[PA Pride]

I have never seen this particular map on SSP before. This map is NOT about sports team influence, however it is the same kind of internet poll data driven map that people have used to show the sphere of influence of major league sports teams. I found it on google and it originates from www.commoncensus.org

It is interesting to see how cities proximities to each other affects their realm of influence.

If you want to participate, click the link and take the quick poll about where you live and what area and city you associate with most.

http://www.commoncensus.org/maps/national_1280.gif

[10023]

Kind of hokey if you ask me.

How have they defined "sphere of influence"? And of course, there are layers of influence. Somebody in a town 20 minutes from Rochester, NY may view Rochester as the "big town" in the area, and it may be where they work and go shopping, but they'll cheer for sports teams from further away places, and really look to further away places as the real "big city" in the area.

New York probably has influence over the whole country, for instance. Chicago across the entire Midwest. San Francisco for all of NorCal and LA for all of SoCal.

I see a place called Hays, Kansas on there. I have a hard time believing that people near there just don't look to Lincoln, Kansas City, etc as the big local city.

[Shawn]

I love how Portland, ME isn't even within its own sphere of influence ;)

[PA Pride]

Kind of hokey if you ask me.

How have they defined "sphere of influence"? And of course, there are layers of influence. Somebody in a town 20 minutes from Rochester, NY may view Rochester as the "big town" in the area, and it may be where they work and go shopping, but they'll cheer for sports teams from further away places, and really look to further away places as the real "big city" in the area.

New York probably has influence over the whole country, for instance. Chicago across the entire Midwest. San Francisco for all of NorCal and LA for all of SoCal.

I see a place called Hays, Kansas on there. I have a hard time believing that people near there just don't look to Lincoln, Kansas City, etc as the big local city.

You are exactly right about what city people CHOOSE to associate with. That's the whole point of this map. To get a feel for where people REALLY associate with as opposed to the precise city or town they reside in.

Click the link and take the 13 click anonymous test to see how it works. I just did myself and it makes more sense when you see the questions.

[PA Pride]

I love how Portland, ME isn't even within its own sphere of influence ;)

Must be a boring place. Or maybe Boston is just THAT good?!?

[10023]

You are exactly right about what city people CHOOSE to associate with. That's the whole point of this map. To get a feel for where people REALLY associate with as opposed to the precise city or town they reside in.

Click the link and take the 13 click anonymous test to see how it works. I just did myself and it makes more sense when you see the questions.
Right, but what does that mean. If you ask someone from central Jersey and they say Trenton, does that mean they don't associate with New York or Philly?

[Peanut]

I dont really buy this map. speaking on what i know is that upstate Ny is pretty much split between 3 cities for sports. Buffalo which has the Bill and Sabres, Syracuse Which has the Orange, and NYC.

Pretty Much NYC sports swallows up all of Albany, Syracuse Sports extends to pretty much all of the north country, and Buffalo sports swallows up all of Rochester. Granted there are the minor league sports but those only gather limited attention.

And as far as Rochesters sphere being bigger than Syracuse's, well thats pretty f'ed up

[GVNY]

Please...the people of Hinkle, Oregon, are in the sphere of influence of Seattle, as opposed to Spokane or Portland? Sure.

[fflint]

Portland, Maine--not within its own sphere of influence...

St. George, Utah--not within its own sphere of influence...

Flagstaff, Arizona--not within its own sphere of influence...

Sioux City, Iowa--not within its own sphere of influence...

There's at least another. That said, it's an interesting concept.

[Swede]

Actually THAT map IS NOT about sports teams!
THe sports maps are different and explicitly state the teams. The commoncensus maps have been posted a couple times before (iirc last time was over a year ago)

The sports maps: (all taken from commoncensus.org)
NHL (http://www.commoncensus.org/maps/nhl_1280.gif), NBA (http://www.commoncensus.org/maps/nba_1280.gif), MLB (http://www.commoncensus.org/maps/mlb_640.gif), NFL (http://www.commoncensus.org/maps/nfl_1280.gif), NCAAF (http://www.commoncensus.org/maps/ncaaf_1280.gif)

[Crawford]

LOL, Connecticut is NOT Boston team territory. The map even has the parts of CT within the NYC MSA as Boston sports territory.

CT is Yankee, Ranger, etc. territory in most of the state. You only get large numbers of Boston fans east of New Haven and around Hartford, and even then, it's a real mixed bag. The only true Boston sports part of CT is in the furthest eastern/northeastern rural reaches, like around the casinos.

Bostonians don't move to CT. New Yorkers, on the other hand, compose a huge portion of the state. The reason Greenwich is Greenwich is because the Rockefellers didn't want to pay NYC income taxes during the Great Depression.

CT isn't anywhere close to the Boston MSA or within commuting distance. In fact, a solid majority of CT residents live within the NYC MSA.

[PA Pride]

Actually THAT map IS NOT about sports teams!
THe sports maps are different and explicitly state the teams. The commoncensus maps have been posted a couple times before (iirc last time was over a year ago)

If you directed that statement to me: The whole reason I started this thread was because those sports maps have been shown multiple times on this site but I had never seen this map about the impact of the cities themselves. In other words, I was trying to avoid the sports maps, but here they are again... LOL.

[Crawford]

In other words, I was trying to avoid the sports maps, but here they are again... LOL.

These sports maps are worse than the "sphere of influence" maps. Just looking at the markets for which I have knowledge (NYC and Detroit), the boundaries do not seem to make any sense.

Toledo, for example, is solid Detroit for ALL major sports. It is not a Cleveland sports town.

For football, they have NYC all screwed up. They have Jets territory as limited to Long Island, but their biggest fan base is from NJ. They don't even have CT listed as Giants territory, yet the Giants used to play in CT.

[Ayreonaut]

Funny how Canadian NHL teams have randomly scattered influence throughout the US. And apparently the Clippers have zero fanbase.

[Peanut]

yea im also kinda curious as to why Syracuse is colored for the patriots, Syracuse is Bills Country, Maybe a little bit of Philly, Giants and jets...

[Cambridgite]

This whole thing is stupid. Cities have multiple and overlapping spheres of influence. For example, if I talk to someone from Ayr, Ontario and they say they're "going into the city", they're usually talking about the neighbouring tri-city area. If they're "heading to the big city", they're talking about Toronto. Sometimes the spheres of influence overlap so much that you can't generalize, you have to be specific about where you're talking about.

And Salt Lake City has a bigger sphere of influence than New York?...give me a break.

[vid]

According to the website:

28.8 % of cities have 1 or more contributors
3.2 % of cities have 10 or more contributors
0.1 % of cities have 100 or more contributors

[LucasS6]

And Salt Lake City has a bigger sphere of influence than New York?...give me a break.

What? SLC is by far the most important city on the Wasatch Front, or whatever they call it there. And the Wasatch Front is the only decent sized gathering of people for hundreds and hundreds of miles in each direction. Go 100 miles from New York and you're in Philly. Go a couple the other direction and you're in Hartford.

If New York had the "larger" influence, that would be the joke. The size is off of land area, not population, you realize that right?

[BnaBreaker]

Hays, Kansas and Alliance, Nebraska have spheres of influence?

[Peanuthead]

Oh my god who cares...just another 'my toy is bigger than yours' arguement nicely hidden

[Nowhereman1280]

What? SLC is by far the most important city on the Wasatch Front, or whatever they call it there. And the Wasatch Front is the only decent sized gathering of people for hundreds and hundreds of miles in each direction. Go 100 miles from New York and you're in Philly. Go a couple the other direction and you're in Hartford.

If New York had the "larger" influence, that would be the joke. The size is off of land area, not population, you realize that right?

It seems he's never left the East coast... Cambrigite do you realize exactly how empty that half of the country is. You can litterally drive 300 miles on a major highway without passing through a town larger than 500 people...

[BTinSF]

The problem with "influence" is that it can be positive or negative. I know on the northeast central FL coast, the main "influence" of Orlando is that people try to avoid having to go there and get a certain schadenfreude watching the traffic reports from there on TV.

[Buckeye Native 001]

I'm not surprised Flagstaff isn't in its own sphere of influence (or that it even has a sphere of influence). The town only has, at most, 45,000 people, and half of them are college students attending Northern Arizona University, many of which come from metro Phoenix. Even if they stay in Flagstaff after graduation, many of them have close ties to The Valley via family, among other things.

Not only that, but Flagstaff's population fluctuates greatly in the summer months as many Phoenecians have summer cabins in the forests surrounding the town that they use when they need to escape the summer heat. 80 to 90 degrees is a welcome change to 115+

[PA Pride]

To me, this map is kinda about the 'brand' of a city. People associate with a certain namesake of a bigger farther away city from them alot of times.

[ardecila]

I'm not surprised Flagstaff isn't in its own sphere of influence (or that it even has a sphere of influence).

It is in its own sphere of influence. The little colored icon for the city is just not shown at the actual location of the city. They had to move the labels around a bit to fit them all in; Chicago's icon is in Chicago's sphere, but it's definitely not on the spot of the city.

We studied these in geography earlier this year; they're examples of "functional regions" that are tied together by certain functions that originate in central cities. You could do it by newspaper distribution, for instance, or television/radio stations. People in rural areas usually choose to watch the TV news from the closest city. At what point do the majority of people stop watching St. Louis news and begin watching Kansas City news?

It seems like "sphere of influence" is not rigorously defined, though. How are they measuring it? Newspaper or TV is easy to measure.

[Comrade Reynolds]

What? SLC is by far the most important city on the Wasatch Front, or whatever they call it there. And the Wasatch Front is the only decent sized gathering of people for hundreds and hundreds of miles in each direction. Go 100 miles from New York and you're in Philly. Go a couple the other direction and you're in Hartford.

If New York had the "larger" influence, that would be the joke. The size is off of land area, not population, you realize that right?

Exactly. The fact is, there just aren't many metro areas that rival Salt Lake's size within a respectable region, especially north of the city. Since Salt Lake City is one of the largest metros close to Idaho (which is shared by the Seattle metro), Wyoming (which is shared by the Denver metro) and Montana, the influence stretches over a lot of land area. Southern Idaho, western Wyoming and eastern Nevada are dominated by Salt Lake in pretty much every form (media, connection, sports-ties), yet the population of those communities combined probably doesn't even come close to 1 million -- which is why the Salt Lake market has such a large influence. It wouldn't if these regions had larger metros that at least could rival the size of Boise (which is still fairly small compared to Salt Lake). But they don't. Instead, these areas are made up of small towns like Pocatello, Idaho (83,303 metro), Idaho Falls, Idaho (116,980 metro), Twin Falls, Idaho (91,705 urban area), Evanston, Wyoming (11,507 city), Ely, Nevada (4,041 city), Elko, Nevada (16,708 city) and West Wendover, Nevada (4,721 city).

[Echo Park]

:haha:@LA clippers having no sphere of influence in their own home city

in fact they appear as a small spot near the ny metro.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Well, the Clippers did originally come from Buffalo, so that might be why.

[Thundertubs]

I think it makes sense for cities to occasionally not be within thier own sphere of influence. Flagstaff, AZ lies within the Phoenix sphere, but I know that up north in the Navajo reservation, Flagstaff is considered the regional big city.
I agree with the Boston sphere covering all of New Hampshire. Manchester has almost zero cultural sway over the state for being it's largest city.
It's imprtant to remember that this isn't scientific.

[Alliance]

Woah. This isn't about size of influnce. There are no othe rmajor cities around Reno or Alliance to compete with them.

Look at the numbers. I think that is also of significance.

[Derek]

:haha:@LA clippers having no sphere of influence in their own home city

in fact they appear as a small spot near the ny metro.

Looks more like Ohio to me, but I don't even see their light green color anywhere in that region, maybe a tiny smudge in south-central Pennsylvania, which makes no sense.

[Swede]

If you directed that statement to me: The whole reason I started this thread was because those sports maps have been shown multiple times on this site but I had never seen this map about the impact of the cities themselves. In other words, I was trying to avoid the sports maps, but here they are again... LOL.
Sorry, but your first post does say "It is the kind that people have used to show the sphere of influence of major league sports teams." ;) Anyway, I agree that the influence map you posted is way more interesting. So I changed the sportsmaps to just links to those maps :)

[Cambridgite]

It seems he's never left the East coast... Cambrigite do you realize exactly how empty that half of the country is. You can litterally drive 300 miles on a major highway without passing through a town larger than 500 people...

Actually, I'm not from the east coast. I'm from Canada. Ontario to be exact. I realize Salt Lake City is isolated and definitely the most influential city over a long distance, which is why it would have a larger sphere of influence than, let's say, Hartford. But Hartford, Boston, Philidelphia, and others would be under New York's sphere of influence, despite having their own as well. My criticism is that it doesn't take into account any sort of overlapping, which may not apply to Utah, but it would certainly apply in a place like Bowash.

We also have to remember how subjective a term like "sphere of influence is". What exactly does that represent?

[vertex]

CT is Yankee, Ranger, etc. territory in most of the state. You only get large numbers of Boston fans east of New Haven and around Hartford, and even then, it's a real mixed bag. The only true Boston sports part of CT is in the furthest eastern/northeastern rural reaches, like around the casinos.


LOL, hater, don't let your emotions get in the way of facts. If a NY team ever wins anything again, then you might have an argument. Meanwhile, Connecticut fans continue to pile on to the Boston bandwagon. ;)

[krudmonk]

:haha:@LA clippers having no sphere of influence in their own home city
They play in the exact same arena as the Lakers and so they share the same territory. As long as Lakers fans outnumber them, Clippers fans won't show. If they played across town, there'd be a stronghold of Clippers fans represented on the map, but it's not the case.

[Crawford]

LOL, hater, don't let your emotions get in the way of facts. If a NY team ever wins anything again, then you might have an argument. Meanwhile, Connecticut fans continue to pile on to the Boston bandwagon. ;)

:haha: Bandwagon? The New England Cheaters are going down! :yes:

Of course you will find bandwagon types in CT, but you will find the same anywhere. The point is that CT, with a few exceptions, is NY sports territory.

And there are some unexplained quirks. For some reason, NYC has TONS of Eagles and Steelers fans. Maybe it's relative geographic proximity? But at the same time, there are almost no Redskins, Ravens or Patriots fans, and they are pretty close too.

[vertex]

I know of at least one Pats fan in NY:

http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/celebs/giselebundchen/gisele_bundchen_8.jpg

[vertex]

double post

[Crawford]

Well, Tom seems to have a preference for NYC, though to be fair I think Giselle might have something to do with that. ;)

[Buckeye Native 001]

They play in the exact same arena as the Lakers and so they share the same territory. As long as Lakers fans outnumber them, Clippers fans won't show. If they played across town, there'd be a stronghold of Clippers fans represented on the map, but it's not the case.

The Clippers used to play a couple NBA games a year at the Arrowhead Pond (now the Honda Center) in Anaheim (35 miles from Downtown Los Angeles) to draw in fans from Orange County and elsewhere, and it was a miserable failure. Unless the Clippers somehow magically make the playoffs again (like in 2006), that team has little-to-no support in greater L.A.

[PA Pride]

Sorry, but your first post does say "It is the kind that people have used to show the sphere of influence of major league sports teams." ;) Anyway, I agree that the influence map you posted is way more interesting. So I changed the sportsmaps to just links to those maps :)

I see what you're saying about my wording. That was my bad, I didn't really say it the right way. I fixed my initial post to say NON sports. I hope I didn't come off sounding mean.

[PA Pride]

double post

you certainly did post some doubles.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

The Clippers used to play a couple NBA games a year at the Arrowhead Pond (now the Honda Center) in Anaheim (35 miles from Downtown Los Angeles) to draw in fans from Orange County and elsewhere, and it was a miserable failure. Unless the Clippers somehow magically make the playoffs again (like in 2006), that team has little-to-no support in greater L.A.

Thats not really true. they drew over 17000 at the pond, and they average over 17000 a game at Staples. They are just burdened with being in the same city as one of the most popular sports franchise in the world.

BTW, im a HUGE Laker fan.

[krudmonk]

Would moving the Clippers to Anaheim permanently be better for the franchise?

[TexasBoi]

Would moving the Clippers to Anaheim permanently be better for the franchise?

As long as they do not call themselves the Los Angeles Clippers of Anaheim.:D

[TexasBoi]

:haha: Bandwagon? The New England Cheaters are going down! :yes:

Of course you will find bandwagon types in CT, but you will find the same anywhere. The point is that CT, with a few exceptions, is NY sports territory.

And there are some unexplained quirks. For some reason, NYC has TONS of Eagles and Steelers fans. Maybe it's relative geographic proximity? But at the same time, there are almost no Redskins, Ravens or Patriots fans, and they are pretty close too.

I work with a Giant fan and he's originally from New York. He said there is a big amount of Cowboy fans there as well. I can believe considering LL Cool J and Jay Z are Cowboy fans and the amount of New York Cowboy fans that post on the sports message boards.

[Chicago3rd]

Please...the people of Hinkle, Oregon, are in the sphere of influence of Seattle, as opposed to Spokane or Portland? Sure.

No..the Tri-City area of Washington.

[Chicago3rd]

I think it makes sense for cities to occasionally not be within thier own sphere of influence. Flagstaff, AZ lies within the Phoenix sphere, but I know that up north in the Navajo reservation, Flagstaff is considered the regional big city.
I agree with the Boston sphere covering all of New Hampshire. Manchester has almost zero cultural sway over the state for being it's largest city.
It's imprtant to remember that this isn't scientific.

Fun thing to do is to read the actual web page (not picking on you...just a few people obviously did not go to the webpage:
http://www.commoncensus.org/maps.php

Some spheres of influence do not cover their own city. The cities themselves are plotted in red dots. There are several cases where a city's sphere of influence is located outside that city, and the city itself is located in the sphere of influence of another city. This may occur for cities with very few votes, and is expected to correct itself as more votes come in.

Basically the map will become more accurate as more people fill out the questionaire.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Would moving the Clippers to Anaheim permanently be better for the franchise?

No not really. Orange County, and for that matter the rest of southern and central California is strictly Laker country, so it doesnt matter if they move. they already have a base here and they are pretty successful, even making a profit most years (one of the few teams that does). Anaheim will have its own team in the near future and thats the only way that some people would support them.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Well, Anaheim does have the Arsenal (a d-league development team that plays at that goofy-looking 1960s spaceship arena at the Anaheim Convention Center), but I think I'm one of the few people from Orange County aware of their existance, and that's only because I worked for the Orange County Register sports department part-time and we'd get their score updates sent to us over the wire (like we cared...) ;)

[Cirrus]

I question the methodology if people in Charlottesville are saying it’s a major city. The question must be phrased unclearly, because I can’t see anyone in Charlottesville giving any answer other than “Washington” if they were asked “what is the closest major city?”

[TexasBoi]

I question the methodology if people in Charlottesville are saying it’s a major city. The question must be phrased unclearly, because I can’t see anyone in Charlottesville giving any answer other than “Washington” if they were asked “what is the closest major city?”

Or maybe Richmond? I would think they would look to either but probably moreso towards Washington.

[MolsonExport]

FRom a sportsfan perspective, it is kinda neat. Wonder how much it differs when talkin' bout Football vs. Baseball vs. Basketball, vs. Hockey, etc.

[PA Pride]

^Uh oh. Someone post the sports maps!!! Swede, where you at?!?

[LivingIn622]

I think NYC should give up a sports team, they're hogging them all. :sly:

[Buckeye Native 001]

I think NYC should give up a sports team, they're hogging them all. :sly:

But they all have huge followings within the greater New York area (including the Nets, Devils and Islanders)

[LivingIn622]

But they all have huge followings within the greater New York area (including the Nets, Devils and Islanders)

Islanders are of NY.

[Capsule F]

The Philadelphia sphere is right on.

[Evergrey]

Portland, Maine--not within its own sphere of influence...

St. George, Utah--not within its own sphere of influence...

Flagstaff, Arizona--not within its own sphere of influence...

Sioux City, Iowa--not within its own sphere of influence...

There's at least another. That said, it's an interesting concept.

That's because these are relatively minor cities that are relatively close to larger cities. Someone from Portland, ME might not identify their own city as the "major city they identify with". Portlanders might look to Boston to fill that role. But somebody from the remote sparsely-populated hinterlands of Dover-Foxcroft, ME might identify Portland, ME as their "local major city". It's not a rare phenomenon.

[Evergrey]

This whole thing is stupid. Cities have multiple and overlapping spheres of influence. For example, if I talk to someone from Ayr, Ontario and they say they're "going into the city", they're usually talking about the neighbouring tri-city area. If they're "heading to the big city", they're talking about Toronto. Sometimes the spheres of influence overlap so much that you can't generalize, you have to be specific about where you're talking about.

And Salt Lake City has a bigger sphere of influence than New York?...give me a break.

As others stated, Salt Lake City has a bigger sphere of influence IN AREA because it's one of the most remote major cities in the country. There is little to compete with SLC's influence over vast reaches of the Mountain West. NYC is in a highly populated region with many major cities. NYC is America's dominant city and exerts greater "influence" in certain respects across wide swaths of the country on different levels... but when someone is asked what "major city they identify with"... NYC's territory is populus but small in area... as Philly, Hartford and even Albany are nearby with their own "territories".

Btw, look at the map... 2569 respondents named NYC as their "city"... 397 named Salt Lake City... there is no reason you should be whining. A couple hundred people in the SLC metro and a few people scattered about the desolate wastes of Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, etc. make the area spatially huge.

[e2ksj3]

We studied these in geography earlier this year; they're examples of "functional regions" that are tied together by certain functions that originate in central cities. You could do it by newspaper distribution, for instance, or television/radio stations. People in rural areas usually choose to watch the TV news from the closest city. At what point do the majority of people stop watching St. Louis news and begin watching Kansas City news?

It seems like "sphere of influence" is not rigorously defined, though. How are they measuring it? Newspaper or TV is easy to measure.

I think it's by TV markets or at least TV markets inflence it. Notice how there are more markets and less influence in east, compared to out west like with Salt Lake City taking the chunk of the map. There are less TV stations, so the one's in the major cities usually cover a larger area In my state of NC, Raleigh TV stations cover as far south as Fayetteville and areas to the east Rocky Mount/Wilson and stops at Greenville, where the Greenville market begins as seen on the map. People in Rocky Mount or Wilson will more or less associate with Raleigh and the Triangle because they receive their news station and see the ads to shop at their stores, etc, versus in doing business in Wilmington or Greenville, although Fayetteville and Wilson are just as close. The maps are similar.

http://ekb.dbstalk.com/TVMarkets/TVMarkets%20contiguous%20US%201.gif

TV Markets (http://ekb.dbstalk.com/TVMarkets/)

http://www.commoncensus.org/maps/national_1280.gif

[Evergrey]

To me, this map is kinda about the 'brand' of a city. People associate with a certain namesake of a bigger farther away city from them alot of times.

EXACTLY. I come from a remote area of North-Central PA... over a hundred miles from any big city... but we associated ourselves with Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh was our big city. It was the big city brand we identified with. Altoona and State College serve their purposes as regional centers in that area... and even have their own media market... but Pittsburgh is looked upon as our city. However, just to the north of my hometown, as one gets closer to the NY border, Buffalo begins to exert its dominance as the "big city".

[Buckeye Native 001]

Islanders are of NY.

I know that, but like the Devils and Nets (and hell, even the Giants and Jets if you want to get technical), they aren't within the New York City limits, but still have large fanbases within the greater metropolitan area of NYC, be it in New Jersey, New York state, or Conneticut.

Whoever said that New York should give up some of their sports teams because "they have too many" (which is what I'm guessing was the implication from that poster), doesn't understand that each of the teams within that metro have significant fanbases.

[Dragonfire]

I think it's interesting how Texas is laid out... I'm a bit surprised that Waco isn't on there and that most of those people associate themselves with DFW... I mean, Waco isn't exactly a huge city, but its population is more than twice that of San Angelo.

[TexasBoi]

I think it's interesting how Texas is laid out... I'm a bit surprised that Waco isn't on there and that most of those people associate themselves with DFW... I mean, Waco isn't exactly a huge city, but its population is more than twice that of San Angelo.

Probably because it's sphere doesn't reach very far at all. For Killeen and Bell County, I would say Austin's sphere is now starting to dominate the area. Especially Western Bell county. Waco doesn't register at all in Killeen.

There isn't anything like a Dallas or Austin near San Angelo. Waco cannot say the same.

[Dragonfire]

Good point, but I figured that Waco's sphere of influence would at least include McLennan County.

[Chicago3rd]

I question the methodology if people in Charlottesville are saying it’s a major city. The question must be phrased unclearly, because I can’t see anyone in Charlottesville giving any answer other than “Washington” if they were asked “what is the closest major city?”

Perhaps it is more termonology. Did you supply your information? Curious what people thought about the questions.

I said:

Lincoln Square
North Side
Chicago
Chicagoland
Midwest (note I did not say Illinois)

[TexasBoi]

Good point, but I figured that Waco's sphere of influence would at least include McLennan County.

Well it does because that's the county Waco is in. But it stops as soon as you get to Bell County.

[Joey D]

http://ekb.dbstalk.com/TVMarkets/TVMarkets%20contiguous%20US%201.gif

I hate to nitpick, but that map is off a bit. It exaggerates the Baltimore TV market a bit where it includes Cecil Co, MD which is in the northeast corner of the state. That county is totally Philadelphia TV market.

[newboldphilly]

I'd hate to see some of you people open a box you just brought home from IKEA. You gotta read the friggin directions first.

If you read the FAQ he says about 10x that the map won't be really accurate until he has about 100k replies.

The quiz also asks you to rank the areas as you identify with them. For myself i put, Philadelphia->Northeast(USA)-> North America

It would be good if there were extra regions to choose from so one could pick North America->USA->Northeast->Mid-Atlantic*-> Delaware Valley->Phila->South Philly
I was talking to a work acquaintance once and she kept using New England and "the northeast" as synonyms. To me New England and the Mid-Atlantic are two subregions of the Northeast.

I'd really like to see those cultural boundary lines between north/south. From the data available so far, going by the lines drawn around DC, Pittsburgh, Columbus, etc, it is pretty much where i figured it would be.

But Hartford, Boston, Philidelphia, and others would be under New York's sphere of influence, despite having their own as well.

Sorry dude but I live in Philadelphia and I would never put myself down as being in NYC's sphere of influence and i honestly don't know anyone here who would. In order to find that zone of ambiguity you'd need to travel about 40 miles northeast of here.

[newboldphilly]

I find this one intriguing. I don't find any of it surprising but it is interesting that more than a few respondents chose "South Jersey" as their location but that so few chose "Central Jersey", "North Jersey", or "Jersey Shore" as their first choice.

With the dominance of Comcast most people in NJ now get at least a few Philadelphia tv stations but it used to be that everyone along the Princeton, Freehold, Asbury Park, Toms River belt got the stations from both cities.
With the exception of Asbury Park and the northern end of Freehold that area is still where you'll find the transition in sports teams as well as where you'll find preference fade toward one city or the other.

http://www.commoncensus.org/maps/newyorkcityarea_1280.gif

[LivingIn622]

the map is extremely off. It even says it on the map.