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BEElieveinAsheville ‏@BEElieveInAVL 6m

@BringBackTheBuz New video by @BeelieveInAVL, a fan group urging the @hornets to put a D-League team in Asheville https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpOl2J7hbJM …

apparently there is a group in asheville urging the hornets to put a dedicated d-league team in asheville. i think this is something we can all get behind.

If MJ bought his own D-league team, I'd be surprised if he didn't put it in Wilmington.

Besides, those hippies don't deserve it. :|

well, MJ did recently move training camp from wilmington to asheville.

Just fyi, Asheville had an NBDL team from 2001 - 2005, which moved to Tulsa and became the 66ers. They actually won two NBDL championships, and still couldn't keep the team. Maybe there's more interest now. It's probably a plus that they already have a relationship with the Civic Center, where they used to play.

Asheville and Wilmington are awesome towns, but they're both too small for a d league team. MJ would be better off putting a team in Greensboro, Raleigh/Durham, or Hampton Roads.

LofJ wrote:Asheville and Wilmington are awesome towns, but they're both too small for a d league team. MJ would be better off putting a team in Greensboro, Raleigh/Durham, or Hampton Roads.

The Triangle wouldn't work IMO because college basketball is too big there - no one is going to go a D league game when Duke, UNC and State are playing all the time.

I like the Greensboro suggestion though. Could draw some Winston folks too. Greensboro is three times as big as Asheville, as is Winston. They should be a lot better able to sustain a team.

+1 for Greensboro. It'd be hilarious to watch a game with 30 other people in the coliseum

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Eh, tried it once and failed miserably. Went to a ton of games and there may have been 400 people there a game.

I remember going to Atlitude games. They were coached by Joey Meyer. I went once just to see Chris Carrawell who I had enjoyed watching at Duke, but was disappointed. He was totally downtrodden, like he didn't think he belonged, and he played like it, shook his head every time someone made a mistake an dragged around. The best guys on the court were Jason Hart (formerly of Syracuse) and Rusty Larue. I think the D League itself has come a long way in terms of organization and level of play since then.

It might have actually been Sindely that said it the other day when we discussed it, but put it in the triangle. The Raleigh area would work great. It would be easy for a lot of bigger areas to get to the game. Most D-Leaguers aren't making the league anyway so stash some Duke/UNC/Nc St/Wake guys on the team to drive up a little fan interest along with our handful of guys we truly care about and go from there.

EwingSweatsALot wrote:It might have actually been Sindely that said it the other day when we discussed it, but put it in the triangle. The Raleigh area would work great. It would be easy for a lot of bigger areas to get to the game. Most D-Leaguers aren't making the league anyway so stash some Duke/UNC/Nc St/Wake guys on the team to drive up a little fan interest along with our handful of guys we truly care about and go from there.

I think basketball demand is adequately met in the Triangle with all the college games. Besides Wake, there's nothing similar in Greensboro or Winston.

What about something like Rock Hill or Fort Mill area?

mattcampbell wrote:What about something like Rock Hill or Fort Mill area?

nobody in Fort Mill went to Knights games, doubt they would go to NBDL. it would be great for me though, i could get to games in 5 minutes. Also, only arena is on winthrop campus in rock hill.

mattcampbell wrote:What about something like Rock Hill or Fort Mill area?

Fats is right about both on the issues of Fort Mill and Rock Hill.

The one thing that people don't know about Rock Hill is that it is huge in amateur type sports. They hold the United States Disc Golf Championships each year, they hold the largest U-18 girls softball tournament every other year, they hold some of the largest soccer tournaments in the nation, they will be holding the BMX World Championships in 2017, and they used to hold WCW and WWF (haha). The issue with these is that most of the tickets and revenue are driven by family and not residents of Rock Hill. The BMX World Championships could hint towards the draw of bigger sporting events to the residents of the area.

The arena would be an issue, though I would think Winthrop's arena would suffice for a D-League team and scheduling would be easy to fixture around the team's schedules. If the Clippers and Lakers can do it, the D-League and Winthrop can do it for 60 games a year. If the money was there I would think Rock Hill would be interested in a multi purpose arena in one of their many major sporting complexes that they continue to put up.

With all that said, I doubt it would ever happen in the Fort Mill/Rock Hill area. Somewhere in NC seems more doable.

fatlever wrote:well, MJ did recently move training camp from wilmington to asheville.

That's probably to get away from the recent suckitude of my Seahawks. That and they bulldozed Whiteys so MJ has no place to get breakfast anymore.

Greensboro might work but Greensboro Coliseum is a mess. They charge too much for parking and stuff and low-income folks (the main people interested in watching non-ACC basketball in Greensboro) aren't interested in forking over that much money unless Super Jam is the same night.

for it to work in asheville, you just have to trick all those hipsters into going to the games. don't advertise ever. pay some local hipsters to start going. only serve PBR and local brews. guys with beards get a discout (or have to pay more, whatever the hipsters prefer)

"dude, the NBA is so mainstream, thats why i go to NBDL games. you've probably never heard if it.

Asheville is a horrible city to live in. They dont promote or do anything unless it revolves around drinking beer and festival type ordeals. Greenville SC at the Bilo center would be way better.

Professional wrestling was once a big deal in this town. We even had a pay per view or two sold out. Went to an event 2 years ago and the attendance was 1100. The lowest the WWE has had in probably a decade. They haven't been back. The civic center had a multi million dollar renovation but it was only for the naming rights to be called the US Cellular center. Place is a dump.

The Boone Bumblebees!

Could they split up the games between two or three Carolinas cities? That would be rough on the players, but the NBDL isn't supposed to be convenient. More motivation to make it to the big time.

That might help generate some interest in the Hornets in places that aren't paying them any attention.