(08-19-2019 11:43 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-19-2019 09:46 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(08-19-2019 06:06 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(08-19-2019 04:08 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  [quote='quo vadis' pid='16244386' dateline='1566244839']

Quote:and second, being "major league" has nothing to do with bowl viability.

I think you've retreated from this point, acknowledging that the Memphis area has more money than Shreveport.

Not at all. As Memphis is not in any popular or reasonable sense 'major league',
and yet has a reasonably thriving bowl game in the Liberty, being major league has nothing to do with bowl viability.

I put it to you, Quo, that your definition of "major league" is idiosyncratic. The popular and reasonable definition of "major league" is "has a major league pro sports franchise."

I think my earlier points reveal that this is a pedantic idea and in no way comports with the popular imagination on the topic.

E.g., nobody would say that Philly, which has teams in all four major sports, and Memphis, which has one, are both "major league" in any comparable sense. If Memphis is "major league" because it has the 30th most valuable NBA franchise, then we need another term for cities that are truly major, way above Memphis.

Yes, a different term is needed if you want to say top 10 (or 20-25?) cities.

Quote:So IMO the term "major league" was originally inserted here in an inappropriate way. If the point was to explain from an economic POV why the Liberty Bowl might have been able to up its payout and Shreveport has not, then that could have been accurately stated by saying something like "well, Shreveport is a tiny dump whereas Memphis is a second-tier city and thus has significantly greater economic resources". That would be accurate. But trying to puff up Memphis into something it isn't - major league - wasn't.

That's a lot of words to convey the same meaning as my original "Memphis is a major league-AAA city". Pretty much everyone else understands the term "major league metropolitan area." It's not my fault you're stuck in the 1940s when there were only 16 major league baseball teams in 10 cities.