Could any sport support a new league?
 

Could a new pro-level league challenge any establish league? If so, why and how?

I think it would be difficult. But for any sport, they've at least got NBC to nationally televise their games. That network is so hard up for sports that they'll give anything national exposure.

With enough money

I think a rival professional croquet league could take the nation by storm.

Hey, croquet is more interesting than golf... or baseball... :)

A lot of people (including myself) would love to see an alternative to MLB, but I don't see it happening, solely because of stadiums.

The Northern League is huge in Fargo, they generally use college stadiums. Pretty good baseball. Go Redhawks!

Curling man!!!

It's big here in Manitoba too, we are currently adding on to the Fish Bowl because it was too hard to get tickets the last few years. Go Goldeyes!

Of the big four (football, baseball, hockey and basketball), basketball would probably be the "easiest" for a new league to break into. If only because there are less players in the NBA than there are players in any of the other sports. So it's not like there'd be any real challenge to find players to fill the league.

Or even stupid musical polls.

Football. I still think a deep winter- early spring league (like the XFL without the stupid marketing) could work. If the NFL brought the World League back to the states...

The hated Goldeyes. They have the Redhawks bus stopped and searched at the border everytime. Just trying to throw them off. Damn Goldeyes :)

The NHL and NHLPA seem to be doing a good job of hanging themselves financially, so perhaps a new hockey league.

Baseball wouldn't make it. There isn't a big enough fan base, and there aren't enough people that would watch it on TV to make it profitable. Besides, every market that doesn't have a MLB squad has a minor league franchise for anyone who really wants to go out to a ballgame in the summertime.

Football would work, if there were a decent "developmental" league created in cooperation with the NFL. Unfortunately, the NFL seems content with their European and Arena operations, and college teams seem to fill in the rest of the gaps. Football players have relatively brief careers anyway - so if you spend five years in the "minors," you're almost done before you make it to the show.

Basketball could work. Lots of kids who can't get into college but have tons of talent would be well-served by an NBA minor-league. College talent is already getting depleted with all the best high school prospects going right for the NBA, so it wouldn't really screw that game up any worse than it already is.

Hockey... eh. Can't see the damned puck on TV anyway.

I read on ESPN.com that this might be the last year for NFL Europe.

Maybe they'll do something new here!

Who has the rights to MLS. I'm suprised NBC hasn't tried to latch onto that as the "next great sport".

SI

What about NASCAR? As much as I'd like to see a merged open-wheel division, I think a second stock-car division could work. They're definitly enough tracks that want races, and drivers wouldn't be hard to come by. I'm sure NBC would take them.

TLK

ABC/ESPN

Actually, no one has "rights" to MLS, but ABC/ESPN sort of do... they have agreed to sell blocks of time to the MLS, who in turn has a marketing arm who sells commercials to make money. In essence, any MLS or World Cup game you see on American TV is a 2-hour infomercial for soccer, but the MLS makes money on ad space it sells within that 2 hours. So, ESPN doesn't much care about the ratings for that space, since they wouldn't be showing anything but billiards anyway. Plus, they're getting guaranteed money for the time. The key is, how long can they make money off the ads they sell? That's the key to the TV success of soccer in the US.

Realistically I think football could be the one to work if there was enough financial backing to it. Basketball would be second. That would be because of the salary cap. Another league would have a shot at coming in and picking off a few of the stars with more money.

Baseball has players already being over-paid and it would be tough to land anything other than minor league quality players. Hockey just doesn't have the interest level to support a second league.