Why not Kyoto?

I think they're all Tigers fans in Kyoto.

Kyoto is very close to Kobe, which is Orix territory. Hanshin holds most of the Kansai area in its grips, and Koba and Kyoto both fall in this area.

The Tohoku region is much riper for the picking than putting another team in the Kansai area. Even Shikoku, which would make another great place for a team, is closer to baseball (Hiroshima and Osaka) than the Tohoku region, yet significantly farther from Hanshin influence than Kyoto.

Well, here is the population ranking in Japan as of 2001 [Link - PDF file in English from Japanorama.com] (this is for anyone who is interested in this stat).

There would also be stadium concerns. Kyoto is a major city and I assume its municipal grounds are already in regular use by its citizens. So annexing the ground like Livedoor or Rakuten intend to do in Tohoku isn't really an option.

Building a new stadium is the alternative, but I imagine it would be impossible to actually locate it in crowded Kyoto city. That leaves outlying areas like Kameoka, Kurama, or Yamashina, and you've got to wonder whether people are actually going to go to such inconvenient places (some of which don't have the most developed public transport in the world and only a few roads in and out) just to see a baseball game.

Remember: Kyoto is already a traffic/transport nightmare. It's a tourist mecca and a densely populated city; roads are clogged and public transport runs at almost full capacity in the city center.

Orix's ground was in the same situation: it's in Kobe city, but only accessible by one subway line that doesn't run through the major residential areas. No wonder their games were sparsely attended.

As was discussed in other threads on this site, if you're going to set up a baseball team, it'd be best to do it in a region that doesn't have a team already. Livedoor/Rakuten have the right idea with Tohoku.

Too bad there couldn't be a women's team in Kyoto. The Kyoto Geishas (or Maikos). More in keeping with the character of the place.

Iirc, the Shochiku Robins used Nishi Kyogoku Stadium as their home ballpark (I think they also used Osaka Stadium for a time as well) until they were absorbed into the Taiyo Whales. So Kyoto has hosted pro baseball before. But Shochiku ended up in Kyoto only thanks to maneuvering by the Nankai Hawks to head them off from coming into the Osaka market proper. So Kyoto, while a large city, may not be all that great a baseball market for whatever reason.

In any event, putting another team in the Kansai area is unlikely to gain approval from the other owners. So the big baseball club there right now is Heian High School.