As the American economy continues its slow recovery, and the uncertainty of long-term, reliable employment persists, many large metropolitan cities are rethinking any immediate plans for expanding to accommodate a team-sports franchise. Until economic flexibility returns, sports fans will not have the resources to support such expensive entertainment. Dwindling profits often make more headlines than the events themselves do, and several former sporting mainstay cities are scaling way back when it comes to their team's payroll, and image. Once a predictably profitable enterprise, today supporting a mass-market team can be an expense of similar scope.

In past eras, much of the American identity was centered on a common reverence for sporting events. Studied knowledge of team statistics, player's performance averages, and an occasionally unchecked enthusiasm for team-based athletics has been a large part of sport fandom for nearly one hundred years. When city and state coffers were flush, hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on building state-of-the-art sports and entertainment facilities that would dwarf the quaint ballparks of years passed, and in many cases render them outdated, neglected, and derelict.

Perhaps more important than the stadiums and arenas hosting sporting events, acquiring the best and most flamboyant players has also been a high and expensive priority for a city wanting to cash in on the action. Often the decision to attend a sporting event is based not on the venue, or the competing teams, but rather on which player will exhibit the most outlandish behavior on the field. Factor in all the related revenue sources, like memorabilia, concessions, and other expenses incurred while attending a sporting event and the profit from hosting a major market sports franchise can be untold millions of dollars.

However, with the national economy faltering for the last several years, attendance at nearly all sporting events has drawn down, and for some smaller cities, has all but dried up. And it's easy to see why, when a family of four can put up nearly a hundred dollars on tickets alone, not to mention whatever other money is spent on food and souvenirs. Dwindling financial liquidity for the average American sports fan, combined with constantly shifting market integrity, and the increasing municipal costs for hosting a large sporting franchise, has made attending team sporting events more challenging than in the previous glory years of sports fandom, and this trend will continue until fans have more expendable cash.