Seems an unlikely stipulation, especially has several teams don't play any games on national tv, ours being one of them.
I was thinking that Toronto puts out a garbage team every year, and they're pretty much a farm team for better clubs (any good player they've had has left to play elsewhere).
There are some private investors who are looking to buy land near the football and baseball stadiums to build a new arena to attract an NBA team. A lot of the details are murky, but it sounds like they want to do a lot of this with private money. I could definitely see something that gave hefty long term tax breaks in lieu of up front cash to finance the arena passing handily in Seattle. And it's in the right geographical area as opposed to the sham proposal Clay Asshat proposed before he took the Thieves to OKC. However, basketball seems to be a pretty dead sport here now. Always talk about the Huskies, the Seahawks, Mariners, and even the FC Sounders. But when the Sonics left town, they kind of killed the sport here at least among the sport fans I know. If we got another team here, I think it would rekindle some of that. I'm not sure where things stand with a relocated team donning the Sonic colors and resuming the old name. I know Asshat bargained some of that away, but I can't remember if there were criteria that had to be met. He was supposed to pay the city 10 million if a new arena was built within a few year, which didn't happen. If he can, I do not doubt that Asshat would stick it to the city and deny the team their old name and colors.
If the players sue . . .. Stern will say . . ok CP3 go where you like but it will cost 14 other players their jobs . .cause NO is gone Rocket River
If the Hornets do move, I'm thinking it has to be to a city with corporate money. I like Seattle for that reason but I wouldn't mind seeing a team based in San Jose, CA. I can definitely see Silicon Valley money provided the season ticket base needed in the modern NBA. The San Jose Sharks do VERY well here. San Jose has been trying to raise its national profile for a long time and see sports as one way to do that. They have a proposal on the table to get the Oakland A's to move into their very own baseball-only stadium adjacent to their downtown, but what's holding that up is the fact that the San Francisco Giants own the market rights to Santa Clara County (Im not sure if the Warriors own those rights as well). Im sure they would jump at the chance to support an NBA team. Plus they already have a new-ish stadium in the HP center where the Sharks play.
Thanks. I posted about this here before Broussard opened his mouth... http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=211852 As you can see, I wrote about this over an hour before the Broussard interview. But yeah, you're right, I went into the future, watched that, made a new thread and then claimed it to be original thought all so I could try and impress the peanut gallery at Clutchfans.
I don't see the same issues that characterize college football rights applying here. The difference between an 11 vs 12 team league in college football is much more significant than the difference between a 29 vs 30 team league in pro sports. I think history has shown us that in regards to nationwide basketball interest, a few really incredible teams is much more desirable than league wide parity.
Seattle seems pretty apathetic about all of their teams now. How do the Seahawks/Mariners do in terms of local support?
It's more ~$13-15 million. Unless you don't think a 30-yr old Chris Paul won't get another max/near-max contract...
Can they sell it for good money? As it stands, each owner invested ~$10mm or so in the franchise. It likely won't take long at all for each owner to recoup this investment through the various channels I laid out in my earlier post (e.g., more BRI, higher franchise value, more revenue sharing etc)
Thats the thing... can they sell the team for decent money? The NBA is negotiating a lease agreement to keep the Hornets in NO until 2025. ( http://www.nola.com/hornets/index.ssf/2011/12/new_orleans_hornets_cant_move.html ) Being stuck in a bad market, with no star is a tough sell.
Since you troubled yourself to respond twice to my comment, could you go a little further out of your way and let me borrow your time machine. I had to fire and file suit against the contractor remodling my home today, and if at all possible, I would love to go back to last March when I hired him and not hire him, thereby avoiding the whole situation. Please get back to me at your convenience. Thanks in advance.
