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Saints/Hornets to leave city? How serious is this?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Blitz, Feb 10, 2009.

  1. writestuff1

    writestuff1 Member

    This negotiating scare comes up every few years with the Saints. It's the latest legalized NFL extortion ploy. New Orleans is making a strong push for the 2013 Super Bowl. The NFL said New Orleans won't get it until the Saints strike a new deal. Saints owner Tom Benson is ill and this looks like a way to tidy things up for the future. In a post-Katrina world, the Saints play before sellout crowds and the Hornets have surpassed an attendance goal that extends their deal. New Orleans sports fans have shown they can support both teams. It comes down to just how much money is enough for a bunch of greedy owners. I know some of you will think I'm crazy, but I think both teams will eventually renegotiate downward. As bad as the economy is nationally, what city is in a position to top the deals the Saints and Hornets already have? With Louisiana looking at billions in budget cuts, including severe ones to higher education and health care, I think even Benson and George Shinn realize now is not the time to seek a better deal. All of this boils down to what sort of mechanism can be created to generate more revenue without such a big subsidy from the state.
     
  2. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    And the Kansas City Scouts turn over in their grave.
     
  3. joe king

    joe king Active Member

    I'm one of them. I have long believed the Saints are the team most likely to wind up in LA, and I still believe it.

    As someone previously said, the LA team will be a move-in. As much as expansion might be worth, it isn't worth allowing a team to fold. And as for why the league needs a team in LA, the answer is one word: ego.
     
  4. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Almost all recycled markets:

    Seattle, of course -- I've heard some people say that Key Arena, as it currently stands, is probably as good or better than the New Orleans Arena. But the NBA will definitely be viewed with a jaundiced eye. No NBA owner (especially a franchise-hopscotcher like Shinn) is gonna get a sweetheart deal in Seattle for a few years.

    KC as mentioned above -- they obviously want SOME winter sport, whether it's the NBA or NHL.

    On the other end of Missouri, I'm surprised the NBA hasn't taken a run at St. Louis in the last 40 years, but any NBA team going in there would have to be a co-tenant of the NHL Blues.

    Las Vegas is perennially mentioned although Thomas and Mack is supposedly very marginal as an NBA-level arena. Once in a while you hear rumblings about groups trying to put a team back in Louisville, where a new arena is supposed to be ready in 2011. In both those cities, the NBA team would be a co-tenant with a college program which would have a vested interest in seeing the NBA team not become overwhelmingly successful.

    I think the US is approaching saturation with the NBA. At some point, they'll probably spring for Euro expansion - probably two or four teams.

    But all this goes down the chutes if the economic situation doesn't at least stabilize. If the economy really goes down the toilet, the question won't be who's moving -- it'll be who's surviving.
     
  5. Del_B_Vista

    Del_B_Vista Active Member

    Don't ever, ever underestimate Tom Benson's greed. And the Hornets won't leave New Orleans until George Shinn sells the team. I'd bet the NBA won't let him. He was the idiot that screwed up Charlotte and moved to a city everybody knew was a bad bet. They're not going to let him profit while messing things up again.
     
  6. CollegeJournalist

    CollegeJournalist Active Member

    I was wondering about Louisville. I'm not there anymore and really don't pay attention to much that goes on unless family calls me (which usually means it's weather related, especially lately).

    Louisville's new arena, from the pictures posted on the CBB thread, looks amazing. But I can't see any NBA team playing second-fiddle to a college team, and it always would in Louisville.

    Plus, I think Louisville has bigger issues than luring a team there right now. As you said, most cities probably do.
     
  7. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    I can see the Hornets leaving, but haven't the Saints sold out virtually every game since the Superdome reopened?
     
  8. Del_B_Vista

    Del_B_Vista Active Member

    Yes, but that doesn't mean they are making all the money Benson wants. There is very little big corporate money available in NOLA, which means you can't cash the real checks. Peons in the upper decks can only cough up so much.
     
  9. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    Congratulations. You just set an SportsJournalists.com record for the most frequent usage of the word "shit" in a single post of less than 400 words.

    You, sir, are now the official SportsJournalists.com shit king.
     
  10. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    I don't know that Louisville has the population or corporate money for an NBA team.

    Nashville is a possibility, especially if the Predators vacate. Las Vegas is intriguing, even though a lot of the money there is tourist money and the league probably wouldn't want sponsorships from the hotel-casinos, especially since the Tim Donaghy incident.

    Kansas City and St. Louis are possibilities. Don't know if Buffalo or Pittsburgh could support another pro team.

    Seattle is NOT building a new arena. Not for the NBA, not for the NHL, not for anyone anytime soon. If they wouldn't pony up the cash in 2006, do you really think they would consider it NOW?

    I'd like to see both the NBA and NHL back at no more than 24 teams, but that's probably a longshot in the near future.
     
  11. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    It's a longshot -- ever. For all the reasons in my post above.

    If any pro sports league contracted even ONE team, it would be in big trouble. If they chunked off half-a-dozen franchises, the league as we know it would be down the chutes within 10 years (probably faster). With long-term survival of franchises now in question, the leagues would immediately shift into fire-drill mode -- survival of the fittest. The rich get richer and everybody else can go fish.

    What you might be left with, in both basketball and hockey, would be a Superleague with maybe 8-10 teams. The TV networks would love it -- New York and LA can play every other week!!!!

    Everybody else would be playing Triple-A.
     
  12. zagoshe

    zagoshe Well-Known Member

    I'm just wondering -- if these two franchises leave the city, what would happen to all those championship banners and trophies?

    Oh wait a minute, never mind.......
     
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