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Chicago and LA

Seattle and...a little contraction.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

at both of you guys.

I’m all for this.

It could mean Minnesota finally comes home to the East.

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Seattle and Louisville.

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

It'll be Seattle and Las Vegas, pushing Minnesota to the East.

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I always forget Vegas.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I may be wrong, but would New Orleans move to the east as well if there are 2 west teams added?

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Me too. I agree with CH.

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

Wouldn't Memphis move?

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

From what I remember, the Las Vegas business community was not particularly welcoming of the 2007 All-Star Game, but that's practically ancient history now and they might be so drunk on Golden Knights/Raiders attention that they think they can go from zero teams to four in a five-year span.

I don't know how the NBA broadcast maps shake out but the Jazz may have a bone to pick if a Vegas team cuts their broadcast territory down to just Utah and Idaho.

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West adds two to go to 17, Minneapolis goes east, 16 and 16


There's a case for Memphis, New Orleans, or Minnesota moving, but it would be most advantageous to get the T-Wolves in with Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit rather than Denver and Salt Lake City.

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I see thank you

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Truth be told, I don't think there are 32 viable NBA markets. If there are 30, it's just barely. Charlotte has never been able to recapture the magic, staying in New Orleans at the expense of Seattle was a big mistake, and Milwaukee was one draft pick and a Democratic governor away from the death sentence. If they don't keep getting mammoth TV money after the pandemic, I would worry about a few teams.

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Seattle and StLouis

The Blues control the master lease on their arena, they're not going to welcome a direct competitor. Same thing that keeps the NHL out of Houston and Salt Lake City and ran them out of Atlanta. Besides, St. Louis is old growth, it's not a place the hip-and-with-it NBA would expand to. That's like expanding to Pittsburgh or Cincinnati. They're only looking south and west.

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There is not going to be an NBA team in St Louis.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I am 100% positive that CH and I know way more about St Louis than you ever will.

So kindly go fuck yourself.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

It would be Rams Part Deux where no one outside like a 15-mile radius of the arena cares about them. Imagine some goober from West County being like "THEY DON'T EVEN CALL TRAVELIN'!" and shooting a deer in frustration. A deer if we're lucky.

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The Blues control their building, which is to say that the NBA team would not. Why would a team want to give up arena dates and revenue streams to a competitor, and why would the other team be satisfied with a tenancy where they get no concert, parking, or concession revenue?

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Leagues need contraction, not expansion. This is a terrible idea.

Mark Cuban said it would be a short term profit for the 30 owners but a long term loss so he thinks it may not happen.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

seattle and rosemont

NBA expansion is nuts because this is the league where if a team only drafts fourth overall they're like "welp fuck guess we'll have to lose 65 games for another year." The sport has grown exponentially in global popularity but fewer and fewer people seem to be any damn good at it. What kind of stiffs would stock these rosters?

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Yup. You can get rid of 2-4 teams in all major spots except for the NFL. And even then, the Jags and Chargers could GTFO and the NFL wouldn't miss a beat.

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Lions gotta go. You had 50 years to put a good team together and couldn't do it. Bye.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Chicago should have a second football and basketball team. New York and LA* gets them.

*-well, until they can get a better stadium deal from another place only to return after 20 years leaving that city with an empty stadium they are still paying off.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

poor CHUSE??

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You need a team like the Lions to make fans in places like Chicago feel better that at least we aren't that bad.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Considering that domestic expansion at this juncture is a pure cash grab, the owners should just open it up to the highest bidder from a list of qualifying cities. Do something like Bezos did with AMZ II: task the various cities with doing the work for you. Tell em to recruit prospective owners/ownership groups and present plans for current or to be built facilities and how much they are willing to pay for the franchise license.


The NBA has to be done with marginal rich guys, leveraged out the wazoo like Tilman Fertitta. They want the Balmers and the Ryan Smiths (new Jazz owner) and Robert Peras (Grizzlies owner who bought out his partners in the ownership group) and if there are any more Wal-Mart heirs with pocket change to spare (Nuggets owner).

The NBA's looking to charge $3 billion for the franchise fee and that money gets divided equally among the current owners (and $0.0 goes to the players). So each owner could be looking at a $160 mil windfall from a 2 team expansion. With the losses they are sustaining in the pandemic, it's gonna happen.


Cities with rich folks & no current NBA franchise:

Seattle
Vegas
San Diego
Kansas City
Austin
Columbus
Louisville
Nashville
Fresno (or any norcal city)
Omaha
Jacksonville
Richmond
Norfolk/Virginia Beach
Vancouver
Honolulu
Hartford
Tampa
Pittsburgh

Broke-ass cities that no one wants to visit, let alone get drafted to play for:

St Louis
Buffalo
Baltimore
Cincinnati


Frequent short-list mentions:

Seattle, Vegas, Kansas City (probably the best market for the NBA among the candidate cities, other than adding another LA/NY/Chicago/Bay Area franchise), Louisville, Nashville, Vancouver, California cities (from San Diego up through Anaheim to northern California and even the Bay area)

All of the super metropolises have fewer pro sports franchises than their market size can support (LA/NY/Bay Area). Chicago could readily support another NBA team (based on the math). So adding a team in Anaheim or Hartford makes economic sense. Even if it would suck.

Seattle's probably a done deal. a matter of what Amazon or Microsoft shareholder or rich foreigner wants to pony up.

Vegas getting smacked economically by the pandemic nonsense. Excessively hasty to stack another pro franchise in Vegas right now.

Nashville's likely out on an NBA franchise, as the rich folks of Nashville recently built a new MLS stadium and are po'd that MLB is trying to bring in competition. The Nashville Stars (name already picked?) thing is on hold due to Covid. Dombrowski's off to empty out the Phillies minor league system and maybe win his 3rd World Series. They've since swapped out Dombrowski for Hootie in the Nashville MLB expansion group.

Put another NBA franchise 90 minutes south of the Pacers in Louisville? Pacers already lose NW Indiana to the Bulls and NE Indiana to the Pistons. Gonna chop off the Indiana franchise's legs if Louisville gets an NBA team.

So besides Seattle:

Omaha.

Warren Buffett can afford the franchise fee with the loose change in his Cadillac's cup-holder. Play some pre-season games in KC and tap into that market as well. Most Omahans are Royals fans. So it works out.

Unless they wanna let the Chinese bottled water guy buy an interior, non-coastal franchise.