Which city most deserves a pro sports team? (Tiger Woods, Packers, Devil Rays)

[CNI]

Originally Posted by Lethal_Poison

First of all, Raleigh DOES have a pro team- The Carolina Hurricanes. They also have an awesome arena that could possibly house a pro basketball team.

My error. I was only considering the top 3 sports of football, basketball, & baseball. Was aware of Raleigh's hockey team but...hockey is not on my radar.

Originally Posted by Lethal_Poison

Any how, the logic behind my statement is this....THERE IS NO CORPORATE PRESENCE IN SOUTH EAST VIRGINIA.

Who is going to buy the big blocks of tickets needed to sell out games? Who is going to buy the luxury seats? The personal seat licenses? The season tickets?

Nobody.

That is a good point (I knew you were going to get me w/ that!!!)
However, I am not sure that that is a deal killer. New Orleans does not have a big corporate base either but they've had no pro teams. I'm sure there are other examples. Also, I'm not sure what role corporations in the Richmond region might be able to play.

Originally Posted by Lethal_Poison

This area is full of people who would attend a couple games a year, and no major corporations.

Remember when Norfolk was trying to get the Nationals before they settled on Washington DC? The investors behind the team couldnt even sell a fraction of the season tickets and boxes they wanted to.

See USA Today article: USATODAY.com - Analysis gives Northern Va. edge over D.C. in relocation sweepstakes
Quote:"Strong local support: commitments for more than 5,000 season tickets as of June 17."

Originally Posted by Lethal_Poison

Norfolk is a minor league town, and always will be until they change their mindset, and start luring real companies here.

That may be true...but quite a few major league franchises must be seeing soemthing major league in Hampton Roads.

[Lethal_Poison]

Originally Posted by CNI

See USA Today article: USATODAY.com - Analysis gives Northern Va. edge over D.C. in relocation sweepstakes
Quote:"Strong local support: commitments for more than 5,000 season tickets as of June 17."

Northern Virginia is not remotely Norfolk, VA. Northern Virginia has MANY major corporations and a ton of money.

[CNI]

Originally Posted by Lethal_Poison

Northern Virginia is not remotely Norfolk, VA. Northern Virginia has MANY major corporations and a ton of money.

It would help if you read the article at the link before putting your foot in your mouth. The article analyzes several localities' bids for the old Montreal Expos. As part of the article (which you obviously did not read) it made the comments I quoted about the Norfolk/hampton Roads bid.

[happytown]

I have no clue about Norfolk but one thing is clear...I noticed people just cant get over the fact of OKC getting the NBA!! A poster from Italy or whatever thinks OKC is just HOSTING the SUPES. LLLOLLL. If they get the Supes (hopefully a change of name will happen) they will stay and stay indefinitely in OKC. The city is foaming at the mouth for the NBA. Huge local billionaires that love OKC and could care less even if they lose any money for the first five years. No franchise will have a better set up than OKC. Of course OKC hosted the hornets which would KILL to be back in OKC. Shinn was crying with fans at the final game. Its funny that he still has his house in Nichols Hills which is a rich inner city only 10 mins away from the arena/downtown....maybe he is hoping to use it again. Even Nawlins fans are starting to question the move. Zero attendance...Great team/superstars. PATHETIC...After all the NOrleans trash talk on OKC. The whole town looks like a dumpster minus the french qt. What a joke. Stern made the worst decision ever by placing the hornets back into a war zone with only a population of 250. Oh ya...The Ford seats like 21,000 for a game which is one of the highest capacity arenas. So when people do the math...OKC will probably have more fans attending games compared to other smaller arenas like the key which holds like 17,000 or something....No wonder they fill it. Its a little larger than a college arena.

[Nameless]

I agree happytown. Although I'm not going to get into talk about Seattle. They should keep their team, period. But, for NO to trash talk OKC, that's ridiculous. Look at NO from Google Earth and you'll see my point. Talk about a war zone...

[Howest2008]

Originally Posted by happytown

I have no clue about Norfolk but one thing is clear...I noticed people just cant get over the fact of OKC getting the NBA!! A poster from Italy or whatever thinks OKC is just HOSTING the SUPES. LLLOLLL. If they get the Supes (hopefully a change of name will happen) they will stay and stay indefinitely in OKC. The city is foaming at the mouth for the NBA. Huge local billionaires that love OKC and could care less even if they lose any money for the first five years. No franchise will have a better set up than OKC. Of course OKC hosted the hornets which would KILL to be back in OKC. Shinn was crying with fans at the final game. Its funny that he still has his house in Nichols Hills which is a rich inner city only 10 mins away from the arena/downtown....maybe he is hoping to use it again. Even Nawlins fans are starting to question the move. Zero attendance...Great team/superstars. PATHETIC...After all the NOrleans trash talk on OKC. The whole town looks like a dumpster minus the french qt. What a joke. Stern made the worst decision ever by placing the hornets back into a war zone with only a population of 250. Oh ya...The Ford seats like 21,000 for a game which is one of the highest capacity arenas. So when people do the math...OKC will probably have more fans attending games compared to other smaller arenas like the key which holds like 17,000 or something....No wonder they fill it. Its a little larger than a college arena.

I'm really glad that OKLAHOMA CITY is finally getting a professional team in one of the big four top tier-ed sports leagues MLB...NBA...NFL..NHL ...I am a 55 year old Afro-American man who was born in Nowata Oklahoma and raised in Tulsa OK until I left the state in in 1976....I have traveled to about 40 of the States that makes up the United State of America and can comment on some of the reasons that some major metropolian area didn't get a major sport team.

Oklahoma City OK: (1)The number one factor is that O.K.C. has a small Television Market and that is the first thing that major sport league look at
(2) Oklahoma City is in the Dallas Market ( 200 Miles Away From Dallas Texas)
and a team in O.K.C. would bring saturation to that market

Tulsa Oklahoma: Tulsa television market is way to small ,however when Bartlesville Ok and Muskogee Ok metropolian market is added to Tulsa Metropolian Market in the next 5 to 10 years Tulsa Will be a viable market
(2) Tulsa OK is in the Kansas City Market and would bring over saturation
without Tulsa getting into the One Million 300 Thousand range at the very Least..

Norfork Virginia: I was stationed at the Coast Guard Training Center In Yorktown Virgina for about 8 or 9 months and Professional Sports Would never work in the Tidewater Virginia Area because of all of the area Cities They Are (Anti-Each Other) And Don't Have A Regional Metro Outlook On Anything Virginia Beach 450,000 to 500,000 is the largest city ,(but) is really a suburban city with no central urban business core...if they could get some major corporations to locate there they could maybe become a Seconf Tier-ed Miami Beach Florida....That area is really large to not have a Professional Team in it somewhere in the neighorhood of 1.7 to 2 Million People a list of the cities 1. Virginia Beach 2.Norfork 300,000 3. Newport News 200,000 something 4.Hampton 200,000 something 6 Chesterpeak VA 200,000 something

Tucson Arizona: Television Market not large enought...Would bring saturation to the Phoenix Arizona Market

[Frank the Tank]

Here's the continual issue in terms of pro sports relocations and expansion: sports leagues care more about new stadiums (preferably taxpayer-funded) more than anything else - even TV markets. What else can explain for the fact that Jacksonville has an NFL franchise but not LA? Seattle is one of the wealthiest markets in the country, yet they're about to lose a team to a much smaller and less affluent market area over one thing: arena issues.

The problem is that more often than not, the quality of a market often has an inverse relationship with how much that market is willing to spend to draw a sports team. LA is an "A-list" city with or without an NFL team, so despite the fact that it's the 2nd-largest metro area in the country and has a disproportionate influence on our culture, it has little desire to build a new stadium and the NFL won't move back in until that happens. Smaller towns, on the other hand, are willing to spend a huge amount of money on projects even if they don't know if a team will ever come (i.e. the Ford Center in Oklahoma City and the Alamodome in San Antonio, which they wanted for an NFL team) because they believe that adding a sports team will enhance their images.

IMHO, I think the Hornets should move permanently to Oklahoma City. Even before the Katrina disaster, New Orleans could barely support its sports teams. On the other hand, the NBA leaving Seattle would almost be as bad as the NFL leaving LA - it removes a cutting edge and trend-setting market from a league that likes to fancy itself as both cutting edge and trend-setting.

The elephant in the room (other than the lack of an NFL franchise in LA) is Las Vegas. The sports leagues will eventually get over their inhibitions over gambling (it's hypocritical anyway when there are plenty of casinos in Detroit, the Chicago area and California), and there are plenty of sports owners that would move to Vegas in a heartbeat - provided, of course, there's a proper stadium waiting for them there. The population growth is explosive and you can't find another market where people spend money as freely.

[happytown]

I would rather have the Hornets also...Shinn would kill to be back in OKC.

The Sonics should remain in Seattle because of their history but Stern has said a billion times that the Key is the worst venue in the NBA and the Sonics have the worst lease.

The citizens of Seattle should have voted to keep their franchise alive a long time ago but there is a major movement against supporting pro teams via taxes. The key holds 17,0000. It needs to be replaced. I think you might see the Sonic name ect. stay in Seattle so Bennett can get out of the lease early. This will probably let Shinn move to Seattle at a later date after Nawlins stops crying over something they dont support and really could care less about.

Its a total cluster**** but OKC will most likely get the better end of the deal w/ local ownership and a new franchise name.

[Synopsis]

I just hope they don't name it some stereotypical name like the twisters or cowpolks. I would prefer the 89ers; I always loved that name.

[Howest2008]

Originally Posted by desert sun

I dont see why Oklahoma City would be a better choice for an NBA team over any other metro its size,put a NBA team in any city without a pro team and it will sell out in its first year,and OK City may have a larger metro but the city limits are almost the same,Albuquerque reached over 500,000 residents this year and Ok City has a little more than that but three times the land size and Albq is growing faster as were going to be the next hollywood with the 2 new movie studios were getting.OK City also has cheap land as does the rest of the midwest so they are able to get things built a little better.They do have a nice arena though.I think Birmingham would be a good choice along with Virginia Beach,Albuquerque, and even Omaha givin their location.Boise is too small ,way to small,to even consider,they dont even have a triple a baseball team, but who knows basketball arenas are small and NCAA arenas fill up so why wont they,personally Id rather go to a college basketball game than the NBA .

I LOVE ALBUQUERQUE N.M. and I spend 1 or 2 days there everytime that I'm driving from California to Oklahoma , you see I was Born and raised in Oklahoma but have lived in California for about 27 or 28 years....Albuquerque has made at least one good move in bringing a Professional Team To Town ,that being promoting state sponsored Commuter Rail from Albuquerque to Santa Fe and from Albuquerque to it's Southern Suburbans and if the STATE OF NEW MEXICO could run that Commuter Line Down INTO EL PASO TEXAS which is more of a N.M. City Than A Texas City the Demographics would be good in bringing a TEAM to town in about 3 To 8 Years ALBUQUERQUE Metro Numbers Just Are Not Good Enought As Far As The TELEVISION MARKET is concern even with some FANS Coming From Santa Fe And EL PASO, but Albuquerque supports it's MINOR LEAGUE TEAM better than LAS VEGAS which is something THAT MAJOR LEAGUE MLB NBA NHL would take a LOOK AT.....

Virginia Beach VA is a NO GO because it has no Corporations Support Core to it's city it's a sort of suburban type of resort city..
Norfolk VA won't work because all of the cities out in the Tide Water(What They Called It When I was Stationed There Area ) or (Hampton Roads) what they call it now area will not support each other they are fragmented and pitted against each other (Virginia Beach..Norfolk..Newport News..Hampton..Chesterpeake)

Birmingham Alabama has a Metro Area of 1.1 Million People about 300,000 more than Albuquerque but the "average income" of the area is way too low
To Support A Major League Sports Team

Omaha Nebraska Has a Smaller Metro area than Tulsa Oklahoma and doesn't have the satelite surrounding Metro Area's To Grow Out To And Annex Like Tulsa Does

Boise Way..way..way..way to small Metro Area can't even manage it's Minor League Teams Properly...