Tim W. wrote:
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NBA Expansion in Montreal: Five Reasons Why Canada Deserves a Second NBA Team
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heinz57 wrote: View PostGood point. totally forgot about the USD going to crap. Good old Canadian monopoly money is worth more than ever these days.Read my blog, The Picket Fence. Guaranteed to make you think or your money back!
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I troll ESPN message boards reminding people that Vancouver is the best location for relocation. They have the market(fan-base)$$, they have an owner they guy who owns the 'nucks is trying to get an NBA team and most importantly Stern has said that a team leaving Vancouver was his biggest mistake as commissioner and unprompted mentioned that Vancouver is one of the cities looking for a franchise.
After Anaheim Vancouver is the best location.-"You can’t run from me. I mean, my heart don’t bleed Kool-Aid."
-"“I ain’t no diva! I don’t have no blond hair, red hair. I’m Reggie Evans.”
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Kansas City doesn't have an owner and the market is too small and saturated to hold an NBA team.-"You can’t run from me. I mean, my heart don’t bleed Kool-Aid."
-"“I ain’t no diva! I don’t have no blond hair, red hair. I’m Reggie Evans.”
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I would love to see an NBA team in Montreal - one of my favorite cities. But I think the article does a poor job of making the argument. Here are the problems:
1. Population - honestly sheer number of residents is probably the best argument for putting a team in Montreal. It is a large market. However, right now the NBA is, to a large extent, a media-driven league, where viewer eyeballs are more important than ticket sales (I think this is overall an awful long-term strategy, but that's the choice they've made). So the problem is that for most of the NBA's sponsors, Montreal, at a population of 3 million plus (many of whom are francophone and all of whom live outside the US), is going to be less appealing than New Orleans at 1.2 million. This is why the NHL is doing everything they can to stay in Phoenix despite the obvious problems with that market: the idea of relocating franchises out of the US is very unappealing to networks and advertisers.
2. Support of the fans - Montreal is a great 'event' city. They support the Formula 1, Tennis, Boxing, MMA, etc. Selling Montrealers on going to a one-off basketball game isn't too difficult, because it fits with the sports culture of the city. Selling Montrealers on buying seasons tickets to a sport that's going head-to-head with the Canadiens is far more difficult. You can't look at one exhibition game as a forecaster for ongoing season ticket sales.
3. Before you say anything about the Expos - well I wasn't going to say anything about them, but since you bring it up the issue of other sports teams... Part of Montreal's sports identity is a love of atmosphere. The atmosphere of Canadiens games is unmatched. Even when the team is losing, they pack the arena to boo. The Alouettes are a success in part because they are successful on the field, but also because they have a very low seating capacity, so demand stays high, the facility is always packed, and the atmosphere is intense. If the Montreal franchise isn't able to consistently sell-out, things could start to spiral downward in a hurry.
4. Globalization: Personally, I believe that globalization is a red-herring by the league in order to drive up international interest in the game. But even if that isn't the case... Vancouver and Toronto too are listed as some of the most liveable cities in the world, and that isn't enough to convince some NBA players to live there. The problem with NBA players is that livability and culture isn't a huge issue, because the best-paid players can live well regardless of what city it's in. Proximity to family and friends and climate are the two strongest (non team related) factors when choosing a city to live in. If the NBA were to expand to Europe, it would not be with a single team... it would be, at minimum, an entire additional division. So it's not really fair to say that Montreal makes more sense than Europe, because they are two completely different exercises.
5. We invented the game - meh, irrelevant. This is a business, not a history society.
I really believe that the biggest thing it would take make basketball viable in Montreal is a second french sports network. The NBA team will not get the coverage that they need on RDS, and without a French television outlet, they would be hooped. But imagine a hypothetical scenario where Rogers wanted to launch a French-language Sportsnet Quebec, and purchased an NBA franchise to be the network's flagship content (as well as being cheap content for their national network). This would enable RSN to get a foothold in Quebec, where they could then begin to chip away at the monopoly that RDS has on that market.
But really it is not about Montreal being a viable market. It's about Montreal being a better market for the league than any of the other contenders. Seattle doesn't have the facility right now, but long-term, it's a market that the NBA needs to be in, and they know this. And Kansas represents a better short-term opportunity than almost any other city out there. Wouldn't shock me to see the NBA move a team into Kansas, milk that city until it starts to sour, and by that time Seattle will probably have their arena up to snuff again.
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JYFelony wrote: View PostThe Montreal CFL team (Alouettes) just won their second consecutive championship.
hahahah, ya that was a stupid comment there tim.
Since 1999, the Alouettes have sold out every game at the stadium located on the campus of McGill University.At the time of the Alouettes' return to Molson, the stadium's capacity was 20,202; an expansion completed prior to the 2010 season brought the current capacity to 25,012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_AlouettesLast edited by LBF; Tue Mar 8, 2011, 06:01 PM.If Your Uncle Jack Helped You Off An Elephant, Would You Help Your Uncle Jack Off An Elephant?
Sometimes, I like to buy a book on CD and listen to it, while reading music.
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Bleak
The U.S. has more debt than the World's GDP. There's no way for them to pay it off and so some suggest it's a matter of when the dollar crashes, not if. It's not something we should he rooting for to say the least... Unfortunately, a U.S. dollar collapse would hammer Canada very hard in certain regions. Particularly Ontario. I think the fact that Corporate America is moving to China will be very decremental to Ontario. Think about all the lost revenue opportunity from exports.
I think Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland will be the provinces who get rocked the least because they produce oil and other natural resources in high quantity. When you see the U.S. dollar crash the price of oil will go through the roof... Not to mention gold, silver and other precious metals... And food.
Obama is trying to shift the blame to Bush, citing that he came into a tough situation but with all due respect, you don't dig your way out of a hole by digging downward twice as far... You also don't surround yourself with all Wall Street heavy hitters when those are the same kind of people who got you into the mess to begin with.
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LBF wrote: View Postya, plus they just expanded their seating in the stadium because they were selling out every game.
hahahah, ya that was a stupid comment there tim.
Since 1999, the Alouettes have sold out every game at the stadium located on the campus of McGill University.At the time of the Alouettes' return to Molson, the stadium's capacity was 20,202; an expansion completed prior to the 2010 season brought the current capacity to 25,012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_AlouettesRead my blog, The Picket Fence. Guaranteed to make you think or your money back!
Follow me on Twitter.
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octothorp wrote: View PostI would love to see an NBA team in Montreal - one of my favorite cities. But I think the article does a poor job of making the argument. Here are the problems:
1. Population - honestly sheer number of residents is probably the best argument for putting a team in Montreal. It is a large market. However, right now the NBA is, to a large extent, a media-driven league, where viewer eyeballs are more important than ticket sales (I think this is overall an awful long-term strategy, but that's the choice they've made). So the problem is that for most of the NBA's sponsors, Montreal, at a population of 3 million plus (many of whom are francophone and all of whom live outside the US), is going to be less appealing than New Orleans at 1.2 million. This is why the NHL is doing everything they can to stay in Phoenix despite the obvious problems with that market: the idea of relocating franchises out of the US is very unappealing to networks and advertisers.
2. Support of the fans - Montreal is a great 'event' city. They support the Formula 1, Tennis, Boxing, MMA, etc. Selling Montrealers on going to a one-off basketball game isn't too difficult, because it fits with the sports culture of the city. Selling Montrealers on buying seasons tickets to a sport that's going head-to-head with the Canadiens is far more difficult. You can't look at one exhibition game as a forecaster for ongoing season ticket sales.
3. Before you say anything about the Expos - well I wasn't going to say anything about them, but since you bring it up the issue of other sports teams... Part of Montreal's sports identity is a love of atmosphere. The atmosphere of Canadiens games is unmatched. Even when the team is losing, they pack the arena to boo. The Alouettes are a success in part because they are successful on the field, but also because they have a very low seating capacity, so demand stays high, the facility is always packed, and the atmosphere is intense. If the Montreal franchise isn't able to consistently sell-out, things could start to spiral downward in a hurry.
4. Globalization: Personally, I believe that globalization is a red-herring by the league in order to drive up international interest in the game. But even if that isn't the case... Vancouver and Toronto too are listed as some of the most liveable cities in the world, and that isn't enough to convince some NBA players to live there. The problem with NBA players is that livability and culture isn't a huge issue, because the best-paid players can live well regardless of what city it's in. Proximity to family and friends and climate are the two strongest (non team related) factors when choosing a city to live in. If the NBA were to expand to Europe, it would not be with a single team... it would be, at minimum, an entire additional division. So it's not really fair to say that Montreal makes more sense than Europe, because they are two completely different exercises.
5. We invented the game - meh, irrelevant. This is a business, not a history society.
I really believe that the biggest thing it would take make basketball viable in Montreal is a second french sports network. The NBA team will not get the coverage that they need on RDS, and without a French television outlet, they would be hooped. But imagine a hypothetical scenario where Rogers wanted to launch a French-language Sportsnet Quebec, and purchased an NBA franchise to be the network's flagship content (as well as being cheap content for their national network). This would enable RSN to get a foothold in Quebec, where they could then begin to chip away at the monopoly that RDS has on that market.
But really it is not about Montreal being a viable market. It's about Montreal being a better market for the league than any of the other contenders. Seattle doesn't have the facility right now, but long-term, it's a market that the NBA needs to be in, and they know this. And Kansas represents a better short-term opportunity than almost any other city out there. Wouldn't shock me to see the NBA move a team into Kansas, milk that city until it starts to sour, and by that time Seattle will probably have their arena up to snuff again.
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Apollo wrote: View PostThe U.S. has more debt than the World's GDP. There's no way for them to pay it off and so some suggest it's a matter of when the dollar crashes, not if. It's not something we should he rooting for to say the least... Unfortunately, a U.S. dollar collapse would hammer Canada very hard in certain regions. Particularly Ontario. I think the fact that Corporate America is moving to China will be very decremental to Ontario. Think about all the lost revenue opportunity from exports.
I think Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland will be the provinces who get rocked the least because they produce oil and other natural resources in high quantity. When you see the U.S. dollar crash the price of oil will go through the roof... Not to mention gold, silver and other precious metals... And food.
Obama is trying to shift the blame to Bush, citing that he came into a tough situation but with all due respect, you don't dig your way out of a hole by digging downward twice as far...
On the plus side, Vancouver is probably going to be in better shape than most of the rest of Canada and the US, so an NBA team here seems like a better and better idea.Read my blog, The Picket Fence. Guaranteed to make you think or your money back!
Follow me on Twitter.
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This is off track but it's needed:
When President Obama took office two years ago, the national debt stood at $10.626 trillion. It now stands at $14.071 trillion — a staggering increase of $3.445 trillion in just 735 days (about $5 billion a day).
To put that into perspective, when President George W. Bush took office, our national debt was $5.768 trillion. By the time Bush left office, it had nearly doubled, to $10.626 trillion. So Bush's record on deficit spending was not good at all: During his presidency, the national debt rose by an average of $607 billion a year. How does that compare to Obama? During Obama's presidency to date, the national debt has risen by an average of $1.723 trillion a year — or by a jaw-dropping $1.116 trillion more, per year, than it rose even under Bush.
- He lied about pulling the troops. America's biggest expense. I can barely count on one hand all the wars America is now involved in.
- He bailed out the big banksters in America, who are now moving their HQ's to China as a thank you.
- He bailed out banksters in other countries like here in Canada and the UK for example.
- 35,000,000 Americans meanwhile are on food stamps. What's the population of Canada again?
- He continues to let the Fed screw the American people out of their hard earned money. Imagine if a private corporation controlled the printing of Canadian currency and charged the Canadian government interest on their own currency? Imagine if the corporation had total immunity, could not be audited, answered to no one?
I can go on for a while with on this one if you want to take this debate to PM.
That said, why would the NBA move a team back to a failed market when there are other markets with just as much potential, if not more? I'd love to see a team in Vancouver or Montreal but I don't see it on the horizon.
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dagon420 wrote: View Postdumb idea
quebecois dont care about basketball
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charlesnba23 wrote: View PostI really don't believe that the language is a big factor. A majority of the population of MTL speaks english! Look at Saku Koivu, he spent about 10 years for the Habs without speaking a word of french. If you wanna be serve in english, you'll be!
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