kimball

3 hours ago, gosioux76 said:

I don't consider the Heat at all in this discussion because of how, throughout their history, they've placed most of the emphasis on black. In fact, until now, I'd never even considered that they might share similar colors to the Rockets and Hawks.

Well, and the Heat's red color is noticeably darker than the Hawks and Rockets' red.

6 hours ago, the admiral said:

As for Vancouver and the NBA, if I remember my NBA history, both Canadian teams struggled mightily out of the gate due to exchange rate, players being afraid to live in Canada, and general incompetence, but the Raptors were able to overcome it by effectively merging with the Maple Leafs: the Leafs got to get in on the new arena, the Raptors got to bundle their luxury boxes and season tickets in order to move them. I guess the Canucks couldn't offer that level of synergy to the Grizzlies. I also recall Stern saying that Vancouver was a mistake and he wished the league hadn't gone there in the first place. Did that happen?

Well, the NBA didn't help with that incompetence either with the salary cap and draft pick stipulations. If those weren't there the Raptors would have had the #1 pick in '96 and the Grizz in '98.

14 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

There's a reason the Baltimore Orioles minor league team moved out of Baltimore when St. Louis moved in. It was because playing that close to a MLB team does not bring you more money, it's because people wanting MLB baseball over the minors will choose to spend most of their money at the big league park. Now it's possible that the A's try to help out there AAA club, but that usually means cutting into their own profits.  

You're comparing situations that are nearly 70 years apart.  As pointed out by @LMU the shift in hockey as well as baseball and basketball is development first. That's why we're seeing AAA clubs like St. Paul, Sugar Land, Gwinnett, Tacoma and Vegas team up with parent clubs in baseball and Vegas, San Jose, Vancouver, Toronto, etc. in hockey.  Development is more important than profit.

But, they also wouldn't be doing it if they weren't making a profit. 

6 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

Would the Aviators really be able to stay though if a MLB team is in the same city? How many of those fans are ditching them for a better class of baseball? Money talks too, and they'll keep the ones that don't want to overpay for the A's, but I think a majority of the fans would switch to the shiny new thing. 

You talk like it's an either/or on fandom between the A's and Aviators. They can coexist and I think promotes both clubs well, especially watching players go from the minors to majors.  But, there will always be a market for minor league baseball advertising dollars and companies that are priced out with the big leagues.

13 hours ago, who do you think said:

Less than ideal? Sure. A Glendale/Sunrise situation? Not even close.

I get that, but you're also comparing apples to oranges, it different when you're comparing 81 home games to 41.  Plus, I do get the point of St. Pete being on a peninsula that hinders attendance. 

Based off location it seems easy solution would be a move to Tampa, but what REALLY kills the Rays more than anything is their horrible lease.

34 minutes ago, McCall said:

Actually, they're coming along on a plan to build a new one were the Trop currently sits and develop around it... in St. Pete.

 

I mean it's far from a done deal, but that's where the focus seems to be at the moment.

Huh.

This all feels like Oakland 2.0. 

4 minutes ago, VampyrRabbit said:

Manfred said that expansion wasn't on the cards until the situations with Oakland and Tampa Bay were resolved. Now with the A's heading to Vegas, that's one part done.

I haven't heard much out of the Rays outside of the failed TB-Montreal "solution" and sporadic talk about how horrible St. Petersburg is for a ballpark. Is there any talk of relocation outside of the Tampa Bay area?

Montreal seems like a logical solution, but Nashville's bid seems strong.

2 hours ago, WestCoastBias said:

 

And not only is Vegas getting the A's but everyone seems content with the Aviators remaining there as well.

 

The area is home to only 2.5 million people, they have NHL, NFL, WNBA, and now MLB. In what world do they need a Triple-A team?? The Aviators play 20 minutes (11 miles) from the property the A's just purchased, I mean c'mon it's just unnecessary.

Well, the Golden Knights and Silver Knights share the same market (about 11 miles apart as well). 

Now with that said, with all of the major leagues now at least 30 teams each the emphasis of the minor leagues isn't necessarily on serving or testing new markets for expansion, it's mostly focused on development. That's why we have the St. Paul Saints, South Bay Lakers, Tacoma Rainiers, San Jose Barracudas, etc. the closer to the parent team the more focus on player development your minor leaguers can have with the parent team coaches, etc. 

17 hours ago, WBeltz said:

Not in season tourney related, but Nike needs to bring back the Christmas uniforms. The more recent ones too that were the team color/cream, or the vintage style ones. 
 

thats what I want.

Same. I am not generally a "one off" jersey fan, but I was okay with SOME of the NBA Christmas jerseys because there was uniformity across the Christmas Day schedule. I'm mainly talking about these designs ...

Not these ...

7 minutes ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

Pratt puts the chances of the move happening at 95%.

Can we place bets on that?

13 hours ago, Sykotyk said:

One, Las Vegas Ballpark is a top of the line, beautiful AAA level park. It's honestly to MLB standards in quality it's just small and lacks the numbers of things people want in an MLB stadium. Fewer seats, fewer boxes/clubs/etc. But quality wise it works.

 

Got to see a game there back in 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's not unreal. Arizona Coyotes are playing in a 4500 seat venue. Chargers played a year at whatever they called the StubHub Center that year.

 

The other thing is that the Aviators are the A's affiliate. They could 'swap'... Put the A's in Las Vegas Ballpark and send their AAA team to Oakland until they vacate the LV Ballpark for this new venue. You could even still call them the Oakland A's. Then bring them back or leave them depending how well they do. LV Ballpark could be a A or AA venue (quite large) but to avoid going up against the MLB team now in town.

 

But staying in Oakland will not work. Attendance cratered already with the chance they'd find a new home in Oakland. This isn't the regionalized Raiders fan base that tolerated it somewhat. Plus NFL has ridiculously high standards for their home venues now. They were not playing at Sam Boyd or anywhere else.

 

 

The only thing I could see being an issue would be duel use of Las Vegas Ballpark by the A's and Aviators and it's not like they can do doubleheaders with day games because of the heat. I wonder if the Aviators move back to Cashman Field for a couple years or move to Fresno, Tucson or similar underserved market temporarily until the A's move out?

Additionally, the LV Ballpark has a 10,000 capacity. I feel like you'd need add at least 5,000-10,000 for temporary use, but I'm not sure if that's possible with the park's footprint? 

But, maybe all that speculation is a moot point with this quote ...

Quote

“We have an agreement with the Aviators with Don [Logan] and Howard Hughes [Corporation] to play at their stadium temporarily,” he said. “We’re really deferring to Major League Baseball to kind of help us make that decision.” (source)

10,000 seats might be enough? I mean it definitely is for the team at the moment.

8 minutes ago, WestCoastBias said:

40 TEAM NHL WHO SAYS NO?!?

Not the NHL.

I don't know if I should laugh or be impressed? 

On 4/15/2023 at 6:20 AM, Walk-Off said:

 

While I am not personally aware of anything that the Latter-day Saints Church has done to help "build" Las Vegas as we know that place today, I did live for a while in a region where, at the time, the LDS Church-owned Bonneville International Corporation owned and operated two commercial FM radio stations -- one specializing in classic secular rock music and the other devoted to alternative secular rock.  Thus, my impression is that the LDS Church has been most willing to own and/or run businesses that at least seem to contradict well-known church doctrines if and when the church can keep an extremely low profile about such enterprises.

 

Yes, the LDS Church's highest-ranking leaders have apparently spent decades tolerating Sunday home games played by the current Salt Lake Bees club, previous professional baseball teams in Salt Lake City, and pro baseball teams elsewhere in Utah (e.g. the Pioneer League's Ogden Raptors) and in heavily Mormon communities outside Utah (e.g. the Pioneer League's Idaho Falls Chukars).  Even so, I would not put it past the LDS organization's grand poobahs to be brazen enough to exploit Major League Baseball's far higher profile and level of wealth by trying to hold an MLB franchise in the church's mother city to an unreasonably much higher standard regarding compliance with LDS doctrines on matters such as the home game schedule.  Should that happen, I hope rather strongly that the team's ownership and/or the MLB commissioner's office will use the LDS Church's history of "sinful" business ventures to push back hard against any such demand.

As a member of the prominent religion here in Utah the "concern" of Sunday home games isn't so much a matter of LDS leadership demands, in fact I'd say there hasn't been much of a demand from leadership since (if ever) the early 20th century. However, over the past 20-25 years it's more so a matter of population demand. While a good segment of LDS fans probably wouldn't attend a Sunday home game, SLC and the surrounding areas have enough of a population where it's a moot point.

On 4/9/2023 at 7:02 PM, Cujo said:

I'm just finding out about this.

 

 

Anyone know if any logos/merch were produced?

Another fun aside, the Heat were going to be the Florida Heat, but when the NBA accepted both the Magic and Heat they went with Miami. 

On 4/15/2023 at 10:57 AM, Discogod said:

Must have been a temporary thing - the Jazz had standard NoBs but it looks like Joe C's surname was too long.

 

It fits ok in this picture, although the number is a little low as a result:

Yeah, I saw that one too. I'd love to know the exact dates of the two pictures because they're two different numbers, but in Landover against the Bullets. I wonder if it was the same game? It'd be fun to dig a little.

20 hours ago, fortunat1 said:

Sounds like they're also shelving the city jersey for the playoffs as well

City Jerseys (and most throwbacks) should be shelved for the playoffs. I don't mind Statement jerseys, but stick to the basics as much as possible.

I hate that this moment is attached to nothing that says the team name. 

Here's a fun one. Joe C. Meriweather of the New Orleans Jazz with his name under the number, something the Jazz never did as a team. I am assuming because of the length of his last name?

11 minutes ago, eRay said:

Garth Brooks designed a Thunder uniform?? Where would one find this information?

If it's not this, send it back ...

1 hour ago, JTernup said:

The Suns' uniforms have become such a forgettable mess. None of their sets since moving on from the Nash era uniforms have been particularly good. They've muddled their primary color scheme with grey and black, they can's seem to stick with a style (sun burst, upside down/backwords word mark, bevels, gradients etc.). It's actually shocking that they've only had two overhauls in the last 10 years. I literally forget what their uniforms look like every time I see them because they are so forgettable and bland. At least when other teams destroy their visual identities there is a look that feels "right", I don't know what the Suns should be wearing at this point.

Let's be honest, the Nash-era jerseys weren't that good either.

On 4/7/2023 at 9:54 PM, FinsUp1214 said:

I’m guessing/assuming what the Jazz unveiled for 2023-24 during this past summer would fall into both the updated statement and new classic edition categories (new purple mountain alt and the Pistol Pete throwbacks)? 

Yeah, they were already announced last summer by the Jazz. Since it's the Jazz's 50th anniversary they're wearing their 1974 road jersey as a throwback and I think the purple mountain is their city jersey since there is no Jordan logo.

2 hours ago, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

 

I think the NBA expands first too. Seattle and Las Vegas are basically shoe-ins IMO.4

 

Not to make this a Pointless Realignment & Expansion thread, but it kind of feel inevitable that the major leagues expand to 40 clubs, especially if expansion fees are upwards of $1 billion.

The Columbus Blue Jackets.

5 hours ago, Foxxtrot44 said:

I like how this image has been posted twice now (on a forum for logos, no less) by people so obviously tickled by the "SL,UT" moniker that they completely failed to notice Jerry West capping the Salt Lake temple.

I actually really kind of love that. I'd love that on a t-shirt. (the Jerry West logo, the SL,UT moniker is way overplayed).

I really like the  court's use of the mountain and note logo.  Probably the best blending of Utah and Jazz visually I've ever seen.