Having already assessed the merits of five potential new homes for NBA teams – including in Canada and Mexico – today we see where else has the potential to be home to a new team in the world’s premier basketball competition.
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Conference: East/Southeast
Population: 550,000
Arena: Virginia Beach Arena (18,500)
It’s time to venture into the cities without a pro franchise – starting with Virginia Beach.
Following a failed bid for the Sacramento Kings just last year, Virginia Beach will no doubt still be attempting to net an NBA license in the near future.
An arena seating 18,500 people with a proposed opening of spring 2015 has already been put on the cards in an attempt to welcome a team to the city.
Virginia Beach would fall into the NBA’s lowest tier of markets, which may make it harder to attract free agents, even if the team drops ‘Beach’ from its name, but similar to how Oklahoma City have built, a net of young successful draft picks would breed both a passionate fan-base and develop the market as a basketball city.
Seattle, Washington
Conference: West/Northwest
Population: 635,000
Arena: Sonics Arena (?)
Let’s face it, everyone, including Oklahoma City fans, would like to see a team come back to Seattle.
The former Seattle SuperSonics, a team with a fantastic history and incredibly loud fan-base, left town in 2008, due to not being able to gain funds for a new arena.
Considering this mountain has now been ascended, and Sonics Arena has been approved, there should be no reason for the league to hesitate if another generous offer from the Seattle Group comes in for an NBA license.
However, if the team were to reassume the identity of the Seattle SuperSonics, they would need to drop the ‘Super’, from their moniker, as the Oklahoma City Thunder own the rights to their history.
Louisville, Kentucky
Conference: East/Central
Population: 751,000
Arena: KFC Yum! Center (22,090)
Kentucky is well-known as a basketball state from the success of both the Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals college basketball teams, and a Kentuckian team playing out of Louisville should be an ace for the league.
It is a true shame that since the Kentucky colonels dissolved in 1976, the team has never even had a sniff of a professional basketball franchise.
After attempting to pry the Hornets away from Charlotte at the turn of the century, we have not heard a squeak from Kentucky about the possibility of an NBA team.
However, with a large, basketball-loving population and a big arena, even by NBA standards, the league would be crazy to continually completely ignore Kentucky.
Las Vegas, Nevada
Conference: West/Pacific
Population: 596,000
Arena: New Las Vegas Arena (20,000)
Las Vegas is without a doubt the most intriguing. If sin city is not atop the NBA’s list of expansion plans, it should be.
Commonly known as ‘the entertainment capital of the world’, it is crazy there is no professional sports team playing out of Vegas.
The NBA could, and should be, the first to break ground there, and unleash the unlimited potential of the excitement of NBA upon Las Vegas.
While it is not the biggest of cities on the list, the amount of tourism generated by the city almost places it atop the list in terms of sell-out-ability.
The city already has plans to build a new arena, seating in excess of 20,000, near the Thomas and Mack Centre (home to the UNLV Rebels), and one may suggest there may be even better places to play, such as in the smaller MGM Grand Garden Arena, right on the strip, in the heart of Vegas.
Some may think Vegas is not ready for the NBA, for a number of reasons – I think it is more than ready.
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