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Isn't there some sort of double jeopardy or three strikes and your out law in regards to franchises? If a city couldn't keep one hockey team, okay--if a city lost two though, maybe you're not a good hockey market.
Then again since their last two teams left for Calgary and Winnipeg, maybe it's just another potential future team relocation to Canada--and lord knows, people in Canada really want more hockey teams.
Exactly. The easiest way for Canada to get another team for another one to leave Atlanta. I see no reason Atlanta shouldn't get another shot at the NHL provided there's a 20 year wait period or something since the Thrashers leaving like there was before. That's a long enough time for a city and pro sports to significantly change. The main issue is that there are better locations (at least on paper) like Houston or a second Toronto area team that should get a shot first.
To sum up all the NBA in Austin talk I think in 5-10 years you'll see the Spurs ownership push for a new stadium off I-35 somewhere between New Braunfels and San Marcos. This would put the team roughly halfway between Austin and San Antonio which would hopefully let them capitalize on the growth of Austin and the overall region without being a complete slap in the face to San Antonio. The change of Austin's NBADL team from the Toros to the Spurs is probably to help ease the transition.
Austin lacks a coliseum and likely won't pay for one (look at the trepidation behind Texas asking the city to foot part of the bill for a new basketball home for the Longhorns), but it already probably has better demographics than San Antonio in terms of available corporate support and disposable income. At the current rate of growth it won't be too many more years before Austin passes San Antonio in pure population for that matter. But if you put it there you lower the bill for any one area while selling this to cities and counties up and down 35 as a potential boon for gas and food sales and can split the cost between a lot so being flat refused by any one city won't be such a killer.
People always say this, but I doubt it is really true. When pro sports enter a market, college sports can remain important but the pro sport typically becomes the dominant force. People in Atlanta love their Georgia bulldogs (and to a lesser extent Ga Tech Yellow Jackets).
The percentage of people in Austin who actually have strong ties to UT-Austin isn't really THAT high. There's easily more than a million people who arent. These may be fans just because it is the local team, but if an NFL team were there, they'd support that team.
I'll agree. Moving from Alabam NO ONE gives a darn about pro sports. People watch but unless you come from somewhere else you're not running into someone with a pro team they really root for. In Austin I'd say 90% say they are Texas fans, but you have just as much talk about the Cowboys or Spurs as you do about Texas. Texas football was bad this last year, and I went to conference game that had at least 10000 empty seats, and I can't recall any of the so called fans in my office actually going to one of the games. That in itself should be a worry for the owner of a pro team too though.
Let's start with this: how many of you guys actually watch all the sports?
I barely just got into MLS, but it still looks pretty amateurish (though better than me, that's for sure) than international soccer leagues. Soccer is gaining traction in American parlance, but it's still a huge niche sport.
NHL: Definitely more popular in the Northern climates than the Southern climates. People were relying on the fact that LA is a large market to get viewership for the last Stanley Cup run, when it was in fact the 4th lowest viewed Stanley Cup clincher ever, despite it involving NY and LA.
I know this is CD and we're supposed to boost our cities to no end, but think about it from an Sports Owner POV: would that team actually be popular in that market? Or are you simply just going to try to fleece some ad exec for some inflated media contract?
I very occasionally watch NHL and MLB. No to NFL and NBA. Heck no to soccer.
To sum up all the NBA in Austin talk I think in 5-10 years you'll see the Spurs ownership push for a new stadium off I-35 somewhere between New Braunfels and San Marcos. This would put the team roughly halfway between Austin and San Antonio which would hopefully let them capitalize on the growth of Austin and the overall region without being a complete slap in the face to San Antonio. The change of Austin's NBADL team from the Toros to the Spurs is probably to help ease the transition.
Austin lacks a coliseum and likely won't pay for one (look at the trepidation behind Texas asking the city to foot part of the bill for a new basketball home for the Longhorns), but it already probably has better demographics than San Antonio in terms of available corporate support and disposable income. At the current rate of growth it won't be too many more years before Austin passes San Antonio in pure population for that matter. But if you put it there you lower the bill for any one area while selling this to cities and counties up and down 35 as a potential boon for gas and food sales and can split the cost between a lot so being flat refused by any one city won't be such a killer.
No way. The AT&T Center is barely over 10 years old and still in great shape. And also, putting a stadium halfway would work for the NFL. I don't see how it works for the NBA which has 82 games and many of those back to back. And the Spurs will be there until 2027 at the least.
Cities that could use a professional sports team in NBA, MLS, MLB, NFL, NHL.
Which cities that lack a team in any of the 5 above professional leagues could stand to gain a team?
Support your reasoning, I guess, by supporting evidence of why that sport would be popular there or what the attendance figure would be like.
This thread is for all cities by the way, from as large as New York to as tiny as where ever is last in the continent (yes, thread is about North America). Obviously market size would be a deterrent for small cities but that not-withstanding all places are included.
Quebec City could absolutely use an NHL team. It's a prosperous region, they've built a new arena already that could host a team, and the town is hockey mad and ready to support the return of the Nordiques. Winnipeg got its team back and they're doing well, and Quebec is even a bit larger and more prosperous. The return of the Nordiques would do alot of for morale and public image in that city, it'd be a real "coming of age" moment that it would use well!
EDIT: sorry, didn't notice I was in the general US forum, please excuse this post!!!
No way. The AT&T Center is barely over 10 years old and still in great shape. And also, putting a stadium halfway would work for the NFL. I don't see how it works for the NBA which has 82 games and many of those back to back. And the Spurs will be there until 2027 at the least.
Not sure I get what you're saying. You're already there if you're talking about a double header. An extra hour bus ride to the airport isn't a big deal if you're talking about a game somewhere else the next day. It's basically the difference between playing in OKC/New Orleans versus Dallas/Houston the next day.
In regards this those American City Biz Journal links are interesting as while it doesn't address this specifically, when looking at everything outside NBA you can see by their rankings Austin is already a more reliable market than San Antonio. The Spurs already have a significantly larger fan base in Austin than other teams. I have trouble imagining Spurs management wouldn't like to try capturing more of that market especially if they can preserve their San Antonio fan base as well especially if the league starts floating the idea of trying to put a team in Austin amongst the owners. That said I don't think a team is likely to happen in Austin proper for a number of reasons.
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