Reading through various websites, message boards and newspapers one constantly hears the term “Small Market Team”. As in “Small Market” teams cannot compete with larger market teams when it comes to payroll, stadium renovations or anything else involving spending the money shelled out by the millions of fans who make all of this possible.

I got to doing some population research on some of these cities and I found out some pretty interesting numbers. Now please keep in mind that these are rough estimates and have been rounded off. I also tried to include team payroll when such was available. One distinction I think is crucial is differentiating between the city, where the stadium might be located, and the surrounding metropolitan area. Some of the populations may seem low but when the metropolitan area is considered then a tremendous difference is noticed.

For practicality this particular article just details the AFC teams and has been arranged alphabetically. I will try to do the NFC cities in another article.

Please bare in mind that some of the payrolls may include signing bonuses and such. However, there seems to be no real correlation between population and payroll. I was astounded at the Titans payroll considering the population base around Nashville while the Patriots seemed to be at the other end of the spectrum. I know that signing bonuses and such may be included in the total payroll amount but still, when you consider it, the payrolls seem to be more determined by who owns the team instead of where the team is located. This is probably more relevant over in the NFC in cities like Seattle where the owner also happens to own Microsoft and the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA.

Personally, I still have difficulty considering Modell and Irsay as real people, considering what they did to their cities. So maybe we can discount those two and just consider the others in this little survey. Also, with some owners, having a team in the NFL is sort of like a sideline activity instead of the main job – after all, Jerry Jones made his money in oil and related businesses and only got into the NFL for his ego. (As is evident I have a special disdain for the Cowboys, bordering on healthy hate).

I have problems with the whole “Small Market” talk in general. In the 1980′s, when the Kansas City Royals were winning championships, no one talked about small markets then. In Green Bay, with a population around 150,000 and a payroll about $80 million, small market doesn’t seem to be a problem.

The Chiefs draw not only from Kansas City and Eastern Kansas but also from Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas (me) and I even saw a car from South Dakota at one game.

Small market? I don’t think so. Maybe in other sports, but not in the NFL.