Quote Originally Posted by PWitty View Post
I agree that OKC should not have an NFL team, but it is a stretch IMO to say that they couldn't support another professional team. OKC and Tulsa are close enough that any professional team in OK can draw support from both cities. If people are willing to drive from Tulsa to OKC for a Thunder game on a weeknight and then turn around and drive back, they would definitely make the trek for a game in the middle of the afternoon on a weekend. The two combined metros would add up to be in the neighborhood of 2.3 million people. This is bigger than a market like KC, where I'm from, which is a lot more isolated and the only real city that is close enough that people drive in for games on a consistent basis is Topeka (about 250,000 people). And KC has the NFL, MLB, MLS, and Nascar. The fact is that people in the middle of the country LOVE sports. How many metros of 5 million plus on the coasts have stadiums that are empty on a consistent basis? Short answer, lots. ~2 million people is all you need to support multiple franchises. Look at KC, Cleveland, Cincinnati, etc. Central OK could definitely support another professional team, but that doesn't mean that it should. I'd rather just continue to enjoy what we have.
Let's see what we can do with this Thunder franchise heading into 2016-17 and how the USL-Pro (2014) and NASL soccer (2015) will do and we should have a good grasp on where we want to go from here. MLS soccer would be our next goal among the five major leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS):

We have enough disposal income in our area now to support MLS: Could Your City Give a Sports Team a Good Home?

OKLAHOMA CITY-TULSA, the NFL is within our grasp since there is a 150-mile radius to determine the NFL market which would encompass Oklahoma's two largest metropolitan areas.

Oklahoma City has $49 ($34 million for NBA) with $15 million available, Tulsa has $38.3 million available; that's $53.3 million availabe for the Tulsa-Oklahoma City areas. Oklahoma City would be more likely to get an NFL stadium built within the next ten years...