■ ERIE, PA, (No. 16): This three-team market has made our top 25 three consecutive times, rising to No. 16 this year. It was No. 25 in 2011 and No. 17 two years ago. The market’s youngest franchise, the NBA D-League Erie BayHawks, has registered a year-over-year attendance increase in six of their seven seasons, for a total jump of 43 percent over that span. Erie Insurance Arena, home to the BayHawks and the 11-year-old PIFL Erie Explosion, received a $47 million upgrade in 2013. As for the Class AA Eastern League Erie SeaWolves, they are seeking $12 million in public funding to update their 20-year-old Jerry Uht Park. If that were to happen, and the teams’ strong support metrics were to continue, Erie could be a top-10 contender in 2017.
$34M RELOCATION PLAN
■ SAVANNAH, GA. (NO. 64): The Class A South Atlantic League Sand Gnats are ending their nearly half-century relationship with the city and relocating to South Carolina after this season. The newly named Columbia (S.C.) Fireflies will begin play next spring in the new $37 million Spirit Communications Park. That relocation will leave the city only the AIF Savannah Steam, who this summer completed its first full season in the market, so without a new franchise moving in, Savannah is certain to drop in the rankings in our 2017 study.
■ PROVIDENCE-PAWTUCKET, R.I., (NO. 30) AND READING, PA. (NO. 138): Two former top-10 markets have struggled in recent years. (Providence-Pawtucket was No. 3 in our 2011 study and No. 12 two years ago; Reading was No. 4 in 2011 and No. 34 in 2013.) In Rhode Island, the Class AAA International League Pawtucket Red Sox and AHL Providence Bruins drew a combined 865,000 fans last year. That total remains one of the highest among all the markets in our study, but it’s also a sum that’s down 14 percent over the past decade. Still, the PawSox are building an $85 million stadium in downtown Providence, five miles from their current home, that is scheduled to open in 2017. Reading, meanwhile, has seen five straight years of overall attendance decline. The number of fans who attended games last year (555,000) is down 19 percent over the study’s measured five-year period.
■ LOVELAND, COLO. (NO. 102): The ECHL Colorado Eagles sold out 424 consecutive games (including playoffs) at the Budweiser Events Center from their debut in 2003 until April 2014. Their co-tenant, the IFL Colorado Crush, doesn’t draw as well, but with seven years of play under its belt, the Crush is one of the more tenured indoor football teams in the country. Loveland is a young market by our standards, but the sustained support shown for the teams in this market is worth watching.
■ LAS VEGAS (NO. 149): With $76 billion in total personal income in the market, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Las Vegas ranks as the fifth-wealthiest market in our study. However — and perhaps because of that metric — its status as a minor league market could change before our 2017 study. Earlier this month, the NHL announced that Las Vegas and Quebec City had moved on to the second of three phases in their bids to land NHL expansion franchises as early as 2017. The Las Vegas group has announced that it already has secured more than 13,000 season-ticket deposits for a potential team, and a $385 million, 20,000-seat arena that is being built by AEG/MGM Resorts International near the Las Vegas Strip is set to open next spring. That’s all despite the ECHL Las Vegas Wranglers calling it quits in the city earlier this year. The market’s most tenured club is the Class AAA Las Vegas 51s, who began play there in 1983.
■ ODESSA, TEXAS (NO. 212): There’s no place to go but up in our rankings for Odessa. The market was home for 14 seasons to the Odessa Jackalopes before the franchise left the CHL and joined the North American Hockey League, a junior hockey league. The market also has been home to six iterations of indoor football, beginning in 2004 and ending after the West Texas Wildcatters went 2-10 and folded in 2014 after only one season in the Lone Star Football League. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Odessa is a relatively small market by population (154,000 residents), but it is rapidly growing (up 12 percent over the five years measured in our study).
