What Canadian Cites would you think could support a nba franchise?

[S.R.]

No. Vancouver showed their true colors. If you're a Canadian team in a fringe market, you have to pack the arena (like Utah, OKC< etc..), no matter how shitty your team is. No excuses. Attendance was around 13K by the end of the Grizz, which is way too low. Also, no free agent will ever go there because the endorsement potential is about as bad as it gets, because of market size, location, etc...

Yeah, sorry but I have very little faith in Vancouver as a pro sports town. Hockey is fine because Canada, but otherwise Vancouver seriously underachieves given its size and the fact that the rest of BC, a sizable population, should also be behind a Vancouver based team.

BC is just totally different. So many people who live there don't live there to sit in the house and watch hours and hours of TV sports.

No Canadian city is getting an NBA team. A good question is if the NBA is going to be able to expand or set up actual feeder or secondary leagues on other continents. They've been putting in work in China, Africa, and even UK/Europe for years now.

[golden]

Vancouver

No. Vancouver showed their true colors. If you're a Canadian team in a fringe market, you have to pack the arena (like Utah, OKC< etc..), no matter how shitty your team is. No excuses. Attendance was around 13K by the end of the Grizz, which is way too low. Also, no free agent will ever go there because the endorsement potential is about as bad as it gets, because of market size, location, etc...

[Puffer]

Utah is the smallest city (by population) with an NBA team. It has about 3.2 million. Montreal has 1.6 million and Calgary has 1 million. All the other large cities have less. Obviously, the metropolitan areas around some of these cities would increase those numbers. For instance, Vancouver has 2.5 million and Calgary has over 1.4 million. But I think simply in terms of potential ticket sales, the problem is obvious. Add in the difficulty in TV revenue finding it's way into the coffers of the media giants that essentially finance the league, and I have to agree it isn't likely to happen soon.

Vancouver seems the most likely candidate though. A team there would provide an alternative to a Toronto base for western fans to cheer for.

[G__Deane]

Since the question is which Canadian city could support an NBA team, not whether it's likely to receive one, the answer was and still is only Vancouver. Montreal is a great hockey town, not a great sports town. There's not enough long term corporate support and not enough fan support for the first multiple losing years.

[inthepaint]

Right now probably none. The NBA is actually trying to branch out of the states more but at this point you'd probably see a team in Mexico City, Vegas or somewhere else in the states before another Canadian city. A few things would need to happen before we get another team:

1. The TV ratings thing would need to be restructured. The fact that the US networks don't get ratings on games here is a real handicap. Changing that is probably not even possible, but with the way media consumption has been changing with streaming services, networks selling their content directly to consumers online, apps etc.., maybe there's a chance. The Canadian market is a bitch for that though, we can't even get things like pandora, youtube TV, hulu etc. so I'm not holding my breath. When you make it harder for people to consume the product, it's tough.

2. The Canadian media would need to let go of the hockey obsession and balance the coverage a bit. Raptors are the current NBA champions but aside from the finals and the parade last year , the national coverage/attention here is usually pretty meagre compared to hockey .

3. People would need to go and fill the arenas like the Raptors do. I think that's probably the easiest of the 3. because large urban centres have lots of young people, many of whom with parents that grew up outside Canada with no attachment to hockey. Raptors championship run captured a lot of those people as new fans.

[The Great One]

Vancouver

[golden]

Been there, done that.

[rightsideup]

your thoughts please