GMTom wrote:Cross posted with Danivon. Funny how he points out a move of a mere 10 miles seems to have meant something, even the team that moved 80 miles, for most of our cities that would be a move from one distant suburb to one on the other side of that same market. I go to Buffalo Bills games, we are part of their market area, it's about 70 miles from my house (and I am on the closer side of town).
In the UK, 100 miles is a long way away, and 100 years is recent. In the US, 100 miles is just down the road and 100 years is ancient times...
We live in different scales. Wimbledon is in South West London. Within about 30 miles of there are several other professional sides in the top four divisions: Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, West Ham, QPR, Fulham, Crystal Palace, Charlton, Millwall, Leyton Orient, Barnet, Brentford, Dagenham & Redbridge, Crawley Town, Stevenage, Luton, Wycombe Wanderers.
Also, we don't see our cities and regions as "markets" for sport. Local teams will get support from people who live there or nearby (or who have family histories), big teams will often draw support from all over (Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea shirts are all over the place). And we are compact enough to be a single "market" when it comes to televised games. We have regional TV, but that's mainly for local news on the main networks (BBC and ITV). Pretty much all channels are national for England if not the whole UK.
Of course, the Dons thing was about seeking a market. London is big (about 20% of the UK population) but crowded, and Wimbledon had made it to the Premiership from the non-leagues in a pretty short time, and then struggled to compete with few resources and only a local fanbase. Milton Keynes is a large new town that had a semi-pro team which wasn't going anywhere, and seemed to be a new market.
It has sort of worked - MK Dons had a poor first decade, but have in the last few years made their way back to the Championship (where they were when they moved from Wimbledon). But it's not likely to set a major precedent.