San Antonio should get a NFL team (Howe: relocate, best)

[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.

[bresilhac]

Originally Posted by 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.

Wrong and wrong.

There are numerous NFL markets that are considerably smaller than San Antonio's that enjoy great success and bring in plenty of good ratings for the networks. Moreover when talking about the size of a potential San Antonio NFL market you must include areas and communities within 100 miles of the location of the team. When you factor in the areas of South Texas and Central Texas to include Austin you have well over 4 million people. So that takes care of the San Antonio's too small myth.

Secondly Mayor Hardberger successfully negotiated the relocation of the Saints to San Antonio but the deal was scuttled by the then commissioner Tagliabue. Who is now gone thankfully. The idea of a so-called major league soccer team was orphaned here because it was doomed to fail from the start. There was no public support for the idea because people around here prefer the best. And in this case its NFL football. Anything less will not suffice at this point in time for San Antonio. Soccer is a kid's game in the United States anyway and the notion of a "major league" of soccer is ridiculous.

[Jsalv2000]

There won't be any expansion teams for a long time... we are in line behind L.A. for a moving team... we will need a new stadium to land a team as well (and fight teh delusion that a team would want to play in the Alamo dome). Not happening for a long time. It kills me to say that too.

[bresilhac]

Originally Posted by Jsalv2000

There won't be any expansion teams for a long time... we are in line behind L.A. for a moving team... we will need a new stadium to land a team as well (and fight teh delusion that a team would want to play in the Alamo dome). Not happening for a long time. It kills me to say that too.

Guess what. Los Angeles does not have a decent NFL stadium either and one is not likely to be built there anytime soon too. So the two towns are in the same boat so to speak. The Chargers probably will be moving soon and they're just as likely to move here as to Los Angeles or anywhere else.

[gabetx]

Originally Posted by bresilhac

The idea of a so-called major league soccer team was orphaned here because it was doomed to fail from the start. There was no public support for the idea because people around here prefer the best. And in this case its NFL football. Anything less will not suffice at this point in time for San Antonio. Soccer is a kid's game in the United States anyway and the notion of a "major league" of soccer is ridiculous.

Soccer has a huge fan base in South Texas. There are a lot of hispanic people and Mexican Nationals who would love to see soccer to be located San Antonio or further south. I would be for it. Soccer is my second favorite sport behind football. I think the only reason Soccer doesn't have a huge fan base in the U.S. as to everywhere else is because people don't try watching it. But it is gaining popularity more and more so by the year. It is the most popular sport in the world! It is also very exciting. One day I think soccer will be the number two sport behind football. It won't be til decades from now, but it will happen.

No way in heck is soccer just a kids game.

[Jsalv2000]

bresilhac - Hope you are right! I would be first in line for season tickets...

[bcknows]

San Antonio needs NFL. We would so rock it out

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by gabetx

I think the only reason Soccer doesn't have a huge fan base in the U.S. as to everywhere else is because people don't try watching it.

The reason is that ESPN and some other channels refuse to show soccer highlights.
Instead they show highlights of spelling bee, poker and fishing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y0RJSHnTqw