OT: Possible NBA Team In Edmonton

McGhostbuster

Who ya gonna call?
Apr 30, 2007
7,929
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Edmonton
I don't know about a NBA team, but if the NBA goes towards expanding the G-League into the next best thing besides the NBA I could see some interest, but with no big names it would be still a tough sell.

I'd rather the Trappers come back.
 

Oscar Acosta

Registered User
Mar 19, 2011
7,695
369
Will never happen. NBA would have zero interest in this market it does nothing for their exposure compared to other cities. Toronto has a hard enough time attracting NBA players let alone any of them that had to live in our climate.

I would put the chances lower than Commonwealth stadium hosting the summer Olympics like ever.

This city can’t even have a real minor league AAA baseball team despite about the nicest minor league stadium around and Edmontonians with nothing to do in the summer for sports. Let alone winter competing with the Oilers for fan and sponsor support.
 

Gord

Registered User
Oct 9, 2005
9,830
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Edmonton
People are talking about the connection the Oilers have with the city. Curious, how big are the Oilers in Edmonton?

why are you even here? if you're asking that question, you're just a useless troll.

you're in Philly. go to their board and ask when they're going to finally get a good goalie or something. go to an NBA board and celebrate the 76ers
 
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fuswald

I'd Be Fired
Dec 10, 2008
3,043
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Edmonton
If an NBA team couldn’t make it in Vancouver than I don’t think it has a chance in Edmonton
There are other things to do in Vancouver.
Edmonton might just need another sport. Our football and hockey fandom is larger than Vancouver. Why not give basketball a go.
Plenty of money around here as well.

And to those saying this is a hockey town, when I was young and there was no Gretzky Oilers not too many watched or even talked hockey. Soon as the Oilers looked to contend it took off. Not saying bandwagon fans but the masses needed an eye opener. Maybe basketball does too.
Would be excellent if it did then more youth would get into it and the equipment is real cheap so any youth.
 
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Zenos

Registered User
Oct 4, 2009
2,171
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Edmonton's too white for it

35% of Edmonton's population is non-white, so I don't think that's necessarily the "problem".

Rather, the city is too small, lacks the necessary financial clout / corporate base, and as others have mentioned, just isn't that great of a sports town.

People get behind the oilers, esks, and one-off competitions like the Commonwealth Games, IAAF, or FIFA championships. Minor league baseball has been a major disappointment since the Trappers left, as have the Rush, FC Edmonton, Aviators, etc.

I think we'll see the return of triple-A Baseball or another pro soccer club waaaay before even sniffing the NBA.
 

Drivesaitl

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Let's assume the NBA team was championship caliber immediately. And the Oilers stunk up the joint. Isn't it fair to wonder if said basketball team would be more popular?

No, given that you have no idea what the market is here, or in much of Canada. NHL hockey and even the CFL are kings of ratings in Canada. Only things that would compete are say a World Series if Blue Jays were in it or playoffs and the World Cup, Olympic events etc.

NBA basketball enjoyed a peak of viewing popularity and demand in Canada during the Vince Carter era. Since then ratings and ticket demand dropped substantially. Its not unusual now for Raptors now to have national TV audiences of say 200-250K. During Carter era these numbers would peak around 700K in reg season games. Basically any NHL national telecast gets a million viewers and most CFL national telecasts do.

I'm using ratings because its often a pretty accurate barometer of how much support and interest there is in any pro sport.

NBA in Canada isn't nearly as big as Hockey, Soccer, Baseball, Football. In viewership it isn't even close. There would be much more of a possibility of Edmonton being a viable NFL or MLS franchise and the prospects of that are even ridiculous.

NBA didn't even go in Vancouver which has a metropolitan population 3X that of Edmonton.

An NBA team would NEVER be more popular here than the Oilers and no, it isn't fair to allude that. Its actually a ridiculous supposition.
 

McFlash97

Registered User
Oct 10, 2017
7,469
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What type of Joke is this ? please delete this thread before the rest of HF starts laughing at us. Edmonton and the NBA dont go together. Edmonton fans are way too blue collared for the NBA. NBA is a pipe dream for the City of Edmonton. How about start off with getting an MLS soccer team first. It really is a joke that Edmonton and Calgary are not trying to make a run at getting into Major League Soccer. Pathetic.
 
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bone

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Jun 24, 2003
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This is interesting. A person living in Philadelphia claims to have better insight into how people would respond in Edmonton to a franchise than Edmontonians.

Personally I think it would be neat to have a team, but the reality is that no one talks about basketball around here at all. I work in an building with about 600 people in it, I personally chat with about 100 of them from time to time. Over the twenty years I've been here, I can think of 4 people that would regularly talk about basketball with me whereas at least half of the people will chat about hockey at any time.

Yes, if we got a team and it was super successful within 2-3 years, people would be interested and talking about it, but the reality is basically a successful team in any city in NA would likely be just as successful. If the criteria for getting a team was confidence that fans would show up if the team was championship calibre, you'd think probably another 100 cities in NA would make a bid.

The question when expanding or relocating a team is how strong is the interest in that sport in that city to sustain a team should it struggle in the standings for several years and the reality in Edmonton is that it may sell well in year one, but if the team struggled in the standings, attendance would be well below 10,000 in season 2. I'd actually be surprised if it was over 5000. Particularly at the prices the tickets would likely command.
 

Jumptheshark

Rebooting myself
Oct 12, 2003
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What type of Joke is this ? please delete this thread before the rest of HF starts laughing at us. Edmonton and the NBA dont go together. Edmonton fans are way too blue collared for the NBA. NBA is a pipe dream for the City of Edmonton. How about start off with getting an MLS soccer team first. It really is a joke that Edmonton and Calgary are not trying to make a run at getting into Major League Soccer. Pathetic.

but

I know why tsn 1260 started to talk about it--in the 80's when the oilers were selling out every night and many NBA teams were struggling at the gate

Peter Puck and the NBA had a brief discussion and even then Pocklington knew Edmonton was a one horse town when comes to sports--Oilers and everything else is an after thought
 

Drivesaitl

Time to Drive
Oct 8, 2017
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What type of Joke is this ? please delete this thread before the rest of HF starts laughing at us. Edmonton and the NBA dont go together. Edmonton fans are way too blue collared for the NBA. NBA is a pipe dream for the City of Edmonton. How about start off with getting an MLS soccer team first. It really is a joke that Edmonton and Calgary are not trying to make a run at getting into Major League Soccer. Pathetic.

The OP has over 150 thread starts within the last year. Many of them as random as this. Its serial thread starting which used to be considered bad messageboard behavior. Because if every user started making a thread every day, on any thought they had, the front page would flip constantly and there would be few ongoing threads of interest and a lot of thread noise.

It was the right time to get attention with this thread though, with Edmonton out of the playoffs we'll talk about almost anything.
 

bone

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Jun 24, 2003
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but

I know why tsn 1260 started to talk about it--in the 80's when the oilers were selling out every night and many NBA teams were struggling at the gate

Peter Puck and the NBA had a brief discussion and even then Pocklington knew Edmonton was a one horse town when comes to sports--Oilers and everything else is an after thought

I think people could argue that had Edmonton not experienced the dynasty, they may not have even sustained the Oilers the first time around.

How is Winnipeg in the 90s different than Edmonton? Basically, the community got behind saving the Oilers in many ways because of the history. The league also likely was more supportive of community based ownership because they wouldn't have wanted the last real dynasty to be relocated within 10 years of that dynasty. How would that have looked for the league?

Furthermore, the Jets, if I recall correctly, were actually selling better at the time of their move than Edmonton. Perhaps in this alternate reality where Pocklington doesn't win that hand of poker, the Edmonton Oilers are actually in Phoenix. Though that would be funny having both NHL franchises that started in Atlanta, both ending up in Alberta. The names even look the same from a distance.
 
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randomrob7

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Aug 30, 2013
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The the only major sports league in NA that I could somewhat reasonably see expanding to Edmonton is MLS. But for that to work we would probably need an indoor venue, which really isn't pheasable at this time.
 

voxel

Testicle Terrorist
Feb 14, 2007
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The OP has over 150 thread starts within the last year. Many of them as random as this. Its serial thread starting which used to be considered bad messageboard behavior.

A Drama Llama.

Anyhoo... a mega-succesful winning team in any city could work (like San Antonio) but the generic economics of it is not good for Edmonton or ANY small market city. I read something like 9 NBA teams still lose money even after all the gravy revenue sharing. NBA isn't that healthy IMO. The league is growing and basketball is super popular around the world but it's big market cities with winning teams that are eating most of the proverbial cake.
 

Jumptheshark

Rebooting myself
Oct 12, 2003
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People are crazy for dismissing the idea that an NBA Team could survive.


We are not philly

We are Edmonton and it is give us hockey or give us death


From july 15th to about September 1st there is usually little or no hockey news--but yet that is all we talk about--when Greger or Lowetide try to talk Eskis--that make people grumpy
 

rboomercat90

Registered User
Mar 24, 2013
14,589
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Edmonton
I think people could argue that had Edmonton not experienced the dynasty, they may not have even sustained the Oilers the first time around.

How is Winnipeg in the 90s different than Edmonton? Basically, the community got behind saving the Oilers in many ways because of the history. The league also likely was more supportive of community based ownership because they wouldn't have wanted the last real dynasty to be relocated within 10 years of that dynasty. How would that have looked for the league?

Furthermore, the Jets, if I recall correctly, were actually selling better at the time of their move than Edmonton. Perhaps in this alternate reality where Pocklington doesn't win that hand of poker, the Edmonton Oilers are actually in Phoenix. Though that would be funny having both NHL franchises that started in Atlanta, both ending up in Alberta. The names even look the same from a distance.
It took a lot of work just to keep this team in Edmonton. Even with the great history, Pocklington almost killed this franchise. I think people forget how empty this building was in the early nineties around the times Winnipeg and Quebec City lost their teams. If not for the work of the Copper Jackets trying to sell season tickets for the team to qualify for the small market subsidy and then later EIG stepping up to save the team we’d have lost them. Without the teams history, I don’t think people would have cared enough to step up, they’d have let them go and said “times are changing, other cities are losing their teams too”. That’s exactly what happened with the Trappers.

I can’t see another team coming in here and garnering enough interest to get that kind of support. Certainly not when the Oilers are still here and they aren’t going anywhere thanks to the arena deal. If there was a choice that had to be made, the Oilers would always come first.
 

JSlick

Registered User
Oct 17, 2016
1,336
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Edmonton
I don't think this city can support 2 teams at once, especially when both their seasons clash.
Plus I can't imagine NBA players wanting to play here.
 

Jumptheshark

Rebooting myself
Oct 12, 2003
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In terms of NBA expansion, I'd put Edmonton somewhere around 152nd on the list... just behind Shanghai, but ahead of Prague.


IF the NBA goes to China--Shanghai would be like 2 or 3 on that list

IF the NBA came to Canada we would be behind Vancouver, Montreal, a second team in TO and maybe Calgary
 

KingKhron

Registered User
Sep 8, 2008
3,341
1,744
Ya, if it didn’t work in Vancouver, it wouldn’t even come close here. A lacrosse team didn’t and I know 10 guys who play lacrosse for everyone I know that plays basketball.
 

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