OT: Would a NBA team succeed in Montreal?

[Mathradio]

Horrid management made both the Grizzlies and the Raptors suck, year in, year out... We need good management for a NBA team to work in Montreal.

 

[Et le But]

Canadian #1 overall pick!

 

[Power Man]

Canadian #1 overall pick!

aaaaaaaand ?

That will bring a team here ?

 

[Et le But]

aaaaaaaand ?

That will bring a team here ?

No, but it's interesting to see how many more Canadians are thriving in the NBA by the year. As always I expect Montreal to ignore the demographic shifts elsewhere though.

 

[Price My Man Crush]

RDS just talked about it for 15 seconds. They showed the selection and that's it. No highlights from him in college or high school. Feels bad man.

 

[Et le But]

Shame to see there's still so little interest in basketball in Quebec and even Montreal. I like hockey more but basketball is still third for me after that and soccer. It's exciting to see so much upcoming Canadian talent.

 

[Price My Man Crush]

You're right. There's this guy Andrew Wiggins, he's canadian too. He was named the nation's top high school player in the US.

 

[DaBadGuy7]

 

[Skip Bayless]

If they want to make the NBA team the #2 team in Québec, just take a look at what Saputo did in MLS and do the exact opposite.

Think huge, invest.

 

[StCaufield]

No

 

[CristianoRonaldo]

I may watch some NBA games, if it happens.

 

[Doublechin]

It won't

Players just don't wanna be in Canada, sadly

 

[JianYang]

Horrid management made both the Grizzlies and the Raptors suck, year in, year out... We need good management for a NBA team to work in Montreal.

The raptors had far better management than Vancouver. They aren't even in the same ballpark when it comes to management.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

It won't

Players just don't wanna be in Canada, sadly

They would probably have more anonymity here than most US cities, considering how important the Habs are and how much space they occupy. It's not hockey, the dynamic might work out differently.

 

[George Lebay]

Montreal would have two professional teams instead of just the Habs, so yes.

 

[the valiant effort]

As the NBA continues to cement itself as a truly global brand, more and more non-Americans are entering the elite end of the talent pool. Your average Euro knows a large Canadian city isn’t an Alaskan outpost.

 

[HabsCowboysOwn]

Basketball is a beautiful and highly entertaining sport and I'd love to have a NBA team in Montreal but I have a hard time believing people would care enough to make it work.

I know a lot of self-proclaimed ''sports fans'' who barely pay attention to anything outside the Habs, we don't have a strong sports culture like other big NA cities imo. I hope it'll change someday.

 

[skidcells]

Sadly I don’t think nba team can exist in Montreal. When younger I thought we were a great sports city but as I get older I realized we’re just a great hockey city. The expos, Montreal FC are prime examples of this. The city will not support those teams unless they are competitive. Reality is every team will need to go through a rebuild and that’s where the other none hockey related teams fold.

 

[the]

This city desperately needs a 2nd major league team. Either Baseball or Basketball, I don't care.

We need the exposure of another big league coming to town. Montréal feels like a 3rd rate city with just hockey being the talk of the town.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

This city desperately needs a 2nd major league team. Either Baseball or Basketball, I don't care.

We need the exposure of another big league coming to town. Montréal feels like a 3rd rate city with just hockey being the talk of the town.

Not just that, but if a NBA team becomes popular in Montreal, it will force the Habs to be more entertaining. No more safe bets to milk the cow.

 

[CTHabsfan]

This city desperately needs a 2nd major league team. Either Baseball or Basketball, I don't care.

We need the exposure of another big league coming to town. Montréal feels like a 3rd rate city with just hockey being the talk of the town.

Not sure why you'd think that. I can think of several cities with multiple major league teams that rank behind Montreal.

 

[Nico Cauzuki]

not really a basket ball fan but i would watch if we had a team

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

I could see it work quite well down the road, although certainly not gangbusters right away. It would take some time to educate the more casual sports fans on the game and the players, you'd need owners who are willing to be patient with it and don't need huge profits out of the gate to make it viable. It's a good time to try it in any case, basketball has been growing a lot in Canada in the past decade, there are more and more local players getting into the NBA. I'll admit Baseball does seem like a safer prospect though, but the costs of operating even a low budget team in the MLB would be much larger.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Any city that watches terrible CFL Football could support, and is obviously dying, for more sports franchises.,

 

[George Lebay]

Any city that watches terrible CFL Football could support, and is obviously dying, for more sports franchises.,

I would add terrible MLS soccer to that.