Arizona Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Coyotes and Suns: Is That 2 Too Many?

Colin Cowherd spoke on his radio show Friday about overextended sports markets, with Phoenix being one of them.  He cited the transient population, the income levels and the number of people with college degrees as to reasons why the Valley cannot support the teams that it currently has.

His summation was that Phoenix should have only two professional sports teams, and when viewed objectively he is probably right.

While Phoenix may have enough of a population to be in the top 10 cities in the United States, sports-wise it is still considered a small market.

The transient population lends the city to being full of front-running fans.  The support for teams is great when they are winning; however, when they are struggling, or have struggled in recent seasons, the fans are quick to leave and slow to return.

Even when a local team is having a good year it usually takes until the end of the season for fans to take notice, as the Diamondbacks recently learned.

Of course I wouldn’t want any team to leave, but the market is likely overextended.

Phoenix is one of only a few cities with professional teams in all four major sports and a major college program in the metropolitan area.

New York does not have that. LA does not have that.

The problem with this is that, due to the number of alternatives, the fan base is diluted.

Depending on how far the Diamondbacks go in the postseason in late October the Valley can be host to professional baseball, basketball, hockey, football and PAC-12 football all at the same time.

So if a market correction was in order, which teams should go?

The Coyotes by far receive the least support from the community.  They are never talked about on local sports radio, and rarely appear on the front page of the sports section.

Don't get me wrong, the fans that they do have are dedicated.  The problem is that there are more Red Wings fans than Coyotes fans in the Phoenix metro area.

The only time the Coyotes draw a good crowd is when they are playing a Canadian team or an original six team.  Having never reached the second round of the playoffs, they simply haven’t won enough to convert the Arizona transplants. As much as I would like them to stay, they would be, and probably will be, the first team to leave.

That leaves the Diamondbacks, Cardinals and Suns.

The Suns are the valley’s original team.  They have been, and always will be, the number one team, even if their support does dip when the team is not competitive.  They aren’t going anywhere.

That leaves just the Diamondbacks and Cardinals…two very interesting cases.

The Diamondbacks have had more success than anyone could have expected since they came into the league.  They hold the state’s only championship in a major professional sport. The Diamondbacks’ seasons, though, have generally been feast or famine.

In nine of their 14 seasons they have finished either first or last in the division.  They have won the division five times, and finished fifth four times.

After finishing last in the NL West in 2009 and 2010, the Diamondbacks won the division this season but fans were slow to come back to Chase Field.

Attendance was a problem for much of the season and forced the Diamondbacks front office to come up with some creative marketing ideas.  The Diamondbacks ultimately finished 18th out of 30 teams in average attendance per game with 25,992.

Unfortunately the attendance problems were not just limited to the regular season. The failure to sell out Game 4 of the NLDS could be considered reason enough for the team to leave.

Then there are the Cardinals.

After 16 years of barely filling half the seats in Sun Devil Stadium the Cardinals have managed to sell out every game at University of Phoenix Stadium.

That could be attributed to it being a more comfortable place to watch the game; it also could be that the Cardinals had a few years where they were one of the better teams in the NFL.  Most likely it’s a combination of both.

Even with their newfound fanbase, whenever the Steelers, Giants, Cowboys, Vikings, Packers, etc. come to town the place is still half-filled by opposing fans.  Not to the extent that it used to be, but it is clear that the Cardinals fan base is not as strong as we would like to believe.

When the Cardinals were on top the city was electric.  There were Cardinals flags on car windows and people wearing Cardinals hats and jerseys nearly everywhere.

Should the Cardinals return to being perennial basement dwellers, however, there is a good chance that the stadium would return to the half-empty days of yore.

The Diamondbacks' two most recent playoff runs were largely ignored.  In 2007 and 2011 the fans were very slow to react; there was no buzz, no electricity.    

Arizona embraces the Suns and Cardinals when they are in the playoffs, but the Coyotes and Diamondbacks receive lukewarm receptions.

For that reason, if the Arizona sports market is to be trimmed to two teams, the Suns and Cardinals would be the last two standing.

Diamondbacks fans shouldn’t be concerned, though.  The team isn’t going anywhere.  But the lack of support during this past playoff run may make owner Ken Kendrick less likely to increase the team’s payroll.

Ultimately whether or not the sports market is overextended is up to the fans.