This explains why the Yankees put their Double-A team in Albany for years before moving them all the way to Mystic Connecticut… why the Mets played their Minor League systems in Pittsfield Massachusetts and Norfolk Virginia and why the New Jersey Cardinals put their Minor League franchise out in the middle of a pasture in Sussex County. It was because that was the closest you could get to the rich New York City media market, without having one of the 2 NYC based Major League teams, veto the creation of your new Major or Minor League ballpark due to their territorial radius. For instance, the Mets had wanted a Minor League team in Long Island for years, but the Yankees would never let them do it. The Yankees meanwhile would have loved a Minor League franchise in Yonkers but they knew the Mets would veto the move.