House That Hank Built
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Atlanta Braves have – by far – the most fans closest to their city

By Alan Carpenter

CHICAGO, IL - NOVEMBER 23: Travelers sit in a massive traffic jam as people hit the road for the holiday weekend on November 23, 2016 in Chicago, Illinois. The American Automobile Association (AAA) says nearly 49 million Americans are expected to travel this Thanksgiving weekend, the busiest travel holiday of the year. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - NOVEMBER 23: Travelers sit in a massive traffic jam as people hit the road for the holiday weekend on November 23, 2016 in Chicago, Illinois. The American Automobile Association (AAA) says nearly 49 million Americans are expected to travel this Thanksgiving weekend, the busiest travel holiday of the year. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) /
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This chart is actually remarkable – and suggests that the Braves’ draw in the Southeastern US maybe should be bigger than reality

I admit it – I saw this graphic and immediate had to share it with commentary.  Surprisingly to me, it shows that the Atlanta Braves have the most fans closest to their home than any other MLB team… and it’s truly not even close.

First of all: credit where credit is due:  Paul Moehringer came up with this concept.  He is a contributor to both Fangraphs and sister site the Hardball Times.  It’s brilliant.

So with this map, you can point to a random spot in the US or Canada and figure out the closest MLB team by driving time.

Some teams (Minnesota, Seattle) have enormous regions in which they are the closest team.  Others (like everybody crammed into the NE corridor that’s SW of Boston) have relatively tiny ‘drive regions’.

Note that this isn’t a measure of fan interest or fandom in general – it’s strictly about proximity.

But Moehringer went the extra mile, too:  see that scale at the bottom right of the map?  That’s the amount of population contained within each of the team’s regions.

Guess who’s #1?

There are over 30 million people whose closest MLB team is the Atlanta Braves.  That includes the entire states of Alabama and South Carolina, nearly all of Georgia, the western half of North Carolina, 2/3rds of Tennessee and a significant portion of Mississippi.

Now sure:  it’s not necessarily convenient to drive that far… western Mississippi is a long haul to Atlanta.  But if you want to visit an MLB park, it’s still your closest bet.

If you consider fandom as well, you’d have to note that the entire state of Florida was really part of Braves Country before the arrival of either the Marlins (1993) or Rays (1998)… so there’s yet another large draw of fans – even though most of that state isn’t closer to Atlanta than either St. Pete or Miami.

Performance Enhancing Demographics?

More from Tomahawk Take

The second place team on this chart actually cheated.  That’s the Astros… except that their driving region includes a huge chunk of Mexico… and I seriously doubt that there is a lot of drive-up ticket buying coming from Mexico City.  Heck – they don’t even get credit for the majority stake in Texas:  that’s Rangers’ territory.

The Yankees are third, with a driving-close population of close to 17 million… a vast distance from the Braves, whose number is nearly double of the Bronx Bombers.

The upshot?  Atlanta isn’t exactly a small market club – not by media ratings, not by local population, and certainly not by driving distance metrics.

Next: Join the Bandwagon?

Hmmm…. Maybe it’s time the club starting thinking like they serve 30+ million fans?  Thanks, Paul, for sharing this chart via twitter.

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