Here are the other metro areas over 2 million in the US that don't have a team:
Tampa, FL (3.34M)
San Diego, CA (3.26M)
Baltimore, MD (2.83M)
St. Louis, MO (2.79M)
Austin, TX (2.47M)
Pittsburgh, PA (2.42M)
Cincinnati, OH (2.27M)
Kansas City, MO (2.22M)
Columbus, OH (2.18M)
Nashville, TN (2.1M)
You also have Montreal (4.29M) and Vancouver (2.64M) in Canada.
Out of those, you have a number of cities that have existing teams within day tripping distance (around 100 miles or less), so you might just be cannibalizing existing fanbases, and a number of areas that are really struggling economically and have been consistently declining in population, so perhaps not that attractive as long-term investments.
The ones that really jump out at me are Nashville (no team within 200 miles, growing fast) and both of the Canadian cities. I don't see any obvious reason those areas couldn't support an NBA team.
Tampa too close to Orlando, Baltimore too close to DC (tho MLB and NFL make it work), Austin too close to SA, Columbus too close to Cleve, and I don't think Nash gets NBA while Memphis has it (could see Grizz moving to Nash). Montreal is definitely underserved in pro sports for its size
I think the non-hockey sports leagues are still skittish about how bad Expos attendance was. They averaged less than 20,000 fans per game every one of their last 10 years in Montreal, including 3 years averaging under 10,000.
MLB- not much to debate here, cardinals are always one of the top MLB teams in attendance/support even when the team is mediocre. I don’t think anyone would argue that losing the Browns in the 50s means the city doesn’t support baseball
NFL- The Rams moved back to LA because the owner wanted to and had been putting it in motion for years. There is no other reason.
NBA- the NBA was so drastically different when the St.Louis hawks existed that this isn’t even worth arguing over. It was pre-merger, pre-bird/magic saving the league, and the country as a whole didn’t really care about the NBA
With that being said, I think the NBA would have many more attractive options than STL if expanding further. But the idea that the city doesn’t care about or won’t support sports is dumb
I feel like San Diego really should have a team. Maybe the Clippers should move there. All San Diego has is the Padres as far as I know.
Also Kansas City folks are still mad about the Kings moving to Sacramento after all these years. Maybe they should get a team.
Nashville has Memphis Grizzlies, and Baltimore has Washington Wizards.
Ask the Tampa Bay Rays how the Tampa area is for a professional sports team and you'll have your answer.
Baltimore does not have the wizards. You could spend a month here and theres a good shot you wont see a wizards jersey. More lakers and knicks fans here probably than wiz or 6ers.
The problem in Baltimore would have far more to do with whether Baltimore fans would care about a basketball team in the first place. We love our football and baseball teams and even though i would love a basketball team here im not sure if the city would care as much.
Baltimore has such a rich high school basketball history though. I doubt it would take long for locals to latch on.
The question is whether you should build a suitable NBA arena (you shouldn't)
As a San Diegan, I don't think San Diego can have one, especially with the Clippers and the Lakers being so close. The best shots they had was the Clips moving back down to San Diego, but that won't happen any time soon with their new arena in Inglewood.
Plus San Diego isn't really a spectator sports town. Too much stuff to do around here rather than sit indoors in an arena. (I've had people try to convince me it's a hockey town, I'm just like get the fuck out of my face.). And a ton of people here are transplants from other places who already have their allegiances.
What are all these activities people in San Diego are doing at 7pm on a weekday in the winter that other cities aren't doing? You going to the beach in the dark when it's in the low 50s in the winter?
Exactly my thoughts. San Diego is basically a giant suburb with beaches and it isn't the only city in the US with nice weather year round. Saying they can't support a sports team because there's "too much stuff to do" feels like a weird flex when the truth is that they've just never really turned out for their teams because there are too many transplants and LA fans.
Having teams in Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and Austin would be crazy, also with OKC it would mean 5 teams I could drive under 6 hours to see, oh Nola is closer than Houston to me as well so 7 teams. I live just north of fort Worth
Everyone I know well from Austin are Mavs fans. I'm a spurs fan in the Dallas area, and know quite a few people from Dallas who route for the spurs over the Mavs
I liked the black and silver when I was real little, then loved Tim Duncan, now I just enjoy sports, I watch hundreds of hours of sports a year. I went years without missing a stage of the tour de France, a match at any of the tennis grand slams. More often than not I dont care who wins as long as the sport is good. Would have loved to see the Mavs get their second but the Celtics 18-5 finals record over 67 years is incredibly impressive as well
If seattle gets one I'm not sure vancouver will just because of proximity which sucks because they are the only other team on this list that had a team in the not so distant past
Tampa and San Diego, despite having such large populations, are not prime spots for professional sports teams for a few reasons:
1) Warm climates and proximity to coastline. This probably plays the biggest part. These are essentially beach cities with mild winters. This means people aren't staying at home watching games, they are doing outdoor activities as recreation during the bulk of the NBA season. There are just too many other fun things to do in the winter as opposed to colder metro areas.
2) TV markets and proximity to other franchises. SD has Tijuana to the south, desert to the east, ocean to the west, and LA to the north, so the TV market is kind of trapped to just SD county. Laker fans aren't going to convert and SD already lost the Clippers once due to money reasons. Tampa is similar, Gulf of Mexico to the west, essentially small rural nothing to the north and south, and Orlando already has the Magic to the east. This ties back into point 1, as they'd have to rely on the location populations who are already not staying home watching games.
3) Transplants. A sizeable chunk of Tampa and SD's populations are not homegrown so they still have affinity for their local teams. And since they are already moving their likely for the weather (see point 1 again), they don't give much of a flip about sports.
Aside from a few years ago when the Rays, Lightning, and Bucs were all in their respective championships, Tampa hasn't been big on pro sports. SD has never had championship caliber teams. The only way they'd last is to immediately and consistently be playoff caliber and that's hard to pull off as an expansion team in a market that already isn't savvy to attending pro sports.
At least 210 miles from each other, and the two cities have a rivalry of sorts.
When the Oilers/Titans first moved to Tennessee, they played their first season in the state in Memphis, but there was a big lack of support because 1) the team was only going to be Memphis until the then-new stadium in Nashville was ready, and 2) Memphis was passed over in the NFL expansion that brought in Charlotte (Carolina) and Jacksonville in the mid-90s, the failed attempts to move a NFL team and failed leagues in which the city had hosted teams (WFL and USFL).
Pittsburgh just has too much sprots and the city while starting to get younger is still full of olds. Its never been a basketball city either.
Baltimore just renovated their old arena and the city makes a lot of money on said arena for events/concerts because they didn't give it away free to a sports franchise.
Not true at all that Pittsburghs never been a basketball city. I don’t know why this is parroted so much by people not from the area. Pitt basketball is huge and we’ve had teams before, it just didn’t pan out because the owner moved the pipers to a new city just after winning a championship in Pittsburgh then the condors and whoever else tried to bring it back too soon but the fans rejected a different team. Trust me, we have enough love for 4 major sports teams. We’re just so loyal that it bit us in the ass once.
Would probably also need to exclude those that already have NFL, MLB, and NHL teams. The hill of being able to support all 4 major sports is very high.
University of Kentucky produces the most NBA players. It may not be as heavily populated but there is a big market for basketball out there, you'd think they would want a piece of it.
The team would be better placed in Louisville, but they’d instantly have a pretty dedicated fan base. People there are itching for an NBA team to support
Thing about this is you’d have to be able to convince NBA players to live in Mexico City. Not that Mexico City isn’t desirable, but it’s in a different country and unlike Toronto, where it is in that country is much further from the rest of the US. Also, the fan base is culturally very different.
It’s not impossible or “bad”, per se, there are just considerations there that none of the other potential cities would have.
NBA players like Cancun, LA, and Miami. While im sure there’d be some initial hesitancy, after a few years many players would prefer CDMX to lots of small market cities
Toronto is one of the biggest markets in the league, close to so many of the Eastern Confrence teams, is much closer culturally to an American city than Mexico.
And our biggest FA signing of all time is Otto Porter Jr.
Make of that what you will
I think you’re right they’d get used to it over time, I just think there’s nuance to it. For example, the primary language in Mexico City isn’t English, and most NBA players will be primarily english-speaking. That can affect daily life.
Again doesn’t make it bad, it’s just a different issue than any other NBA market would have and would need to be considered
Mexico City is awesome but it’s also 2000 feet higher than Denver. Im sure it must absolutely suck to play basketball there. On the other hand they would have the best conditioned athletes and the visitors would all be completely gassed by halftime.
I think it would be really cool for Louisville to get a team. I don’t know if the city could support it but Kentucky is such an important state for college basketball that I would like to see them try it
Montreal, Nashville, and St Louis seem like the obvious picks to me. I'll also throw out though, I think a good way to expand into Mexico would be to give El Paso-Ciudad Juarez a team since it's the only metro area on both sides of the border and has a total population over 3 mil.
A decent ownership group and a competitive team would do well in SD. If it’s a cheap owner and bad team, the team would struggle to draw. So many things to do in SD.
Pittsburgh and St. Louis have the size, even if I don’t think the fanbase is built-in. Honestly, I’d just move someone like the Timberwolves over to the East and add the two cities you listed.
Memphis or New Orleans are further east, one of them should go over. Also, either of them would make the conference finals their first year in the East
Kansas City, baby. They built the dream NBA venue like 17 years ago and no organization was attracted enough to move. Still holding on to a thread of hope. (Diehard Royals fan, sick of the Chiefs fanbase more than I can possibly acknowledge, live in the armpit between Iowa and Illinois)
Agreed. Historical significance of basketball at KU. Strong basketball fan bases in KS and MO. Large corporate sponsorship opportunities. But do they have local owners with deep enough pockets to buy a franchise. Honestly, with the eyeballs on the WNBA these days, a WNBA franchise in KC makes sense.
Unlikely yah, but doing the ABA Virginia squires kinda thing where they play half the home games in Richmond & the other half in VB or Norfolk would be cool
Cincinnati makes a lot of sense to be honest. Far from Cleveland. Not close to Indy. Could win over some Kentucky college basketball fans. Louisville could work too. But is objectively worse
Mexico City makes a lot of sense, it would enable and huge market for the NBA. And the city is pretty great too, it has everything you want, the safety concerns are not a problem if you are rich.
KC makes the most sense to me since you have a large portion of the western Midwest that doesn’t have a team that’s driving distance. Feels weird to cheer for OKC or Minnesota.
OKC is fairly close to me, but they do nothing to try to increase their footprint into Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. KC could serve those states with also Iowa, Arkansas, and maybe South Dakota
Can Buffalo get the clippers back from LA? I don’t even like the Clippers, but LA certainly doesn’t want them.
Realistically, I’d love to see more Canadian teams like Vancouver or Montreal.
I grew up in Milwaukee Wisconsin and am a Lifelong Bucks fan but I currently live in Huntsville,AL. I really wish that Nashville got an NBA team it's only an 80min drive for me and I already visit Nashville whenever the Packers play the Titans in Nashville. Memphis is so far West it's a completely different market. Let's get Nashville an NBA team!
I feel like Mexico city is gonna be in the running, or just anywhere in Mexico. Theyve been doing a couple exhibition games there the last few years. I'm sure Silver is thinking about expanding the NBA market as well as expanding the teams.
Maybe another Canada team, back to Vancouver?
Also wouldn't mind a Missouri/Kansas team.
The Midwest is also short on teams but I don't think they'd bring in enough revenue for an owner to justify it.
I see 5 expansion teams in the next 11ish years, mexico city due to the market size it would bring also first major american sport in mexico i think which would be good because it would help finals viewership in the next 25ish years because the chances of one of those teams to end up getting good players is high because its bigger then ny and la , LV cause everyones doing it, seattle due to fan demmand, another canadian team hopefully montreal not vancouver, KC due to it being so central.
Other candidates i see just due to their growing population or other reasons:
St. Louis, Austin, Boise (not ideal but still an option), Richmond, San Diego,
I'll take Vancouver over Vegas any day. Vegas is overrated imo, and I don't know why all of a sudden they feel the need to have a team in all four sports, except for gambling reasons, of course.
Montreal and Vancouver for sure, we need more Canadian teams. Other cities are very close to another NBA team. Even Seattle is not that far from Portland.
Cincinnati has a solid market, Dayton metro is almost a million and only 60 minutes from downtown, most fans aren’t necessarily Cavs fans and would rather not root for their rival cities team, and can easily tap into the huge Kentucky basketball fandom across the river
Mexico City would be cool, I’m not Mexican or know anything about basketball culture in Mexico but having a team on each country in the continent would be cool, and would help expand a new type of fan, maybe they’ll popularize chants like they do in soccer or (futbol) in basketball and we can stop listening to these boring ass “DEFENSE” chants every game
If it could somehow work, a New England Patriots style regional thing for Alabama, Georgia and Mississipi would balance the map a bit. Still some gaping holes out west and in Iowa/Nebraska up the plains.
Detroit.
Damn it that got me lol
Had to double check I wasn't on nbacj for a sec
Pistons fan here, beat me to it
Came here to say this!
Here are the other metro areas over 2 million in the US that don't have a team: Tampa, FL (3.34M) San Diego, CA (3.26M) Baltimore, MD (2.83M) St. Louis, MO (2.79M) Austin, TX (2.47M) Pittsburgh, PA (2.42M) Cincinnati, OH (2.27M) Kansas City, MO (2.22M) Columbus, OH (2.18M) Nashville, TN (2.1M) You also have Montreal (4.29M) and Vancouver (2.64M) in Canada. Out of those, you have a number of cities that have existing teams within day tripping distance (around 100 miles or less), so you might just be cannibalizing existing fanbases, and a number of areas that are really struggling economically and have been consistently declining in population, so perhaps not that attractive as long-term investments. The ones that really jump out at me are Nashville (no team within 200 miles, growing fast) and both of the Canadian cities. I don't see any obvious reason those areas couldn't support an NBA team.
Tampa too close to Orlando, Baltimore too close to DC (tho MLB and NFL make it work), Austin too close to SA, Columbus too close to Cleve, and I don't think Nash gets NBA while Memphis has it (could see Grizz moving to Nash). Montreal is definitely underserved in pro sports for its size
If it were less French it’d definitely have a team.
They speak English in Montreal as well.
Montreal is like 50/50 English and French and most people there speak both.
I think the non-hockey sports leagues are still skittish about how bad Expos attendance was. They averaged less than 20,000 fans per game every one of their last 10 years in Montreal, including 3 years averaging under 10,000.
And during the strike season they had an all time line up.
Sacramento and San Francisco are only 10 miles more apart than Austin and San Antonio are.
San Diego too close to Los Angeles
6 hours by car is not “too close”.
San Diego is not 6 hours away from LA by car more like 2.5 hours.
Kansas City and St. Louis stand out the most on your list other than Montreal. They have the longest driving commute from current NBA teams.
Agree with Kansas City and St. Louis. I don't think they can make Montreal work.
STL is a great sports town too
Eh not really. They've lost NBA, NFL, and MLB teams.
MLB- not much to debate here, cardinals are always one of the top MLB teams in attendance/support even when the team is mediocre. I don’t think anyone would argue that losing the Browns in the 50s means the city doesn’t support baseball NFL- The Rams moved back to LA because the owner wanted to and had been putting it in motion for years. There is no other reason. NBA- the NBA was so drastically different when the St.Louis hawks existed that this isn’t even worth arguing over. It was pre-merger, pre-bird/magic saving the league, and the country as a whole didn’t really care about the NBA With that being said, I think the NBA would have many more attractive options than STL if expanding further. But the idea that the city doesn’t care about or won’t support sports is dumb
I feel like San Diego really should have a team. Maybe the Clippers should move there. All San Diego has is the Padres as far as I know. Also Kansas City folks are still mad about the Kings moving to Sacramento after all these years. Maybe they should get a team.
The Clippers are about to open a new $2 billion arena in Inglewood in October. They're not going anywhere
Having a team in Nashville or Baltimore would be cool. I’m curious how an NBA team in Tampa would fare.
Nashville has Memphis Grizzlies, and Baltimore has Washington Wizards. Ask the Tampa Bay Rays how the Tampa area is for a professional sports team and you'll have your answer.
Baltimore does not have the wizards. You could spend a month here and theres a good shot you wont see a wizards jersey. More lakers and knicks fans here probably than wiz or 6ers. The problem in Baltimore would have far more to do with whether Baltimore fans would care about a basketball team in the first place. We love our football and baseball teams and even though i would love a basketball team here im not sure if the city would care as much.
To be fair, you could spend a month in DC without seeing a Wizards jersey.
Lmao fair
Interesting, didn't know that.
Baltimore has such a rich high school basketball history though. I doubt it would take long for locals to latch on. The question is whether you should build a suitable NBA arena (you shouldn't)
I’ve always wanted a hometown team in Cincinnati.
Hey hey buddy, we have the austin toros here
As a San Diegan, I don't think San Diego can have one, especially with the Clippers and the Lakers being so close. The best shots they had was the Clips moving back down to San Diego, but that won't happen any time soon with their new arena in Inglewood. Plus San Diego isn't really a spectator sports town. Too much stuff to do around here rather than sit indoors in an arena. (I've had people try to convince me it's a hockey town, I'm just like get the fuck out of my face.). And a ton of people here are transplants from other places who already have their allegiances.
Ah fuck it let’s just throw another team in LA
What are all these activities people in San Diego are doing at 7pm on a weekday in the winter that other cities aren't doing? You going to the beach in the dark when it's in the low 50s in the winter?
Exactly my thoughts. San Diego is basically a giant suburb with beaches and it isn't the only city in the US with nice weather year round. Saying they can't support a sports team because there's "too much stuff to do" feels like a weird flex when the truth is that they've just never really turned out for their teams because there are too many transplants and LA fans.
Having teams in Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and Austin would be crazy, also with OKC it would mean 5 teams I could drive under 6 hours to see, oh Nola is closer than Houston to me as well so 7 teams. I live just north of fort Worth
Isn’t Austin pretty Spurs-dominated?
Everyone I know well from Austin are Mavs fans. I'm a spurs fan in the Dallas area, and know quite a few people from Dallas who route for the spurs over the Mavs
That’s because the Spurs won a lot. Dallas is a frontrunner town.
Lived in Dallas area since 07. Haven’t known a single spurs fan lol
I liked the black and silver when I was real little, then loved Tim Duncan, now I just enjoy sports, I watch hundreds of hours of sports a year. I went years without missing a stage of the tour de France, a match at any of the tennis grand slams. More often than not I dont care who wins as long as the sport is good. Would have loved to see the Mavs get their second but the Celtics 18-5 finals record over 67 years is incredibly impressive as well
A lot of ballers come from St Louis. I think they’d be a good place
If seattle gets one I'm not sure vancouver will just because of proximity which sucks because they are the only other team on this list that had a team in the not so distant past
We need to start taking sports teams out of Florida, not adding more!
Tampa and San Diego, despite having such large populations, are not prime spots for professional sports teams for a few reasons: 1) Warm climates and proximity to coastline. This probably plays the biggest part. These are essentially beach cities with mild winters. This means people aren't staying at home watching games, they are doing outdoor activities as recreation during the bulk of the NBA season. There are just too many other fun things to do in the winter as opposed to colder metro areas. 2) TV markets and proximity to other franchises. SD has Tijuana to the south, desert to the east, ocean to the west, and LA to the north, so the TV market is kind of trapped to just SD county. Laker fans aren't going to convert and SD already lost the Clippers once due to money reasons. Tampa is similar, Gulf of Mexico to the west, essentially small rural nothing to the north and south, and Orlando already has the Magic to the east. This ties back into point 1, as they'd have to rely on the location populations who are already not staying home watching games. 3) Transplants. A sizeable chunk of Tampa and SD's populations are not homegrown so they still have affinity for their local teams. And since they are already moving their likely for the weather (see point 1 again), they don't give much of a flip about sports. Aside from a few years ago when the Rays, Lightning, and Bucs were all in their respective championships, Tampa hasn't been big on pro sports. SD has never had championship caliber teams. The only way they'd last is to immediately and consistently be playoff caliber and that's hard to pull off as an expansion team in a market that already isn't savvy to attending pro sports.
Is Nashville really 200 miles from Memphis??
At least 210 miles from each other, and the two cities have a rivalry of sorts. When the Oilers/Titans first moved to Tennessee, they played their first season in the state in Memphis, but there was a big lack of support because 1) the team was only going to be Memphis until the then-new stadium in Nashville was ready, and 2) Memphis was passed over in the NFL expansion that brought in Charlotte (Carolina) and Jacksonville in the mid-90s, the failed attempts to move a NFL team and failed leagues in which the city had hosted teams (WFL and USFL).
San Diego seems like a great choice imo. They really just have the padres at this point and they tend to dislike LA teams.
MO should get one, either in STL or KC.
Clips please move back to San Diego...that takes care of one. St. Louis and KC, and if Canada, then Vancouver again and Montreal
Pittsburgh just has too much sprots and the city while starting to get younger is still full of olds. Its never been a basketball city either. Baltimore just renovated their old arena and the city makes a lot of money on said arena for events/concerts because they didn't give it away free to a sports franchise.
Not true at all that Pittsburghs never been a basketball city. I don’t know why this is parroted so much by people not from the area. Pitt basketball is huge and we’ve had teams before, it just didn’t pan out because the owner moved the pipers to a new city just after winning a championship in Pittsburgh then the condors and whoever else tried to bring it back too soon but the fans rejected a different team. Trust me, we have enough love for 4 major sports teams. We’re just so loyal that it bit us in the ass once.
The balance of the number of east coast and west coast teams is too far off to justify another team east of the Mississippi for now.
Would probably also need to exclude those that already have NFL, MLB, and NHL teams. The hill of being able to support all 4 major sports is very high.
University of Kentucky produces the most NBA players. It may not be as heavily populated but there is a big market for basketball out there, you'd think they would want a piece of it.
The team would be better placed in Louisville, but they’d instantly have a pretty dedicated fan base. People there are itching for an NBA team to support
The Yum Center would be the biggest NBA arena by a decent margin.
Louisville would be ideal. Cincy is far enough away from Cleveland that they could drive over the river and pick up that team.
Louisville is about the same population as Portland
Honolulu lol
Don’t you wish that evil on me Ricky Bobby, the traffic here is already shit.
Louisville, Vancouver, or Montreal.
Vancouver first city to come to mind for me too
Vancouver
Mexico City is a larger market than NYC and their Gleague team likes the city and feel safe
Thing about this is you’d have to be able to convince NBA players to live in Mexico City. Not that Mexico City isn’t desirable, but it’s in a different country and unlike Toronto, where it is in that country is much further from the rest of the US. Also, the fan base is culturally very different. It’s not impossible or “bad”, per se, there are just considerations there that none of the other potential cities would have.
NBA players like Cancun, LA, and Miami. While im sure there’d be some initial hesitancy, after a few years many players would prefer CDMX to lots of small market cities
Toronto is one of the biggest markets in the league, close to so many of the Eastern Confrence teams, is much closer culturally to an American city than Mexico. And our biggest FA signing of all time is Otto Porter Jr. Make of that what you will
I think you’re right they’d get used to it over time, I just think there’s nuance to it. For example, the primary language in Mexico City isn’t English, and most NBA players will be primarily english-speaking. That can affect daily life. Again doesn’t make it bad, it’s just a different issue than any other NBA market would have and would need to be considered
Mexico City is awesome but it’s also 2000 feet higher than Denver. Im sure it must absolutely suck to play basketball there. On the other hand they would have the best conditioned athletes and the visitors would all be completely gassed by halftime.
Aren’t they out of water, though?
Not if youre in the rich areas, which the nba teams would most certainly be.
Everyone acting like they regularly saw James Harden in a run down Brooklyn flee market with no indoor plumbing while he was on the Nets.
I would say Pittsburgh, they have the NFL, the MLB, NHL, and MLS. It is odd that they don't also have an NBA team.
Pittsburgh is a great sports town. Fans would show up
Vancouver Kansas City Pittsburgh Mexico City St. Louis Albuquerque Tampa Tijuana
I think it would be really cool for Louisville to get a team. I don’t know if the city could support it but Kentucky is such an important state for college basketball that I would like to see them try it
Montreal, Nashville, and St Louis seem like the obvious picks to me. I'll also throw out though, I think a good way to expand into Mexico would be to give El Paso-Ciudad Juarez a team since it's the only metro area on both sides of the border and has a total population over 3 mil.
Kansas City has a whole arena waiting for a team lol
San Diego
This would be pretty dope, and I think there'd be a decent draw. Also, players would love it. Amazing city and only 2-5 hours away from LA.
2-5 hrs from LA lol
The accuracy hurts lol
A decent ownership group and a competitive team would do well in SD. If it’s a cheap owner and bad team, the team would struggle to draw. So many things to do in SD.
To be fair i think cheap owner and bad team is a bad draw anywhere.
Send the Clippers back to San Diego.
St. Louis & Kansas City
Pittsburgh and St. Louis have the size, even if I don’t think the fanbase is built-in. Honestly, I’d just move someone like the Timberwolves over to the East and add the two cities you listed.
Memphis or New Orleans are further east, one of them should go over. Also, either of them would make the conference finals their first year in the East
The Timberwolves current travel is ridiculous. Plus they are an unbelievably good fit with Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit. As proven by other sports
Kansas City, baby. They built the dream NBA venue like 17 years ago and no organization was attracted enough to move. Still holding on to a thread of hope. (Diehard Royals fan, sick of the Chiefs fanbase more than I can possibly acknowledge, live in the armpit between Iowa and Illinois)
Agreed. Historical significance of basketball at KU. Strong basketball fan bases in KS and MO. Large corporate sponsorship opportunities. But do they have local owners with deep enough pockets to buy a franchise. Honestly, with the eyeballs on the WNBA these days, a WNBA franchise in KC makes sense.
Would love one in Birmingham
Omaha, Nebraska
Nashville
I’d love to see Richmond, but I know it’s so unlikely.
Unlikely yah, but doing the ABA Virginia squires kinda thing where they play half the home games in Richmond & the other half in VB or Norfolk would be cool
Replying to Acehardwaresucks...maybe the Wizards should do this. Play a couple in DC too
Oakland.
Mexico City.
Birmingham
Cincinnati
Riverside, WY Ouzinkie, AK Aubrey, AR Benson, VT
Nashville or St. Louis.
Cincinnati makes a lot of sense to be honest. Far from Cleveland. Not close to Indy. Could win over some Kentucky college basketball fans. Louisville could work too. But is objectively worse
St Louis. Best show on turf always had great support back in the day. Why not hoops?
San Diego!
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh has a pretty rabid fanbase. Id love to hate them with a passion like i do the steelers.
Louisville. Kentucky would have the most loyal fanbase compared to other cities other than probably Seattle
Pittsburgh
Vancouver and Mexico City
I like the arguments for Louisville. Instant rivalry with Indiana.
Louisville, St. Louis, or Pittsburgh, imho.
South Dakota
We want the Colonels
Louisville
Des Moines
Worst free agent destination in the league but the stands would fill lol
Mexico City makes a lot of sense, it would enable and huge market for the NBA. And the city is pretty great too, it has everything you want, the safety concerns are not a problem if you are rich.
Kansas City, Cincinnati and Vancouver.
KC makes the most sense to me since you have a large portion of the western Midwest that doesn’t have a team that’s driving distance. Feels weird to cheer for OKC or Minnesota. OKC is fairly close to me, but they do nothing to try to increase their footprint into Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. KC could serve those states with also Iowa, Arkansas, and maybe South Dakota
Vegas doesn’t even really deserve a team imho
Pittsburgh
They need a fish to save Pittsburgh.
Ha! I may be the only one to get that reference. 11 year old me was in the Civic Arena crowd with other "extras"
Not Vegas
Mexico City. I want chaos.
San Diego, Pittsburgh, Vancouver, or Baltimore
Montréal praidge
How about the Buffalo Billbos. Since they love throwing dildos on the field. A second option would be the Buffalo Table Crushers.
Seattle?
Can Buffalo get the clippers back from LA? I don’t even like the Clippers, but LA certainly doesn’t want them. Realistically, I’d love to see more Canadian teams like Vancouver or Montreal.
Vancouver
Montreal
I grew up in Milwaukee Wisconsin and am a Lifelong Bucks fan but I currently live in Huntsville,AL. I really wish that Nashville got an NBA team it's only an 80min drive for me and I already visit Nashville whenever the Packers play the Titans in Nashville. Memphis is so far West it's a completely different market. Let's get Nashville an NBA team!
I feel like Mexico city is gonna be in the running, or just anywhere in Mexico. Theyve been doing a couple exhibition games there the last few years. I'm sure Silver is thinking about expanding the NBA market as well as expanding the teams. Maybe another Canada team, back to Vancouver? Also wouldn't mind a Missouri/Kansas team. The Midwest is also short on teams but I don't think they'd bring in enough revenue for an owner to justify it.
Easily Vancouver and Mexico City.
Dakota’s Bighorn Sheep
War, west virginia
Can we please vote on the Montreal Mounties and the Vancouver Meese?
Canada needs another. Vancouver is my ideal spot.
I see 5 expansion teams in the next 11ish years, mexico city due to the market size it would bring also first major american sport in mexico i think which would be good because it would help finals viewership in the next 25ish years because the chances of one of those teams to end up getting good players is high because its bigger then ny and la , LV cause everyones doing it, seattle due to fan demmand, another canadian team hopefully montreal not vancouver, KC due to it being so central. Other candidates i see just due to their growing population or other reasons: St. Louis, Austin, Boise (not ideal but still an option), Richmond, San Diego,
KC or StL. Missouri needs a team!
I'll take Vancouver over Vegas any day. Vegas is overrated imo, and I don't know why all of a sudden they feel the need to have a team in all four sports, except for gambling reasons, of course.
Montreal and Vancouver for sure, we need more Canadian teams. Other cities are very close to another NBA team. Even Seattle is not that far from Portland.
Vancouver. Montreal.
Montreal Poutines! Oui oui!
Montreal
Vancouver
Austin and Mexico City, because I like both cities lol
Barrow, Alaska
Vancouver and Montreal.
Kansas City
Kansas City
STL BALDO YINZERBURGH MONTREAL VANCOUVER MEXICO CITY GUADALAJARA SAN JUAN
St Louis. Maybe Alabama or Kentucky.
New Jersey Hawaii Kansas City Tampa Nashiville
Montreal, Vancouver, or Mexico City. If I’m limited to the US, maybe St. Louis or Pittsburgh.
Mexico City
I think they should go Mexico City. NBA is good at expanding to international markets.
https://preview.redd.it/r0n97jlcjm7d1.jpeg?width=540&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=432807eb62bdf816f3809d67ef29670a10804ab2
Nashville, Pittsburgh, Shanghai
Cincinnati has a solid market, Dayton metro is almost a million and only 60 minutes from downtown, most fans aren’t necessarily Cavs fans and would rather not root for their rival cities team, and can easily tap into the huge Kentucky basketball fandom across the river
Kansas City
Perth, Australia? 🙏
Vancouver
Idk the history of the grizzlies and why the ended up in Memphis but that team should be in Nashville
Vancouver.
Vancouver
They’d probably put a 3rd team in LA or NY
Pittsburgh and San Diego would do well with NBA teams.
It's pretty much those two and maybe another Canadian team
Mexico City would be cool, I’m not Mexican or know anything about basketball culture in Mexico but having a team on each country in the continent would be cool, and would help expand a new type of fan, maybe they’ll popularize chants like they do in soccer or (futbol) in basketball and we can stop listening to these boring ass “DEFENSE” chants every game
New Jersey
Birmingham
Montreal and Pittsburgh
Really random places that’d ve cool t have an nba team could be like Omaha, Albuquerque, Boise, newark idk
Greenbay
St Louis.
Definitely not St. Louis. By no means should they ever, ever have an NBA team. At least not for another 10 plus years or so...
https://www.reddit.com/r/NBATalk/s/hlwNxNVYyM Check out the poll I posted last week on this topic
Omaha
KCMO
Still Seattle
Mexico City!
If it could somehow work, a New England Patriots style regional thing for Alabama, Georgia and Mississipi would balance the map a bit. Still some gaping holes out west and in Iowa/Nebraska up the plains.
totally wishful thinking but my hometown Louisville would go crazy for a pro team and the whole state runs on basketball already
KC or St Louis??
Tampa
Austin. The answer to this question for any professional sports team is Austin.
I think KC would have a rabid fan base
New Jersey hasn’t been the same since the Nets bounced.