This is a list of metropolitan areas in the United States and Canada categorized by the number of major professional sports franchises in their metropolitan areas.
The major professional sports leagues, or simply major leagues, in the United States and Canada are the highest professional competitions of team sports in the two countries. Although individual sports such as golf, mixed martial arts, tennis, and auto racing are also very popular, the term is usually limited to team sports.
These four leagues are also commonly referred to as the Big Four. Each of these is the richest professional club competition in its sport worldwide. The best players can become cultural icons in both countries and elsewhere in the world, because the leagues enjoy a significant place in popular culture in the U.S. and Canada. The NFL and NHL each have 32 teams, and the MLB and the NBA each have 30 teams. The most recent market to receive its first "Big Four" team is Las Vegas, Nevada, which saw the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights make their debut for the 2017–18 season.
Baseball, football and hockey have had professional leagues for over 100 years; early leagues such as the National Association, Ohio League and National Hockey Association formed the basis of the modern MLB, NFL and NHL respectively. Basketball is a relatively new development; the NBA evolved from the National Basketball League and its splinter group the Basketball Association of America, taking on its current form in 1949. The fifth biggest professional sports league is Major League Soccer (MLS). While soccer is very popular globally, in Canada and the United States it has struggled to become established with several professional leagues being established and folding before MLS was founded in 1996. The Canadian Football League (CFL), a much small league (9 teams), is also popular in Canada. All of these leagues draw 15,000 or more fans in attendance per game on average as of 2015. Therefore, this list includes a ranking by teams in the Big Four (B4), the Big Five (B5), and a separate ranking also including teams in the CFL called the Big Six (B6).
Though teams are listed here by metropolitan area, the distribution and support of teams within an area can reveal regional fractures below that level, whether by neighborhood, rival cities within a media market or separate markets entirely. Baseball teams provide illustrations for several of these models. In New York City, the Yankees are popularly dubbed the "Bronx Bombers" for their home borough and generally command the loyalties of fans from the Bronx, parts of Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan, Long Island, parts of North Jersey and Westchester County, New York, while the Mets play in Queens and draw support from Queens, Brooklyn and parts of Long Island, revealing a split by neighborhood. The San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics represent rival cities within the Bay Area, a single media market. Though the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles share a metro area, their cities anchor separate media markets and hold distinctly separate cultural identities. In Los Angeles, the Lakers and Clippers share an arena (Staples Center) and media coverage is split amongst different broadcasters in the metro area.
With the Vegas Golden Knights, based in the Las Vegas Valley, the 23rd largest market in North America, having joined the National Hockey League in 2017, the largest urban areas without a team in one of the big four leagues are the 30th-ranked Austin region (though it does have a Major League Soccer team as of 2021) and the 37th-ranked Virginia Beach-Norfolk region. The smallest metropolitan area to have a Big Four team is Green Bay (Green Bay Packers), which is the 146th largest metropolitan area, though much of its fan base is drawn from Milwaukee, which is 120 miles away and the 38th largest market. The smallest stand-alone metropolitan area to have a Big Four team is the 78th-largest market, Winnipeg (Winnipeg Jets), while Buffalo, NY, is the smallest metropolitan area to have more than one Big Four teams (Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres).
The following list contains all metropolitan areas in the United States and Canada containing at least one team in any of the six major leagues. The number of teams in the big four leagues (B4) and the big six leagues (B6), and the city's teams in the National Football League (NFL),[2] Major League Baseball (MLB),[3] the National Basketball Association (NBA),[4] the National Hockey League (NHL),[5] Major League Soccer (MLS)[6] and the Canadian Football League (CFL).[7] No metropolitan area has teams in all six leagues, as NFL teams are exclusively in the United States and CFL teams are exclusively in Canada.
^The Rams and Chargers are both in their second stints in the Los Angeles market. The Rams arrived from Cleveland in 1946 and played in the L.A. area until moving to St. Louis after the 1995 season; they would return to L.A. in 2016. The Chargers were originally based in Los Angeles, playing there for the AFL's first season in 1960 before moving to San Diego, where they would play until returning to L.A. in 2017. In addition to the Rams and Chargers, two other NFL teams have called Los Angeles home. The Buccaneers (no relation to NFL franchise in Tampa) played in the 1926 season; despite representing Los Angeles, the team operated out of Chicago because of the difficulty of transcontinental travel in the era before modern air travel. The Oakland Raiders played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994, before they moved back to Oakland.
^The Chicago Tigers played one season in the NFL (then APFA) in 1920, while the Chicago Cardinals were a charter franchise of the NFL, before moving to St. Louis in 1960.
^Chicago has had two prior NBA teams: the Stags existed from 1946 to 1950 before folding and the Packers/Zephyrs played from 1961 to 1963, before moving to Baltimore.
^The Dallas Texans played in the NFL for one season in 1952.
^The Washington Senators played 1 season in the NFL (then APFA) in 1921. The Commanders were known as the Redskins
from 1937, when they moved from Boston, until 2020 when the name was temporarily changed to the Washington Football Team; the Commanders name was adopted in 2022.
^The Athletics played in the National League's inaugural season in 1876, before being expelled from the league. Another Athletics team was established in the American League in 1901 and played until 1954, when the team moved to Kansas City.
^The Quakers played in the NHL for the 1930-1931 season. Afterwards, the team suspended operations for the next five years before officially announcing their dissolution in 1936.
^Before the Patriots joined the NFL as a result of the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, three other NFL teams had played in Boston: the Bulldogs (1929, disbanded), the Braves/Redskins (1932-1936, moved to Washington) and the Yanks (1944-1948, moved to New York and became the Bulldogs).
^The Denver Nuggets joined the NBA in 1949 as a result of the BAA's merger with the NBL, but dissolved following their first NBA season; the current Denver Nuggets joined the NBA as part of the ABA–NBA merger of 1976 and are not related to the original Nuggets.
^While Toronto has not had an NFL franchise, the Buffalo Bills did host one of the team's regular season games each year and a number of pre-season games at the Rogers Centre from 2008 to 2013 as part of the Bills Toronto Series.
^The Toronto Huskies played in the inaugural season of what would become the NBA, before dissolving. The Buffalo Braves were an NBA team that played a total of 16 home games in Toronto from 1971 to 1975.[11]
^Houston hosted the Houston Oilers from 1960 (where they played in the AFL until its merger with the NFL in 1970) through 1996 when the team moved to Tennessee—initially being called the Tennessee Oilers in its first season in Memphis and its second season in Nashville until ultimately being renamed the Tennessee Titans upon the opening of the team's current Nashville stadium in 1999.
^The Tampa Bay Mutiny was a charter franchise of MLS in 1996. However, the franchise folded in 2001.[10]
^Pittsburgh had one of the founding members of what became the NBA: the Pittsburgh Ironmen. However, they only played a single season (1946–47) before folding.
^Five other NFL teams have played in the Cleveland area: the Tigers (1920-1922; the team suspended operations and could not pay an annual guarantee), the Indians/Bulldogs (1923-1927, when the team moved to Detroit and became the Wolverines), the Indians (1931), the Rams (1937-1946; moved to Los Angeles) and the original Browns (1950-1995). The original Browns' owner Art Modell had planned to move the Browns to Baltimore but was threatened by legal action from both Cleveland and Browns fans; the dispute was resolved when Modell was given an expansion franchise in Baltimore using existing Browns personnel, while the city of Cleveland was allowed to retain the team's intellectual property for a new Browns franchise.
^2 former baseball teams played in the National League: the Blues (1879-1884, when the teams was folded into the Brooklyn Grays) and the Spiders (1889-1899, when the team was contracted from the league). The Guardians were known as the Indians from 1914 to 2021.
^The Red Stockings, informally known as the "Reds", played in the National League from 1876 until it was expelled in 1880 for violating league rules. The current Reds joined the NL in 1890 from the AA.
^The original Hornets franchise played in the NBA from 1988 to 2002, before moving to New Orleans. The current Hornets were established in 2004 as the Charlotte Bobcats, but re-assumed the Hornets name in 2014, after the New Orleans Hornets renamed themselves the Pelicans and transferred their records and statistics from their time as the original Hornets to the current Charlotte franchise.
^St. Louis has hosted four NFL teams: the St. Louis All-Stars in 1923, the St. Louis Gunners who played the last 3 games of the 1934 season, the St. Louis Cardinals who played from 1960 to 1988 before moving to Phoenix, Arizona, and the St. Louis Rams who played from 1995 to 2015, before moving back to Los Angeles.
^The Eagles, a relocation of the Ottawa Senators, played in the NHL for the 1934-1935 season; after a request to suspend operations for the following season was rejected by the NHL, the team was disbanded and its players dispersed among the league's remaining teams.
^Baltimore was home to two NFL teams, both named the Colts. The original Colts played in the 1950 NFL season before folding, while the second Colts team played from 1953 until it relocated to Indianapolis following the 1983 season.
^Baltimore was home to two NBA teams, both named the Bullets. The original Bullets played in the American Basketball League and NBA from 1944 to 1954. The second team was founded in 1963, following the relocation of the Chicago Zephyrs to Maryland. For the next 11 seasons, the Bullets played in Baltimore before moving to Landover, Maryland, within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, in 1973.
^Las Vegas has never had an NBA team, but the Utah Jazz played 11 home games in Las Vegas during the 1983-1984 season.
^The Las Vegas Posse were a CFL expansion franchise that existed for only the 1994 season.
^The Indianapolis Blues played in the National League for the 1878 season, while the St. Louis Maroons moved to Indianapolis and played as the Hoosiers from 1887 until the team dissolved in 1889. A second Indianapolis Hoosiers team took the field in 1914, and won the championship of the new Federal League, which is officially considered to be a major league. The franchise moved to Newark, New Jersey for the league's second and final season.
^Before the Pacers joined the NBA in 1976 as a result of the ABA–NBA merger, two NBA teams had played in Indianapolis: the Indianapolis Jets of the NBL joined the BAA (the NBA's immediate predecessor) in 1948, but dissolved the following year when the NBL merged with the BAA, in favor of the NBL's Indianapolis Olympians. The Olympians would disband in 1953.
^Milwaukee had an NFL franchise from 1922-1926 called the Milwaukee Badgers. A few years after the Badgers folded, the Green Bay Packers would play a portion of their home schedule in Milwaukee on a regular basis from 1933 until 1994.
^Prior to the Brewers, three MLB teams have played in Milwaukee. In the National League, the Grays played in the 1878 NL season, while the Braves played in the city from 1953 until it moved to Atlanta in 1965. The original Brewers played in the American League's inaugural season in 1901 before moving to St. Louis and becoming the Browns.
^The New Orleans Jazz played in the NBA in 1974 before moving to Salt Lake City in 1979. The Pelicans themselves (not related to the Jazz) were formerly a relocation of the Charlotte Hornets, but in 2013 the renamed Pelicans transferred its records and statistics from their time in Charlotte to the Charlotte Bobcats, who were about to reassume the Hornets name. The Pelicans are now considered an expansion team starting play in 2002 as the New Orleans Hornets, then renaming themselves as the Pelicans in 2013.
^Before the Bills joined the NFL as a result of the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, two other NFL teams played in the Buffalo area. The All-Americans/Bisons/Rangers/Bisons played in the city under several different owners until 1929 (not playing the 1928 season), while the Tonawanda Kardex Lumbermen played in Tonawanda in the 1921 season, but disbanded after a lopsided loss in their sole NFL game. From the 2008 to 2013 seasons, the Bills hosted one of their regular season games and a number of preseason games at Toronto's Rogers Centre as part of the Bills Toronto Series.
^The Bisons played in the National League from 1879 until it left the league in 1885; the Bisons have played in the minor leagues in one form or another since. In addition, the Toronto Blue Jays played a majority of their home games in Buffalo during the 2020 season due to COVID-19-related issues preventing the Blue Jays from playing in Toronto.
^Montreal was home to two other NHL clubs. The Montreal Wanderers who played a portion of the NHL's inaugural 1917/18 season, and the Montreal Maroons who played in the NHL from 1924-1938.
^Two CFL teams have previously played in the Ottawa area: The Rough Riders, who existed from 1876 to 1996 and the Renegades, who played from 2002 to 2006.
^The Elks were known as the Eskimos from 1949 until 2020, then temporarily calling themselves the Edmonton Football Team before adopting the Elks name in 2021.
^San Diego hosted the San Diego Chargers from 1961 (where they initially played in the AFL until the league's merger with the NFL in 1970) through 2016, at which point the team moved back to its original city of Los Angeles for the 2017 season.
^San Diego has had two NBA franchises: the San Diego Rockets and the San Diego Clippers. The Rockets represented San Diego from 1967 until 1971 when they moved to Houston, Texas to become the Houston Rockets. Seven years later, the Buffalo Braves moved to town and were renamed the San Diego Clippers, where they played until 1984, when the team relocated to Los Angeles and became the Los Angeles Clippers.
^The NFL's Houston Oilers relocated to Memphis for one season (as the Tennessee Oilers) in 1997 before moving to Nashville to become the Tennessee Titans.
^The Memphis Mad Dogs were a CFL expansion franchise that existed for only the 1995 season.
^ abThe NFL's Buffalo Bills held one of the team's regular season games each year and a number of pre-season games at Toronto's Rogers Centre from 2008 to 2013 as part of the Bills Toronto Series.
