Best Sports Regions & Cities in the US

I guess there’s a couple of ways you could do this.  I’m thinking of attendance, or maybe TV viewership (or revenue), or perhaps merchandising sales … But, really, what could be simpler than number of major league teams?  So, here we have it, the number of MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL franchises per city.

Couple of notes:

• The bigger the circle, the more franchises
• If your circle’s big enough and completely takes over somebody else’s, I just lump ‘em all together (e.g., Sacramento’s in the Bay Area circle)
• I debated putting in MLS, but - much as I'd like - I just don’t think we’re quite there yet
• Sorry – no women’s basketball, lacrosse, rugby, women’s soccer, etc., etc.

So, here's what I'm seein':

• The Rustbelt, or Industrial Midwest, comes in first (28 franchises), but is rather spread out (from Pittsburgh to Minneapolis, and all the way down to Cincinnati).  Chicago’s the big boy here (with 5), but there also a couple of single-franchise towns (Green Bay and Columbus, OH)
• NYC is tops for a single city (at 9), but the Northeast Corridor comes in second (23).  I guess they deserve credit, though, for being all on top of each other. From DC to Boston, this is probably the most intensive sports area in the country.
• California looks like it’s third (with 14), but with only two real nodes, the Bay Area (7) and LA (6).
• Florida come in fourth (9), with Texas fifth (8).  Overall, the South has 30, with a number of single-franchisers (Raleigh, Memphis, San Antonio, Jacksonville).  I guess you could consider the South first then, but they’re really just too darned spread out for my tastes.
• Everything else just looks pretty scattered. Phoenix and Denver are pretty good sports towns all by themselves, supporting 4 teams each.  That’s more than the Pacific Northwest (our last real region), with 3 between Seattle and Portland.  Salt Lake City and Oklahoma City, on the other hand, look pretty darn lonely, with both supporting a single NBA team.