RealGM

Chosen01 wrote:No way were they considered a big market. More like a medium market but a very desirable place to play due to the weather.

The big markets are : LA, NYK, CHI, and to a lesser degree- Dallas and Philly.

GreenHat wrote:Miami isn't a big market, just a desirable market.

Its not just the weather and the lifestyle, no state income taxes either

Alex Trevelyan wrote:According to the Nielson Company, South Florida's DMA, that's the media penetration of a given market, is approximately 8th in the nation, tied with Washington D.C., that includes Miami, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. That makes it one of the largest markets in terms of television saturation. But Miami is the U.S. gateway city to South America, giving it much more commercial appeal then one would assume if just looking at its demographic or media metrics.

Miami fills up on the weekends with newly affluent Brazilians and Argentinians that fly up for a few days. Miami is Latin America's city, many Floridians derisively view Miami as not part of Florida at all, but the northernmost city of South America. Miami is like Portland, Seattle or Vancouver, which act as gateway cities to Asia. The influence of the Miami market is immense in South America. Lots of Dolphins fans in South America for that reason, even though the Dolphins have been poorly managed for years.

Miami is definitely a desirable place to play and one need only look at the Dolphins for proof of this. They've not been relevant really, since the early to mid-eighties, yet free agents have flocked to Miami over the years. They signed Karlos Dansby and Brandon Marshall, two of the most desirable free agents in their class, because guys want to play for the Fins, even though they've been bad. Mike Wallace just signed with the Dolphins and he's widely considered the best free agent available. Even Jeffrey Loria, one of the worst owners in baseball has had no trouble attracting free agents even though it's a horribly mismanaged enterprise.

The use of the term "big market" usually just denotes whether or not the city is a desirable place to be in, coupled with it having a well managed franchise. Chicago has never been a desirable location for free agents, and that includes the Bulls, Bears, Cubs, Sox, etc.. Guys weren't lining up to play for the Clippers or Knicks and the Celtics with the 7th largest DMA in the Boston market spent 2 decades unsuccessfully trying to attract free agents to Beantown. Lets just put it this way, if other factors are comparably similar, like money and the chance to win, Miami will win far more free agent battles then it will lose.