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Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada

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The major professional sports leagues are those professional sports leagues with the largest fan bases and television audiences (and therefore, the largest revenues and player salaries).

North American leagues

As of 2005, there is no universally accepted definition or list, but the following North American professional leagues are almost always defined as major leagues:

These four leagues are often referred to as the Big Four, although there is a significant enough disparity in the popularity and revenues of the NHL compared to the other three leagues that the NFL, MLB and the NBA could be separately categorized as the Big Three. Compared to the other three leagues, the NHL has struggled to find support in the Southern United States, which has led some sports fans in this region to dispute the NHL's status as a major league. However, since the NHL is the only other team sports league in the North America to generate multi-billion dollar revenues, the league is closer financially with the three more popular leagues than any other North American team sports league. Furthermore, despite initiating a season-long lockout in 2004 the NHL returned in 2005 with even stronger revenues than before the lockout. The term hockey country is often used to describe those parts of the U.S. where hockey's fanbase is strongest.

Since the four leagues listed above are those listed as the major leagues, the sports they play (baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey) are often referred to as the four major professional sports or even just the major sports by North Americans. As of 2005, thirteen American metropolitan areas have at least one team in each of the four leagues; these cities are said to have the Grand Slam.

The four major leagues combine for revenues that are hundreds of times greater than all other U.S. professional team sports leagues combined. The best players can become cultural icons to tens of millions of Americans plus millions of Canadians because the leagues enjoy a dominant place in American popular culture combined with a significant place in Canadian popular culture.

In terms of overall league revenue, the NFL, MLB and the NBA rank as the three most lucrative sports leagues in the world (in that order). Based on June 2006 exchange rates the NHL ranks as the world's fifth most lucrative league, slightly behind the FA Premier League in English soccer.

Traits of the major North American leagues

Franchise stability

All four major leagues exhibit the stability of most of their franchises. No team from any of the four leagues has collapsed outright in decades, although Major League Baseball considered shutting down two franchises after the 2001 season. Although all four major leagues have had at least one franchise relocate to another city in the last decade, relocation of teams is generally uncommon compared to other leagues. It should be noted that all four major leagues have had frequent franchise collapses and relocations in their early histories, but these events ceased occurring with regularity by the time the leagues reached "major" status.

The major sports leagues in the United States and Canada are unique compared to most leagues outside North America in that there is no promotion and relegation system. The same teams compete in the leagues each year. The worst teams are not relegated each year to a second tier league, to be replaced by the best teams from the second tier league. One could even argue the worst teams are rewarded for their futility, as the worst teams receive a higher position in the following year's draft for new players, which in football and basketball, usually consists of players who have played the sport in college. A notable result of the "closed shop" aspect of the major leagues is that the franchises have an average book value that is considerably more than, for example, the clubs of the English FA Premier League which has comparable average team revenues to the major North American leagues but also a relegation system.

The last of the "big four" to fold outright were the original Baltimore Bullets in 1955, while the last team to cease operations were the Cleveland Barons (formerly the Oakland Seals), which were merged into the Minnesota North Stars organization in 1978, two years after moving to Ohio from California. However, this merger was officially dissolved in 1991 and the Seals/Barons franchise returned to the Bay Area, resuming independent operations as the San Jose Sharks. The last NHL team to fold outright were the New York Americans in 1942, while the last NFL team to fold were the Dallas Texans in 1952 and no MLB team has folded since 1899, when four National League teams ceased to exist.

The four leagues all expanded within the last decade and currently have either 30 or, in the case of the NFL, 32 teams. The newest major league team is the Charlotte Bobcats, who joined the NBA in 2004. The newest NFL team is the Houston Texans, who became the NFL's 32nd team in 2002 after the NFL was unable to find a viable ownership group and stadium plan in Los Angeles. The newest NHL teams are the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild, who began play in 2000, while the newest MLB teams are the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who joined the NL and AL respectively in 1998.

Recent expansion franchises have commanded huge entry fees, which are generally held to represent the price the new team must pay to gain its share of the existing teams' often guaranteed revenue streams. The Houston Texans paid an unprecedented $700 million to join the NFL. By comparison, the Charlotte Bobcats paid $300 million to join the NBA. The Diamondbacks and Devil Rays paid $130 million each to join MLB while the Blue Jackets and Wild paid $80 million each to join the NHL.

Many sports analysts and owners believe that 30 is the optimal number of teams for a major league, thus future expansion is by no means certain. The NFL is still anxious to return to Los Angeles (see below) but many believe that NFL officials would privately prefer to re-locate an existing team in order to avoid altering its current eight four-team division alignment. Even if expansion franchises could continue to command huge fees, as more teams join the leagues the owners' share of the fees is constantly reduced. Even if large markets remain without a team, a point could still be reached where one-time expansion revenues are offset by chronic stresses such as a drain on the talent pool (which could have a noticeable impact on the quality of play and thus start turning off fans) and saturation of the national television market (if the leagues are unable to negotiate higher fees from the television networks, then additional teams will simply cause the existing television revenue to be split into smaller shares).

Franchise locations

Major leagues tend to have franchises only in the largest cities and most heavily-populated market areas, with nearly all franchises in metropolitan areas of at least one million and with most in metro areas having populations over two million. This typically means at least one franchise (and often two) in each of the New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles areas. There are exceptions to this: The NFL has not had a franchise in L.A. since 1995 and the Green Bay Packers survive in their small market (less than 300,000) thanks to a unique community ownership, and their proximity to the much larger Milwaukee area, not to mention the loyalty of their fanbase. The Utah Jazz are located in the smallest television market (the Green Bay Packer's market include larger Milwaukee). They relocated during a turbulent period in NBA history and have enjoyed strong support from an area devoid of other major sport teams.

Through the first half of the 20th century, an era without practical air travel, almost all major league teams were concentrated in the northeastern quarter of the United States. No MLB teams existed south or west of St. Louis, the NFL was confined to the Great Lakes and the Northeast, the NBA spanned from the Quad Cities to Boston while the NHL remained confined to six cities in the Northeast, Great Lakes and eastern Canada. As travel and settlement patterns changed, so did the geography of professional sports. The first west coast professional team was the Los Angeles Rams, which moved from Cleveland in 1946. The San Francisco 49ers began the same year, and joined the NFL in 1950. Baseball would not extend west until 1958 in the controversial move of both New York-based National League franchises. The NBA would follow in 1960 with the move of the Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles, while the NHL would not have a west coast presence until it doubled in size in 1967.

Since then, as newer, fast-growing Sunbelt areas such as Phoenix and Dallas became prominent, the major sports leagues expanded or franchises relocated (usually quite controversially) to service these communities. Most major areas are well-represented, with all but seven continental U.S. metropolitan agglomerations over one million people hosting at least one major sports franchise. As of 2006, the largest metropolitan area without a major professional sports franchise is the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. (While California's Inland Empire is a more populous independent metro area, it is relatively close to and served by the Los Angeles franchises.) One notable metropolitan area without a franchise is Las Vegas. Despite explosive growth the four leagues are weary of the city's link to sports betting.

Ownership restrictions

All four major leagues have strict rules regarding who may own a team, and also place some restrictions on what other sort of activities the owners may engage in. To prevent the perception of being in a conflict of interest, the major leagues generally do not allow anyone to own a stake in more than one franchise. There is one current exception to this rule - after being blocked in their bid to eliminate or "contract" two franchises in 2001, Major League Baseball purchased the Montreal Expos from its owners. Although MLB eventually re-located the team to Washington, D.C., the franchise (now known as the Nationals) remains owned by the other 29 MLB clubs. MLB is currently in the process of finding an independent owner for the Nationals.

All four leagues grant some sort of territorial exclusivity to their owners, precluding the addition of another team in the same area unless the current team's owners consent, which is generally obtained in exchange for compensation and/or residual rights regarding the new franchise. For example, to obtain the consent of Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos to place an MLB team in Washington (which is about 35 miles from Oriole Park at Camden Yards), a deal was struck under the terms of which television and radio broadcast rights to Nationals games are handled by the Orioles franchise, who formed a new network (the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network) to produce and distribute the games for both franchises on local affiliates and cable/satellite systems. It has been speculated that these concessions are hampering MLB's efforts to sell the Nationals back to independent ownership.

Some leagues, such as the NFL have even stronger ownership restrictions. The NFL currently forbids large ownership groups or publicly-traded corporations from purchasing NFL teams. This policy allows the league office to deal with individual owners instead of boards of directors, although the Packers' ownership group was grandfathered into the current policy. The NFL also forbids its majority owners from owning any sports teams (except for soccer teams) in other NFL cities, and prohibits owners from investing in casinos or being otherwise involved in gambling operations. (NFL owners may freely own soccer teams without league restrictions because Lamar Hunt won a court challenge stemming from his investment in the old North American Soccer League. Hunt currently owns 3 teams in Major League Soccer, one based in Kansas City - where he owns the Chiefs - and also teams in Dallas and Columbus.)

Regarding territorial rights, the main concern for many team owners has become television revenue although the possibility of reduced ticket sales remains a concern for some teams. Because the National Football League shares all of its television revenue equally, and most of its teams sell out their stadiums with little difficulty, some NFL owners have actually been seen as being less reluctant to share their territories. For example, the return of the NFL to Baltimore in 1996 attracted no serious opposition from the Washington Redskins organization.

Weathering challenges from rival leagues

All of the majors have bested at least one rival league formed with the intention of being just as "big" as the established league, often by signing away star players and by locating franchises in cities that were already part of the existing league. In many cases, the major leagues have absorbed the most successful franchises from its failing rival, or merged outright with it.

Minor league systems

All the major leagues are distinguished from the minor league systems they utilize to develop and train personnel.

  • Although MLB clubs have recruited many players from the Japanese leagues, the vast majority of MLB players are developed through the minor league baseball system. Prospective players traditionally were drafted or (before the first MLB draft in 1965) signed to a contract with a MLB team directly after high school and then assigned to the appropriate minor league level for development. With the growth of college baseball in the past few decades, more and more players opt to play at the collegiate level and delay entry into the MLB draft. Individual teams' large scouting staffs have given way to smaller staffs and subscriptions to commercial player scouting services. Entering the majors directly from high school or college is almost unknown; most of the few that have were quickly reassigned to the minors after disastrous MLB debuts.
  • College and high school basketball produce most of the NBA's talent, though minimum age rules have ended the NBA's practice of drafting players directly from high school beginning in 2006. The NBA D-League supplies the NBA to an extent, though NBA teams more frequently recruit talent from European and Latin American professional leagues.
  • Semi-pro football and minor leagues such as the Continental Football League once flourished up to the 1950s, but today the source for almost all NFL players is college football. The NFL does maintain its own six-team minor league, NFL Europe, which also serves the dual purpose of introducing the game of American football in European markets. NFL teams also recruit a number of players from indoor leagues, and occasionally signs players from the Canadian Football League.
  • Each NHL team has an affiliate in North America's top-tier minor hockey league, the American Hockey League, and in lower leagues such as the Central Hockey League or ECHL. For decades, the traditional route to the NHL went through the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), generally regarded as the world's premier competition for 15- through 20-year-olds. In recent decades, NHL teams have drafted and/or signed prospects from top European amateur and professional organizations, and a growing number of NHL hopefuls are forgoing the professional CHL in favor of NCAA Division I college hockey. Regardless of which route hockey players take to sign an NHL contract, almost all are initially assigned to an affiliate in their NHL team's minor league system for development.

Television exposure

All four of the major sports have had television contracts with at least one of the original "big three" U.S. broadcast television networks (CBS, NBC, and ABC) since those networks' early years, indicative of the sports' widespread appeal since their inception. Regular season games, as well as important contests such as championship and all-star games are often televised in prime time. In the last generation, fast-growing cable and satellite networks have taken a larger chunk of the major sports' pie. The four major sports now have entire sports networks dedicated just to each of them (such as the NFL Network).

Comparing the sizes of television contracts, the NFL is by far the largest (reportedly $2.2 billion US for the 2001 season), with the NBA and MLB second and third ($500 million and $479 million respectively). The NHL is in a distant fourth place ($120 million), a disparity those who wish exclude the NHL from the major leagues often point to. However, the NHL began airing games on NBC starting in January 2006 and the NHL Network is now available to a large percentage of U.S. cable and satellite subscribers. In addition, many regular season NHL games are broadcast on regional sports networks (such as FSN), which can vary on contract worth by region or team.

High player salaries

The average annual salary for players in the four major leagues is about $2.9 million in 2004, although player salaries can range from $300,000 for backup players to $20 million for superstars.

  • NBA players have the highest average player salaries of the four leagues at $4.9 million; however, their teams also have the smallest rosters.
  • The NFL has the highest average team payroll and a salary cap that will exceed $100 million for the first time under the new collective bargaining agreement with the NFL's players union. However, NFL payrolls distributed among rosters that are far larger than the other three leagues, making their players among the lowest paid on the average at $1.3 million (although this average is likely to increase under the new CBA).
  • Following the settlement of the 2004-05 NHL lockout, NHL players were also due to be paid about $1.3 million on average, although this too is set to increase because the lockout did not have the adverse effect on league revenues that was expected.
  • MLB is in the middle at about $2.5 million per player.

Dominance of the respective sports

One other trait that each of the four leagues share is that they are the premier competitions of their respective sport on the world stage.

There are thriving professional ice hockey, baseball, and basketball leagues around the world but none are in a position to challenge their North American counterparts for dominance on or off the playing surface. Major League Baseball is increasingly luring away the stars from the Japanese leagues, the National Basketball Association frequently recruits talent from professional leagues in Europe and Latin America and the European hockey leagues have become a major source of star talent for National Hockey League clubs.

The perceived lack of competition from the rest of the world has contributed to the long-standing but controversial practice of the American media dubbing the champions of MLB, the NBA and the NFL the world champions. The early Stanley Cup champions from both the NHL and the early leagues the NHL eventually displaced were also called world champions in the early decades of professional hockey by Americans and Canadians alike. However, that practice fell out of favor in the latter half of the 20th century.

If the popularity of baseball and basketball keeps growing in various countries outside of the United States, some think that the NBA and MLB may begin to place franchises in foreign markets (other than Canada, where the NBA and MLB each already have a franchise in Toronto). The popularity of baseball in Southeast Asia and Central America is growing, along with the talent of prospective players from the regions. Meanwhile, the popularity of basketball has grown to be the second highest in the world (following soccer).

However, one major detractor against foreign expansion by MLB or the NBA is that the sports in question enjoy much of their popularity in relatively poor countries that would probably be unable to financially support a sports franchise using the American model. The only clear exception to this would be the popularity of baseball in Japan, but well-established baseball leagues already exist in that country.

Due to the popularity of hockey in some of the most prosperous parts of Europe, many believe that the major league with the best chance of success outside North America would be the NHL. This has led to the possibility of European NHL franchises being discussed in the past, although NHL officials have repeatedly said they have no current plans to create a European division.

Recently talks about NBA franchises being located in Europe have intensified. For logistical reasons it would be necessary to have between two and four teams in Europe, so that visiting teams can have a "European Swing." Possible cities for such expansion include London, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, and Rome. However, as of 2006, NBA expansion to Europe is looking less likely, mainly because of increasing cooperation between the NBA and ULEB, the body that organizes the Euroleague for top European clubs. In 2005, the two bodies agreed to organize a summer competition featuring four NBA teams and four Euroleague clubs, with the first competition to take place in 2006. [1]

The NFL has the least international exposure of the Big Four. The NFL has attempted to promote its game worldwide by promoting NFL Europe (although that has largely failed outside Germany) and holding a regular season game in Mexico City. The NFL has a working agreement with the Canadian Football League (CFL), which is second in popularity only to the NHL in that country. Despite this, the prospect of foreign NFL franchises in the relative near-future is unlikely due to gridiron football's lack of popularity outside of Canada and the US.

Major sports outside North America

Australia

The term major sports is commonly used in Australia to denote the most popular sports of that country. Australian rules football, cricket, rugby league and rugby union are team sports that are considered "major" by most Australians. Whether or not football (soccer) is a major sport is frequently debated, although the qualification of the men's national team for the

Wikipedia has media related to 2006.

will probably provide a significant boost for that sport and its new professional league, the A-League.

Historical regionality

Strong regional identification with different football codes has led to corresponding regional attitudes to these sports. Prior to the 1990s, rugby league was almost exclusively a sport of the "northern" states, that is, those states north of the Murray River (New South Wales and Queensland, and also the Australian Capital Territory). Sydney was and remains the focus of elite competition in that sport. In the other states (Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia) the dominant winter sport was, and still is, Australian Rules football. Melbourne is the heartland of "Aussie Rules".

Several factors since 1990 have eroded the regional boundaries between these football codes, although the support systems and minor (including junior and schools) competitions in each state and city still reflect the biases of the last 100+ years. The recent factors of change include -

  • More widespread media coverage of each sport, particularly since the advent of pay television in 1995.
  • The maturation of each code's elite competition from being a city/suburban league to a national league, although rugby league has failed to maintain national league franchises in either Perth or Adelaide.
  • The change from amateurism to professionalism in rugby union, and the advent of an elite interprovincial competition - now known as the Super 14 - involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, has greatly widened the knowledge and appeal of that sport to make it a market rival for rugby league and Australian Rules.
  • The great increase in the marketing and promotion effort of all top-level sports in Australia, which has made teams and players into household names in contrast with earlier eras where news of one region's sports leagues would rarely be reported in another region.

Europe, Africa and Latin America

Association Football

In Association Football (soccer), the term "major leagues" would apply (and is occasionally used) to refer to the strongest domestic leagues. In Europe, the media almost always define the top divisions of England (FA Premier League), Italy (Serie A) and Spain (La Liga) as major leagues. The French (Ligue 1) and German (Bundesliga) top leagues are not generally regarded as being quite of the same calibre as the first three, but are usually defined as major leagues too. The top teams from each of the national leagues compete in the UEFA Champions League, which operates at the continental level (participation in the Champions League as well as the second-tier UEFA Cup is concurrent with continuing national league and cup commitments). The G-14 is a grouping of 18 of Europe's top teams. Its membership currently includes three clubs from each of the "big five" leagues as well as two from the Netherlands and one from Portugal.

Other sports

In most other countries, the concept of a set of major sports does not really exist. Soccer is, in some countries, so dominant that other sports cannot compete. Many, however, will have two or three other sports that are popular on a national basis, and receive similar attention to soccer where the national team is competing, or during its 'off-season'. For example, rugby union and cricket compete for attention in England; Gaelic Football, rugby and Hurling are popular in Ireland.

See also

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