[Mr. 205]

Interesting comments... some spot-on, many more misguided. Birmingham, given it's history, would be a great candidate for an NFL team. Ideal candidate? That's debatable... but definitely a great one.

Interestingly enough, Birmingham ranked high on NFL lists in the 90s. Unfortunately, attempts to derail stadium expansion projects severely hindered the city's chances at landing an expansion/relocated team. Believe me, Birmingham was closer than most people think.

Arguments about population and/or income don't hold water. Birmingham leads the nation in income growth, has larger television markets than some cities with NFL teams (e.g. Buffalo, Jacksonville, New Orleans, etc.), and isn't far behind others in terms of population (at 1.1 million, not much separates Birmingham from, say, Nashville or Jacksonville).

As mentioned earlier by a few posters, Birmingham has, historically, supported quality semi-pro teams. "Quality" being the keyword here. Pointing towards poor attendance at a poor game played between poor teams in a poor league hardly qualifies as evidence.

All in all, should a team locate here, there are more signs that indicate potential success as opposed to possible failure.

[Bama`s Port]

I truely believe that people under estimate and under rate Alabama. B-ham`s metro is around the same size as cities like New Orelans, Buffalo, Nashville, and Jacksonville , FL. Yet B-hama is not able to get a team Alabama as a stste has a largere population than Louisiana and Oklahoma because there has been talk about a team going to Oklahoma. Alabamians support there college teams more than any atate that I have been to, I know that the B-ham arear is ready and the state as a whole is ready .

[Psykomonkee]

I don't see why not have an NFL team in Birmingham... I REALLY hope it happens in the near future... I doubt it will happen soon, because for some reason, the rest of the nation has low respect for Alabama. They assume it's all back country, and don't realize that it has cities to. Birmingham is bigger than some NFL cities now... Metro Birmingham is just about as populated as New Orleans and Buffalo Metros, and way bigger than Green Bay...

There are NFL cities that were once college football towns before also, and people said they'd never support an NFL team because the people there weren't going to be interested because they grew up on College Football. Now they sustain NFL teams just fine... They said that about Jacksonville and Charlotte before teams came there. People said Baltimore wouldn't work because of the Redskins, regardless of Baltimore once having the Colts. I think a team in Birmingham would be a great idea... Just have to market it right.

[Psykomonkee]

Birmingham BEASTS!!!! And have a mascots of mythical (magical) monsters to go with the whole Magic City theme... Mascots like, a Minotaur (main), a Bigfoot and a Griffin...

[Psykomonkee]

Market the team as being rivals of the Falcons and/or Titans depending on which Conference...

[aktanner]

Originally Posted by Psykomonkee

I don't see why not have an NFL team in Birmingham... I REALLY hope it happens in the near future... I doubt it will happen soon, because for some reason, the rest of the nation has low respect for Alabama. They assume it's all back country, and don't realize that it has cities to. Birmingham is bigger than some NFL cities now... Metro Birmingham is just about as populated as New Orleans and Buffalo Metros, and way bigger than Green Bay...

There are NFL cities that were once college football towns before also, and people said they'd never support an NFL team because the people there weren't going to be interested because they grew up on College Football. Now they sustain NFL teams just fine... They said that about Jacksonville and Charlotte before teams came there. People said Baltimore wouldn't work because of the Redskins, regardless of Baltimore once having the Colts. I think a team in Birmingham would be a great idea... Just have to market it right.

Actually, Jacksonville has been having attendance problems the past several years to the point of having games blacked out. I think the NFL would consider putting a team in Los Angles before putting a team in Alabama.

[pvraider58]

i've lived my entire life in alabama. and yes i love college football. i've broken alot of dates to watch football on saturday nights. however, i do like pro football and i think birmingham is just asgod as any city with a pro football team. but its just not possible without corporate funding and i dont know if there is enough businesses in birmingham willing to help

[Tourian]

Population is not the only problem, its money plain and simple. I was reading a column on this a while back on foxsports.com. Basically the NFL wants you to build state of the art facilities that hold around 60-75,000 people. They know they will never fill a 100,000 seat stadium like UA can, and they don't want to. They'd rather there be a large percentage of luxury boxes to attract wealthy owners. They also look at how much merchandising they think you can sell. You know - hats, jerseys, big #1 foam fingers and crap like that. If Birmingham could pull the entire state together and sell just as many jerseys and hats as Green Bay can, then we'd have a team.

The largest TV market in the country and 2nd largest city doesn't even have a team. Why? Because California is broke. Arnold can't justify building a half billion dollar complex just so some millionaires can play a game when he's got unemployment, a bankrupt government and many other pressing problems hanging over his head. And the NFL will not play in the Rose Bowl, its just too old and primitive for their tastes.

That's why practically no one is getting a team right now. The column I read went on to talk about the Superbowl and why so many cities are not on the list as possible sites to host it. Among the existing NFL stadiums, only a handful meet their elite criteria for box seats and rich people cushiness to allow for it to happen, and some of those are rapidly approaching deadlines to upgrade further or they'll soon be off the rotation.

I like NFL football, but Alabama's chances are about nil right now. But with that said, Birmingham is the only possible choice.

[Tourian]

And a word about the USFL and XFL. I seem to remember good reports about Birmingham's support of the Stallions. I think I went to most if not all of the Fire games. And as far as the XFL, it probably would have gone over better with the more conservative Alabama crowd if they just toned down all the yelling and screaming from the rassler' like players and all the T and A they paraded around. But even still, I went to the home opener and it had great attendance, but I can imagine it fell off because of the non family atmosphere they carried on with - all we wanted was a good football game.

Oh, and somewhere along the way someone said put the stadium bewteen B'ham and HSV. I think that's a terrible idea. Just stick it out in the middle of nowehere? or Cullman? No way. You need a major airport, plenty of hotel beds, restaurants, upscale neighborhoods/housing and a nightlife to surround the players and its fans, and Birmingham is the only city in Alabama that has enough/all of that.

[Psykomonkee]

Birmingham can someday get an NFL team, however it won't be anytime soon...

I remember when they were talking about expanding with Carolina and Jacksonville, Birmingham, Memphis, Norfolk and Baltimore were all on the ballots to possibly get teams... I think they were going to name the team the Barons or Mustangs or something like that...

Well, if you ask me, the league should add 8 new city markets over the next decade. Make the NFL a 40 team league, with 8 divisions of 5 teams each.

East:
Norfolk (Virginia Juggernauts after the Navy Battleships)
Louisville or Memphis
North:
Portland
Salt Lake City
South:
Birmingham
Oklahoma City
West:
Los Angeles
San Antonio

Birmingham or Alabama Beasts. City's nickname is "Magic City" so go with a Magic Beast theme. Minotaurs and Griffins as mascots)