What cities should get an NFL expansion team?

This one feels like a no-brainer. Football is huge in Texas, especially in Austin, home of the Texas Longhorns. However, Austin surely could handle an NFL team as well if given the opportunity. The city is the largest in the United States by population that does not have a single team in any of the Big Four American sports leagues. If the NFL got in there first, that would be huge.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area is massive. Obviously, the Cowboys are, well, America’s Team. Jerry Jones would assuredly put up a fight about a team so close to Dallas, but if New York and Los Angeles can have two teams, so can the DFW area. It’s the fourth-most-populous metropolitan area in the country, and it is in the most football-mad state of them all.

For years, the Bay Area had two NFL teams, separated by just a bay. San Jose is a bit further from San Francisco than Oakland. It’s also a larger city. While the city has been losing population, falling below one million since the 2020 census, San Jose remains the 13th-largest city in the country. At the moment, the city only has the Sharks of the NHL.

San Diego should get an NFL team again. Losing the Chargers to Los Angeles was more about a cash grab than the city of San Diego itself, now down to just the Padres. It’s far enough away from Los Angeles to be entirely its own population area, and it’s the eighth-largest city in the country. Plus, we bet a new team in San Diego would draw a ton of fans and cash just from people wanting to spite Chargers ownership.

America’s population centers are changing. Some cities are already so massive and so expensive that some are looking to move elsewhere. The center of the country remains, relatively speaking, sparsely populated. Many do enjoy city life, though, and as such Oklahoma City is becoming one of the larger cities in the United States. It’s actually eked into the top 20, ahead of the likes of Nashville and Washington D.C. (not to mention the oh-so-popular Las Vegas). Sure, the metropolitan area may not be as sizable, but give that time. Also, if the NFL managed to bring a team to Oklahoma City right before a Sooners quarterback was worth being taken first overall, it would have a license to print money for like five years.

Like Austin, there is a massively-popular college football team in Columbus. There are also already the Bengals and Browns. Guess what? Columbus is a larger city than either Cincinnati or Cleveland. Because of the two NFL teams, and the Buckeyes, Columbus would not be a first-tier choice for expansion, but it should definitely be in the mix.

If any sporting league has enough cache (and cash) to think outside the box, it’s the NFL. They could, for example, bring professional sports to Tucson, Arizona. The city is 108 miles from Phoenix, so enough to not be enveloped by that market (which is also a massive market that could support two teams, to be honest). Tucson’s population has climbed over 500,000, and the metro area is now over one million. Its growth has slowed a bit, so when push comes to shove Mesa might be the Arizona city to go with, but for now, we’d consider Tucson.

What about a foray into professional sports for New Mexico? If the Land of Enchantment is ever going to get a team, it must be in Albuquerque. It has a population on par with Milwaukee and Baltimore, but with double the land area. That means more space for an NFL stadium, and perhaps a whole entertainment district built around said stadium (a popular idea to pitch these days). Plus, we hear the city’s crystal meth problem has abated some after the death of a certain “Heisenberg.”

Here is another city that had its team taken from it by Los Angeles (although the Rams were there first). Now, the city of St. Louis itself has been shrinking in terms of population, but the metropolitan area is still significant. Greater St. Louis is the 21st-largest metropolitan area in the United States. People come from the suburbs all over the country for NFL games. Hell, New Yorkers go to New Jersey to see the Giants and Jets. St. Louis has been a part of the NFL off and on for years. Let them have another shot.

Boise, the capital of Idaho, could be the next Oklahoma City. In that region of the country, it is already the largest city. After the city’s population literally more than doubled between the 1960 and 1970 census, the city has grown by double-digits every census since. Now, the population center is not yet over one million people, but we aren’t saying that the NFL should have a team in Boise the next couple years, or even this decade. Soon enough, though, we bet Boise’s metro area will be large enough for a team, and possibly the only game in town (and within hundreds of miles in any direction).

The NHL took the plunge, moving the Coyotes from Arizona to Utah. Granted, there was already an arena there, as opposed to a football stadium of note aside from the University of Utah’s, but one thing at a time. While Salt Lake City has grown a bit, it’s the metropolitan area that makes it such a viable option. That area has over 1.2 million people and is growing steadily. If you include Ogden and Provo in the mix, as some measurements do, then you are looking at the 22nd-largest population area in the country.

Alabama is a football-loving state. It just lacks the size and population of Texas. However, if the state got an expansion team that was branded as the “state’s team” and not a city’s team, well, the state’s population is over five million people. We also imagine every single game down in Birmingham selling out. As the largest city in the state, it seems like the city to go with as the epicenter for Alabama’s NFL team.

It feels inevitable that the NFL will cross the border into Canada at some point. It remains uncharted territory. With all due respect, all the rouges in the world won’t buy loyalty to the CFL if the NFL rolls into Toronto. And, yes, Toronto would have to be the first stop for the league. Frankly, it should be in the top three for expansion for the NFL right now. The city alone has almost three million people in it. There’s a reason why the NBA and MLB’s lone Canadian teams are in Toronto.

What if the NFL wants to add another team out west instead? If that’s the case, the NFL could consider Vancouver instead of Toronto (or alongside Toronto). The city itself has “only” 660,000 people and some change in it, but the metropolitan area is comfortably over two million people. It also has rather nice weather for Canada, especially in the winter, which is good considering the NFL schedule.

The NFL has played a couple of games in Mexico City, perhaps as a test run. Clearly, sports leagues are intrigued by Mexico’s capital, even if nobody has pulled the proverbial trigger just yet. It’s the largest city in North America. Let that sink in. Any team in an American-based sports league that got there first would become the country’s team in many ways. Even if, say, Tijuana NFL fans remained loyal to the Chargers, Mexico City’s population is only nine million just in the city itself. The NFL wants to be more and more of a global league. A team in Mexico City would be a massive step.