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Las Vegas - Too transient with many residents already loyal to "home teams" (see Florida pro sports as an example) and too much going on to detract from attendance.
Louisville - Possible though overcoming historical allegiance to Cincinnati teams as well as a large backing of UL and UKentucky athletics would make for a difficult overlap if talking the NBA in particular.
Austin - Pretty well documented as being too close to Houston and suffers a similar transient population to Florida/Las Vegas with preexisting allegiance to hometown teams. Also would suffer with the extreme loyalty to UT athletics.
Virginia Beach - Another large population with lots of transience due to the massive military presence and an average salary lower than most major metro areas. Cost of attendance factors would be a big concern.
Albuquerque - Too small in population with a metro area well less than a million (885K). Potential revenue would be too small for a major sports team endeavor. Not a good track record either in terms of support for U of New Mexico athletics (also in Albuquerque).
Birmingham - In my opinion the best option of those on the list with a metro population well over a million, much less of a transient population than the other choices, a decent household income able on paper to support cost of attendance, a proven track record of supporting athletic teams (albeit college teams) and an instant rivalry scenario with Atlanta sports franchises.
I enjoyed this post however I must point out that in the past 42 years New Mexico men's basketball has never been outside the top 25 in attendance. Most years they have been in the top 15 and in well over half of those years they have been in the top 10 in attendance. The "Pit" is one of the most well known basketball arenas in the country and is one of the few university arenas to host a Final Four during the television era.
Louisville - Possible though overcoming historical allegiance to Cincinnati teams as well as a large backing of UL and UKentucky athletics would make for a difficult overlap if talking the NBA in particular.
You know I don't find Louisville to have pro sports allegiances to just one city. There are Cinci fans here, but there are also Indy, Nashville, and St Louis fans that seem to make up the lions share. The other thing I find is that people want to root for the home team. So while they may have allegiances to other areas, you give them their own team that would change. As for college allegiances, I think if they got an NBA team you'd see HUGE support. They are college heavy, because of the tradition yes, but also because they don't have and pro teams. I think it'd be the perfect spot for an NBA team with the infrastructure in place, and the passion for the sport in general. Although I only think an NBA team would work in L'ville.
I think that there should be an NHL franchise in Milwaukee, Blackhawks or no Blackhawks in neaby Chicago..
That's why the Bradley's left so much money to build the Bradley Center in the late 80s. Unfortunately, it never attracted an NHL team and the Bucks had to play in an arena that was not built/ideal for basketball. Which leads to the current arena issues for the Bucks...
The ship has probably sailed for an NHL team, as they are more interested in "market penetration" than placing a pro hockey team in a hockey state that's been waiting for decades. In their minds, and there's probably some truth to this, the hardcore NHL teams already are actively rooting for Chicago, Detroit or Minneapolis.
In my opinion the whole "transient population" thing is overstated. Yes, it is a factor, and yes, that could potentially hurt Las Vegas a little more than other cities, but the truth is almost every big city is pretty transient.
Washington DC, for example felt very transient when I lived there. Yet DC has decent support in all four major sports. New York, Miami, Boston, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, & Atlanta are all known to have lots of people coming and going. Of course some places have it a bit more than others, but any large city is going to draw people in and have turnover.
Clearly you're not familiar with the long-running attendance/support woes of the Miami Dolphins, Miami Marlins, Miami Heat, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Rays, Tampa Bay Lightning, Jacksonville Jaguars and Orlando Magic. Transient population in those instances cannot be overstated enough, particularly when the home team is hosting a team like the NY Yankees or New England Patriots and find the opposing team has more local fans turning out to support the visitors than they do for the home team. Las Vegas is clearly quite similar to the Florida markets mentioned.
You know I don't find Louisville to have pro sports allegiances to just one city. There are Cinci fans here, but there are also Indy, Nashville, and St Louis fans that seem to make up the lions share. The other thing I find is that people want to root for the home team. So while they may have allegiances to other areas, you give them their own team that would change. As for college allegiances, I think if they got an NBA team you'd see HUGE support. They are college heavy, because of the tradition yes, but also because they don't have and pro teams. I think it'd be the perfect spot for an NBA team with the infrastructure in place, and the passion for the sport in general. Although I only think an NBA team would work in L'ville.
People don't always want to root for the "home team". As pointed out in my other post, Florida teams suffer with that despite residents having lived in there respective cities for many years or more. I also don't think that despite your assertion that Louisville could support it's college athletics and pro sports teams with equal enthusiasm, especially since the average ticket to a NBA game costs around $70-$80 each among the smaller market teams. Additionally the Louisville metro area ranks 97th for Average Household Income. A pro sports market needs deep pockets/disposable income.
No city really DESERVES a pro sports team. It's more a want than a need. Cities can survive without pro sports teams.
That being said, I wouldn't pick either one of this cities you listed, but I would say Louisville and Vegas would be good enough for NBA.
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Originally Posted by bluescreen73
How about El Paso? There's a reason why UTEP football has strong attendance even though it's one of the worst D-I programs of all time - there's nothing to do there. Believe it or not the closest city to El Paso with a Big 4 sport isn't even in Texas. It's Phoenix.
In my opinion the whole "transient population" thing is overstated. Yes, it is a factor, and yes, that could potentially hurt Las Vegas a little more than other cities, but the truth is almost every big city is pretty transient.
Washington DC, for example felt very transient when I lived there. Yet DC has decent support in all four major sports. New York, Miami, Boston, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, & Atlanta are all known to have lots of people coming and going. Of course some places have it a bit more than others, but any large city is going to draw people in and have turnover.
Las Vegas isn't just transient. It's extremely transient. Easily the most transient city in the nation. It nearly tripled it's population between 1990 and 2010. The ratio of transplant to native there is something like 20 to 1. It's ridiculous. No other city in America is that non-native. And trust me... nobody really wants a pro team there. If they got one, it would most likely be a dismal failure.
The deal with Vegas is entirely about the gambling...take that out, and it already has a couple pro teams. The "transient" nature of the populace is well down the list from its status as the gambling mecca of the country and hemisphere.
In my opinion cities like Richmond or Raleigh are probably more "deserving" if one is to factor in criteria usually in play for making those decisions...favorable geography, rivalry possibilities, education level of residents, disposable income/average salary of residents and TV revenue deals. Both cities are ideally located in the Mid-Atlantic area of the country with each of those criteria in play. MLB or to a lesser extent the NBA would work well in either in my opinion.
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