Biggest metro areas: 1920/1930

 

Following up on this post about city populations, I found someone who calculated the populations of metro areas pre-1950 using the 1950 definitions. 

So here are the numbers from that site for the 25 largest US metro areas in 1920 and their Alt-1915 status (so to speak):

1. New York -- 8,490,694  (Yankees, Giants, Dodgers, Peppers)
2. Chicago -- 3,521,789 (White Sox, Cubs)
3. Philadelphia -- 2,714,271 (A's, Phillies)
4. Boston -- 2,315,111 (Rustlers, Red Sox)
5. Pittsburgh -- 1,759,989 (Pirates)
6. Detroit -- 1,305,798 (Tigers)
7. St. Louis -- 1,139,877 (Browns, Cardinals)
8. San Francisco -- 1,009,467 
9. Los Angeles -- 997,830
10. Cleveland -- 972,162 (Spiders)
11. Baltimore -- 852,051 (Terrapins)
12. Buffalo -- 753,393 (Blues)
13. Minneapolis -- 704,566 (expansion?)
14. Cincinnati -- 628,999 (Reds)
15. Washington -- 571,882 (Senators)
16. Milwaukee -- 539,449 (expansion?)
17. Providence -- 536,572 
18. Kansas City -- 528,833 (Packers)
19. Worcester -- 455,135
20. New Haven -- 415,214
21. New Orleans -- 413,750
22. Albany -- 408,598
23. Wilkes-Barre -- 390,991
24. Seattle -- 389,273
25. Portland -- 372,777

Montreal and Mexico City would fit between Cincinnati and Washington, Toronto between KC and Worcester, and Havana would be #28 in the USA or #31 in North America.  These will (probably obviously) have a different definition than the US boundaries.

Here's 1930, as in the last post I'll pull out the Alt-1915 teams and stick in the other big North American cities:

• Los Angeles -- 2,327,166
• San Francisco -- 1,347,772
• Mexico City -- roughly 1,000,000
• Minneapolis -- 857,513 (expansion?)
• Montreal -- roughly 819,000
• Havana -- roughly 728,000
• Milwaukee -- 725,263 (expansion?)
• Toronto -- roughly 631,000
• Providence -- 616,495
• New Orleans -- 505,306
• Worcester -- 491,242

Of note, I think, is that Minneapolis sticks out as the most obvious expansion candidate that isn't on the west coast--better than Milwaukee, though Milwaukee is still an obvious candidate and closer to the other teams. Montreal also more than holds its own. Indeed, Montreal vs. Toronto is similar to MSP vs. Milwaukee in a lot of ways--Toronto is better integrated into the region, but Montreal is just plain appreciably bigger. Also, while I'd ben thinking that the Newark team would move as soon as there was an excuse to do so, that's no longer clear to me--the New York metro area is more than twice the size of Chicago, which has had two teams continuously for over a century. I'm now thinking that four teams in the NY metro area could be a stable configuration, at least until radio/TV kicks in. We'll see if the financial model points in some direction or not.

It's also interesting to me to see that many of the largest unserved cities are in the Northeast and are really non-starters for ever having MLB--places like Providence or New Haven. I expect I'll make stadiums for them anyhow, and maybe they'd be suitable for a random weekday game or series for one of the Boston teams just for a change of pace...