A city deserving one particular sport

[GDAWG]

3 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

A dream league... full of markets that can't support NFL football.  If there was money to be made in Birmingham or SLC or Louisville, there would be NFL football there.

 

SLC is better off as a NBA/MLS city anyways. 

[Gothamite]

6 hours ago, Raptorman415 said:

I mean, if Yankee Stadium can have MLS soccer, why not Miller Park? I’ll give up my dedication to MNUFC for a Milwaukee Club any day.

 

That’s only possible because it is intended to be temporary, and because the Yankees are minority owners.  You’d have to get the Brewers involved in an MLS club.  Which maybe isn’t totally out of the realm of possibility, since they looked into buying an NASL franchise way back in the day. 

[Camden Crazy]

Always wanted to see another pro team in Manhattan.

[Davidellias]

On 7/12/2019 at 6:10 PM, the admiral said:

I don't believe supporting college sports necessarily means you ought to have pro sports. The strength of college basketball in Kentucky is more an argument against a Louisville NBA team than one for it.

Same reason Birmingham won't work for Pro Football.

[BBTV]

7 hours ago, Davidellias said:

Same reason Birmingham won't work for Pro Football.

 

That's like #10 on the list of why Birmingham won't work for NFL football.

[Blindsay]

Atlanta without hockey, Quebec without hockey, Vegas without Basketball, Vancouver without Basketball, Canada without Non CFL football , Montreal Without Baseball, Jersey without anything other than hockey and football...... Seattle Without Basketball.......

[MilSox]

Milwaukee should have gotten the NHL at least 20 years ago. Or at least as far back as 1967. How the WHA never set up shop there still blows my mind.

 

On 7/12/2019 at 7:42 PM, Gothamite said:

Milwaukee should have MLS.  USL championship at the very least.  They have the oldest professional soccer club in the country, and multiple amateur/youth sides that go back to the 1920s.  There’s a huge soccer scene there, with no professional representation. 

 

Another mind blower. How did so many people in a position to bring a higher caliber of soccer to Milwaukee fail so miserably? The Torrent didn't even bother engaging the community when they started up. Their attitude was always "Here, you like us and our goofy, awkward name." Then proceeded to beef with every established side in town.

 

I also have to indict the Brewers too. They proved with their international friendlies that soccer is a draw. Yet it never even occurred to them to get a USL team?

[Davidellias]

Pittsburgh and the NBA?

[GDAWG]

16 hours ago, Blindsay said:

Atlanta without hockey, Quebec without hockey, Vegas without Basketball, Vancouver without Basketball, Canada without Non CFL football , Montreal Without Baseball, Jersey without anything other than hockey and football...... Seattle Without Basketball.......

 

Seattle will be back in the NBA by 2030.  I don't see the NBA opening expansion up until after they have a new CBA at the least.  When that happens, Seattle would be a near lock.  The 32nd team will probably be Las Vegas because Vegas wants to have a team in every major sports league.  It could mean Minnesota and either New Orleans or Memphis to the Eastern Conference if that happens.

[sky1324]

16 hours ago, Blindsay said:

Atlanta without hockey, Quebec without hockey, Vegas without Basketball, Vancouver without Basketball, Canada without Non CFL football , Montreal Without Baseball, Jersey without anything other than hockey and football...... Seattle Without Basketball.......

I have to disagree on both Atlanta and New Jersey here. Atlanta has had two franchises, and both moved within 15 years of being established. Atlanta is simply not a hockey city. New Jersey, on the other hand, has the New York metro to watch, and South Jersey has Philly. It's not like they're starved for options over there.

[FiddySicks]

On 8/20/2019 at 7:56 PM, JMtexan09 said:

To be honest, AAF did provide alot of opportunities for most of players to prove their worth to NFL scouts and they did put the teams in cities which they could have had pro football teams. Birmingham, San Deigo, San Antonio, Salt Lake City and Memphis. I absolutely wish that NFL went on and adopted all 8 teams into the league immediately to form a 40-teams league. They could relocate 3 teams (Legends to Louisville, Hotshots to either Oakland or Sacramento, and Apollos to St. Louis to be renamed as Archers with same logo) 

 

Now that's the dream league..... shame that AAF folded and they had best logos and beautiful uniforms! Such wastes....

 

Hahahahahaaaaaaa no. 

 

I mean, I'd be an instant ride or die fan if the team with my favorite branding package of all time moved to my city, but I've also seen first hand how much of an absolute disaster pro football has been here. Just yesterday I jokingly mentioned to my old boss who founded the Sacramento Mountain Lions that he should work on bringing an XFL team to Sacramento, and I got the same response I did when I brought up bringing an AAF team to Sac. Not a chance in hell he would even consider it. 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

13 hours ago, Davidellias said:

Pittsburgh and the NBA?

 

 

[MilSox]

What about Minneapolis and the NHL?

 

I know it's a pipe dream and that the Twin Cities aren't what you'd typically consider a two team market. But you'd have to think even with the Wild across the river, a Minneapolis NHL club would still be have more success than in Phoenix, Raleigh, Miami, and probably a few other places that currently have teams.

[Gothamite]

It probably would.  

 

Still ain’t gonna happen. 

[Wings]

Seattle would've had an NHL team in the early 90's if it weren't for backstabbing Sonics owner Barry Ackerley. Milwaukee possibly as well. A combination of the Pettit family possibly not wanting to pay the $50 million expansion fee & the Blackhawks not wanting a team in Milwaukee put a stop to that. 

[MilSox]

6 hours ago, Wings said:

Seattle would've had an NHL team in the early 90's if it weren't for backstabbing Sonics owner Barry Ackerley. Milwaukee possibly as well. A combination of the Pettit family possibly not wanting to pay the $50 million expansion fee & the Blackhawks not wanting a team in Milwaukee put a stop to that. 

 

I never understood why, if the Blackhawks insist that Milwaukee is part of their market, have they NEVER tried to actually market the team in any tangible way north of the border? 

 

Even the Wild managed to get their games on FS Wisconsin. Shouldn't that be a violation of the territory rules if Milwaukee is indeed the Hawks' market?

[Wings]

48 minutes ago, NicDB said:

 

I never understood why, if the Blackhawks insist that Milwaukee is part of their market, have they NEVER tried to actually market the team in any tangible way north of the border? 

 

Even the Wild managed to get their games on FS Wisconsin. Shouldn't that be a violation of the territory rules if Milwaukee is indeed the Hawks' market?

 

To be blunt, Bill Wirtz was a butthole. 

 

[The_Admiral]

2 hours ago, NicDB said:

I never understood why, if the Blackhawks insist that Milwaukee is part of their market, have they NEVER tried to actually market the team in any tangible way north of the border? 

 

Even the Wild managed to get their games on FS Wisconsin. Shouldn't that be a violation of the territory rules if Milwaukee is indeed the Hawks' market?

 

The Blackhawks don't insist that Milwaukee is part of their market. Bill Wirtz did when the Bradley Center was being built and he had a grudge to nurse against Lloyd Pettit. Now the Bradley Center doesn't even exist anymore. The Wild have been claiming all of Wisconsin as their territory (while only broadcasting the part of the schedule that doesn't conflict with the Bucks, Brewers, or tractor pulls) because Fox Sports Wisconsin was run as a subfeed of Fox Sports North, and the Blackhawks don't appear to be contesting that or aren't able to.

 

Of course, in reality, southeast Wisconsin is mostly divided between Blackhawks fans who bite the bullet and root for a Chicago team, and Predators fans who know that's who the Ads are a farm team for -- usually these people are a little more how-you-say rustic and feel the gravitational pull of Nashville and the South in their daily lives.

[MilSox]

There's a smattering of Wings fans in Milwaukee too. Mostly transplanted Yoopers and people from upstate who grew up within the sphere of the UP's hockey influence.

 

Personally, I think the Blackhawks are leaving money on the table by not embracing SE Wisconsin's 2 million people. It would give them the biggest contiguous market of all the Chicago teams (the Cubs might still have a bigger market overall, but that's spread across the entire country). It should no longer be an issue now that the Bradley Center is gone and replaced by an arena that doesn't currently have an ice plant and would, at best, be a Islanders at Barclay's situation. So why not play a couple exhibition games there or the UWM/MECCA Arena and get games on Milwaukee television?

 

Cynically, I think the Blackhawks fear such a thing might be too successful and prove Milwaukee to be just good enough for a struggling sunbelt team to land. 

[The_Admiral]

I agree that the Blackhawks should do more to embrace Milwaukee, including exhibitions there. Unfortunately, their window to put a slate of games on Milwaukee TV closed when they moved their full schedule to cable for this season. This would mean SE Wisconsin cable systems would have to pick up NBC Sports Chicago. This would be great for people along Highway 50 and points south, which are considered Cubs/Sox/Brewers territory and I think also Bulls/Bucks, and have lots of Chicago fans there anyway. This would be less great for Racine and points north, where the Chicago territories run out and cable companies would be asking subscribers to pay for a channel where Bulls and White Sox games are blacked out. People nowadays don't even like to pay for RSNs that can carry games.

 

I agree that Milwaukee is good enough for the NHL, and I've always said the NHL Central Division team should be up there and the farm team in Nashville. I think the market would be classified under "endearingly obnoxious" rather than Nashville's "exhaustingly obnoxious." But "yeah Chicago's just afraid, afraid of how great we are" is big-time Milwaukee mindset, and needs to be chuckled at accordingly. Milwaukee-as-Hawks-territory is a want, not a need!