in the west and the other in the east. The CFL
briefly expanded south of the border in the mid-1990s: the venture was unsuccessful, although the
Baltimore Stallions (aka "CFL Colts") did draw respectable crowds and win a
Grey Cup before becoming the third (and current) incarnation of the
Montreal Alouettes in the wake of the
Cleveland Browns' decision to
move to Baltimore. The CFL and NFL forged a working relationship less than a year later, with the NFL providing an interest-free loan to the CFL in exchange for the right to sign CFL players entering the
option year of theit contracts. Recently, there has been speculation that an NFL franchise would be located in
Toronto, to balance out a new team in
Los Angeles. No other U.S. metro area with more than half of Toronto's population lacks an NFL team.
Ownership restrictions
All four major leagues have strict rules regarding who may own a team, and also place some restrictions on what other sort of activities the owners may engage in. To prevent the perception of being in a
conflict of interest, the major leagues generally do not allow anyone to own a stake in more than one franchise, a rule adopted after several high-profile controversies involving
ownership of multiple baseball teams in the
1890s. Notably,
Major League Soccer has been unable to adopt this sort of league structure — it operates as a single entity league and for the sake of stability has been forced to allow soccer enthusiasts such as the late
Lamar Hunt to own multiple teams at least for now (see below). However, there was one recent exception to this rule in the major leagues — after being blocked in their bid to eliminate or "contract" two franchises in 2001, Major League Baseball purchased the
Montreal Expos from its owners. Although MLB eventually relocated the team to
Washington, D.C., the franchise (now known as the
Nationals) remained owned by the other 29 MLB clubs. In May 2006, the team was sold to a local group lead by
Theodore N. Lerner.
All of the top four major leagues grant some sort of territorial exclusivity to their owners, precluding the addition of another team in the same area unless the current team's owners consent, which is generally obtained in exchange for compensation and/or residual rights regarding the new franchise. For example, to obtain the consent of
Baltimore Orioles owner
Peter Angelos to place an MLB team in Washington (which is about 35 miles from
Oriole Park at Camden Yards), a deal was struck under the terms of which television and radio broadcast rights to Nationals games are handled by the Orioles franchise, who formed a new network (the
Mid-Atlantic Sports Network) to produce and distribute the games for both franchises on local affiliates and cable/satellite systems.
Some major leagues, such as the NFL have even stronger ownership restrictions. The NFL currently forbids large ownership groups or publicly-traded corporations from purchasing NFL teams. This policy allows the league office to deal with individual owners instead of
boards of directors, although the Packers' ownership group was
grandfathered into the current policy. The NFL also forbids its majority owners from owning ''any'' sports teams (except for soccer teams and
Arena Football League teams) in other NFL cities, and prohibits owners from investing in
casinos or being otherwise involved in
gambling operations. (NFL owners may freely own soccer teams without league restrictions because Lamar Hunt won a court challenge stemming from his investment in the old
North American Soccer League. When he died in December 2006, he owned 2 teams in
Major League Soccer, based in
Dallas and
Columbus, and he had only sold a third team, in
Kansas City, less than four months before.)
Regarding territorial rights, the main concern for many team owners has become television revenue although the possibility of reduced ticket sales remains a concern for some teams. Because the
National Football League shares all of its television revenue equally, and most of its teams sell out their stadiums with little difficulty, some NFL owners are seen as being less reluctant to share their territories. For example, the return of the NFL to
Baltimore in 1996 attracted no serious opposition from the
Washington Redskins organization.
Weathering challenges from rival leagues
All of the majors have bested at least one rival league formed with the intention of being just as "big" as the established league, often by signing away star players and by locating franchises in cities that were already part of the existing league. In many cases, the major leagues have absorbed the most successful franchises from its failing rival, or merged outright with it.
★ The
National League withstood three early challenges in its first quarter century of existence. The
American Association began in
1882 in response to the NL leaving several lucrative markets vacant, the NL banning the sale of
beer at games and the NL's steep (at the time) spectator admittance fee of 50 cents. It was a viable competitor to the NL for most of its existence and its champion competed in an informal
World Series with the NL's champion for several years. Four of the AA's teams defected to the NL in its later years and it expired in
1891. Labor problems led to the formation of the
Players League for the
1890 season; it attracted a significant percentage of the existing high-caliber baseball talent and caused the NL and AA significant financial harm, but it lacked robust financial backing and folded after only one season. The minor
Western League moved several franchises in NL cities and cities abandoned by the NL for the
1900 and
1901 seasons and renamed itself the
American League in direct competition with the NL. The NL and AL made peace in
1903; the resulting agreement formed what today is known as
Major League Baseball. MLB withstood the challenge of the
Federal League in
1914 and prevented the
Continental League from getting off the ground in the early 1960s by awarding franchises to some of the proposed CL cities. Before the end of
World War II, the combination of a
gentlemen's agreement and the restrictive policies of
Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis prevented
African American players from playing Major League Baseball, and various
Negro Leagues sprung up to showcase black players' talents. Although no official cross-league play took place, white and black players often faced off in post-season
barnstorming tours where the Negro League players showed themselves to be MLB players' competitive equals. After
Jackie Robinson broke the
major league color barrier in
1947, the influx of black stars into the major leagues drained the Negro Leagues of talent and eventually caused their collapse.
★ The NBA withstood the challenge of the
American Basketball Association in the 1960s and
70s, absorbed four of its most successful franchises (
Denver Nuggets,
Indiana Pacers,
New York Nets, and
San Antonio Spurs) and adopted several of the ABA's rule variations, most notably the
three-point shot.
★ The NFL has fought off the most rivals throughout the years. Four (all unrelated) were named ''American Football League;'' the
last of these existed from
1960-
1970, before merging with the NFL. In the AFL's last years, it achieved parity with the NFL: AFL teams won the last two of the four pre-merger
Super Bowl games, and TV ratings and in-person attendance for the two leagues were about the same. Another strong rival to the NFL was the
All-America Football Conference of
1946-1949; three of their seven teams merged with the NFL for the
1950 season. Other rival football leagues were the
World Football League of
1974-1975, the
United States Football League of
1982-1985, the
Canadian Football League's American franchises of
1993-1995 and the
XFL of
2001. All told, 13 of the NFL's current 32 franchises were absorbed from a rival league — all 10 AFL franchises of the 1960s, the
Cleveland Browns and
San Francisco 49ers from the AAFC, and the
St. Louis Rams (originally based in
Cleveland and later relocated to
Los Angeles) of the 1936 AFL. Another three NFL franchises have been added or moved to USFL cities since the USFL's demise in 1986, these being
Phoenix,
Jacksonville and
Baltimore.
★ Prior to the challenge of the
World Hockey Association, the NHL prevented the old
Western Hockey League from achieving parity with the NHL by
doubling in size in 1967. During its existence from 1972-1979, the WHA was able to strongly challenge the dominance of the NHL; the WHA initially attracted star players such as
Bobby Hull and
Derek Sanderson to its teams by offering substantially higher salaries than did the NHL at the time. To compete for free agents, NHL teams were forced to match this salary escalation, bringing hockey players' salaries to parity with those of other North American professional athletes. Unfortunately, many WHA franchises were mired in financial difficulty, due to high player salaries, and there were frequent franchise moves even in mid-season. With the WHA faced with collapse, NHL President
John Ziegler negotiated a merger of the leagues. The four strongest teams joined into the NHL: the
Edmonton Oilers, the
Quebec Nordiques (now the
Colorado Avalanche), the New England Whalers (later renamed the
Hartford Whalers and now the
Carolina Hurricanes), and the
Winnipeg Jets (now the
Phoenix Coyotes). A few WHA players became NHL stars after the merger, including
Mark Messier,
Wayne Gretzky,
Mark Howe and
Mike Liut.
Player development
Generally, all of the top major leagues possess highly evolved and sophisticated player development systems that they utilize to develop and train personnel.
★ The vast majority of MLB players are developed through the
minor league baseball system. Prospective players traditionally were drafted or (before the first MLB draft in 1965) signed to a
contract with a MLB team directly after
high school and then assigned to the appropriate minor league level for development. With the growth of
college baseball in the past few decades, more and more players opt to play at the collegiate level and delay entry into the MLB draft. Individual teams' large scouting staffs have given way to smaller staffs and subscriptions to commercial player scouting services.
Entering the majors directly from high school or college is almost unknown; most of the few that have were quickly reassigned to the minors. MLB clubs have also recruited many players from the
Japanese leagues.
★
College and
high school basketball produce most of the NBA's talent, though minimum age rules have ended the NBA's practice of drafting players directly from high school beginning in
2006. The NBA
D-League supplies the NBA to an extent, though NBA teams more frequently recruit talent from
European and
Latin American professional leagues. The
D-League was recently implemented in 2001 by the NBA to help with control of player development and market reach, which a minor league system provides.
★ Semi-pro football and minor leagues such as the
Continental Football League once flourished up to the 1950s, but today the source for almost all NFL players is
college football. From 1995 to 2007, the NFL maintained its own six-team minor league,
NFL Europa, which also served the dual purpose of introducing the game of
American football in European markets. NFL teams also recruit a number of players from
indoor leagues, and occasionally signs players from the
Canadian Football League.
★ Each NHL team has an affiliate in North America's top-tier minor hockey league, the
American Hockey League, and in lower leagues such as the
Central Hockey League or
ECHL. For decades, the traditional route to the NHL has been through junior hockey and the
Canadian Hockey League (CHL), generally regarded as the world's premier competition for 15- through 20-year-olds. In recent decades, NHL teams have drafted and/or signed prospects from top European amateur and professional organizations, and a growing number of NHL hopefuls are forgoing the quasi-professional CHL in favor of
NCAA Division I college hockey. Additionally, the US now has two Junior A hockey leagues that provide many NHL players (some via NCAA hockey) in the
USHL and
NAHL. Regardless of which route hockey players take to sign an NHL contract, almost all are initially assigned to an affiliate in their NHL team's minor league system for development.
Television exposure
All of the top four major leagues have had television contracts with at least one of the original "big three" U.S. broadcast television networks (
CBS,
NBC, and
ABC) since those networks' early years, indicative of the sports' widespread appeal since their inception, continuing today additionally with
FOX.
Regular season games, as well as important contests such as championship and
all-star games are often televised in
prime time. In the last generation, fast-growing cable and satellite networks have taken a larger chunk of the major sports' pie. Three of the four major sports now have entire sports networks dedicated just to each of them.
NBA TV launched in 1999, with
NFL Network and
NHL Network following.
Major League Baseball had announced plans for their own network, but then dropped them to attempt to start a national sports network with FOX. Those plans were dropped as well, after MLB and FOX failed to acquire a late season package of NFL games that went to NFL Network.
Comparing the sizes of television contracts, the NFL is by far the largest (reportedly $2.2 billion US for the 2012 season), with the NBA and MLB second and third ($500 million and $479 million respectively). The NHL is in a distant fourth place ($120 million), a disparity those who wish to exclude the NHL from the top four major leagues often point to. Since 1952 it has been broadcast on the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's
Hockey Night in Canada. The
2006 Stanley Cup Finals attracted 2.63 million viewer on the
CBC.
The NHL began airing games on NBC starting in January 2006 and the
NHL Network, currently only available in Canada, will soon be available to U.S. cable and satellite subscribers. In addition, the NHL broadcasts games nationally on
Versus, generally on Monday and Tuesday nights. Many regular season games are also broadcast on regional sports networks (such as
FSN), which can vary on contract worth by region or team.
High player salaries
The average annual
salary for players in the four major leagues is about
$2.9 million in 2004, although player salaries can range from $300,000 for backup players to $20 million for superstars.
★ NBA players have the highest average player salaries of the four leagues at $4.9 million; however, their teams also have the smallest rosters.
★ The NFL has the highest average team
payroll and a
salary cap that will exceed $100 million for the first time under the new
collective bargaining agreement with the NFL's
players union. However, NFL payrolls distributed among rosters that are far larger than the other three leagues, making their players among the lowest paid on the average at $1.3 million (although this average is likely to increase under the new CBA).
★ Following the settlement of the
2004-05 NHL lockout, NHL players were also due to be paid about $1.3 million on average, although this quickly increased because the lockout did not have the adverse effect on league revenues that was expected. For the
2007-08 NHL season, the average player salary is expected to be comparable to the pre-lockout level of $1.8 million.
★ MLB is in the middle at about $2.5 million per player. MLB is now alone among the major leagues in that it lacks any form of a
salary cap and has enacted only modest forms of
revenue sharing and
luxury taxes, and compared to the other leagues there is a far greater disparity between MLB payrolls. The
New York Yankees had the highest payroll of any American sports team in
2006 when they paid $194 million in players' salaries - nearly twice the NFL salary cap and nearly thirteen times the payroll of the
Florida Marlins who spent about $15 million (significantly less than the mandatory minimum team payrolls in the NFL and NHL).
Dominance of the respective sport
One other trait that each of the top four major leagues share is that they are the premier competitions of their respective sport on the world stage.
There are thriving professional ice hockey, baseball, and basketball leagues around the world which are in a position to challenge their North American counterparts for dominance on and off the playing surface. Major League Baseball is increasingly luring away the stars from the
Japanese leagues, the European hockey leagues have become a major source of star talent for National Hockey League clubs and the National Basketball Association frequently recruits talent from professional leagues in
Europe and
Latin America.
Baseball, basketball, and hockey
The perceived lack of competition from the rest of the world has contributed to the long-standing but controversial practice of the American media dubbing the champions of MLB, the NBA and the NFL the ''
world champions'' (although only the
MLB title is officially billed as a world title). The early
Stanley Cup champions from both the NHL and the early leagues the NHL eventually displaced were also called ''world champions'' in the early decades of professional hockey by Americans and Canadians alike. However, that practice fell out of favor in the latter half of the 20th century. The
International Ice Hockey Federation has proposed a world championship playoff between the Stanley Cup winners and the champions of the
European Hockey League (see below).
If the popularity of baseball and basketball keeps growing in various countries outside of the United States, some think that the NBA and MLB may begin to place franchises in foreign markets (other than Canada, where each league already has a franchise in
Toronto). The popularity of baseball in Southeast Asia and Central America is growing, along with the talent of prospective players from the regions. Meanwhile, the popularity of basketball has grown to be the second highest in the world (following
football (soccer)).
However, one major detractor against foreign expansion by MLB or the NBA is that the sports in question enjoy much of their popularity in relatively poor countries that would probably be unable to financially support a sports franchise using the American model. The only clear exception to this would be the popularity of baseball in
Japan, but well-established baseball leagues already exist in that country.
Due to the popularity of hockey in some of the most prosperous parts of Europe, many believe that the major league with the best chance of success outside North America would be the NHL. This has led to the possibility of European NHL franchises being discussed in the past, although NHL officials have repeatedly said they have no current plans to create a European division. The most that has come out of this has been the "
Super Series" tour in the 1970s and 80s where the
Soviet club teams played NHL teams in exhibition games
[2]. During the
first and most famous of these tours
Red Army Moscow played the
Montreal Canadiens in what the media called an unofficial world championship. However, this was during the height of the
Cold War when the Soviet League had comparable talent to the NHL - since the decline of
Communism in
Eastern Europe in the late
1980s, better financed NHL teams have enticed away most the elite players from the former
Soviet Union and
Czechoslovakia. Professional leagues in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland also have a high level of talent, but the higher salaries and elite level of play offered in the NHL has also lured away many of their best players. Significantly, ice hockey is either popular in countries with a relatively low average income (e.g. Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, Kazakhstan) or a very small population (e.g. Switzerland, Finland). In the largest and most populous nations of Europe, such as France and the UK, hockey is not a major sport. Germany is a partial exception; although hockey is clearly not the most popular sport in Germany.
As mentioned above, the IIHF has proposed that instead of a direct NHL presence in Europe a world championship playoff between the Stanley Cup winners and the champions of the
European Hockey League should be held each year.
[3] The NHL's position on this proposal is not entirely clear, but many believe that the
players union would be unlikely to support it.
Recently talks about NBA franchises being located in Europe have intensified. For logistical reasons it would be necessary to have a minimum of two and probably four or more teams in Europe, so that visiting North American teams could have a "European Swing." Possible cities for such expansion include
London,
Paris,
Barcelona,
Madrid,
Cologne,
Berlin,
Rome and
Moscow. Although current NBA commissioner
David Stern and former NBA star
Michael Jordan are among those who have endorsed the concept of NBA teams in Europe, increasing cooperation between the NBA and
ULEB, the body that organizes the Euroleague, may make a permanent NBA presence in Europe less likely, at least for the foreseeable future. In 2005, the two bodies agreed to organize a summer competition known as the
NBA Europe Live Tour featuring four NBA teams and four Euroleague clubs, with the first competition taking place in 2006.
[4]
A major obstacle for anyone trying to establish either an NBA or NHL presence in Europe is that with soccer being in the dominant position that it enjoys on that continent, building
state of the art indoor arenas suitable for ice hockey and/or basketball has not become a priority in European cities until very recently. No arena likely to meet the standards of either league existed anywhere in Europe until the
Manchester Evening News Arena opened in
1995, followed by Cologne's
Kölnarena in
1998. Two more NBA/NHL-caliber arenas opened in
2004—the
Olympic Indoor Hall in Athens and
Sazka Arena in Prague. Two more such arenas,
Belgrade Arena and the
Madrid Sports Palace, opened in
2005.
A new arena is scheduled to open in London by
2007, and plans are in the works for NBA/NHL-caliber venues in Berlin and Moscow.
Gridiron football
The NFL has the least international exposure of the top four major leagues, American football being the least international of the top four major league sports, yet it is the most popular professional league in the United States. In the 1950s and 1960s, selected NFL teams would travel north to Canada to play a CFL team in pre-season "American Bowl" games. The NFL has also attempted to promote its game worldwide by scheduling selected
pre-season games since 1976 in Mexico, Europe, Australia, and Japan
[5] and through
NFL Europa, although the latter venture was never profitable and ultimately ceased operations in
2007. Starting in 2005, the NFL has begun holding one regular season game in
Mexico City. The 2005 matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals drew a crowd of over 103,000 to
Azteca Stadium, making it the largest attendance at an NFL regular season game
[6]. (A 1994 crowd of over 112,000 at Azteca Stadium is the largest to attend a pre-season game.) A regular-season game at the
New Wembley Stadium in
London,
[7] was added for
2007, becoming the NFL's first venture in the UK since the collapse of two NFL Europa teams based there. Preliminary talks are underway to expand the NFL season to 17 regular season games, with each team playing one game overseas.
[8]
The NFL has a working agreement with the
Canadian Football League (CFL) which is second in popularity only to the NHL in that country. There has also been speculation that a franchise would be located in Toronto, to balance out
a new team in Los Angeles (the only metro area in the U.S. larger than Toronto, or even larger than half Toronto's size that lacks an NFL team). Despite this, the prospect of foreign NFL franchises in the relative near future is unlikely due to gridiron football's lack of popularity outside of Canada and the US, and Canada's preference of their own gridiron football over the foreign US product. Also, there is concern that any NFL team in Toronto will likely endanger the current CFL team there, the
Toronto Argonauts.
See also
★
List of U.S. and Canadian cities by professional sports teams
★
Sports in the United States
★
Sports in Canada
★
List of sports attendance figures - a summary of total and average attendances for the major North American sports and many other sports leagues from around the world.
References
1. FC Dallas fact sheet
2. Survey: Canadian interest in pro football is on the rise Canadian Press
3. http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2007/Feb-21-Wed-2007/sports/12698448.html
4. http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Feb-20-Tue-2007/news/12693500.html
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