I think you just made his point for him. TOR had Vince Carter - Half Man, Half Amazing. VAN had Bryant Reeves - Half Man, Half Tree Sloth. Who would you rather watch? BNM
Fans of other teams use attendance stats from the franchise's last year, and generalize to earlier years, to blame Grizzlie and Sonic fans for lack of support. But support broke down only in the last months of the last season, after it became obvious the cities were being dumped. In both cases, the owners bought the teams after promising they wouldn't move, immediately switched to an open mind, then supposedly changed their minds within months. You blame taxation of players, but they had no say in moving the Grizzlies. Blame taxation of the owner. The new owner was American, so he had to pay extra income tax, to both countries. It's American law. Stern should have found Canadian owners. Strange how Stern's name keeps popping up, almost as if he was a total incompetent. As for income sharing, the media mentions it at the start of every CBA negotiation, and the League poo-poos the idea, since it mainly represents the owners of the biggest cities. A little socialism would sure strengthen the league.
I have never lived there or been to a Vancouver Grizzlies game....the stats surprise me but all the cities you mentioned are football or baseball cities...all my Canadian friends over the years watched rugby more than basketball and were hockey fanatics...and if it was so popular...why didn't it grow? Why didn't Steve Francis want to play there? I think the city is great and enjoy visiting there but in my view...it's a minor league market and their loss of the franchise with no other Canadian competition to acquire them says something. They moved to Memphis but not Calgary or Winnepeg...I still maintain Canada is hockey crazed
The Clippers survived horrible ownership in a big market with lousy players and a cheap owner for a long time...the Grizzlies market wouldn't sustain that
Vancouver's metropolitan population is at least equal to Portland's. Vancouver's #1 sport is hockey. But it was learning basketball, and the crowds were surprisingly big for a city that considered it a women's sport till the Grizzlies arrived. And Steve Francis was a young punk who couldn't leave his mom. (Bibby cried at the draft when the Grizzlies picked him because Houston, I think was the team, had promised to pick him and then passed him over. Why do teams make such promises? Rashard Lewis cried at the draft when the Sonics picked him. I think that was Houston, and Bibby was the Clippers or something.)
Yeah, the stats are misleading in this case. Attendance figures don't accurately reflect the general interest. It's a big city with lots of disposable income. Events fill up just as something to do.
Riverman, you're batting .000 in this thread. While the article cites Bibby and Shareef a lot, the team's heart and soul was Blue Edwards.
