- Spatial Analysis (Fall 2024)
This map is the result of my final project for my Spatial Analysis class. What it shows is the three USL Championship (essentially second-division MLS) teams with the most demand for them to become an MLS expansion team.
In order to create this, I made my own feature classes of current MLS teams and the USL Championship team locations. I then downloaded county population data from the American Community Survey to use as demand points in a Location-Allocation query.
I would have loved to use census tracts to get an even more in-depth analysis, but that would have required 21x the credits allowed for me at UMW. To overcome this, I used the county level and created buffers around all the stadiums. That was one limitation of a project that I am otherwise quite happy with, especially since it was very personal to me.
Should I do a similar project to this again, I would ideally want to use census tracts as they will give much better resultion in deciding the demand for each team. Another improvement would be weighting the population scores based on demographics and who would be likely to support the teams.