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Id give Louisville an NBA team before MLB. They just makes bats here, it's not really a baseball mecca. Kentucky is Basketball INSANE. Listening to sports talk radio down here is excruciating when you want to hear about football, and they are discussing the finer points of basketball 4 months before the season starts.
That post is spot on. I go to University of Kentucky and its basketball crazy here but that what happens when your school has the most wins all time in college basketball and the second most championships in CBB. I wish Kentucky would put more more into football. I want our football team to be at least decent. Kentucky softball, baseball and volleyball are all top 25 programs year in and year out now. Kentucky athletics def benefits from being in the SEC and being the most northern school we get a lot of athletes from the midwest, south and east. Take care bud- RL
I agree with this. I lived in Vegas for 4 years, and honestly I never met anyone there who gave a $hit one way or the other about having a professional sports team. Everyone was either already too loyal to the teams from whatever city they moved there from, or they were content enough with college teams at UNLV.
To a lesser extent, the same could be said for Austin. Longhorns fever in Austin is just as big of a deal as any professional sports fever in any other city, and a long-time tradition. A pro team would just be a side-note and a distraction to UT sports.
My vote went to Louisville. Seems to really be an up-and-coming city that is definitely ready for a big 4 team.
I agree with slawblog about Vegas and Austin TX. Austin TX will never get a pro team but Longhorns athletics are fun events to go to. I personally like college sports better than pro but thats just me.... also I don't think Louisville will get a pro team because its too close to Cincinnati, Indy and Nashville and allof those cities have pro teams.
I agree with slawblog about Vegas and Austin TX. Austin TX will never get a pro team but Longhorns athletics are fun events to go to. I personally like college sports better than pro but thats just me.... also I don't think Louisville will get a pro team because its too close to Cincinnati, Indy and Nashville and allof those cities have pro teams.
Yes, there are a lot of teams clustered into that area, but it's not inconceivable to add Louisville into the mix. Look at how many teams there are clustered into the BosWash corridor. Granted there are a LOT more people there and a LOT more money, but I still see no reason Louisville wouldn't at least do well with an NBA team. I imagine most home games would sell out pretty quickly.
Birmingham will support a football team. CFL worked, XFL worked, USFL worked, and NFL would certainly work. College football and high school football attendance in state of Alabama second only to Texas.
Louisville is already 2nd on the list to next get an NBA team (after Seattle). At least that's the buzz that going around Kentucky.
Don't know if the team'll be sustainable because of the Cards, or especially if they're horrible in their first decade, they could be gone in 15 years.
Louisville is already 2nd on the list to next get an NBA team (after Seattle). At least that's the buzz that going around Kentucky.
Don't know if the team'll be sustainable because of the Cards, or especially if they're horrible in their first decade, they could be gone in 15 years.
I'm anxious to see what happens.
Were they "acting" like they (Maloofs ) were trying to get an arena deal done in Louisville when the Kings became available? I know Louisville has an arena but I didn't hear it mentioned as being one of the serious prospects during the Kings fiasco or the Hornets before they went to New Orleans. Did news in Louisville reflect different?
How about El Paso? There's a reason why UTEP football has strong attendance even though it's one of the worst D-I programs of all time - there's nothing to do there. Believe it or not the closest city to El Paso with a Big 4 sport isn't even in Texas. It's Phoenix.
Las Vegas - Too transient with many residents already loyal to "home teams" (see Florida pro sports as an example) and too much going on to detract from attendance.
Louisville - Possible though overcoming historical allegiance to Cincinnati teams as well as a large backing of UL and UKentucky athletics would make for a difficult overlap if talking the NBA in particular.
Austin - Pretty well documented as being too close to Houston and suffers a similar transient population to Florida/Las Vegas with preexisting allegiance to hometown teams. Also would suffer with the extreme loyalty to UT athletics.
Virginia Beach - Another large population with lots of transience due to the massive military presence and an average salary lower than most major metro areas. Cost of attendance factors would be a big concern.
Albuquerque - Too small in population with a metro area well less than a million (885K). Potential revenue would be too small for a major sports team endeavor. Not a good track record either in terms of support for U of New Mexico athletics (also in Albuquerque).
Birmingham - In my opinion the best option of those on the list with a metro population well over a million, much less of a transient population than the other choices, a decent household income able on paper to support cost of attendance, a proven track record of supporting athletic teams (albeit college teams) and an instant rivalry scenario with Atlanta sports franchises.
In my opinion the whole "transient population" thing is overstated. Yes, it is a factor, and yes, that could potentially hurt Las Vegas a little more than other cities, but the truth is almost every big city is pretty transient.
Washington DC, for example felt very transient when I lived there. Yet DC has decent support in all four major sports. New York, Miami, Boston, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, & Atlanta are all known to have lots of people coming and going. Of course some places have it a bit more than others, but any large city is going to draw people in and have turnover.
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