(01-13-2017 11:33 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  New York once hosted 3 teams and still could (especially if one was in New Jersey). Also, remember the Sacramento Kings were almost a lead pipe cinch to become the Anaheim Royals, the third team in the LA market.

Check the Dodgers payroll. If a team even had a third of that they could field a viable MLB team. It's very possible for a third team to play in LA.

At one time that may have been possible, LA is such a sprawling metro area that if you placed a team in Riverside or San Bernardino back in the seventies or eighties, it'd probably do okay. However with baseball allegiances entrenched for fifty years now since the Dodgers and Angels were established in their LA and Anaheim markets, most people who are baseball fans in SoCal are already fans of them or the Padres. It's difficult to break those ties, especially in an age of instant communication where you don't have to go to the ballpark, listen to the radio, or watch TV to follow your team, you can just get an update on your phone. Sure New York supported three teams (and the NYC area has three hockey clubs now), but comparing the financial and fan base structures of baseball in the fifties to now is apples to oranges.

That's one of the reasons the Rays have such a problem developing a fan base here in Tampa Bay. Instead of having a ballpark on the Tampa side of the bay where more natives live (even if it's not a very high percentage compared to most cities), they put the Trop in St. Pete, home to a population full of transplants with preexisting fandoms. It's why the stands are packed against the Yankees and Red Sox, but against basically everyone else they have to rely on a relatively small portion of St. Pete and Tampa residents who are facing drives well over half an hour for the most part.