Central-place theory asks
Estimated time: 25–40 minutes. Includes the activity and its built-in responses. Extra assignments may take longer.
Do Geography Lab · Urban Systems
Major League Baseball may eventually grow from 30 clubs to 32. Where should the next two teams go? Build a market, draw its territory, and discover why the neat geometry of central-place theory collides with the unruly geography of actual cities.
Central-place theory asks
The geographical trap
Threshold
Set three assumptions. The model calculates the minimum market needed to sustain your attendance target.
Your market threshold
3.13 million peopleThis is a teaching threshold, not an MLB formula. Its purpose is to make your assumptions visible—and therefore debatable.
Range
Select a candidate and change its plausible draw radius. Existing clubs do not disappear simply because your new circle reaches their fans.
Model failure
Central-place theory sees market size and distance. Baseball’s real geography also contains firms, growth, inherited loyalties, stadiums, borders, and politics.
Decision
Choose a pair. A defensible answer must discuss threshold, range, market overlap, and at least one factor the central-place model omits.
Committee report
Choose two cities. There is no answer key hiding beneath the map—only arguments that use geography well or badly.
Central-place theory clarifies thresholds, ranges, hierarchy, and market spacing. It does not by itself explain league rules, media territories, public stadium finance, corporate sponsorship, historic fan loyalties, borders, or whether people actually want baseball. The clean model is useful precisely because its failures tell us where to look next.
Exit prompt
Defend one of your cities in 100–150 words. Then identify the strongest geographical argument against your own choice. A good committee member can see both.
Candidate populations are rounded teaching estimates based primarily on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 metropolitan and combined-area estimates, with Canadian markets treated as rounded regional estimates. “Regional market,” overlap, corporate support, baseball culture, and stadium readiness are instructor-built scenario variables—not official MLB ratings or forecasts. MLB currently has 30 clubs; Commissioner Rob Manfred has repeatedly discussed 32 as a desirable future structure while tying formal expansion to unresolved franchise and stadium matters.