WalletHub’s unfair judgment of Tampa Bay as a basketball market

“Tampa is one of the worst hockey markets in North America because of attendance to it’s super junior  and college hockey teams stinks.”

Anyone who sees that remark should either laugh or wonder who the hell would draw that kind of conclusion? Tampa Bay doesn’t host super junior league hockey, nor is it known for even competing in collegiate hockey, let alone drawing attendance. Why would they? Unless a college hockey team was playing at Amalie Arena in downtown Tampa, attendance is negligible at the other ice sports venues in the Tampa Bay area.

So, is the above statement fair market judgement?

What brings me to this isn’t hockey. Not at all. It is market critiques with sports and limited data that brings forth this judgment. WalletHub sent me an email showing Tampa ranking horribly as a basketball market.

Basketball market?

Does the Tampa Bay metroplex have basketball fans? Of course! College basketball and the NBA draw interest from the public. I don’t know television ratings, though I do know markets generate higher viewership when their hometown team is playing a critical game against a major opponent. Seeing there is no hometown team, that highly critical game is going to vary for NBA fans and NCAA basketball fans as it coincides their respective teams of choice.

Oh, Tampa Bay does host a Division 1 NCAA basketball team in the University of South Florida Bulls, but USF basketball (or football for that matter) isn’t a dominant property. In fact, the influence of the University of Florida, Florida State University and the University of Miami in this sports market has a habit of dimming down the relevance of the USF’s sports programs. All four schools are relevant in the region, but USF’s relevance is much lesser for competitiveness in sports than it is in its education program. It’s weight in sports locally is well behind the pro teams (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Lightning, Rays, Rowdies) and the aforementioned State universities.

So is it fair to judge Tampa Bay as a basketball market by way of how well USF basketball draws people? WalletHub seems to think so:

With the NBA Finals kicking off on May 30 and the league allowing teams to sell ad space on uniforms as of 2017, estimated to generate $100 million to $150 million in yearly revenue, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2019’s Best & Worst Cities for Basketball Fans as well as accompanying videos.

To find the best cities for professional- and college-basketball fans, WalletHub compared more than 290 of the largest cities across 21 key metrics, ranging from the performance level of each city’s NBA and NCAA Division 1 basketball teams to ticket prices to stadium accessibility.

Basketball Fandom in Tampa (1=Best, 145=Avg.):

278^th – Performance Level of NCAA Div. 1 Basketball Team(s)
55^th – Minimum Season-Ticket Price for NCAA Div. 1 Basketball Game
238^th – College Basketball Stadium Capacity
239^th – College Basketball Fan Engagement
Tampa ranks 272^nd overall and 58^th among large cities.

They judged the market by how well the USF Bulls draw and came to the conclusion that Tampa Bay (note that – I’m talking regionally and they’re focused on one city; it’s a regional thing here in the Bay area, not a top-town-down type thing) sucks as a basketball market? A region that lacks an NBA team? Not to mention the small on-campus arena (10,411 max capacity) that hosts games sits far out of the way of the bulk of the regional population (the USF campus is at the northeast edge of the region and the city of Tampa). The marketplace sucks for the sport in general because of this?

I’m sorry, but I see the Wallethub report as nothing more than coming to conclusions by way of cash and not actually researching a region. Tampa Bay isn’t an NBA market (but holds plenty of transplanted citizens who were and are fans of their respective hometown NBA teams), nor is it routinely courted by the two in-state NBA franchises (the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat) by any means other than having their games broadcast in-market on cable television’s Fox Sports Florida/Fox Sports Sun stations.

WalletHub’s data doesn’t use depth. What it uses is bare data and draws conclusions without truly gauging the market. I have high doubt they factored in the other college influenced (…and draw…) of Tampa Bay residents to their games. That also plays into the Magic and Heat. How many fans in Tampa Bay make the trip to Orlando or Miami to catch games? That data wouldn’t be included in judging Tampa Bay because judgments of the market’ passed on by way of data amassed in the market and at the turnstiles.

There’s also no straight-forward factor that aids market rank when the fact the city doesn’t host an NBA team.

It’s also unfair to use the report as a means of attack on USF’s sports program. Its job is education, not sports competition nor sports marketing. Yeah, other colleges can educate and compete… but most of the other big schools have been around much longer (which influences their sports programs on both the marketing and recruitment aspects) and they aren’t competing as an entertainment draw with pro teams directly in the region.

In the end, Tampa Bay is underserved in the sport of basketball and a shallow report (focused more on money making than on deep metrics any market-analysis) derides the market as one of the worst places for hoops.