[Alberta's Child]

New York teams always have one distinct advantage in professional sports: they play in the largest consumer market in the U.S., and therefore generate more revenue than any other team from ticket sales and local television.

I have no problem with that in principle from a business standpoint, but it makes it very difficult to maintain a professional league under these conditions. One characteristic of sports that doesn't apply to any other industry is that each team has a compelling interest in not running their competition out of business.

[Labyrinthos]

New York teams always have one distinct advantage in professional sports: they play in the largest consumer market in the U.S., and therefore generate more revenue than any other team from ticket sales and local television.

The Yankees also generate more revenue for the teams they play because whenever the Yankees come to town, the home team attendance is up and in many cases, way up.

I have no problem with that in principle from a business standpoint, but it makes it very difficult to maintain a professional league under these conditions. One characteristic of sports that doesn't apply to any other industry is that each team has a compelling interest in not running their competition out of business.

Take a look at the teams in the World Series since 1960 and even over the last 10 years, and you will see a number of teams from smaller markets. Since 1980, for example, something like 21 different teams have played in the World Series. Although the Yankees do have the most appearances with 7, at least 13 of the other teams played in the series at least twice, including ATL (4), PHL (3), OAK (3), STL (3), CLE (2), KC (2), LA (2), SFO (2), FLA (2), MIN (2), and NYM (2), and between 1980 and 1998, the Yankees only appeared twice. So please don't try to convice me that baseball lacks diversity in the winners' circle.