Can We Still Consider the Panthers a Small Market Franchise?

[Davidson Deac II]

2013 Population Estimates

 

New York City - 8,405,837

Los Angeles - 3,884,307

Chicago - 2,718,782

Houston - 2,195,914

Philadelphia - 1,553,165

Phoenix - 1,513,367

SAN ANTONIO - 1,409,019

San Diego - 1,355,896

Dallas - 1,257,676

SAN JOSE - 998,537

AUSTIN - 885,400

Indianapolis - 843,393

Jacksonville - 842,582

San Francisco - 837,442

COLUMBUS - 822,552

Charlotte - 792,862

 

IMO you go buy the city the team is in. So for now, I'd say the Panthers are a mid-market team. They'll never be a large market team. The bolded cities are cities with no team obviously.

 

I would say you go off the metropolitan area, since a team draws fans from more than just the city itself.

 

Charlotte's metro area ranks 22nd in the country with a population of around 2.4 million, which would probably make it a relatively small market team.  By comparison, Atlanta's metro area has over 5.5 million. 

 

[PandaPancake]

RR is doing his best. You guys need to relax

[O-Ther]

You can't judge anything based off Floridiots.

 

Oh I damn well will judge. The idiots down here follow the Super Bowl winners. Lots of Patriot and Steeler and Packer fans here. That's why they see the Panther logo on my shirt and ask me if I'm from Jacksonville and how the Jags are such a crap team.

 

When people down here stop confusing the two logos and I start seeing other people wearing Panther colors, that's when Carolina will graduate to large market status.

 

[Chimera]

Actually, it's not the fastest growing city.

 

But yes, winning cures everything.

 

As of last year, it is the #2 fastest growing among actual (city sized) cities. And the UN expects Charlotte to have the fastest overall growth from 2010-2030.

 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article9241220.html

[pantherphan96]

City-wise it isn't really a small market, but the market is still saturated with Redskins, Steelers, Pats, Cowboys fans. Give it more time and more success and first/second generation Panthers fans raising Panther fans to push out the other fans and it will become at least an average market franchise.

[camycamcan]

When I wear my Panthers gear in Central Florida, people always ask me why I'm a Jaguars fan.

Until Carolina establishes a consistent winning tradition, it will remain a regional team with regional fans.

same Here in Florida I get asked about the jags

[Shadow]

In a way I'm glad we're a small market team.  We've rode with this team through our first playoff win, Rae Curruth, our trip to the Superbowl, thinking Pickles was going to be our savior (just me, boy was I wrong about that), Smitty punching a guy in the face, 1-15, Cam Newton being half man half amazing, Arizona playoff loss and Smitty punching a guy in the face.  I'm not saying that we don't need new fans.  We desperately do.  I just want to hold on to you guys a little longer before the bandwagon pulls into town.

[Chimera]

I'm too lazy to post the links but I can respond to that with multiple websites saying that isn't true. It even said it in a way, in your link. According to the Observers analysis of the data, lol. Yeah, no agenda there.

That's why I used the adjective "city sized" to show that it was talking about cities of a certain size. I mean, I've been to towns in Minnesota where the population was in the single digits. If someone in that town gave birth to twins, then that town would be the fastest growing.

What is the Observer's agenda for making Charlotte out to be growing faster than it actually is? Print media is dying, a process that is accelerated with large young populations.

[OldNorthPowell]

I'm going to keep this short and on point. Can we still consider the Panthers a small market franchise? The Carolina's as a whole would count as the 5th largest state in the country, not to mention the huge fan support in Virginia and Tennessee. We always rank in the top 8-10 in NFL attendance. It's been ages since we haven't sold out a game. The media talks about us fairly regularly and our social media presence is HUGE. So, if we are still considered a small market team, how much longer will it last? Greensboro, Charlotte and Raleigh are three of the fastest going cities in the world. North Carolina's population is skyrocketing. 

 

So, what does #PantherNation have to say?

 

I agree people usually look down on us at a National Level but with 15 million plus residents and growing fast (including SC too) this Carolina area is becoming a large area of the country. Most of the Redskins name stuff has cause some of their fans to seek another team (probably a small amount of their fans) that is probably benefiting Carolina in Virginia.