Toledo ranks 18 out of 20 in Minor Leagues

The results are in and the Glass City is a Top 20 minor league market. When all of the numbers were tabulated, Toledo came out near the top of a recent list of the country’s top minor league markets, according to Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal magazine.

Toledo’s overall score was 57.85 with the following rankings in each category:

The rankings were formed with the following criteria in mind:
**Total attendance of teams indexed against total five-year population of the market (40% of overall score)–Toledo ranked 96th out of 238.

**Overall percent of seats filled indexed against total five-year population (30% of overall score)–Toledo ranked 26th out of 238.

**Franchise tenure in the city (15% of overall score)–Toledo ranked 15th out of 238.

**Attendance indexed against the market’s unemployment rate (7.5% of overall score)–Toledo ranked 24th out of 238.

**Five-year attendance change indexed against each market’s total per capita income (7.5% of overall score)–Toledo ranked 80th out of 238.

The Top 20 Minor League Markets (overall score):

1. Hershey-Harrisburg, PA (100.00)
2. Fort Wayne, IN (85.89)
3. Tulsa, OK (82.60)
4. Billings, MT (81.51)
5. Spokane, WA (66.69)
6. Peoria, IL (65.68)
7. San Bernardino County, CA (65.30)
8. Bossier City-Shreveport, LA (62.48)
9. Idaho Falls, ID (62.14)
10. Rochester, NY (61.16)
11. Sioux Falls, SD (60.91)
12. Visalia, CA (60.62)
13. Kinston, NC (60.54)
14. Manchester-Nashua, NH (59.89)
15. Wichita, KS (59.65)
16. Modesto, CA (59.64)
17. Midland, TX (58.66)
18. Toledo, OH (57.85)
19. Albany, NY (57.39)
20. Princeton-Bluefield, WV (57.15)

**The story from the August 24-30, 2009 issue of Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal is available online at http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/63333