I don't think the NBA should expand, but if they do, where do you think a team would do well financially? I think Montreal could do well, and Cincinnati might not be too bad either. Opinions?
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Except for wanting to compete with Toronto, I can't see there being much interest in a basketball team. Add in the fact that it didn't work in Vancouver and the Expos barely hangin around and I don't see it happening.
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There's not a market in Canada that could sustain basketball outside of Toronto, and Toronto only survives because they keep drafting "hottest player in the NBA" guys like Stoudamire (when he came in) and Vince Carter. Once Carter leaves, I think you'll see that the Raptors get similar support to the Blue Jays...fans when they win, apathy when they don't.
Originally posted by evilwaldoEurope. The US is maxed out with teams.
I don't think a team in Europe would work, logistically speaking. Say the NBA puts a team in Madrid, for instance. How do you make that work for the teams in the US travel-wise? Right now the teams in the West play one game at each Eastern Conference opponent and vice-versa. Are the Seattle Supersonics or Los Angeles Lakers going to have a Boston-Madrid-New York-Chicago road trip? Ugh. Are the Madrid Bullfighters going to have to take two week road-trips to the US, then play two weeks of games at home because of the travel? If you make a Euro Division with 6 teams, is there a way to balance the schedule so each team plays a relatively similar one?
I think it would be a good idea for the NBA and FIBA to create a World Club Championship tournament similar to the Champions League in soccer, where three or four NBA teams and other Euro teams like Real and Benetton Treviso could play their games independent of their national league's games leading to a World Final. (Of course, I don't believe in a MILLION years the NBA or NBAPA would work to make thaat happen.)
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That's an interesting idea, but I bet it would get played out pretty quickly. I don't see any European teams holding up to, say, the Lakers - rather I think you'd see a division in talent similar to what we see in international competition when the Dream Teams are motivated and acutally play like they care.
It'd be an interesting concept to try with hockey, though...
Originally posted by evilwaldoEurope. The US is maxed out with teams.
I don't think a team in Europe would work, logistically speaking. Say the NBA puts a team in Madrid, for instance. How do you make that work for the teams in the US travel-wise? Right now the teams in the West play one game at each Eastern Conference opponent and vice-versa. Are the Seattle Supersonics or Los Angeles Lakers going to have a Boston-Madrid-New York-Chicago road trip? Ugh. Are the Madrid Bullfighters going to have to take two week road-trips to the US, then play two weeks of games at home because of the travel? If you make a Euro Division with 6 teams, is there a way to balance the schedule so each team plays a relatively similar one?
I think it would be a good idea for the NBA and FIBA to create a World Club Championship tournament similar to the Champions League in soccer, where three or four NBA teams and other Euro teams like Real and Benetton Treviso could play their games independent of their national league's games leading to a World Final. (Of course, I don't believe in a MILLION years the NBA or NBAPA would work to make thaat happen.)
The idea that the NBA is throwing around is setting up an eight or ten team division in Europe within the next 5 or 10 years. The NBA can own the teams and sell them at a later date to potential investors. Travel wise, an NBA team would do a road trip playing all the teams in one shot in order to cut down on travel costs. Likewise, the European teams would take long road trips to the US to play everyone in other divisions. Scheduling would be difficult but since they have the time to get the unions ideas and work out the kinks.
When you think about it, the US is just maxed out with sports teams. Any new markets are marginal at best and Canada has shown an unwillingness to support the NBA. Mexico is an option but now a good one. Europe works because you are seeing an influx of talent coming over so there is already support at the fan level. After a few years you can expand and build the league up to 20-24 and then create an international finals.
The talent gap has closed dramatically over the past 10 years and will continue to close so fielding a competitive team should not be a problem. European players, for the most part, do not have the 'ESPN disease' which has weakened the talent pool in the US.
If they expand to Europe, I don't think there are enough hot markets to make more than four or six would work for now. The teams would almost have to be in France and Italy, with maybe Germany or the Netherlands too. Too bad thee is no solid locale for Yugoslavia.
EDIT: If they expand only in North America: Baltimore, Columbus, Louisville, Nashville, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, San Diego?
The NBA will expand by at the absolute most two more teams in the next decade to make it a nice and even 32. I could definitely see St. Louis getting a team (hell, the Hawks might move back at the rate they're going), but apart from that, it could be anywhere. At this rate, Chicago will soon be asking for a new team to replace the Bulls.
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However, the shift to a 6-division format would seem to indicate that the NBA feels the max they want to be at is 30 teams. Going up to 32 teams would have made the 4-division format more preferable.
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Expand? If anything you could make an argument for contracting the Hawks and the Clips. If you want to keep it at 30, I'd take BigBad's suggestion to move the Hawks back to St. Louis and probably move the Clips back to San Diego or send them to Cincy and let them have an NBA team again.
Sox blow another chance to win the world series. More money for me!!!!
When the current owners of the Blues bought them, and the arena, they were trying to bring the Vancouver Grizzlies to town, but the NBA sqaushed it. I am not sure there is enough money in town to support four pro franchises. I would like to have NBA basketball here, just as something else to do in the winter, but I am just not sur they would survive fiscally.
I thought that St. Louis was one of the biggest US cities, so being able to support four teams shouldn't be that big of a problem. St. Louis has a long and proud basketball tradition, too....my dad used to talk about listening to Hawks games on the radio and hearing about the likes of Lenny Wilkens tear it up.
Of all the gizmos forced upon us by the modern world, is any more melancholy than the leaf blower? The device is manifestly useless. It blows leaves from one place to another, and then the wind blows them back again. -- Roger Ebert
Watching that movie was like watching a young child be repeatedly punched in the face.-- my friend Dave after watching Bad Boys II
Your children will laugh when you're dead!-- Jason Robards in "A Thousand Acres"
I can tell you with no ego that this is my finest blade. If you should encounter God, God will be cut.-- Sonny Chiba in "Kill Bill: Volume 1"
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Originally posted by Big BadI thought that St. Louis was one of the biggest US cities, so being able to support four teams shouldn't be that big of a problem. St. Louis has a long and proud basketball tradition, too....my dad used to talk about listening to Hawks games on the radio and hearing about the likes of Lenny Wilkens tear it up.
St. Louis also supported 2 baseball teams at the same time. The Hawks during their time in St. Louis made the finals 3 times in 4 years in the late 50's-early 60's with them winning one. I think an NBA team in St. Louis would do fine. They can't draw any less fans for pro basketball then Atlanta does now.
Sox blow another chance to win the world series. More money for me!!!!
Season ticket sales might be decent for a St. Louis team since Busch, Monsanto, etc would snap them up, but I don't know if general tickets would go as well. Hell, a good year (well, a REALLY good year) for the Billikens might outdraw the pros. It doesn't help that getting dates at Savvis would be hard since the Blues come first (as would other annual stuff ranging from the KMOX Shootout to the bloody circus.) If nothing else most St. Louisans would probably spend their money on the Blues first, and neither ticket would be that cheap.
Not that they'd draw any worse than other current teams, but it certainly wouldn't be worth dilluting the talent pool for.
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