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There are probably 10 NBA teams that would do better in Seattle than their current home. I won't mention them by name because it just flares up the thread. But Seattle is one of the largest metros without an NBA team. And for almost a decade and a half. Hint: most are in the South Eastern U.S.
^ I was just thinking about the Sonics the other day when I saw KD's rookie profile during a Nets game I think. I completely forgot he was in Seattle that first year.
X Man, Dale Ellis, Sean Kemp, The Glove (Gary Payton) they were loaded back in the day. Knicks/Sonics games from the late 80's right through the 90's were usually real competitive. I would think they'd be right near the top for an expansion franchise.
Yeah. There was a newspaper story about Durant being away from his friends and family that first year. He lived in a big house and made friends with the middle school kid next door. They played video games together. Sometimes the kid would be like, "no Kevin, I got too much homework."
Shawn Kemp is still around. He has a store near me with a big mural on the side, not far from the arena. Buy pot there on a Sunday and he'll take a picture with you, so I'm told.
This city would love an NBA team. This preseason we had a game or two (forgetting who that was) and of course the pro-am where a lot of top players like Banchero and LeBron played (and OKC's prized rookie Holmgren got injured). Tough to get tickets to either.
You're really stretching here. If you're going to add Toronto, Syracuse, and Erie to Buffalo, might as well add Wichita and Dallas/Fort Worth to OKC.
It isn’t a stretch though. Those areas are within a reasonable drive to the stadium(about 2 hours or so) and don’t have pro football and/or have a substantial amount of fans at the stadium. People in Dallas, which is further away than any of the places I mentioned in terms of Buffalo, aren’t going to go to watch an NFL team in another area the way people from the Golden Horseshoe of Ontario would, even with having 2 CFL teams. I can get Wichita and parts of North and West Texas, but it isn’t the same.
With regards to the NHL, Houston is the biggest vacancy. Milwaukee, Cleveland, Anchorage, Hartford, etc. are either too small or too close to other markets with teams. Ultimately they'll need an owner/ownership group but it's not a stretch to say that the league would like to be in Houston, lots of potential for new fans, new eyeballs for TV viewership, and new corporate dollars (Waste Management is located there and has their name stamped on many NHL rink boards).
And, it's not like the city is a stranger to the game (Aeros with Gordie Howe) or been at the forefront of expansion/relocation (Edmonton Oilers were really close in 1998 to being bought and moved by Les Alexander of the Rockets).
With regards to the NHL, Houston is the biggest vacancy. Milwaukee, Cleveland, Anchorage, Hartford, etc. are either too small or too close to other markets with teams. Ultimately they'll need an owner/ownership group but it's not a stretch to say that the league would like to be in Houston, lots of potential for new fans, new eyeballs for TV viewership, and new corporate dollars (Waste Management is located there and has their name stamped on many NHL rink boards).
And, it's not like the city is a stranger to the game (Aeros with Gordie Howe) or been at the forefront of expansion/relocation (Edmonton Oilers were really close in 1998 to being bought and moved by Les Alexander of the Rockets).
The "small market" Cleveland Browns average 67K per game in attendance, 16th out of 32 teams and Cleveland Cavaliers are 12th out of 30 with an average of 3K per game. The MLB Cleveland Guardians dropped to 25th out of 30 after the name change from Indians, and some fans will need a couple years to get over that apparently. A one team NHL expansion is probably not in the cards for league best interests, given the current eight team split among four conferences. I would guess a two or four team expansion with Atlanta and Houston perhaps, or a combination involving San Diego and Cleveland.
You actually made my point by considering not only the Niagara Region, but within an hour on the Canadian side, there are about 1 million more people. Then, if you consider those in Toronto, Syracuse, other nearby parts of NY and the Erie PA area, all are within 2 hours or so of Buffalo. My point is that Buffalo is actually within a much more populated radius than people realize in regards to the NFL and the pull it has. This region is within close proximity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Horseshoe In fact, a substantial portion of Buffalo bills season ticket holders are from Canada, with reports ranging from 10-25%.
Keep in mind that the OKC metro area is bigger than the Buffalo and Rochester metros combined in land area, with its metro population not that much more than that of Buffalo's. Tulsa is also a good 30 miles further away from OKC than Buffalo to Rochester, downtown to downtown.
This doesn't even get into the fan base proving that it supports the team it has.
To be honest, neither Buffalo nor OKC check the boxes for a major league franchise in 2022. (With the exception of maybe Hockey in Buffalo, just because hockey is such a regional sport there are far fewer markets for it).
Buffalo's NFL team is a legacy institution. There is no way anyone would put a new team there today. OKC got an NBA team by having a local billionaire buy a team from another city and forcibly move it there. It wouldn't have been at the top of the list based on any kind of business metric, it was purely hometown pride. Good for OKC, a shame for Seattle.
The "small market" Cleveland Browns average 67K per game in attendance, 16th out of 32 teams and Cleveland Cavaliers are 12th out of 30 with an average of 3K per game. The MLB Cleveland Guardians dropped to 25th out of 30 after the name change from Indians, and some fans will need a couple years to get over that apparently. A one team NHL expansion is probably not in the cards for league best interests, given the current eight team split among four conferences. I would guess a two or four team expansion with Atlanta and Houston perhaps, or a combination involving San Diego and Cleveland.
The NHL already has a presence in Ohio with the Blue Jackets, which is kind of what I was hinting at.
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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The whole way the USA views pro markets is so different from anywhere else. Liverpool would be a small market in the USA yet has two Premier League teams, one is elite the other very good. Their stadiums in the same neighborhood. Scotland (4 million population) has an entire pro league yet many US states with 4 million people are deemed too small for a single team.
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