Other than Seattle what city deserves an NBA team?

vancouver

 

The Spirits (who took their name from the Atlantic Ocean-crossing plane flown by Charles Lindbergh) were the third incarnation of a franchise that was once known as the Houston Mavericks and later the Carolina Cougars. Despite their history, they essentially were an expansion team, as there was just one holdover from the Cougars.

but...

[rquoter]The NBA placated John Y. Brown, owner of the Kentucky Colonels, by giving him a $3.3 million settlement in exchange for shutting his team down. (Brown later used much of that money to buy the Boston Celtics of the NBA.) But the owners of the Spirits, the brothers Ozzie and Dan Silna, struck a prescient deal to acquire future television money from the teams that joined the NBA, a one-seventh share from each franchise, in perpetuity. With network TV deals becoming more and more lucrative, the deal has made the Silnas wealthy, earning them $168 million as of July 2006, according to a Los Angeles Times report. (The NBA nearly succeeded in buying out the Silnas in 1982 by offering $5 million over eight years, but negotiations floundered when the siblings demanded $8 million over five.) The current TV deal gives the Silnas $14.57 million a season; on June 27, 2007, it was extended for another eight years, ensuring another $100 million-plus windfall for the former Spirits owners.[/rquoter]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirits_of_St._Louis

 

Vegas!

Has a much larger pop.than people think.

 

Move the Clippers to Vegas!

 

Kansas

 

they couldn't even keep their hockey team.

 

Saskatoon.

 

Sent Louis?

Las Vegas is the next destination baby.

 

Calgary.

Hamilton.

 

1. Tampa

2. Baltimore

3. St. Louis

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Who shouldn't have one?


1. Memphis
2. Atlanta
3. LA (should only have one franchise).

 

We can "wish" for Seattle all we want, without a new arena constructed, its hopeless. The same goes for Las Vegas. We former Oiler-turned Texan fans should know the drill by now....

1. Kansas City - With a spankin new tenant-less Sprint Center, Kansas City easily leads any expansion/relocation debate in the NBA....

2. With Consol Energy Center now under construction, Pittsburgh now joins the list. Pittsburgh's hopes now hinge on if the Pens ownership is involved or if not, what type of deal could be cut with the perspective NBA ownership group.

3. Vancouver - For one, outside of Portland, the Great Northwest market is now a tenant-less market, thus opening the door for Vancouver if Seatlle fails to construct a new facility to land a replacement team. GM Place isnt too old but would likely need a minor renovation to upgrade to the facility to today's standards. And IIRC, GM Place is getting that minor upgade already as part of the Winter Olympics package.

 

Even though Ohio economy is going down in flames.

Cincinnati
Columbus

San Diego
San Jose
Jacksonville
Austin
Albuquerque
Kansas City
Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill Area

As others have mentioned, Baltimore, Vegas, St. Louis

 

I can't believe no one mentioned Hawaii. It would be awesome to have a team here.

 

Columbus,
Albuquerque
Honolulu..

 

Definitely San Diego....!!!!
we had the rockets and the clippers at one point.. best city to live in the US... but no NBA team

 

Just an FYI to all the Vegas boosters. This a Laker town. The only time the arena would be full is for Laker games. Getting a majority of people who are from other places to support an NBA team here would take a while. And right now Nevada is in a budget crisis with the real estate market being in the toilet. Good luck getting funding from the public on an arena.

On a slightly different subject. Why are the Clippers still in LA?? Do you think Angelenos would even notice if they packed up and relocated to Seattle?

 

Basketball is much easier in smaller cities than baseball. That's why cities like San Antonio, Memphis and Oklahoma City have basketball teams but are never considered for baseball teams. It's much easier to get 16,000 people to come out 41 times a year than it is 35,000 people to come out 81 times a year.

 

Lol damn I didn't think anyone knew about that.

And we couldn't keep our NBDL team the Greenville Groove, who won a championship.

Or our arena football team

Or our Double A baseball team affiliated with the Braves, now we got the Single A baseball team affiliated with the Red Sox.

Poor Greenville

 

It's not about being good or bad. I kind of like watching the Hawks. It's just that Atlanta is a college town. Everything in Atlanta is Georgia Tech (to my knowledge).

Rolling back the number of teams increases the quality of play in the NBA, NBDL, Euro leagues, CBA, etc. I'm in favor of that in the NFL as well.

 

1) Kansas City- already got a new arena and could support the franchise. Sorry St. Louis

2) Pittsburgh- new arena and they could support it since Pitt fans do not like anything out of Phila! Hope the colors are black and gold

-these should be the expansions, 32 teams, half go to the playoffs/ half go to the lottery

3) Move the Clippers back to San Diego- the few true Clipper fans in LA should have no problem still cheering on their team even if it's 40 miles south. Don't even call them San Diego Clippers, call them the California or even So. Cal Clippers and represent the state; that way you keep your few LA fans and maybe gain more Southern Cali fans!

4) Get Seattle a new arena and move Memphis their and rename them the Supersonics! As much as I hated them in the 90's there is a void in the the NBA w/o them. Vancouver fans might be happy with their old franchise moving back down the road. The NBA really needs to make this right since the Memphis experiment has failed.

Possibles,
-Las Vegas- won't happen on expansion, if anything the Maloof's will move the Kings there.
-Saint Louis- would be in the running if they had a new stadium, winner KC!
-Tampa Bay- Possible, does anyone here know the extent of the Heat fans there? It's not out of the question
-Cincinnati- I like the idea. Probably won't happen though. Do they have plans to build a stadium?
-Austin- Too many Spurs and even Rocket fans, mostly Spurs fans though. As cool as it would be to have 4 franchises in Texas, won't happen!
-Baltimore- Everyone thinks its Bullets/Wizards town but look what happened with the Nationals and everyone thought that was Orioles town. My favorite of this possibles section

Not Happening
-Louisville- c'mon now! Even Rick Pitino said that couldn't work
-Albuquerque- were tryin to think upgrades from Memphis and you think this city? Not enough interest there
-San Jose- No only b/c of the Warriors. Golden State reps the Bay Area!
-Columbus- Cincinnati would be better, most likely would fail
-Hawaii- huge football fans there, doubt an NBA franchise would survive
-Buffalo- Old school Braves, won't happen but at least wanted to mention them
-Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill- Charlotte got its team back and thats it for the Carolina's
-Jacksonville- Same as Tampa(replacing Heat fans with Magic) but with less NBA basketball interest, so no.
-Nashville- Pat Summit is running the only successful team that will ever play in Tennessee. No more NBA there please
-Any Canadian Cities- Toronto will be the only NBA franchise, thats why they changed their colors to Red and White

I would be in favor of the Jazzholes and Mavpricks to move to any of these cities mentioned though