BKIslandersFan
F*** off
Paul George just re-signed with OKC. I don't think this is true at all.
OT: What other Canadian cities could support NBA teams?
- Thread starter MMC
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Centrum Hockey
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- Aug 2, 2018
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MMC
Global Moderator
Name me all the big FA's that signed with the Lakers, Clippers, Knicks, or Nets this decade other than LeBron James.
I'm sure if I trawled the rosters over the years I could find more, but for the Lakers at the very least there was Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Luol Deng.
MMC
Global Moderator
Nash and Howard were traded for (with Howard immediately leaving in FA) and Deng only signed because we gave him an outrageous contract
Well, sure: that's how the world works. You offer me an outrageous contract, I'll come work for you.
Fair enough, I wasn't remembering Howard's contract situation correctly (I'm admittedly not a basketball fan). Nash though was a "sign-and-trade" deal: he signed the deal with Phoenix but the intent was always to go to L.A.
Ultimately I think the answer to this question—"What other Canadian cities could support NBA teams?"—is less relevant than which ones would. Montreal and Vancouver have the requisite population base, and you could maybe even argue Calgary, Ottawa and Edmonton do too. In that respect Montreal and Vancouver could support NBA teams. Would Vancouver and Montreal support NBA teams? I'm very skeptical, Montreal out of sheer apathy and Vancouver having both apathy and still harbouring a little "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me" resentment with respect to the Grizzlies.
(Calgary I can tell you right now, even if there was the requisite population base and corporate dollars, would still be far, far down the totem pole due to apathy.)
(Calgary I can tell you right now, even if there was the requisite population base and corporate dollars, would still be far, far down the totem pole due to apathy.)
Tom ServoMST3K
In search of a Steinbach Hero
Honestly, if Winnipeg didn't have an NHL team, they'd be an interesting potential market for more sports. At least a G-league team.
Wolf357
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- Jul 16, 2011
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Winnipeg’s Sports Entertainment dollar is pretty stretched.. NHL, AHL,WHL, and CFL along with a Canadian soccer league team. All have different fans for the most part...but another even minor league team could be a stretch. That being said there is a very strong basketball fan base in Winnipeg... enough to support even a B level league...not sure... With Hockey and CFL you get fans from all over southern Manitoba.. with Basketball it would almost exclusively be Metro Winnipeg
HisIceness
This is Hurricanes Hockey
Vancouver, and that's probably it. I suppose in theory Montreal could as well but I would think the NBA would rather go back to Vancouver if given the chance, would give Western Canada a team to root for.
Isn't most of southern Manitoba's population IN metro Winnipeg???
Tom ServoMST3K
In search of a Steinbach Hero
In this fake senario there's an AHL team, and the summer teams. I'm thinking back to pre-2011.
Funny part is there so scuttlebutt that the Grizzlies could leave Memphis. A return to Vancouver would be ironic.
(So I would assume somewhere there's a Basketball Future site, where Vancouver people badmouth Memphis, accusing them of disrespecting their history and saying how they never deserved an NBA team to begin with?
)
BKIslandersFan
F*** off
Zegras Zebra
Registered User
I imagine Vancouver is the city that would most likely be able to support an NBA team assuming they had a good ownership situation. Its population large and wealthy enough to support it, and probably would get a lot of interest from the Asian community which generally enjoys basketball compared to the other major North American sports. Also in recent years many college stars and a few NBA players have come from BC, likely as response to a generation that remembers the Grizzlies and inspired them to play the game. Montreal has the population, but I am not sure there would be enough interest in the NBA. It seems more like a baseball town, and is most likely the MLB's highest priority (I could be wrong though) for expansion/ relocation. Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, etc. are too small to support an NBA franchise on top of their NHL and CFL franchises, and even if they were large enough, would there be enough interest? I doubt it.
When considering a city's demographics, you need to consider their wealth on top of their historical taste in sports. An example would be that Winnipeg has a large Filipino community which is basketball crazy, but most of them don't make enough money to be able to afford season tickets, or go to more than a couple of games a year to a major North American sports league. So a city can be very large, and multi-culturally diverse, but if their income is not high enough a pro sports franchise will still fail, even if the population is very interested.
Overall I think the NBA would be looking at Seattle before any Canadian city for NBA expansion/ relocation.
When considering a city's demographics, you need to consider their wealth on top of their historical taste in sports. An example would be that Winnipeg has a large Filipino community which is basketball crazy, but most of them don't make enough money to be able to afford season tickets, or go to more than a couple of games a year to a major North American sports league. So a city can be very large, and multi-culturally diverse, but if their income is not high enough a pro sports franchise will still fail, even if the population is very interested.
Overall I think the NBA would be looking at Seattle before any Canadian city for NBA expansion/ relocation.
Nah, Chargers. Who did play in LA originally. Rams actually had some history in LA when they left.
Burke the Legend
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- Feb 22, 2012
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Theoretically Montreal & Vancouver should. Can't speak for Vancouver but I kind of doubt anyone in Montreal is going to spend $2 billion CAD on that gamble. NBA would be taking a big gamble too because it would be a leech on their US TV pie unless there's a huge local following higher than the average US TV audience (because Canadian viewers wouldn't be worth as much). I mean it's possible the population base is there with greater Montreal at 4 million, Quebec at 8.5 million, but it would be a totally untested product competing against a super popular NHL team, MLS, and soon MLB.
Nba is not as gate driven, which is why the Celtics and 76ers can do more than fine being tenants to the Nhl owners of the arena.
But still everything has to go very well tonhave sustained in court success which leads to fans constantly showing up to buy tickets.
NBA draft seems so hit and miss. Can’t ever guarantee that if you have a couple top 5 pick Over a 3-4 year span that you can secure a pair of foundational players that you can build around and then go secure in free agency another core piece.
Bixby Snyder
IBTFAD
It's refreshing to see how reasonable Canadians are when it comes to which of their cities are legit major league markets as it pertains to other leagues, now if only we could carry that over to the NHL.
Quebec group taking shot at NBA expansion team for Montreal
Group targets NBA expansion team for Montreal
the NBA should let the Grizzlies move back to Vancouver and then expand to Seattle and somewhere in the east (Columbus? Tampa? Louisville? Hampton Roads?). That would maintain their position as the sport of the future... having 7 teams on the West Coast, three teams in Texas, and three in the Mountain West whereas the other leagues have 5-2-2 (NFL), 6-2-2 (MLB), and 5-1-3 (NHL) respectively in the fastest growing region of the continent.
FrankMTL
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- Jan 6, 2005
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Montreal has the population (over 4 million) and the Business community to support another professional sports team. It's either MLB or NBA, not both. I would think that Baseball has a bigger following with the history and everything, but i'm curious if that's also the case with the younger population. Baseball still seems to be much more popular than basketball at the grass roots level in the Montreal area, but that's purely an opinion and not fact based.
LeHab
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- Aug 31, 2005
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Most recent NBA commissionnaire interview on a possible expansion in Canada didn't even had Montreal mentioned. It is Toronto for East and possibly Vancouver for West.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/national-adam-silver-nba-commissioner-interview-1.5125897
Very very unlikely NBA would consider Montreal anytime soon.
