AMERICAN CITY BUSINESS JOURNALS (ACBJ) conducted a study of the pro sports expansion potential of 55 U.S. metropolitan areas. Areas are ranked by Market Index (MI), which takes into account population, projected population, TV households, total personal income and number of businesses with more than 100 employees. An MI of 200 means that a metro is better demographically than half of the present metros in a given league. An MI of 100 means that an area is better than a quarter of the existing markets. Capacity Measure (CM), formulated by weighing each market's total personal income and its number of existing pro sports teams, indicates the amount of support available for a major league sports team. ACBJ determined that an area needs a CM of at least 0.63 to support an NBA team.
| TOP TEN MARKETS WITH SUFFICIENT CAPACITY FOR NBA EXPANSION |
| MARKET | MARKET INDEX | CAPACITY MEASURE | | MARKET | MARKET INDEX | CAPACITY MEASURE |
| SAN DIEGO | 134 | 0.67 | GREENSBORO-W.S. | 65 | 0.88 |
| BALTIMORE | 132 | 0.75 | W. PALM BEACH | 61 | 1.17 |
| COLUMBUS | 82 | 1.15 | MEMPHIS | 61 | 0.83 |
| NORFOLK-VA BEACH | 74 | 1.06 | LAS VEGAS | 59 | 0.88 |
| HARTFORD | 72 | 1.1 | GRAND RAPIDS, MI | 59 | 0.78 |
| MARKET | '96 POP. | '97 TV HH'S | PROJECTED POP. 2005 | PERSONAL INCOME | LARGE BUSINESSES |
| BALTIMORE | 2,474,118 | 989,000 | 2,693,000 | $59,115 | 1,283 |
| COLUMBUS | 1,447,646 | 735,000 | 1,604,000 | $31,386 | 979 |
| GRD. RAPIDS | 1,015,099 | 648,000 | 1,088,000 | $21,338 | 673 |
| G'BORO-W.S. | 1,141,238 | 567,000 | 1,243,000 | $24,121 | 842 |
| HARTFORD | 1,110,102 | 915,000 | 1,224,000 | $29,988 | 748 |
| LAS VEGAS | 1,201,073 | 427,000 | 1,419,000 | $24,043 | 549 |
| MEMPHIS | 1,078,151 | 611,000 | 1,168,000 | $22,774 | 703 |
| NORFOLK | 1,540,252 | 631,000 | 1,660,000 | $29,065 | 657 |
| SAN DIEGO | 2,655,463 | 917,000 | 3,207,000 | $56,923 | 1,165 |
| W. PALM BCH | 992,840 | 587,000 | 1,168,000 | $31,994 | 513 |
NOTE: Personal income is measured in thousands. -30-
