Random Thought: Should The RGV Vipers (or new Rockets D League team) be moved to Houston area?

Galveston is a good idea. That's the closest I would consider moving them. You don't want your minor league team to be too close to your major league team, they eat into each other's ticket sales then. But Galveston would be about perfect, an hour's drive.

 

They should have a centralized D-League where they have a complex of courts and all the games are played in that area.

 

Then it would have to be almost completely subsidized by the NBA. Not even baseball does that and they care a lot more about their minor leagues than the NBA does.

 

Of all the single affiliate teams, Rockets and Knicks d-league teams appear to be furthest distance away from team's home city. (I checked the distances)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Development_League#Current_teams

Yes I think it'd work for PLAYER development. Not a guarantee itd work for attendance, which local owners would want to be SOMEWHAT operational without taking big losses.

The Los Angeles D-Fenders run by the Lakers is just 30 minutes away from them. It has 380 seat CAPACITY court. (Yes HUNDRED, no typo). The old Anaheim team with Clippers as affiliate didnt last and relocated, so no guarantee of it "working".

So it'd maybe take an NBA team that wants to subsidize the operation for its own competitive edge.

 

If they built a gym conjoined to the Skeeter's field, I would probably go to a ton of games. I could ride my bike

 

well, at least move them closer to civilization.

 

I would absolutely go to a Viper game, especially if a guy like Dmo/Jones/White is on assignment. I don't imagine the tix would be too pricy either.

 

Lots of D-League teams are moving towards low seating/high service. If you look at their website it looks like they don't have normal seats, just courtside seats & tables.

 

I happen to think the Vipers are the a perfect place. I take offense to your comment. I happen to live in the Rio Grande Valley and its a beautiful place to live. As a die hard Rockets fan it's simply amazing to have the minor league team so close to home. I love being able to pay less than $50 for courtside seats and watch our future stars develop their games. You guys from Houston already have the Rockets let the little guys have something for once. I maybe go to 1 or 2 rockets games a year because of my job as a teacher. With the Vipers I and many other people from the Valley can make it to games during the week. It's quite nice. So with that said the Vipers are in the perfect location and I hope they never move.