urbanSTL

I think STL could  enter the mix. While I’d prefer NFL, NBA would be a nice addition. Maybe Chaifetz could gather a group of investors. I sure wish the Busches would step up & do something big for STL like the Taylors. We check a lot of boxes. STL metro is bigger than LV & KC.  I believe soccer is completely different than the other sports in town. I do not see overlap with the NBA.  Soccer is going to attract a certain kind of  hard-core fan base. You either love soccer or don’t.  I think it will be huge here, but I also think the NBA could be huge. Maybe Tatum, Beal, Chaifetz & other big names in STL could team up.  We have the revamped venue and the lack of NFL football would help.  I think the bad press and poor reputation get in the way just as much as real factors.  I honestly believe the Saint Louis market can support another team. Again, as much as I hate what the NFL did to us I prefer football because I love the sport., if we can score an NBA team, it would  give us  another amenity. Too bad Patrick Risch doesn’t include us in the conversation to help spread the idea. Little homerism !

I’m very skeptical... but Ross Chaifetz liking specific tweets is keeping a small little flicker of thought alive. He even went back a few years.

They’re either up to something OR he just really likes being a hypothetical hero.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I post this with the caveat I think STL getting a team is a long shot BUT there have been articles on his interest in getting a team in the past.

https://www.brewhoop.com/2014/4/7/55920 ... or-chicago

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business ... story.html

As discussed earlier in this thread... unfortunately we have nowhere for a NBA team to play. There would have to be a new arena built.

Scroll back to posts from fall 2016. Not enough room for an NBA team and the Blues without extensive expansion.

^ Heck, for that matter you could also build practice facilities across the street or even over the metrolink tracks or look at current parking structure.   Get creative and rehab an existing downtown building with a gym/fitness and a couple of courts for practice facilities.  Pick one of the upteen number of downtown surface parking lots for practice facilities.    Starting with the parking lot across the street and behind the old muni courts building.  

I assume the biggest issue with Enterprise Arena is how or can you find a way to have two separate locker facilities for two separate pro teams in this era of stadium building where locker/workout facilities are the nicest part of the stadium outside of high rent owner boxes.    I already have a development vision in my mind by knocking down the small Enterprise Arena parking garage on west side of arena for player lockers/player development/back office expansion and a new parking/underground structure behind Old Muni courthouse servicing Enterprise Arena/rehab Muni building & a residential/hotel tower on top of the new garage.  The underground portion of the parking structure can be reserved/gated access for Blues/NBA team with connecting pedestrian entrance under the street.  The above ground portion for Old Muni Courts building rehab/future tower.  

Easy.   All I have to do is win the trifecta on my lotto purchase that came along with my coffee & donut this morning - Powerball, Mega and Cali Super trifecta  win gets my in the ballpark to pull it off.   

^They wont share locker rooms.  In this modern day and age of sports, locker rooms are extremely customized for each team.  The NBA and NHL would demand separate facilities for their players.

^^Laife is right. Even the Mizzou teams don't share locker rooms anymore. Everybody that I can think of has their own: men's and women's b-ball, volleyball, football (multiple sets in some sense, since they're in the stadium and at the practice complex across the street), wrestling, gymnastics . . . Nobody shares, really. Not that I can think of. And the fancy ones are indeed really really fancy. About on a par with the luxury boxes. Same finishes, by and in large. Similar furniture. Equal or even better A/V. It's all pretty sweet.

I’m not a subject matter expert on every single stadium’s locker room set up, but I do have a ton of work experience in the sports management industry. And yes, Staples currently has 5 main lockers rooms, the Lakers, Clippers, and Kings all have their own and there are two other full sized ones are used by visiting teams. Not 100% positive if the Sparks use one of the Lakers or Clippers facilities since their seasons don’t really overlap or if they covert a visiting team locker room but... point still stands.

I’m not saying that Enterprise couldn’t be renovate to fit the required two full team’s personalized rooms, just that your second hypothetical would be a non-starter.

The Mizzou Arena does, more or less, have a wing of nothing but massive-custom built locker rooms. (Home locker rooms, a practice gym, training rooms, sports medicine, offices . . . It's a whole quadrant of the building the audience would never even know was there, as most of it is below grade and behind the building.  It's basically an attached three story building all its own.) And that's just one building used as the home arena for a pair of college teams, and I'm not actually sure the second team even has any space in the de-luxe quadrant. (They didn't when it was built. And they never shared locker rooms at the Hearnes center, so I can't imagine they do now.)

Two college teams. Playing the same sport. Just doing some back of the napkin math off Google Maps and a passing knowledge of the layout there's about fifty thousand square feet of specialized space back there. The private home-team area is far bigger far far fancier than most small college gyms. And there are a dozen other buildings littered around the sports campus for other teams. And if the college kids and their coaches can demand that kind of finish the NBA sure isn't settling for less.

The capacity at Enterprise is probably quite sufficient for both NHL and NBA. And there might be enough space to reconfigure the building to make locker rooms for two different home teams work. I've been backstage there a few times. The place is really pretty well thought out and there's a whole lot of space that could probably be repurposed in a pinch. (Though not without making some other event more difficult. Say, concerts, for instance.) And some of the fancy stuff Mizzou puts inside their arenas can be located off site for the majors. But make no mistake, they'll want their own locker rooms. And separate offices. Maybe they can share a few things like an interview room, but I wouldn't even guarantee that. I'm sure it can be made to work, but probably not without some significant construction and a budget. And all things of that nature get easier if you can add on to the building horizontally. I don't think anyone is saying it can't be done. But it would take some real work to make it happen.

Putting the locker room/arena issue aside for the moment.   Does the Blue's ownership group have the means or financial muscle to expand its reach with NBA team?  If not, would Blues ownership group entertain an expanded group and any other power players who can step to the plate?   I'm assuming that it would be a lot easier for the Taylor/Enterprise family to step to the plate if MLS stadium was completed and team was already playing.   Also, doubt DeWitt Family wants a part of it.   To me the most viable option is Blues ownership group expands and makes a play to own both NHL & NBA team

As noted previously, just paying for the franchise at roughly plus or minus $350 million is a big chunk of cash let alone the cost of organizing a legit group and getting through the first couple years of a new franchise.  

I wasn’t under the impression the Blues ownership had a bunch of extra money lying around (ie to buy into another team). I figure it has to be a separate group if it were to happen.

Does the NBA have any rules against cross-ownership like the NFL has? 

framer wrote: ↑

Jan 18, 2021

Does the NBA have any rules against cross-ownership like the NFL has? 

The NBA doesn't have restrictions on cross ownership (MSG Sports owns the Knicks and Rangers, Jerry Reinsdorf owns the Bulls and White Sox). I think the NFL got rid of there's a couple of years ago (Kroenke Sports now owns the Rams, Nuggets and Avalanche without the fiction of Stan's wife owning the Rams). 

wabash wrote: ↑

Jan 18, 2021

framer wrote: ↑

Jan 18, 2021

Does the NBA have any rules against cross-ownership like the NFL has? 

The NBA doesn't have restrictions on cross ownership (MSG Sports owns the Knicks and Rangers, Jerry Reinsdorf owns the Bulls and White Sox). I think the NFL got rid of there's a couple of years ago (Kroenke Sports now owns the Rams, Nuggets and Avalanche without the fiction of Stan's wife owning the Rams). 

Wikipedia still lists Ann as the owner of the nuggets/Avs but it might be out of date. Silly technically anyway.

St. Louis has a chance for the NBA if the league decides it wants to expand to 40 clubs. 

Personally, expansion probably makes sense from a monetary standpoint, but I don't think it does from a competitive standpoint. The league is already so top heavy. In a good year, the NBA has four, maybe five viable championship contenders. Usually, it's more like two or three. 

That said, if an ownership group could somehow form in support of St. Louis, l would be all for this. I just don't see it happening. 

KansasCitian wrote: ↑

Jan 19, 2021

Personally, expansion probably makes sense from a monetary standpoint, but I don't think it does from a competitive standpoint. The league is already so top heavy. In a good year, the NBA has four, maybe five viable championship contenders. Usually, it's more like two or three. 

Why is that, do you figure? Is it a money imbalance issue, as in baseball, or just not enough talent to go around, or what? Seeing as we don't have a team I don't really follow the NBA. (Though I could see myself getting excited fast if we had a team. Tigger games were sometimes fun. Especially when playing Kansas teams.)

^Players creating "super teams".  Outside of the recent Giannis extension, almost every major super star ends up getting traded to or signing onto a team to join forces with other super stars.

^That kind of sounds like a money imbalance problem. If some teams can afford to build super teams of star players, but others can't afford to pay enough to protect their stars from getting picked off by super-teams with deep pockets. I would have to hope that given sports around here that an ownership group trying to bring a team to St. Louis would have the fan support and pockets to at least try to field a competitive team if they want to. I bet they'd sell out that arena on the regular and get plenty of advertising bucks . . . assuming we're ever allowed to put butts in seats again soon. We do usually support our teams pretty solidly. (With the possible exception of turncoat teams with owners that insult us at every turn.) Might take a while if the sport is stacked against us that badly, but if hockey is any indication . . . we can be patient. (And eventually get results. I sure hope it doesn't take that long, though.)

There's a salary cap, so money imbalance isn't really the issue.  Star players just like to play in the larger markets if they can join up with their friends in LA or NYC.