OT: Possibility that NBA Sacramento Kings could move to Las Vegas

[Blue Dragon]

Id have to think the fans in OC would stop going to Staples to go to Honda Center, I just dont see the Lakers or Clippers not demanding otherwise. Bad for their business

I can definitely see it cannibalising some of the Clippers fan base. I think the Lakers are way too ingrained in the LA consciousness as well as too perennially successful to have another team move in on their fan base.

 

[danishh]

I can definitely see it cannibalising some of the Clippers fan base. I think the Lakers are way too ingrained in the LA consciousness as well as too perennially successful to have another team move in on their fan base.

without actually having any intimite knowledge of the region, i'd have to agree. A 3rd team in the greater LA area would have to cannibalize the clippers, as the lakers fanbase is too established to attack.

I still havnt heard an LA poster suggest that 3 BB teams in LA could work though. While the population is there, the other two teams are very well established and i'd have to think it would be an uphill battle for a 3rd team.

 

[Mike in MN]

I'd think they would want to move Minnesota or something first?

WHY???

The owner doesn't want to sell.

Fans are returning now that McHale is finally gone and the rebuilding is showing good progress

We're the 14th or 15th largest metro area/media market in the country - much larger than New Orleans, Sacramento, Milwaukee, Memphis, etc

 

[HansH]

(Fresno, Long Beach and San Diego no longer have their ECHL teams. The last really needs a new arena, but the existing ones previously hosting ECHL franchises in the first two cities, could be suitable for an AHL team.)

If you're going to say that San Diego "really needs a new arena", then you have to say exactly the same thing for Long Beach. While that team did last one more season than the ECHL San Diego team, the arena is much worse -- too big for the ECHL, too small for anything major league, and the hockey sightlines are fairly horrid, especially from areas in the lower bowl (the bowl is circular, not oval, thus the upper bowl is tremendously far away from the ice at the sides). It may be "newer" than Selland Arena in Fresno (and larger), but Selland works well for hockey -- the Long Beach Arena never was a _good_ fit for hockey, which is unfortunate, given that the die-hard fans there were some of the best "road" fans I ever met when I was visiting arenas other than my home arena.

Plus, if you figure in the historical attendances of the two markets, comparing IHL attendance to IHL attendance and WCHL/ECHL attendance to WCHL/ECHL attendance, then San Diego is a much more attractive AHL market than Long Beach, IMO. Add into the equation that the existing (45-year old) arena in San Diego has its lease owned by none other than an AEG company, and you have it being much easier for the Kings to move an AHL franchise into the facility than it would be for any of the other theorized AHL franchises to move into Long Beach and/or Fresno.

Of course, I'm biased here, as a 16-year San Diego resident, and I admit that. But even putting that bias aside, you can't seriously say that San Diego "needs" an arena before they get an AHL team and let Fresno and Long Beach slide on that front.

 

[HansH]

Funny, with this and the rumor of the N.O. Hornets moving, it seems like the NBA doesn't have the same concerns about relocation hurting their image like a certain on-topic professional league we all know and have strong emotions about....

Did either Sacramento or New Orleans build a $500 million arena brand-new specifically for the NBA less than five years ago? No?

Apples and oranges.