2. Any location you pick should be smaller in population, either today or throughout most of the 20th century, than Green Bay, Wisconsin. I’d suggest the Canton Bulldogs but Canton is four times Green Bay’s size now. Rochester and Syracuse also don’t count - both are bigger than Green Bay....
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And remember, Milwaukee is two hours’ drive from Green Bay. Green Bay is no more a Milwaukee satellite than San Diego is an LA satellite.
You obviouislyi mean the metro area, becasue Canton has shrunk from 115,000 in 1970 to 70,000 now. The Cavaliers played in Richfield for decades but that was still clearly a Cleveland team.
I was going to have some shennanigans where NFL owners were a bit miffed at Clevelan but still wanted to give the area a team so in 1999 the New Brownsare placed in Canton, but I guess that's a bit too close?
Perhaps a better choice is the irresistible Charlie Finley, who threatened to move the Athletics everywhere up to and including the moon if I recall, and finally said to the media that he would move them, "somewhere."
So, let's say he decides to pt them in Omaha - "close enough people can drive if they really want to," he would argue - instead of Oakland becasue the team promises anexpanson of Rosenblatt Stadium after the College World Series moves (it did lose money quite often in it sfirst years there through the '50s) - Finley befriends someone from Nebraska who offers to help him make it "as big as Nebraska Football in Lincoln." True, he can't only draw 20,000 a game but it's still way better than he was doing, and the tie-in works with the A's dynasty drawing lots of fans who have nothing better to do during the summer without football.
Then, in the late '70s, Warren Buffett buys the club and keeps them in Nebraska after their rivalry with the Royals (and of course the Yankees nd other powers being in town) were all that would keep them drawing enough fans. Buffett's purchase in '81 is seen as more of a gimmick, something done just to keep the A's in the area, but baseball doesn't mind because of the riches he has; they know he'll compete. With the attendance waning some in the mid-'80s, and Rosenblatt Stadium getting a bit old (though it's only about 40 years old, Baltimore's Memorial Stadium is about the same age and will be replaced within 10 years), he is the first to use the architecture firm HOK out of Kansas City and build a retro-style ballpark which opens in 1987, just in time for the A's resurgence. Though it's only 38,000 seats, it still draws fans from quite a distance away.
The Nebraska Athletics continue to do well, though U. of Nebraska fans continue to wonder why they keep that weird green and gold and Nebraska's colors are scarlet and white, but they do draw quite a bit from Iowa, too.
(Note: Finley could have moved them somewhere even smaller, but I wanted a place somewhat close where he could try to get away with it by saying people could drive, even if it wasn't true or at least not very easy, and also where someone really rich could buy them and keep them there.)
Anotgher thought - the Boston Bravs were almost evicted in 1934 and looked for someplace else to move. Montreal and Baltimore were considered but eventually theys tayed. Providence had a great history in the majors back in the 1880s, could they have moved there and had their own city with the Red Sox always good in Boston? Could they have stayed? Probably yes to the first, but I don't know about the second.A lot depends on who buys them afterward.