OTL just about all big-league sports teams are in or near major cities and owned either by billionaires or investment groups. However, there is one clear exception - the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, a team in a small city of roughly 100,000 owned by shareholding fans. The Packers are an anomaly but are consistently one of the most popular teams in the NFL, even outshining big-market teams like those based in Los Angeles, a city four times its size.
With a POD in any sport - baseball, football, basketball, hockey, or maaaaaybe soccer - after January 1, 1900, what is the smallest possible city that could remain home to a professional sports team on the highest level of competition? A few guidelines:
1. This is more than a bit America-centered, so unless you clarify a POD in Europe or Japan or something, it should center around North America’s big four.
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.
3. Canadian cities are acceptable if they participate in the MLB, NFL, NBA or NHL regularly. The Kenora Thistles (1907 Stanley Cup champions) surviving in the NHL is acceptable.