BigMike
09-28-2010, 01:38 PM
Size Matters:
The woes of not being Flordia, NY, or California.
Many top tier NBA players have let their agents know that they do NOT want to be traded to a small market team because, as in everything else in life, Size Matters.
I have heard quite a few people talking about Charlotte being a “small market”, and I felt there was some confusion about what that means. Yes we have a Metro population of 1.7 million and an actual City population of about 750, 000 making us the 18th largest city in the USA.
But markets are measured by television audiences not by population, lucky for us Nielson is nice enough to track and rank them for us.
We have had some movement in our television market size over the last decade: in 2000 we were ranked 37th, in 2006 we were ranked 27th, and this year we broke the top 25 and moved up to 23rd (Yay Charlotte!) The problem is that we added just over 200k television homes for that 14 slot jump, to break the top 20 we will need to add 300k more television homes. That’s a 25% growth spurt, so we have a while.
How is that considered small?
You may be asking your self, ‘with a top 20 population and a top 25 TV market how are we still considered small?’ The problem is the scale you’re using, and for the Bobcats we are on a sliding scale whose measurements are the other 31 teams in the league. Bookended by NYC with its 7.515 million TV homes at the top and New Orleans with is 0.635 million TV homes at the bottom.
Sadly we are still in the bottom third of that list. And until we get in the middle third we do not have a strong argument against our label as “small market”. And even then, we can expect that most reporters and commentators will still continue to call us a small market until we break the 2million mark TV home mark. We are sitting at 1.16 million now so I can not see that happening before I am old and grey.
To borrow a phrase from Coach Fox, “It is what it is.”
THE LIST:
Knicks #1
NJ Nets #1.5
----------------------------- 7 Million TVs
LA Lakers #2
LA Clippers #2.5
----------------------------- 5 Million TVs
Chicago Bulls #3
Philly 76rs #4
----------------------------- 3 Million TVs
Dallas Mavs #5
Golden State #6
Boston Celtics #7
Atlanta Hawks #8
Washington Wizards #9
Huston Rockets #10
----------------------------- 2 Million TVs
Detroit Pistons #11
Phoenix Suns #12
Minnesota Timberwolves #15
Miami Heat #16
Denver Nuggets #17
Cleveland Cavs #18
Orlando Magic #19
Sac Kings #20
Portland Trail blazers #22
** Charlotte Bobcats #23 **
Indiana Pacers #27
----------------------------- 1 Million TVs
Utah Jazz #32
Milwaukee Bucks #35
San Antonio Spurs #37
OKC Thunder #45
Memphis Grizzlys #48
New Orleans Hornets #52
Notes:
Toronto was left out because there is no reliable data on their TV market.
Cities Number 13, 14, and 21 are; Seattle, Tampa, and St. Louis. These are the only TV markets bigger then Charlotte with no NBA team.
The next 2 markets below Charlotte are 24 Pittsburgh and 25 Raleigh-Durham
The woes of not being Flordia, NY, or California.
Many top tier NBA players have let their agents know that they do NOT want to be traded to a small market team because, as in everything else in life, Size Matters.
I have heard quite a few people talking about Charlotte being a “small market”, and I felt there was some confusion about what that means. Yes we have a Metro population of 1.7 million and an actual City population of about 750, 000 making us the 18th largest city in the USA.
But markets are measured by television audiences not by population, lucky for us Nielson is nice enough to track and rank them for us.
We have had some movement in our television market size over the last decade: in 2000 we were ranked 37th, in 2006 we were ranked 27th, and this year we broke the top 25 and moved up to 23rd (Yay Charlotte!) The problem is that we added just over 200k television homes for that 14 slot jump, to break the top 20 we will need to add 300k more television homes. That’s a 25% growth spurt, so we have a while.
How is that considered small?
You may be asking your self, ‘with a top 20 population and a top 25 TV market how are we still considered small?’ The problem is the scale you’re using, and for the Bobcats we are on a sliding scale whose measurements are the other 31 teams in the league. Bookended by NYC with its 7.515 million TV homes at the top and New Orleans with is 0.635 million TV homes at the bottom.
Sadly we are still in the bottom third of that list. And until we get in the middle third we do not have a strong argument against our label as “small market”. And even then, we can expect that most reporters and commentators will still continue to call us a small market until we break the 2million mark TV home mark. We are sitting at 1.16 million now so I can not see that happening before I am old and grey.
To borrow a phrase from Coach Fox, “It is what it is.”
THE LIST:
Knicks #1
NJ Nets #1.5
----------------------------- 7 Million TVs
LA Lakers #2
LA Clippers #2.5
----------------------------- 5 Million TVs
Chicago Bulls #3
Philly 76rs #4
----------------------------- 3 Million TVs
Dallas Mavs #5
Golden State #6
Boston Celtics #7
Atlanta Hawks #8
Washington Wizards #9
Huston Rockets #10
----------------------------- 2 Million TVs
Detroit Pistons #11
Phoenix Suns #12
Minnesota Timberwolves #15
Miami Heat #16
Denver Nuggets #17
Cleveland Cavs #18
Orlando Magic #19
Sac Kings #20
Portland Trail blazers #22
** Charlotte Bobcats #23 **
Indiana Pacers #27
----------------------------- 1 Million TVs
Utah Jazz #32
Milwaukee Bucks #35
San Antonio Spurs #37
OKC Thunder #45
Memphis Grizzlys #48
New Orleans Hornets #52
Notes:
Toronto was left out because there is no reliable data on their TV market.
Cities Number 13, 14, and 21 are; Seattle, Tampa, and St. Louis. These are the only TV markets bigger then Charlotte with no NBA team.
The next 2 markets below Charlotte are 24 Pittsburgh and 25 Raleigh-Durham