Could Birmingham support a big 4 sports team?

[MMC]

Birmingham is a bit smaller than Buffalo, but its metro still has over 1 million people, and is in what appears to be a big sports region. Do you think they could support a big 4 sports team?

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[Barclay Donaldson]

Birmingham is a bit smaller than Buffalo, but its metro still has over 1 million people, and is in what appears to be a big sports region. Do you think they could support a big 4 sports team?

It's the 50th biggest metro area in the US and only 44th biggest TV market. It's about the same size as Grand Rapids, MI, Rochester, NY, and Tucson, AZ. It's smaller than other markets that are barely holding on to their Big 4 teams or have lost their Big 4 teams. The region is very big on college sports, especially football. Much bigger markets with a similar culture like Columbus, OH struggle against that establishment despite being a professional team.

So no. The easiest no to a market you've put out so far. And they've all been easy so that's really saying something.

 

[Hasbro]

Football yes. None of the other sports though.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Birmingham is in my prospective 48-team alignment for MLB, which probably won't happen in my lifetime.

 

[HisIceness]

AL.com (an online state-wide journal) asked this question a few years ago.



In short, very likely not although it's not impossible. The city does have some corporate support (BBVA is a partner w/ the NBA, Books-A-Million, Alabama Power, Regions Bank), and I believe the BJCC is being renovated w/ NBA in mind (the city will be home to a G-league team in 2022). The Barons seem to do well and the city has had several XFL-like football franchises in the past that seem to have some support, minor-league yes but it shows the city does like things other than NCAA Football.

But, there's more "red flags" than not. Biggest one is the size of the market, it's not a dot on the map but the city itself has been losing population every year since the civil rights movement. Huntsville is primed to overtake B-ham as the states largest city by next decade. This means you're relying very heavily on folks from the moderately wealthy to wealthy suburbs like Hoover and Mountain Brook to snatch up the tickets and corporate suites. These towns represent about 10% of the metros population. The rest of the area is at best, middle of the middle class, and these are the folks that are more likely to spend their sports dollars on the NCAA, more on that later.

The city money-wise had a big corruption scandal involving their public roads and services (trash pick-up) in the 90's. I found out about it when I went there to help a friend clean out a house and we had to buy a couple of bullshit trash and recycle bins because we discovered the city didn't provide either. The roads were some of the worst I've ever driven on, they'll make your teeth rattle. This means that a potential owner would have to be a Mark Cuban or Jeff Vinik type, and they'd need to pay for a stadium (if needed) out of their own pocket.

The market also resides near Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, and New Orleans. While a NBA or whatever team would have Alabama to itself, is there really an incentive to do so when a good chunk of the state resides in poverty and/or only shows sporting interest in Alabama/Auburn athletics?

And finally, the NCAA is king in the Yellowhammer state. You don't need Google to know this. People have been killed over the Iron Bowl (I'm not kidding, look it up), Auburns iconic trees on their campus were poisoned by a bitter U of Alabama fan after a loss. Even UAB when they lost their football program in 2015, money was quickly raised to get it reinstated. Not to say the NCAA isn't a big deal in other states like NC and Ohio and Texas, but Alabama is just a different animal. "Roll Tide/War Eagle" is implemented in daily communications one way or another.

Birmingham itself could have been an NFL market in the 70's (I heard they tried, how they would have done is anyones guess), but today? It's a long shot for anything other than minor-league sports.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

AL.com (an online state-wide journal) asked this question a few years ago.



In short, very likely not although it's not impossible. The city does have some corporate support (BBVA is a partner w/ the NBA, Books-A-Million, Alabama Power, Regions Bank), and I believe the BJCC is being renovated w/ NBA in mind (the city will be home to a G-league team in 2022). The Barons seem to do well and the city has had several XFL-like football franchises in the past that seem to have some support, minor-league yes but it shows the city does like things other than NCAA Football.

But, there's more "red flags" than not. Biggest one is the size of the market, it's not a dot on the map but the city itself has been losing population every year since the civil rights movement. Huntsville is primed to overtake B-ham as the states largest city by next decade. This means you're relying very heavily on folks from the moderately wealthy to wealthy suburbs like Hoover and Mountain Brook to snatch up the tickets and corporate suites. These towns represent about 10% of the metros population. The rest of the area is at best, middle of the middle class, and these are the folks that are more likely to spend their sports dollars on the NCAA, more on that later.

The city money-wise had a big corruption scandal involving their public roads and services (trash pick-up) in the 90's. I found out about it when I went there to help a friend clean out a house and we had to buy a couple of bullshit trash and recycle bins because we discovered the city didn't provide either. The roads were some of the worst I've ever driven on, they'll make your teeth rattle. This means that a potential owner would have to be a Mark Cuban or Jeff Vinik type, and they'd need to pay for a stadium (if needed) out of their own pocket.

The market also resides near Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, and New Orleans. While a NBA or whatever team would have Alabama to itself, is there really an incentive to do so when a good chunk of the state resides in poverty and/or only shows sporting interest in Alabama/Auburn athletics?

And finally, the NCAA is king in the Yellowhammer state. You don't need Google to know this. People have been killed over the Iron Bowl (I'm not kidding, look it up), Auburns iconic trees on their campus were poisoned by a bitter U of Alabama fan after a loss. Even UAB when they lost their football program in 2015, money was quickly raised to get it reinstated. Not to say the NCAA isn't a big deal in other states like NC and Ohio and Texas, but Alabama is just a different animal. "Roll Tide/War Eagle" is implemented in daily communications one way or another.

Birmingham itself could have been an NFL market in the 70's (I heard they tried, how they would have done is anyones guess), but today? It's a long shot for anything other than minor-league sports.

THE TEAM YOU mention here is the current Erie Bayhawks, who are in their 4th iteration of the franchise and will be a Pelicans affiliation, the other three were relocated elsewhere

 

[MMC]

AL.com (an online state-wide journal) asked this question a few years ago.



In short, very likely not although it's not impossible. The city does have some corporate support (BBVA is a partner w/ the NBA, Books-A-Million, Alabama Power, Regions Bank), and I believe the BJCC is being renovated w/ NBA in mind (the city will be home to a G-league team in 2022). The Barons seem to do well and the city has had several XFL-like football franchises in the past that seem to have some support, minor-league yes but it shows the city does like things other than NCAA Football.

But, there's more "red flags" than not. Biggest one is the size of the market, it's not a dot on the map but the city itself has been losing population every year since the civil rights movement. Huntsville is primed to overtake B-ham as the states largest city by next decade. This means you're relying very heavily on folks from the moderately wealthy to wealthy suburbs like Hoover and Mountain Brook to snatch up the tickets and corporate suites. These towns represent about 10% of the metros population. The rest of the area is at best, middle of the middle class, and these are the folks that are more likely to spend their sports dollars on the NCAA, more on that later.

The city money-wise had a big corruption scandal involving their public roads and services (trash pick-up) in the 90's. I found out about it when I went there to help a friend clean out a house and we had to buy a couple of bullshit trash and recycle bins because we discovered the city didn't provide either. The roads were some of the worst I've ever driven on, they'll make your teeth rattle. This means that a potential owner would have to be a Mark Cuban or Jeff Vinik type, and they'd need to pay for a stadium (if needed) out of their own pocket.

The market also resides near Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, and New Orleans. While a NBA or whatever team would have Alabama to itself, is there really an incentive to do so when a good chunk of the state resides in poverty and/or only shows sporting interest in Alabama/Auburn athletics?

And finally, the NCAA is king in the Yellowhammer state. You don't need Google to know this. People have been killed over the Iron Bowl (I'm not kidding, look it up), Auburns iconic trees on their campus were poisoned by a bitter U of Alabama fan after a loss. Even UAB when they lost their football program in 2015, money was quickly raised to get it reinstated. Not to say the NCAA isn't a big deal in other states like NC and Ohio and Texas, but Alabama is just a different animal. "Roll Tide/War Eagle" is implemented in daily communications one way or another.

Birmingham itself could have been an NFL market in the 70's (I heard they tried, how they would have done is anyones guess), but today? It's a long shot for anything other than minor-league sports.

Thanks for the post. While this will never happen, I think it would be very cool to see a successful NHL team in Birmingham, if they were to decide they wanted another Southern market but gave up on Atlanta.

 

[HisIceness]

Thanks for the post. While this will never happen, I think it would be very cool to see a successful NHL team in Birmingham, if they were to decide they wanted another Southern market but gave up on Atlanta.

Only if Charles Barkley gets involved in the ownership then I'm a go for this idea

 

[generalshepherd141]

I think a good marketing team could foster a really strong NFL fanbase in Birmingham, and heck, even for an NBA team there. Birmingham does fit the mold of Utah/San Antonio/etc. where they'd be the only big game in town (ok, Utah has MLS but they're not on the US major sports league level yet).

The corporate dollars would be a major issue though. Perhaps an ownership group with plenty of connections would solve that issue. Someone mentioned Charles Barkley getting involved; I think he'd be a perfect Birmingham pro sports owner.

In short, yes, I think Birmingham could handle 1 major pro sports team if it's handled well. But it needs a lot of things to go its way.

 

[HisIceness]

The corporate dollars would be a major issue though. Perhaps an ownership group with plenty of connections would solve that issue. Someone mentioned Charles Barkley getting involved; I think he'd be a perfect Birmingham pro sports owner

For any shot at getting a franchise, that's how it would need to be. An NBA team w/ Barkley at the forefront of management/ownership w/ BBVA (again, already a corporate partner w/ the NBA) doing major backing for the franchise. Otherwise everything else is very likely off the table.

Currently the city's long-time coliseum is getting a major overhaul but I haven't seen anything that indicates it's being renovated for the possibility of long-term major league vacancy. It looks like it's going to be similar to the BOK Center in Tulsa.

 

[DaveG]

While I don't think they could support a pro franchise now, the Birmingham Bulls are definitely an interesting "what if" from the WHA merger. They were rather well supported aside from their lame duck final season in the league. While I think eventually they would have had to move for the same reason most teams have to (arena situation) since Birmingham likely would not have been in a financial situation to build a new state of the art arena in the 90s, I think the team would have ended up doing better at the box office its first few years than most anyone would expect.

 

[HisIceness]

I wonder if the current SPHL Bulls would be a franchise that the ECHL would be interested in "upgrading" in the future. You've got close-ish opponents in Atlanta and Greenville (SC), plus 3 franchises in Florida. Or if Atlanta ever upgrades to the AHL themselves (which I really wish would happen so the Checkers can finally have a close-ish opponent of their own), the ECHL Gladiators relocate to B-Ham.