Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I ain't sold on the "give Vegas a team from every major sport" thing yet. It'll get there some day, but as of today, it is still a small, heavily transient, and heavily tourist-driven market that doesn't have enough of a "local" draw for a fanbase. Most people in metro Vegas are from other states and have loyalties to other teams already. Visitors are tourists who also likely have ties to other teams (and unlike what many may think, when going to Vegas you want to be gambling/having adult fun, probably not in a sports arena watching a game). The Knights are too new for me to make a conclusion to see if they are capable of having a large, loyal, and local fanbase, and the Raiders are TBD as well. If nothing else, it should be seen how those other sports do in Vegas before giving the city NBA and especially MLB.
KC is full of locals, much less transient/tourist oriented and is more just a run of the mill city. It's not at all a question that a basketball team would do fine there. It's a city with sports engrained into its culture, too. They've also been itching for an NBA team for a long time now and even have an arena built for one. Also, unlike Vegas, there just isn't a whole ton to do. Places that lack things to do tend to be perfect markets for sports teams. It remains to be seen if a team can truly sustain itself solely on tourism.
Last edited by CCrest182; 01-15-2021 at 10:34 PM..
KC overall is a better sports town than Vegas. However when you factor in the money, glitz, etc it's probably leaning towards Vegas. With so much Cali spillover it can definitely support it.
There's too many NBA teams clustered in that region of the country. The Warriors, Kings, Lakers, Clippers, Jazz, and Suns all just one state away.
Regionally speaking, KC is far more set up for success and unlikely to run into too much competition for fans.
As for the glitz and glamor of Vegas.... yes, it seems like pro sports and Vegas would just go hand in hand...... but practically speaking, it's not as easy and cut and dry as that. Some markets with too many transplants and reliant on tourism do poorly with sports (Florida teams, I'm looking at you). Vegas could very well be another Florida team for all we know.
Let's see how the Raiders and Knights do over the next decade.
Last edited by CCrest182; 01-15-2021 at 10:32 PM..
Cities generally don’t have both NBA and NHL teams unless they are a major, four-sport metro. In a smaller metro like Vegas, they’d compete for too many viewers during the same time of year.
There's too many NBA teams clustered in that region of the country. The Warriors, Kings, Lakers, Clippers, Jazz, and Suns all just one state away.
Regionally speaking, KC is far more set up for success and unlikely to run into too much competition for fans.
As for the glitz and glamor of Vegas.... yes, it seems like pro sports and Vegas would just go hand in hand...... but practically speaking, it's not as easy and cut and dry as that. Some markets with too many transplants and reliant on tourism do poorly with sports (Florida teams, I'm looking at you). Vegas could very well be another Florida team for all we know.
Let's see how the Raiders and Knights do over the next decade.
All fair points. I was making a case for Vegas really from a growth perspective but no doubt KC is the better sports town today as I said originally. Chiefs fans have been some of the best in the NFL for as long as I can remember. Not to mention Arrowhead has always been known as one of the loudest and toughest places to play. I also remember hearing from a friend years ago that the tailgate scene there is like a big time SEC college environment, second to none.
Last edited by BigCity76; 01-16-2021 at 06:40 AM..
Transplant cities like Vegas seem a little iffy to me though it occasionally works out.
Not sure the NBA there wouldn’t end up like the MLB in Florida. They might get a team and keep them but unless they’re wildly successful on the court I doubt Vegas would shatter any attendance records.
I’d like to think that the NBA could be successful a second time around in KC, but it would have to compete with the Chiefs and the Royals. Then there is the matter of a very popular college basketball culture in KC that would be difficult for the NBA to go up against.
The NBA seems to do better when they are either in cities with less competition or in really large markets that can absorb just about anything.
I wouldn’t put a team in either one of these cities.
I still remember my eighth-grade science teacher saying that the strong college-hoops culture was one reason an NBA franchise wouldn't succeed in Kansas City.
He said this the year before the Cincinnati Royals arrived to begin their joint tenancy with Omaha as the Kings.
One reason for the split: both cities had smaller (~7,000-seat) arenas. KC was in the process of building one in hopes of landing both an NBA and an NHL franchise. (At the time, the city had a farm club of the St. Louis Blues.)
Kemper Arena opened in 1974, and for its first two years, it housed both an NBA and an NHL team (the Scouts), making the city a four-major-sport town for the first time in its history and only time so far.
(The city also had a North American Soccer League franchise, the Spurs, relocated from Chicago when the NASL was formed by merging two existing leagues in 1968. The team didn't do well, lasting only three seasons; it played its third and last season at the Pembroke-Country Day football stadium.)
The Scouts had the usual struggles of an expansion team, and it didn't have deep-pocketed or committed owners the way the Royals did, so in 1976, the team was sold and moved to Denver.
The Kings didn't do much better, though they did have a marquee player in Nate Archibald early on. But it too never managed to draw regular-game attendance above 10,000 save for the 1978-79 season. A heavy snowstorm caused Kemper Arena's suspended roof to fall in that year, sending the Kings back to the smaller Municipal Auditorium until it got rebuilt. (Kemper seats 17,000. I don't know what it's used for now, since even the American Royal Livestock and Horse Show and Rodeo has moved out of it and the city built a newer arena, the Sprint (now T-Mobile) Center, in the Power & Light District in hopes of, you guessed it....)
Quote:
Originally Posted by pnwguy2
If not mentioned yet, the last KC nba team shared its home games with Omaha for their first three years, eventually moving to even a smaller market, (at the time), Sacramento in ‘85. They were actually known as the Kansas City/Omaha Kings at one time. Kind of embarrassing for KC.
See above for the reason the team had two home cities at the outset. (Apparently, the NBA had also been considering putting a team in Omaha as well.) I see from the Wikipedia article on the Sacramento Kings that the KC Kings also played some home games in St. Louis in the 1980s to large crowds.
But tbh, what really astonishes me is that the NBA expects someone with very deep pockets to cough up $3 billion for one of the two new franchises. That figure seems to me astronomical.
Kemper Arena opened in 1974, and for its first two years, it housed both an NBA and an NHL team (the Scouts), making the city a four-major-sport town for the first time in its history and only time so far.
The Kings didn't do much better, though they did have a marquee player in Nate Archibald early on. But it too never managed to draw regular-game attendance above 10,000 save for the 1978-79 season. A heavy snowstorm caused Kemper Arena's suspended roof to fall in that year, sending the Kings back to the smaller Municipal Auditorium until it got rebuilt. (Kemper seats 17,000. I don't know what it's used for now, since even the American Royal Livestock and Horse Show and Rodeo has moved out of it and the city built a newer arena, the Sprint (now T-Mobile) Center, in the Power & Light District in hopes of, you guessed it....)
See above for the reason the team had two home cities at the outset. (Apparently, the NBA had also been considering putting a team in Omaha as well.) I see from the Wikipedia article on the Sacramento Kings that the KC Kings also played some home games in St. Louis in the 1980s to large crowds.
The arena is now known as Hy-Vee Arena and underwent a 29 million dollar conversion into a youth sports complex.
It really sucks that KC lost the Kings to Sacramento. If that team were to stick around for just a few more years into the Michael Jordan era, I believe the Kings would still be in KC.
The NBA just was not all that popular while the team was in KC. At the time, KC not only had the Chiefs and Royals, but the wildly popular Major Indoor Soccer team Comets who actually outdrew most NBA and NHL teams in the early 80's.
Today KC is a much larger metro and still growing although modestly and the city really needs a winter sports team. Between the Chiefs, Royals, Sporting KC, amusement parks, the zoo etc, KC has a lot going on in the summer and fall, so I don't see why the city wouldn't go nuts over having a pro team during the winter months. And for once, the city would have a team playing downtown which would add another level of excitement.
KC is also a huge regional tourism destination form places like Omaha, Wichita, Des Moines, Springfield, Tulsa and even St Louis. (KC and StL compliment each other)
Vegas on the other hand? That is such a transient market and tourists don't go there to see some random sports teams play. But they probably have people willing to bring a team to KC when KC probably does not.
It would be cool if Mahomes could help bring a team to KC.
I would say it would go to Vegas because the t-mobile Arena is practically brand new.
Pittsburgh, Nashville, St. Louis would be good candidates too. PPG Paints Arena looks really nice, hopefully I can get out to a Penguins game once the pandemic is over. Bridgestone and Enterprise arenas are fairly new also.
Vegas' fanbase will be entirely composed of bandwagon fans, what good is a billion dollar state-of-the art arena if it will be at 50% capacity half the time? KC already has a strong NCAAB Basketball presence with Kansas and Mizzou, this is a no-brainer for me.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
