Sacramento Kings moving franchise to the OC, CA.

Yeah, that's my point. When you are the first, much less only, professional team in a market, it's an enormous advantage. Fans want a team they can call their own. Makes it much easier to weather the down times, to say nothing of less competition for sponsorship and ticket dollars. The NBA saw this much sooner than the other leagues.

One major pro team markets:

Jacksonville, Fla: NFL

San Antonio: NBA

Salt Lake City: NBA

Portland: NBA

Oklahoma City: NBA

Ottawa: NHL

Raleigh, NC: NHL

Memphis: NBA

Orlando, Fla.: NBA

Columbus, Ohio: NHL (But also has MLS and huge state university)

Green Bay, Wis.: NFL (but seems to sort of share market with Milwaukee)

 

Every team has up and down cycles. This year even teams like the Detroit Red Wings (21 straight playoff seasons) and Los Angeles Lakers could end up missing the playoffs.

The point is it's naive to base your long-raise business plans around a faulty assumption that "we're always going to win". Winning helps, no doubt, especially when you're new. But, like Mizzou said, the real test is will fans and sponsors support you when the team is bad?

 

Do tell. I'm listening. I know they have a fabulous new arena.

 

The Islanders are having issues because they've sucked for the better part of a quarter century, they have crappy ownership, and they play in an ancient arena.

 

Burkle is out of proposed local ownership group and county still not on board with chipping in $600K per year for debt service on the arena.

Plenty of problems still not resolved. I'm guessing team will be Seattle next year.

 

Burkle will remain involved in developing the area. He has a part of a management firm whose clients include Amare Stoudemire and John Wall, and the NBA expressed concerns about possible conflicts of interest.

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/04/08/5325689/burkle-to-focus-on-building-arena.html

 

Isn't California the state where a bunch of cities are to follow Stockton and claim bankruptcy - and yet there they are, throwing money around to get NBA teams.

 

Got to help the job creators and promote civic pride.

 

You're forgetting that Raleigh also has three major universities in a 20-mile radius, including one in town.

 

I think the state of Nebraska as a whole, is the biggest untapped professional sports market in the country. Yeah, you're probably not going to be able to charge $1000 a ticket to sit courtside like they do in LA or NYC and maybe a couple other places, but I think they would pack the place for a NBA team.

 

Omaha seems like it's about 500,000 people away from being thought of as the least of legit markets. The metro population is 850,000. New Orleans, at 1.1 million, is the smallest NBA market.

 

I don't think that has to matter. Sacramento is a much smaller market than Golden State and I know for the majority of the time the Kings have been in Sacramento, they've destroyed the Warriors from an attendance standpoint. Even when both teams were terrible, the Warriors were always the easier ticket to get than Sacramento.

I think you put a team in Omaha and you'll be drawing fans from all over the state.