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Louisville is barely that much smaller than Kansas City....yet KC can support 3 big time pro sports and Louisville can support none? Sorry, not buying it. Louisville is the most misunderstood city in the USA....it's really in a boom right now if you haven't been.
Kansas City is the 31st largest market. Louisville is the 50th largest market. That's why.
Virginia Beach/Norfolk is quite large and a sports desert. ODU is the largest school, but nowhere near the following of Louisville, Vandy, or UT. I think there is a solid chance that it'll happen.
Location: Watching half my country turn into Gilead
3,530 posts, read 4,135,974 times
Reputation: 2919
I think Las Vegas is easily the best candidate here. It's already won an NHL expansion team and has the arena in place, which is the biggest hurdle in these kinds of matters. It's already hosted the NBA All Star Game, back in '07, and hosts Summer League games, so the NBA clearly isn't adverse to having a team there. The Raiders of the NFL are looking like a guaranteed deal to relocate there, at this point, so the expansion team momentum is really cresting right now. And while the metro may "only" be one of 2.3 million (CSA), it is one of the most visited cities in this country and on Planet Earth, with the bulk of those visitors only in town for pleasure--easily a situation that lends for people not into gambling and partying, which is quite a few as Vegas becomes more "family-friendly", to take in a sporting event. The NBA in Vegas makes the most sense from both a business and branding perspective.
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
8,466 posts, read 14,896,767 times
Reputation: 7263
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mutiny77
I don't think OKC would have ever gotten a team had it not been for the city successfully serving as the temporary home of the Hornets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gladhands
That, and the fact that the new owner moved. I don't think that we would ever have awarded an expansion team to OKC.
True, but they stand as an example of it being able to work. It might even be advantageous to the NBA to target cities like this since they would be the only game in the town, rather than having to fight for attention in markets with huge followings for other sports. It certainly has paid off handsomely in OKC.
While the Hornets playing in Oklahoma City during the post-Katrina years helped its case, it all came down to the ownership group of the SuperSonics that got Oklahoma City the team.
Clay Bennett bought the Seattle SuperSonics from Howard Shultz in 2006 with the longterm vision of moving the franchise to his hometown Oklahoma City. The Hornets playing there was just a resourceful fallback for the reasoning to get the move approved by the NBA. It didn't help that Seattle was limited in getting a new arena plan moving; the Key Arena was severely outdated by then.
The real reason Oklahoma City has a team is because;
1) Deep pockets
2) Stadium plan with an imminent construction timeline
A few years ago I remember watching the Oklahoma City Thunder versus the Memphis Grizzlies in the second round of the Western Conference Postseason (the year Memphis made it to the Western Conference Finals because of Westbrook's injury in the first round), and 15 years ago that same series would have been the Vancouver Grizzlies versus the Seattle SuperSonics.
While San Diego, Seattle, Vancouver, or Mexico City would be the obvious plays due to their size I wouldn't count out the smaller metros. Just look what happened in OKC. At first it seemed like a crazy idea to put a NBA team in a city with no history of professional sports, but it has worked. They've been at or near the top in attendance from day one. Given the smaller crowd sizes compared to NFL or MLB, i can totally see this work in a >1 million metro.
By that logic, you should be looking at Montreal instead of Vancouver!
By that logic, you should be looking at Montreal instead of Vancouver!
Montreal is on tap to get an expansion Major League Baseball (MLB) team.
MLB is contemplating expansion soon as well but wants to wait until its new television contract is inked out and fully negotiated between all parties in the coming months. The league also wants to solve the Athletics and Rays stadium issue (which look to be resolved within a year) and then directly after, it will look to expand the league by 2 teams.
The commissioner of Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred, himself has all but gone out of the way to make sure that Montreal gets the next expansion team at some point in the next 5 years. The city of Montreal, the MLB, and private interests have held several exhibition games and events that fully support the MLB expansion there as support and accumulated wealth is already in the market.
Manfred goes out of his way to stress that MLB is very serious about expanding by 2 more teams, he goes even further out of his way (like every 3 weeks or so) to mention Montreal as the frontrunner to get the first expansion team.
Montreal is expected to get a new Expos franchise, it seems.
Montreal has everything to support all NBA, NHL, MLS, and MLB. It already has MLS and NHL, it can easily do MLB and NBA too.
San Diego, Vancouver, Las Vegas, and one of the two big Virginia metropolitan areas (Virginia Beach/Norfolk or Richmond; preferably Virginia Beach/Norfolk for its bigger size and economy) also make a lot of sense for NBA expansion candidates. Their hiccup is in the NBA arena aspect and not the growth, size, money aspect of the market.
San Diego and Vancouver have a lot of money and sports leagues like rich cities, that are growing, and already have decent to somewhat large metropolitan areas and market size. Both fit the bill. Las Vegas now has all the infrastructure in place to support multiple sports teams. It was awarded an NHL expansion team a few months back, and as of last week has more or less finalized its case to get the Raiders of the NFL in their relocation (they'll get the 24 votes to move; insiders with knowledge think they'll easily sway that direction).
In just 1 year Las Vegas has gone from 0 to basically 2 (with NFL approval pending till February to make it official).
It's amazing to me that NBA players were so averse to living in Vancouver. I'd take Vancouver over half of the NBA cities.
From a players perspective, most would prefer the cities that already have pro teams, along with Las Vegas and Austin. There isn't much in Virginia Beach or Raleigh (I know they have hockey) for a 26 year-old millionaire.
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
8,466 posts, read 14,896,767 times
Reputation: 7263
Quote:
Originally Posted by ARrocket
By that logic, you should be looking at Montreal instead of Vancouver!
Honestly it would be worth it since Vancouver already had a team and it didn't quite work out well. Montreal is closer to a lot more NBA towns too than Vancouver.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
27,606 posts, read 14,430,196 times
Reputation: 9169
Quote:
Originally Posted by Facts Kill Rhetoric
Montreal is on tap to get an expansion Major League Baseball (MLB) team.
MLB is contemplating expansion soon as well but wants to wait until its new television contract is inked out and fully negotiated between all parties in the coming months. The league also wants to solve the Athletics and Rays stadium issue (which look to be resolved within a year) and then directly after, it will look to expand the league by 2 teams.
The commissioner of Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred, himself has all but gone out of the way to make sure that Montreal gets the next expansion team at some point in the next 5 years. The city of Montreal, the MLB, and private interests have held several exhibition games and events that fully support the MLB expansion there as support and accumulated wealth is already in the market.
Manfred goes out of his way to stress that MLB is very serious about expanding by 2 more teams, he goes even further out of his way (like every 3 weeks or so) to mention Montreal as the frontrunner to get the first expansion team.
Montreal is expected to get a new Expos franchise, it seems.
Montreal has everything to support all NBA, NHL, MLS, and MLB. It already has MLS and NHL, it can easily do MLB and NBA too.
San Diego, Vancouver, Las Vegas, and one of the two big Virginia metropolitan areas (Virginia Beach/Norfolk or Richmond; preferably Virginia Beach/Norfolk for its bigger size and economy) also make a lot of sense for NBA expansion candidates. Their hiccup is in the NBA arena aspect and not the growth, size, money aspect of the market.
San Diego and Vancouver have a lot of money and sports leagues like rich cities, that are growing, and already have decent to somewhat large metropolitan areas and market size. Both fit the bill. Las Vegas now has all the infrastructure in place to support multiple sports teams. It was awarded an NHL expansion team a few months back, and as of last week has more or less finalized its case to get the Raiders of the NFL in their relocation (they'll get the 24 votes to move; insiders with knowledge think they'll easily sway that direction).
In just 1 year Las Vegas has gone from 0 to basically 2 (with NFL approval pending till February to make it official).
Really? So after the Expos left for Washington DC, they are going to go round that merry go round again?
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