San Antonio should get a NFL team (Austin, Mission: moving, stadium)

[sxrckr]

I don't expect to see that happen before Los Angeles were to get one.

[bresilhac]

Originally Posted by sxrckr

I don't expect to see that happen before Los Angeles were to get one.

Houston wasn't supposed to get a team before Los Angeles either but they did. My point is that if and when some owner wants to pony up the money for a stadium then it will happen. As I mentioned before, land is cheap and plentiful around San Antonio so all it would take is for the city or county to offer some land to an intrepid owner.

[Dopo]

I keep on reading a lot of speculation and almost no facts

[bresilhac]

Originally Posted by Dopo

I keep on reading a lot of speculation and almost no facts

Well what facts do you want? Of course there is a lot of speculation on this thread. There is no NFL team in San Antonio as of yet.

[713 to 210]

Originally Posted by bresilhac

Houston wasn't supposed to get a team before Los Angeles either but they did. My point is that if and when some owner wants to pony up the money for a stadium then it will happen. As I mentioned before, land is cheap and plentiful around San Antonio so all it would take is for the city or county to offer some land to an intrepid owner.

It was the $700 million franchise fee that McNair offered up at the last minute that tilted it in our favor. The NFL execs ignored Houston vs. LA until that moment. Yes, it cost McNair $700 million + stadium costs to get the Texans. SA has no other choice than to get an existing team to move.

[TMO315]

That may be true about the TV ratings for those cities but what those ratings only tell you is for the metro area of those places. They don't count Austin or Corpus Christi or Laredo and Del Rio which are all in South Texas in the San Antonio ratings. Now if you include those TV's thats a huge fan base which Salt Lake City and Portland don't have. Just like for the San Antonio Spurs there fan base is all of South Texas.

Also if you remember the Saints when they came to San Antonio for those games after Katrina every game was sold out in the 65,000 seat Alamodome. So San Antonio can support a team. LA I know can support a team, Salt Lake and Portland want a team but have not shown that they can support a team. Thats going to be a difference maker.

Also I think it will come down to who can fund a new stadium and get it approved first before the NFL decides on who would get a new team. LA in a couple of years maybe can fork over the money for a team but right now LA and the State are broke so I don't know about them. San Antonio's economy is booming right now but who knows what can happen in a couple of years.

[Lovely95]

The question is 'Does LA want a team?' Do they actually support their teams? They can, but will they?

[bresilhac]

Originally Posted by TMO315

That may be true about the TV ratings for those cities but what those ratings only tell you is for the metro area of those places. They don't count Austin or Corpus Christi or Laredo and Del Rio which are all in South Texas in the San Antonio ratings. Now if you include those TV's thats a huge fan base which Salt Lake City and Portland don't have. Just like for the San Antonio Spurs there fan base is all of South Texas.

Also if you remember the Saints when they came to San Antonio for those games after Katrina every game was sold out in the 65,000 seat Alamodome. So San Antonio can support a team. LA I know can support a team, Salt Lake and Portland want a team but have not shown that they can support a team. Thats going to be a difference maker.

Also I think it will come down to who can fund a new stadium and get it approved first before the NFL decides on who would get a new team. LA in a couple of years maybe can fork over the money for a team but right now LA and the State are broke so I don't know about them. San Antonio's economy is booming right now but who knows what can happen in a couple of years.

That's why I favor a private owner building his own stadium as opposed to a publicly funded one. It puts less onus on the taxpayers and allows the city/county governments to focus on giving away some land for a stadium and some tax abatements for a potential owner.

[west-houstonian]

I don't see an NFL franchise coming to San Antonio, anytime in the foreseeable future. Why?

Simple. Two reasons:

#1: Television market share. Way too small for a city this big. NFL doesn't want any of that. No money to be made there, and as a previous poster stated, the NFL is not a charity case! They're out to make money. You know, the first rule of business.

#2: Lack of vision. So-called "leaders" in San Antonio today (Phil Hardberger, are you listening?) are absolutely clueless and apathetic about bringing more professional sports teams to San Antonio. The exceptions are former mayors Nelson Wolff and Ed Garza. Nelson wanted to expand Wolff Stadium (where the minor league San Antonio Missions play) to MLB standard capacity (39k-40k), but his drive to get that done was promptly ignored. Former mayor Ed Garza had busted his butt, and obtained an agreement with Major League Soccer to bring a team to San Antonio. However, mayor Phil Hardberger (who succeeded Ed Garza) promptly blew off the idea. As a result, the MLS blew off San Antonio.

Nice, Phil.

[lemonfresh]

Originally Posted by west-houstonian

#1: Television market share. Way too small for a city this big. NFL doesn't want any of that. No money to be made there, and as a previous poster stated, the NFL is not a charity case! They're out to make money. You know, the first rule of business.

Television market share is a terrible reason. Because the owners share the revenue league wide, market size doesn't really matter or play too much into overall revenue. Which is why places like Jacksonville and Charlotte were awarded teams in the 90's.

#2: Lack of vision. So-called "leaders" in San Antonio today (Phil Hardberger, are you listening?) are absolutely clueless and apathetic about bringing more professional sports teams to San Antonio.

Wow, you couldn't be any more wrong. Phil was/is a major proponent of pro sports for SA. He tried hard to push SA on the Saints/Tom Benson in 2005. He and Judge Nelson Wolff put together a committee to study and gauge the interest and possibilities of a pro sports team coming to SA. Those being MLB and NFL. The committee eventually came back with a verdict that there was little chance SA would get an expanison team for a varity of reasons.

So instead, Phil Hardberg and Nelson Wolff took the money they planned to use for a new stadium to lure a team to SA and invested that money into other aspects of the city including the Riverwalk extension, new youth and amatuer sports facilities, etc.

So instead of wasting money building another Alamodome, they were smart and invested the money in things that would improve the quality of life in SA in the short and long term as well as directly and indirectly.

The exceptions are former mayors Nelson Wolff and Ed Garza. Nelson wanted to expand Wolff Stadium (where the minor league San Antonio Missions play) to MLB standard capacity (39k-40k), but his drive to get that done was promptly ignored.

An MLB stadium in that area of town is a terrible idea. My god, if that's true, it's a good thing they ignored him.

Former mayor Ed Garza had busted his butt, and obtained an agreement with Major League Soccer to bring a team to San Antonio. However, mayor Phil Hardberger (who succeeded Ed Garza) promptly blew off the idea. As a result, the MLS blew off San Antonio.

Yeah, a little bit of revisionist history here, huh. Hardberger isn't or wasn't against the MLS coming here. He was against the sweetheart deal Garza gave to the MLS. The use of the dome rent free, concession revenue that would go to the MLS/the team, etc. It was a terrible deal for the city. Hardberger was a smart man in telling them no.

Nice, Phil.

If you actually understood what happened you'd understand that yes, it really was a nice move.