The Plights of a Minor Market. It Works in Regina!
In a recent Facebook Live broadcast, I asked sports memorabilia icon Brandon Steiner what he thought the XFL needed to do to succeed. His unprompted answer made me happy to hear that he and I had the same idea. He suggested that the league should be focusing on venues with 25,000-35,000 seat capacities in cities that don’t have as much competition for sports fandom. I followed up with suggesting two cities they should perhaps look into, home of his alma mater Syracuse University, & Fargo, North Dakota. He responded that they were exactly what he was talking about. Today we will examine the possibilities that exist in Fargo, a small city known as “The Gateway to the West”.
In previous articles I’ve stated that there are two big factors that would create cult-like followings for XFL teams. One is the empty nest syndrome of shunned NFL cities (the Kroenke Effect) like St. Louis, Oakland, & San Diego. The other is the scenario in which there is a city looking for a team of their own to rally around. We saw this in the original XFL when Las Vegas football fans finally had a local professional team to call their own. This was also seen in 1994 & 1995 with the Baltimore Stallion. When the CFL tried to break into the USA, they strategically selected a city that was going through a 12 years gap between their NFL franchises and was desperate for a team to return to their city. This resulted in a two year average attendance of 33,730 fans per game, and a Grey Cup championship in 1995.
Do these opportunities exist in many NFL cities? The answer in 9 out of 10 cases is a clear and cut no. Even with the success of the Stallions in Baltimore, once it was announced that Art Modell had announced his Cleveland Browns would be moving to the Charm City, the owners immediately suspended operations and moved to Montreal. This could force the league to get more creative and particular about deciding where they become the go to pro team. There might be a unique opportunity that exists in the Upper Midwest.
Fargo sits just west of the North Dakota-Minnesota state border. It is a cultural, retail, health care, educational, and industrial center for southeastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. During the 1880s, Fargo became the “divorce capital” of the Midwest because of lenient divorce laws. Today the city is known for its low cost of living, low unemployment rate, and the surrounding scenery. Today however, the city has quietly gained the distinction of being home to a true college football powerhouse. Home to a team that plays the proverbial underdog, yet routinely takes down the likes of Iowa State, Iowa, Kansas State, Colorado State, & Minnesota. First round NFL draft picks have played here, ESPN’s College Gameday has visited twice, and the school is enjoying an era of dominance that many SEC, PAC 12, Big Ten, Big 12, & ACC schools could only dream of having.
The North Dakota State University Bisons have claimed 16 National Championships in their storied history, with a playoff record of 76–14. The program has won 36 conference championships, and enjoys an all time winning percentage of .661 while approaching 750 wins. Since 2017 the Bisons have been on a stretch of 39 consecutive victories. Their reputation of being one of the true college football dynasties was solidified when Carson Wentz was drafted #2 overall in 2016. Current QB Trey Lance is also expected to be a top 10 pick in this week’s upcoming NFL Draft. Are they a factory? What is it in that rarified air that creates such a great football culture?
The centerpiece to any run of football dominance & the fostering of a winning culture that talented players want to be part of is a crushing home field advantage. One of the best unknown and overlooked home venues in all of football is the FargoDome. With a capacity of 19,000, only one NDSU playoff loss in 25 games, and a steel roof that disrupts the best of any offense, the Dome was voted the second best FCS stadium in 2016 by Stadium Journey. Bison fans officially joined the likes of NFL supporters by reaching a decibel level of 111 in the 2011 playoffs, later reaching 115 in 2012, and then 120 in 2015. Imagine a professional team, one even made up of NDSU notable alumni who might get overlooked, calling “The ThunderDome” their home, with a nationwide audience seeing this special something in “The Peace Garden State”.
Let’s also take a little deeper look at Grand Forks. The University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks football plays at the Alerus Center, capacity 12,283. Their average home attendance in 2019 was solidly within a range of 8,000–8,500 per game. The campus is only 76 miles away from NDSU, and regularly play each other for the Nickel Trophy. Showing there’s solid support for both of the state’s major collegiate athletics programs within a short distance of the targeted venue shows now reflects two fanbases to tap into.
A similar circumstance exists in Brookings, South Dakota, home of South Dakota State University. Located within three hours of Fargo, the Jackrabbits call Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium home, and were ranked as high as third in the nation in Div1-AA. They also hosted College Gameday when they played vs. NDSU. They also hosted crowds that ranged from 10,000 to 14,000 fans. The fandom and passion exists throughout the region.
As much as we can enjoy the romantic and utopian concept of a team being placed in Fargo, let’s get down to the numbers. The Fargo metropolitan area is home to 257,000 people. This is significantly lower than any other current XFL city, the lowest being St. Louis, and their MP is 2,216,000! This would cause 99 out of 100 people to immediately write off the possibility of an idea like this ever happening, and not without good reason. The league has said that they want to charge for their media rights, and Fargo isn’t exactly a market that catches the eye.
Many teams benefit from having large population bases around them to also draw crowds from. Fargo is decently isolated from any large surrounding population. The state capital of Bismarck is 197 miles away, and has a metro population smaller than Fargo at 129,000. The third largest city is Grand Forks, sitting 80 miles away and MP of 101,000. While these cities surely have the potential for large contingents of fans to draw from, how hard of a sell would it be? Many fans in rural communities would probably be interested in seeing legitimate big time football in their home state. The XFL was billed as being a price friendly league that wouldn’t price gouge the fans. It all comes back to finding if there’s legitimate interest.
Fargo’s business footprint is also an area that might fall short. NDSU and two public school systems are 3 of the city’s top 6 employers. The others include several healthcare networks, but the biggest employer tops out at 7,100 employees. As a whole, only one S&P 500 company is headquartered in North Dakota. If local business sponsorship is part of the business model then this lack or bigger business could be a non-starter. The FargoDome does have suite seating, which could help with revenues. Just a matter of finding deep pocketed fans to fill them.
Another issue that could cause many headaches would be the logistics of getting professional football teams to and from a city like Fargo. Fargo’s airport only has direct flights to one current XFL city, that being Dallas. Many flights connect to larger hubs in Minneapolis & Chicago. If the season is still played in late winter & early spring, there’s risk for heavy snowfall causing delays and hazards for fans to attend. It will be up to the league to decide if it is worth a team in Fargo to potentially have these issues arise.
For argument’s sake, to rebut detractors who base their judgement on logistics & market numbers, let’s take a look at a comparable Canadian Football League city. The Saskatchewan Roughriders call the city of Regina home. The city’s metro population is 263,184, very much within the range of Fargo. The Roughriders play in the smallest market in the CFL, and the second-smallest major-league market in North America (only Green Bay, Wisconsin, is smaller). Yes, let that sink in, the Green Bay Packers are in the smallest pro sports market in North America! This statistic however has not stopped Rider Nation from being one of the most passionate fan bases in all of Canadian sports! In 2019, despite being in the smallest market, the home crowd averaged every game anywhere from 29,000–31,000 at Mosaic Stadium. This fan loyalty and passion has lasted overtime as well. Every game in the 2008 season was sold out, with many out-of-town season ticket holders often travel 190–250 miles or more to attend home games. In 2009, the team was described as having the largest fan base in the CFL. The team is third behind the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs for merchandise sales of Canadian sports teams, and in 2009 the team played in 5 of the 6 most viewed games on television. Rider Nation has led road attendance in the CFL every year during the 2000s decade. The Roughriders have a unique fan-base that are passionate and engaging. Rider fans are also known for dressing up in unique and often bizarre Rider-themed costumes, the most popular being the watermelon helmet. Rider Nation has shown that success is not dependent on a city’s population, corporate footprint, TV revenue, or any of the other arbitrary items used to evaluate cities. It takes the right kind of fans, in the right kind of spirit, in the right kind of venue to make a team successful and an asset to the league.
Final thought, Fargo should be a target down the line when the CFL talks have been solidified, and the league shows stability and consistency for at least 3 years. Larger markets that have larger footprints and resources should be prioritized, such as San Diego, San Antonio, Chicago, the Carolinas, & the San Francisco Bay Area. Fargo would be an attractive target when the league wants to bring in a city/region with a great existing culture and a venue that would jump out and make them unique to the entire football universe. The Rock wrestled in the FargoDome, imagine if he brings pro football there next!
James is a contributor to The Sports Throne in the areas of Major League Baseball, the XFL, and college football, mostly in opinion articles. He’s a graduate of Clemson University, graduating in 2014. Follow his Instagram and Twitter below.
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