NBA Expansion

[SK21209]

SAN DIEGO!!! PLEASE PLEASE SAN DIEGO!

All would be right in the world of SDANNIE. But I would still be a Thunder fan first.

Dear god please let us have an NBA team. Leaving the 7th largest city in the country with only the Padres is cruel and unusual punishment.

[Soupman]

Seattle.
+Makes the most sense. Long history of the Supersonics.
+close to Vancouver,Olympia,Tacoma
-No adequate stadium yet.

St. Louis.
+has a stadium now(I read someone post this earlier. I didn't know they had a stadium)
+Basketball is big there and no NFL to compete with.
+Only have to worry about baseball which is trending older while your trending younger.
-unproven market for pro-basketball.

Mexico City
+2nd biggest city in the western hemisphere.
+Not competing with any major US sports league.
+Promote NBA to a untapped market before the NFL.
+Very close to Dallas,New Orleans,Houston and San Antonio.
-unproven pro-basketball market

[akhan786]

More importantly.....wouldn't it be great if each team is only allowed to protect 3 players from the Expansion Draft? That would be the quickest way to hurt GSW by getting rid of Klay.

[wonkrazyz28]

Didn't Kansas City build the Sprint center with the idea of bringing in an NBA team? They're already NBA ready.

[Mr. E]

Austin is the other logical choice. They now have a metro population over 2 million and from 2010 -> 2016 was percentage-wise the fastest growing metro over 1 million. They also have a young, well educated demographic with a relatively high disposable income. They are also the largest metro in the US (if you include the Inland Empire as part of LA) without a professional sports team.

I agree with this, yet I feel obligated to make the standard "players have to take a pay cut to leave the University of Texas for the NFL/NBA" comment.

[Mr. E]

Ideally, the Los Angeles Clippers should be relocated to Seattle and the league should expand to Louisville & Vancouver.

Why would it be ideal to leave one of the two largest markets in the United States where they enjoy a lot of support for a much smaller market?

I know that the Seattle market includes Tacoma, Olympia and the other cities around Puget Sound; but that's still not matching the greater Los Angeles metro area.

I think that people get hung up over the idea that there are two teams in the same city without looking at the overall realities of the market. I've read reports that it would almost be more reasonable to put a third team in the LA or NY market rather than expand to many of the cities that are always on these lists. I doubt that happens (I think that the owners would block it); but there is plenty of room in LA for the two teams that they have.

I like Seattle. I enjoyed my time there and I hope to visit again soon. I don't know if I'd be too eager to move a big sports franchise right there going by past history with their politics. The fan base is there, no question about that, but I would not want to have to deal with Seattle politics if other options of equal or greater markets were available.

A team could very well move to Seattle; but it won't be one of the teams from Los Angeles.

[DoItALL9]

Seattle.
+Makes the most sense. Long history of the Supersonics.
+close to Vancouver,Olympia,Tacoma
-No adequate stadium yet.

St. Louis.
+has a stadium now(I read someone post this earlier. I didn't know they had a stadium)
+Basketball is big there and no NFL to compete with.
+Only have to worry about baseball which is trending older while your trending younger.
-unproven market for pro-basketball.

Mexico City
+2nd biggest city in the western hemisphere.
+Not competing with any major US sports league.
+Promote NBA to a untapped market before the NFL.
+Very close to Dallas,New Orleans,Houston and San Antonio.
-unproven pro-basketball market

How close is Mexico City drive time? Flight?

[Cactus Jack]

I would not want to have to deal with Seattle politics if other options of equal or greater markets were available.

Sadly, this couldn't be closer to the truth. Politics in this town is some of the worst you'll see.

[ReaLiez]

Seattle is in the West so either they expand an east team or move the TWolves over to the East.

I hope either Mexico City or another team in Canada where the market is big enough like Ottawa for example

[Cactus Jack]

Seattle.
+Makes the most sense. Long history of the Supersonics.
+close to Vancouver,Olympia,Tacoma
-No adequate stadium yet.

Key Arena is being renovated & is expected to be ready by 2021.

[Mr. E]

I would not want to have to deal with Seattle politics if other options of equal or greater markets were available.

Sadly, this couldn't be closer to the truth. Politics in this town is some of the worst you'll see.

I'm sure that living there or being from there you've heard a lot more; but some of the stuff I've read over the years has just been a head-scratcher.

Having been through the process of losing a team I hate to speculate about teams moving; but there are a couple in the NBA where a move to Seattle could be beneficial. But it will have to be a very secure owner with a good deal and all the details worked out.

[OakleyDokely]

Add Seattle and Mexico City. Both placed in the Western Conference. Minny/Mem moves to the East.

Brings you to 32 teams in 3 different countries. No need to expand past that for a long time.

[Mich3006]

KC or Louisville (Kentucky) and Seattle in the West and the Wolves in the East, let's do this!

[loserX]

Vancouver and Seattle are too close to each other to put two teams in at the same time, though I think Vancouver does deserve a team.

Eh, they're 140 miles apart. Seattle and Portland are 170 miles apart so it's not *that* different!

I live in Vancouver and outlasted the Grizzlies, so I'm appreciative of all the support I'm seeing

Do I think a team could survive here? Yes, although our fans are notoriously bandwagon-y. Previous ownership thought "Hey look, we have a basketball team now!" was a sustainable marketing model, and it was not. After the novelty wore off, we had an awful team year after year and there was no engagement at all. (As a Pacific Rim port city we have a very large Asian/South Asian community and there was zero attempt to market to those segments in the slightest. Just atrocious decision-making from ownership and management.)

Do we deserve a second chance? I hope so. Could we make it work this time? I think so. But the team would have to be very sure they learned from the mistakes of the past. Step 1: file a permanent restraining order against Stu Jackson so that he's not even allowed in the same province as the rest of the organization, let alone the front office.

[Cactus Jack]

I would not want to have to deal with Seattle politics if other options of equal or greater markets were available.

Sadly, this couldn't be closer to the truth. Politics in this town is some of the worst you'll see.

I'm sure that living there or being from there you've heard a lot more; but some of the stuff I've read over the years has just been a head-scratcher.

Having been through the process of losing a team I hate to speculate about teams moving; but there are a couple in the NBA where a move to Seattle could be beneficial. But it will have to be a very secure owner with a good deal and all the details worked out.

The city is currently in the process of solving the Key Arena/Seattle Coliseum issue. They have picked Tim Leiweke & his company (Oak View Group) to completely re-do the arena. Leiweke has even partnered with a potential NHL ownership group (led by Hollywood mogul Jerry Bruckheimer). He's All-In on bringing Hockey here. Meanwhile, another group led by Chris Hansen (same guy who tried to buy the Kings) has an arena proposal at another location. Hansen is All-In on Basketball. But, because of Seattle politics, that proposal is very likely dead. It still needs approval from the City Council. However, It won't get the approval due to the Key Arena agreement now.

Fans are split. Fans that want hockey are happy. Fans that want the NBA back are upset & likely getting the short straw. Seattle politics at it's finest!

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[DoItALL9]

Ideally, the Los Angeles Clippers should be relocated to Seattle and the league should expand to Louisville & Vancouver.

Why would it be ideal to leave one of the two largest markets in the United States where they enjoy a lot of support for a much smaller market?

I know that the Seattle market includes Tacoma, Olympia and the other cities around Puget Sound; but that's still not matching the greater Los Angeles metro area.

I think that people get hung up over the idea that there are two teams in the same city without looking at the overall realities of the market. I've read reports that it would almost be more reasonable to put a third team in the LA or NY market rather than expand to many of the cities that are always on these lists. I doubt that happens (I think that the owners would block it); but there is plenty of room in LA for the two teams that they have.

I like Seattle. I enjoyed my time there and I hope to visit again soon. I don't know if I'd be too eager to move a big sports franchise right there going by past history with their politics. The fan base is there, no question about that, but I would not want to have to deal with Seattle politics if other options of equal or greater markets were available.

A team could very well move to Seattle; but it won't be one of the teams from Los Angeles.

Good points. I've read many articles saying the same. ("My ideally" is subjective to me I guess)
As for The money, the objective argument generally, they pointed to the Clippers making more for themselves and for the league in L.A. However, I haven't seen those prognostications written factoring in a second soccer team and 2 NFL football teams in L.A.
Also Las Vegas is picking up a football and hockey team very soon. The competition for the entertainment dollars of the folks in between the two cities increased. Most of the those reports were also written during the Clippers heyday and Lakers worst pitfall arguably ever. Will those numbers hold if Blake Griffin is injured, Amar'e Stoudemire like, and they're tied to him for 5 years? Lonzo Ball is galvanizing dormant front runner Lakers fans already. The Clippers will be cannibalized to some extent undoubtedly

[memgrizzlies000]

Why force an expansion to Seattle and another team, when we really need less teams in this league.

Fewer teams.

New Orleans and Memphis are barely viable as things are now so you do have a point. It remains to be seen whether OKC can be viable either if they have a team with a losing record. The other teams are in decent shape though.

Yeah let's get rid of the cities with actual personality and history like Memphis and New Orleans and relocate to big corporate cookie cutter cities like Seattle and Vancouver These cities are nothing but carbon copy cities and would be bad for the league.

[Sothron]

I have said it before but I will say it again:

Expansion in Seattle and Vancouver. Neither city deserved to lose their franchise. It is also a natural rivalry.

Since they will be Western Conference teams move Minnesota and Memphis into the Eastern conference. This makes the insanely bad travel schedule Minnesota has every year less of a burden and Memphis goes into a natural rivalry with Atlanta and the rest of the Southeast.

[heatwillbeback]

While people have differing thoughts on the current competition, there is no doubt the league is booming right now financially.

If the league expands, I hope it's limited to 2 teams.

[memgrizzlies000]

SAN DIEGO!!! PLEASE PLEASE SAN DIEGO!

All would be right in the world of SDANNIE. But I would still be a Thunder fan first.

Dear god please let us have an NBA team. Leaving the 7th largest city in the country with only the Padres is cruel and unusual punishment.

California has like 10 teams gtfo with that crap. Pick one in the second closest city. Big deal. There are some areas where there won't be an NBA team for 3-4 states at a time. You're just showing how spoiled rotten people from your crappy stare are.