Virginia Professional Sports Teams???? (Virginia Beach, Richmond: homes, bankrupt, utilities)

[Jayy24]

Recently, the NFL just relocated the St. Louis Rams back to Los Angeles, where they originally started. I understand that this is where the rams began. But to me, this was a slap in the face to the loyal St. Louis fans. California already has 3 Pro Football teams(chargers, niners, raiders), 4 pro basketball teams (lakers,clippers,kings, warriors) and 4 Pro Baseball teams(dodgers, angels, athletics, giants). I understand it might be a money situation and a bigger city/population, but why take away from a city that only had one NFL team to give to a state that already has 3? Or why not go to a state that has no professional sport teams like Virginia? People claim the Redskins are Virginia's team which is weird. Yes they train in Virginia, but their home stadium is in Landover, Maryland. Maryland also has another stadium that homes the Baltimore Ravens. So size of the state isn't a problem. Also, the Redskins are known as the Washington Redskins. How do they represent Virginia? They train in Virginia, have their games broadcasted locally in Virginia, but play home games in Maryland, while using the Washington D.C. Name. I know this is a pretty long thread, but I would like some good responses to help fulfill my curiosity. The only thing that comes to mind is population. What do you guys think?

[Golden_Eagle]

Lower population = lower amount of money is the only thing I can think of. It would be nice to see a team in Virginia though. I don't really see the Redskins as a VA team. Are most Virginians Redskins fans?

[Va83]

Richmond has tried several teams over the decades. I believe we had a nhl team when I was little and when the wnba first became a thing Richmond tried it. The redskins train here now but nobody goes to see them any more. The only thing that stuck is our semi pro baseball team. Go squirrels!

[spencgr]

The locations of professional sports teams isn't based on some sort of charitable allocation, it's purely driven by money. The NFL is a business, pure and simple. They are going to go where they can make the most money.

[VA Yankee]

Originally Posted by spencgr

The locations of professional sports teams isn't based on some sort of charitable allocation, it's purely driven by money. The NFL is a business, pure and simple. They are going to go where they can make the most money.

This sums it up and if I was an LA resident I would be pretty annoyed that the city is building the 20 million dollar stadium and no the team, I am sure there are plenty of areas that could make better use of the money.

[jobber123rd]

Originally Posted by Jayy24

Recently, the NFL just relocated the St. Louis Rams back to Los Angeles, where they originally started. I understand that this is where the rams began. But to me, this was a slap in the face to the loyal St. Louis fans.

While it's true that the Rams were in LA prior to their recent stint in St. Louis, the franchise started in Cleveland.

California already has 3 Pro Football teams(chargers, niners, raiders), 4 pro basketball teams (lakers,clippers,kings, warriors) and 4 Pro Baseball teams(dodgers, angels, athletics, giants). I understand it might be a money situation and a bigger city/population, but why take away from a city that only had one NFL team to give to a state that already has 3? Or why not go to a state that has no professional sport teams like Virginia?

That's pretty much all there is to understand. LA is a very large media market, and Kroenke (Rams owner) and others believe that there's money to be made there. State lines are irrelevant; it's a long way from LA up to San Francisco (longer than the distance from Philly to Boston), and there's more than enough population to support sports in both areas. The NFL seems content with the current number of franchises (32 works really well with scheduling), so placing an expansion team in LA was never seriously put forth as an option. It was just a matter of getting some team to move there.

People claim the Redskins are Virginia's team which is weird. Yes they train in Virginia, but their home stadium is in Landover, Maryland. Maryland also has another stadium that homes the Baltimore Ravens. So size of the state isn't a problem. Also, the Redskins are known as the Washington Redskins. How do they represent Virginia? They train in Virginia, have their games broadcasted locally in Virginia, but play home games in Maryland, while using the Washington D.C. Name. I know this is a pretty long thread, but I would like some good responses to help fulfill my curiosity. The only thing that comes to mind is population. What do you guys think?

As someone who grew up in Richmond and lives in Hampton Roads, my take is that it's that way pretty much by default. As you noted, Baltimore has the Ravens (and before that, they had the Colts). Virginia has diddly squat besides the 'Skins (NC was much in the same boat prior to 1993).

Originally Posted by Golden_Eagle

Lower population = lower amount of money is the only thing I can think of. It would be nice to see a team in Virginia though. I don't really see the Redskins as a VA team. Are most Virginians Redskins fans?

Certainly a plurality are, if not a majority. It comes with the territory of having the Redskins dominate local media coverage. Hampton Roads and Richmond each have the population to potentially become "small markets" with pro sports teams, but the fractious political atmosphere in both areas (partially brought on by the Commonwealth's own independent cities setup) keeps such ideas as pipedreams for now. Virginia Beach is going on its own to build an arena that might lure some basketball team someday...

Originally Posted by Va83

Richmond has tried several teams over the decades. I believe we had a nhl team when I was little and when the wnba first became a thing Richmond tried it. The redskins train here now but nobody goes to see them any more. The only thing that stuck is our semi pro baseball team. Go squirrels!

Richmond never had an NHL team. It had three separate franchises in the minor leagues from 1990-2009, most notable of which was the Richmond Renegades in the East Coast Hockey League (which is basically the third tier of professional hockey in the US, similar to AA baseball). The Renegades folded in 2003, their lower-league replacements (the Richmond RiverDogs) moved to Chicago three years later, and then their replacements, the second incarnation of the Renegades (in another smaller minor league) also lasted just three years in RVA before folding.

As for the women's basketball team: That team, the Richmond Rage, was not in the WNBA, but in the American Basketball League (ABL). The ABL was a pro league that was developed around the same time as the WNBA (coming off the hype of the US Women's Basketball team's undefeated gold medal run in the Olympics in Atlanta) and began play a few months prior to it (winter 1996-97 vs. summer 1997). In the inaugural ABL season, the Rage came within one game of winning the championship, but ended up blowing a 2-0 lead in a best of 5 series to lose the title. The team then moved to Philadelphia, where it remained for the next year and a half before the league went bankrupt and suspended operations at the end of 1998.

By the way, I wouldn't say that the Squirrels have "stuck" just yet. They've been in town for just six years; RVA saw the Braves walk away after being in town for 43 years, much of which had to do with the lack of any action on renovating or replacing The Diamond. There were some renovations done in the baseball-less year of 2009 in preparation for the Squirrels' debut, but there were also promises to do more in years to come, and thus far Richmond has come up empty.

Originally Posted by VA Yankee

This sums it up and if I was an LA resident I would be pretty annoyed that the city is building the 20 million dollar stadium and no the team, I am sure there are plenty of areas that could make better use of the money.

You're short by a couple of orders of magnitude there. The estimated cost of the stadium exceeds $2.5 billion, and it will be built with private money. (However, Kroenke and company will get tax breaks on the back end once the stadium generates greater than $25 million per year in tax revenue. This is being spun as "payback" from the local government for Kroenke funding things like the utilities work up front.)

[Babe_Ruth]

Originally Posted by Va83

Richmond has tried several teams over the decades. I believe we had a nhl team when I was little..

A Richmond NHL team would've been cool, but as addressed earlier in the thread, no such animal..

After the Flames left Atlanta, the Caps were really representing all of the Southeast thru the 80s. There were no NHL teams in Florida yet (Panthers & Lightning came in early 90s), and no Carolina Hurricanes yet either.. There was a weak effort to bring the NHL to Hampton Roads years ago (proposed Hampton Roads Rhinos ) but..

As far as the Redskins having a fan base in VA, it makes sense.. closest team (whether it's in your state or not) usually gets the strongest, regional support. I've met people over the years from Oregon & Alaska, hours & hours away from Seattle, but Seattle's still the closest NFL team, who were Seahawk fans. And this was during Seattle's silver & blue, Kingdome days, before they were regular Super Bowl contenders..

[Pyroninja42]

Professional sports teams have considered relocating to Hampton Roads in the past, but they haven't been able to for there being a lack of a venue.

[OutOfPlaceInDC]

Originally Posted by Pyroninja42

Professional sports teams have considered relocating to Hampton Roads in the past, but they haven't been able to for there being a lack of a venue.

If San Diego is about to lose the Chargers , I don't see how HR would be able to support a NFL Franchise. Waste of money anyways.

[Pyroninja42]

Originally Posted by OutOfPlaceInDC

If San Diego is about to lose the Chargers , I don't see how HR would be able to support a NFL Franchise. Waste of money anyways.

We could probably support only one, but we may be able to increase the market if we make it appeal to Richmond.