The rumor that won't die: NBA in STL ?

[Compton]

22 hours ago, Duff Man said:

Well OKC stole the Sonics with Oil and Natural Gas Money so they're kind of an exception but they along with Memphis only have 1 pro team and it's the NBA. 

San Antonio has 5 NBA titles in the last 20 years, but the Spurs were rumored to be looking at STL in the 80s (that ship has long sailed though obviously).

Detroit has NBA 3 titles in the last 30 years and has supported an NBA team for 6 decades, and are the 13th largest media market in the US.

Sacramento should have lost their team, but they are actually 1 spot above STL on the media market ranking, and have 30+ years of tradition in that market.

Cleveland is also above STL in terms of media market and have a relatively healthy basketball tradition between the late 80s early 90s and the 2 LeBron eras.

Milwaukee has 50 years of tradition and have been compelling at some point in every decade but the 90s.

Of those cities, only Detroit has both NBA and NHL.

Also, aside from Detroit and perhaps Cleveland - none of those cities have faced the negative public perception from outside that St Louis currently has going.

St. Louis has more championships than 40% of today's NBA teams, has as many or more than 2/3 of current teams, and has been to more NBA finals than most current teams. Its also a larger media market than 9 current NBA teams. And (a misguided perception of) outside perception has never been a reason not to do something - particularly invest in the community. Also decades of tradition in other cities are not a reason to not move a team here. By that logic an NBA team will never move or expand to a new city again. 

You've done some solid defeatist cherry picking of stats there though. 

 

[Duff Man]

Just now, Compton said:

St. Louis has more championships than 40% of today's NBA teams, has as many or more than 2/3 of current teams, and has been to more NBA finals than most current teams. Its also a larger media market than 9 current NBA teams. And (a misguided perception of) outside perception has never been a reason not to do something - particularly invest in the community. Also decades of tradition in other cities are not a reason to not move a team here. By that logic an NBA team will never move or expand to a new city again. 

You've done some solid defeatist cherry picking of stats there though. 

 

Of the 9 markets below STL in the NBA -  5 have no other teams in the "big 4" leagues. None have the NHL or are represented in more than 2 of the big 4 as STL would be with an NBA team plus the Cardinals and Blues.

Counting titles is just a shorthand way to measure tradition and how recently a city has tasted championship glory. If you can at least remember your team going on a playoff run, you have reason to be somewhat invested in your franchise. Think of all the tradition that the Cardinals, Blues - even the Billikens have going for them - well all those other cites who have had NBA teams and won titles over the last 50 years are better suited to draw fans than St Louis. Those teams aren't going to abandon their proven fan bases to roll the dice on St Louis - which has no track record or tradition in the last 50 years (aside from the Spirits which didn't draw well) - not to mention the black eye the region as a whole has been nursing in recent years.

 

[thetorch]

None of the prestige, recent success, or titles matter at all.

The only thing that matters is having good facilities and a good ownership group.  There are several teams in the league who remain consistently uncompetitive and don't make money for the rest of the league because of poor owners.  Any of these teams, Memphis, Minnesota, Pheonix, Sacremento, Atlanta will be up for grabs someday.