Just beating USASoccer to it.... Apparently part of the deal with Robert Johnson's new expansion NBA franchise in Charlotte is that he'll also own the Charlotte Sting of the WNBA. That's one WNBA team that won't be moving to Hartford, at least.
Poor Rob Johnson. I guess we will see if he is taking over a poisoned well. As a not much of an NBA follower, will they be expanding or moving an existing team there?
As long as he does not rape or sexually assualt anyone like George Shinn did, he should have a gold mine on his hand.
Are they building a brand new arena or doing an Oakland Arena type renovation to the Coliseum? Nice to see the attendance figures New Orleans is putting up also. I believe NO is average at best for attendance with a good new team and new arena. Memphis hasn't done much either, although they're horrible and there is a new arena on the way for them. But you'd still think the novelty factor would be there.
Umm, alleged rape. I think it would also be helpful if they don't load up the team with drunk and reckless drivers, guys who like to beat people up, stuff like that. And oh yeah, it'll be good if they don't trade every good player as soon as they are eligible to make some real money. Last spring, when the Hurricanes were on their Stanley Cup Final run, I read an article which said that the Canes' idea of public relations was to ask themselves what the Hornets would do in a given situation, then do the exact opposite. It was funny because of how much truth there is to it.
Re: I realize OJ was, as well... I believe so, but the case - at least as it read from the Charlotte Observer's perspective - left a really bad odor. Along the lines that Shinn did some really bad things, just nothing with enough evidence to convict him. Either way, he was caught behaving in a manor - even if legal - that was not conducive to someone who complained that the arena built for the team in 1989(?) was obsolete and needed to be replaced "or else." The fact is - the Charlotte Colisseum (1989 version, not the old Charlotte Colisseum, now known as Independance Arena, why couldn't they have picked a new name?) was obsolete less than week after it opened. I believe it opened with 12 luxury suites. The Palace at Auburn Hills opened a week later with 192. I got yer revenue generation right here, buddy!
Rats!!!! BEATEN AGAIN! And then there is this tidbit about Portland.... http://espn.go.com/wnba/news/2002/1212/1476032.html Article suggests that the Portland may join Orlando and Miami in the great big WNBA folded clubs in the sky! Rumor has a Seattle move to Hartford as a possiblilty, but if Portland folds, look for Seattle to also bit the dust, leaving the WNBA with 12 teams.
so is the nba going to give all expansion teams a wnba team? since they can't expand all the time, the next idea would be to give wnba teams to teams that want to move a we'll let you if you do this
Re: Re: I realize OJ was, as well... Actually, his whining was semi-justified. Charlotte built the Coliseum just to try to get the ACC tournament in Charlotte, with NCAA games and various one-offs from UNC as a bonus. Right after it was finished in the mid-80's, the luxury box trend exploded, and, like New Comiskey, it was obsolete almost as soon as it was finished. Shinn had a point. But Charlotte wasn't going to do s*** for a guy who plainly was NOT trying to win.
I doubt very seriously the NBA will expand again. I think 30 teams is about critical mass. Now the NBA has 30, the NHL has 30, MLB has 30, and the NFL has 32. That's it, that's the list. They're done expanding. And this was a different case----they had a team in Charlotte that was left without an owner when the NBA team moved. They basically made him take the WNBA team as a condition of getting the NBA team. That's a scenario that's unlikely to happen anywhere else. And who wants to move in the NBA now? Where's left to go? St.Louis?
That's what they said at 16. That's what they said at 24. A $300MM expansion fee is mighty tasty to the other 29 owners. The fact that two groups were willing to pony up the dough in one small market town tells us that we haven't quite run out of greater fools, yet. Yes, the Expos are a league owned team, but I expect that to change. The expense of baseball - and the unsuitability of its stadia for other events - is a limiting factor. Basketball and Hockey arenas can be used 300+ dates/year. Ironically - as European soccer looks to move away from promotion/relegation, I could see a two level NBA come into being. If they expand to 36 teams, you do away with East/West divisions and go Up/Down... There would be play between the divisions for ticketing/marketing reasons, but the lower 18 wouldn't be playing for the NBA Championship at the end. Just a thought. Expansion is a "never say never" thing. Then again, I thought the stock market would continue going up three years ago.... Maybe we are looking at contraction/correction in US team sports. It all comes down to just how many folks want to own teams.
Oh, please. Yeah, and the TV money and other revenues get divided up into smaller pieces when there's more partners. You think they want to do that? Well, there's want to and there's able to. That's what it comes down to.
Two points. 1. Any league wants to keep 2-3 good markets without teams, so that they can rape the taxpayers. So in order for there to be expansion (minus situations like the Browns moving to Baltimore or the Hornets moving to New Orleans, both of which were fine markets), it's not enough that there's a market or two out there that can support a team. 2. As a fan, it's already kind of weird to have so many teams. When I became a fan, MLB and the NFL had 24 teams, so it wasn't so hard to imagine your team moving up from the bottom. There weren't as many teams to vault. And the difference between the economic power of market #25 and market #1 is alot less than the difference for #36 and #1. There's got to be some point where fans are going to look at their team and say, you know, this team will never ever ever win the championship. They'll probably never come in 2nd. It's one thing when that team has a 100 year history like the Cubs. (And there's nothing besides s***** ownership that is really stopping the Cubs.) When it's a team with a 5 year history like the Devil Rays, that won't work. I've made this point before...pro/rel is a way to bring in expansion fees when you've tapped out all of the "A" markets. If baseball added 8 "B" teams in Brooklyn, NoVa, Winston-Salem, etc, and asked for a smaller franchise fee, that would probably work out better than adding two "A" teams at a time. With the fiscal disaster that is the last two new teams, the next "bigger fools" are going to be really, really, really big fools. And to bring it full circle, it would make more sense to try to rape the taxpayers of the Triad area for a modest, 20,000 seat baseball place, with the hope of making the "A" league, than to try to convince them that they can compete directly with the New York Yankees. It'll be easier to find owners at that lower level of risk. MLB could start a baseball channel as an outlet for all games. God knows Fox got killed with this year's Series. Doubt they've got a stiffie for the next contract.
I think it would be hilarious if sports other than soccer got pro/rel before soccer did in this country. Good point about always keeping leverage with an "open" city, though dave. But, doesn't it kind of have to be a viable city? And at some point, we will run out of viable cities? Keeping LA open is huge for any unhappy NFL team, but eventually, somebody's going to get there, don't you think? That leaves their spot open, but they don't get more attractive than LA. Sacramento and Orlando are the only Top 20 markets the NFL isn't in right now, and I wouldn't be so sure about them as viable options. It's like Justin telling Britney that if she doesn't start treating him better, he's going to go out with Erma Smedlap, a homely junior from Armwood High School in Sefner, Florida. Good luck. It's fairly obvious that without some sort of restructuring, there are 4-6 major league baseball teams that simply can't be viable under the current system. No one's going to leave a good situation, no one's going to believe you if you say you're going to move to Scranton, and, as they almost always do, the sheep taxpayers will pony up to keep a team right where they are, if they have any control over it. If you're curious, here are the latest TV market rankings, and you pretty much can't be taken too seriously if you start talking about anybody below #50 (Louisville) unless you have extenuating circumstances, like a Rochester.
Andy's To Do List for December 19th. - wind up Kenn Tomasch (done) - put in a day's work - pick up my allergy drugs - finish my christmas shopping Well at least I got the easy stuff out of the way.