what nfl team would be gd fit for salt lake city

[hilgi]

Originally Posted by MrAnderson

True. Though if you combined the Ogden and Provo metros you'd have around 2.2 million.

Mr Anderson is correct. The 2008 Metro estimates are:

SLC 1,115,692
Provo 540,892
Ogden 531,488

SLC just hit the sweet spot for growth, Provo and Ogden will benefit from SLC's growth.

[ebreezy]

i was watching a video clip from myfoxutah.com on aol. which was talking about utah getting a nfl team but to let everyone know these are old video clips, but as i was watching it has the population along the wasatch front. the only thing thats stopping utah landing a nfl team $,$$$,$$$,$$$.00 to build a stadium and tax dollars from the local people with in salt lake county.

[osugirl2]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

The NFL in SLC is a laughable prospect.

SLC is the 49th largest metro area in the US at 1.1 million. And there is not really a large regional population to draw on as a fan base. For example, the Seattle Seahawks are in the Seattle metro area (3.5 million) but they draw fans and TV revenue from the whole northwest from Eugene, Portland, and Salem, to Spokane, Juneau, and Anchorage.

Metro areas that are larger than SLC and that are more logical choices for NFL expansion would include:


Los Angeles (12.8 million)
Riverside/San Bernardino CA (AKA the inland empire) 4.1 million
Portland (2.2 million) but not going to happen as that is Seahawk territory and Portland has no stadium
Sacramento (2.1 million) but too close to Oakland and San Francisco
Orlando (2 million) but maybe too close to Jacksonville and Tampa
San Antonio (2 million)
Las Vegas (1.8 million)
Oklahoma City (1.2 million)

Obviously Los Angeles is the looming elephant for NFL expansion. Most people think that LA will eventually get a team.

Portland is pretty unlikely in my opinion having grown up and lived there. It's a pretty NIMBY type of place and there are no logical locations for a monster NFL stadium in the central area. It would be massively controversial. Most football fans follow the Ducks and Beavers or the Seahawks 3 hours to the north.

Sacramento and Orlando are probably unlikely because each city is in relatively close proximity to two other NFL teams

San Antonio. I think San Antonio is actually the most logical choice after LA for an expansion team. The city is large and it has no local pro or college football teams. And this is in football crazed Texas. The big university in San Antonio is Univ of Texas at San Antonio which has no football team (although there are proposals to bring football to UTSA). The only major football options for San Antonio are to drive 70 miles north to Austin to watch Univ. of Texas. Or drive 200 miles east to Houston. Dallas is nearly 300 miles away. There is a large population and potential fan base in South Texas reaching all the way to the Rio Grande Valley which itself has a population similar to the SLC area.

Another choice less logical than San Antonio but still better than SLC would be Oklahoma City. A team located there would be competing with the Sooners and to some extent with the Cowboys to the south. But the Oklahoma City metro area is larger than SLC and a team based there would draw on many more towns and cities than Utah. Oklahoma has nearly a million more people than Utah and is frankly far more football crazed than Utah. Plus there is little else to do in Oklahoma but obsess about football. Utah has a lot more recreational opportunities and the whole Sunday Mormon issue mentioned previously.

Finally Las Vegas probably makes more sense than SLC. It is a city built on entertainment and tourism. An NFL team would be yet another tourism draw.

Oklahoma is very football crazed, especially when it comes to college! I think that since we just got a NBA team, any other professional teams will sit back and watch how the Thunder do before they comtemplate moving here, though the economic climate is decent because we've been "recession proof" so far. I myself would have preferred an NFL team over an NBA team. I would have to agree out of all the cities you've listed, San Antonio makes a lot of sense location and economically speaking. I think a team would fare better there than in L.A. I think it would be possible for Utah in a few years to be able to support an NFL team. It's the fastest growing state in the union, and the population is becoming more diverse all the time, plus the vast majority of that population is concentrated in one area.

[ebreezy]

everyone kno that las vegas will never get a nfl team due to one thing the gambiling. 2nd of all salt lake city metro area if you include the metro area of provo and ogden it's little of 2.2 million oklahoma city area around 1.3 million and utah shown it's a big league city now with mls,nba,afl which has folded for the time being,wnba,and hosting the 2002 winter games....and so ya'll saying univ of utah and byu ain't big college football crazed....i can vouch for that they are football crazed just like oklahoma.....the only problem is when it comes to to places like salt lake city and oklahoma city it's the tax payer who gotta flip the bill the the stadium which x amount to build in the first place. 3rd of all you gotta have major players to invest there money in that area start off with. only reason los angeles gets the nod its the 2nd largest tv market for the nfl and with san antonio it all ready has a stadium in place which helps as well.

[5280milehiguy]

SLC is too close to Denver to ever capitalize on other major league sports. And yes, Las Vegas (and Nevada) will never have professional sports due to gaming.

[hilgi]

I hope SLC doesn't go down the tax subsidized NFL team route. We don't need to give warfare to billionaire owners. The Sports Page: Corporate Welfare, Publicly Funded Stadiums

[ebreezy]

hilgi i really doubt slc will see it happing no time soon i say maybe in another 20 years.