Out of Town Scoreboard

Sports in the suburbs is no longer limited to municipal swards filled with soccer players. Professional sports, from minor-league baseball and soccer to International League basketball and even NASCAR, is exploding in the burbs, even in locales where a major-league team is on tap downtown. "As you look around the country, it's very hard to find a major city without some sort of minor league presence in the suburbs," Matt McLaughlin, director of media relations with the Schaumburg, Ill., Flyers told a local paper, the Daily Herald. Minor-league parks are a bargain compared to a night at the Bigs, but draw enough dollars to make suburban towns anxious to capture out-of-town fans. They also provide wholesome family entertainment for residents. In California, the independent Golden Baseball League is targeting suburban venues all over the West in their expansion plans, and in Metairie, next to Katrina-damaged New Orleans, the Zephyrs baseball team's season opener was hailed as a sign of hope even as the city's pro teams' loyalty was still uncertain.

The next step seems to be the return of major-league sports to the suburbs. Major League Baseball's Miami-based Florida Marlins and the Minnesota Vikings of the NFL are both considering the suburbs as sites for their planned stadiums.