MLS Earthquakes started in 1994, the same season that the Sharks moved into their new SJ arena... MLS was founded.
College sports (Stanford, Cal Berkley, Santa Clara U, San Jose State U, plus other state colleges, junior colleges) were king in the South Bay.
In 1989, San Jose exceeded San Francisco in population. The Sharks franchise was formed in May 1990, but started play the following year in the 1991-92 season. It was a major point in improving pride in the city/county by having a "San Jose" team to call their own.
Yeah, I was using the 1996 MLS start date for the Quakes. On the population front, I've always ignored "city" population, because it's market. San Jose is a Bay Area city/market. I got their games in Stockton, and all the way up to Sacramento they're the "home team."
Putting a team in San Jose made sense, when hockey was the young, cool game -- don't overlook how greatly aided hockey was in the 1990s by EA Sports NHL game. That was HUGE because it was so damned fun that even those who didn't "like hockey" knew the NHL teams from the game (Also a big part of the nostalgia factor on the Jets, Diques, Whalers and North Stars). So Silicon Valley getting their own team was big.
I live in Cincinnati. I like it here, but no one cares about hockey. High school sports, college bouncyball (University of Kentucky, University of Cincinnati and Xavier University) and the Bengals (now that they're actually good) are the fall/winter sports/teams people worship here.
Considering how bad the CBJ have been since their inception, their attendance is actually pretty damned good. Plus, TV-wise, they're in the Cleveland and Cincinnati markets and have made some fans in Cincinnati.
I even know a handful of people that live in Cincinnati and have partial season tickets to the CBJ and make the 100-mile commute all winter.
Yeah, I think Cincy is just too saturated with sports teams to put an NHL team there.
I'm glad you brought up UC and X, because it's the center of a "Golden Square" for college hoops that's just insane: Purdue, Butler, Dayton, Ohio St, Cincinnati, Xavier, Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana; as well as Indiana St, Ball State, Miami OH, Evansville, IUPUI, Wright State, Northern Kentucky and Bellarmine.
That's a lot of money being spent on college basketball. And definitely a factor in the market saturation.
Ideally you give both cities a team.
But yes, Houston should be a priority. But Austin is definitely growing.
Agreed. I think that if Houston got into the NHL in the 1990s, we'd be talking about Austin now for 36.