I would like to see either VAN or SEA get an NBA team. Here's an interesting link to historic attendance by franchise. Unfortunately, it only goes up to 2013-14. But, it's still possible to spot some trends. In addition to ATL - DEN, MIL, MIN all struggle to put butts in seats. One thing all four of these cities have in common is they all also have MLB and NFL teams that are more popular than their NBA teams. DEN and MIN also have NHL teams. SEA currently has and NFL teams and an MLB team and they didn't exactly support the last NBA team. Yeah, it sucks the way the current hillbilly owners lied and stole that team, but if the fans had supported them better, Howard Schultz might not have sold them in the first place. The fact of the matter is they draw better in OKC than they did in SEA. As much as I'd like to see a division rival that's actually in the same time zone as the Blazers, I'm not 100% convinced the people of Seattle would support an NBA team. VAN, on the other hand, is the city that really got fucked out of an NBA team. In spite of having the worst team in the league and a shitty arena, that city supported that team - until the owners put them up for sale and it became obvious they were a lame duck franchise that was going to be moving. Those first 4 years in VAN, they drew better than they ever have in MEM, even though the team has been much better, on the court, since the move. One thing working in VAN's favor is they already have an NBA quality arena. Rogers Arena was completed in 1995, same year as the Rose Garden with comparable seating capacity (19,700 vs. 19,393 for basketball). SEA still doesn't have an NBA caliber arena. I would like to see the league expand to an even 32 teams and then a realignment of the divisions, but before that happens, they need to address the parity issue. It's costing the league money. The ratings for the finals may have been fine, but total revenue from the playoffs was much lower than forecast due to the fewer number of games. GSW and CLE played a total of 25 games to reach the finals, one more than the minimum of 24 and the fewest ever combined total for the NBA finalists. In 2016 there were a record 5 sweeps and the total number of playoff games was 79, which tied the low since the current playoff format was adopted in 2002. This is down 6 games from the average of 85 playoff games from the preceding five seasons, including a record of 79 playoff games in 2014. That year there was only one sweep and a record of five 7 game series. 6 to 10 fewer playoffs games represents a significant loss of revenue for the league. This lack of competitiveness caused the NBA to revise the projected salary cap downward four times in the first year of the new TV deal. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation shows basketball related income during the first year of the new TV deal was $540 million less than originally projected and at least one fourth of that lost revenue was due to fewer than expected playoff games. It makes no sense to expand the league with the current noncompetitive climate. Fans are going to stay away in droves when their team has no chance at winning. So, either move a couple of the teams that have historically poor fan support, or address the competitive issue and expand. Better still address the competitive issue AND move a couple of the under-supported teams. BNM
Actually, if they put two expansion teams in the West, they only need re-align one team (MEM) to the East to end up with 16 teams in each conference. Currently, there are 15 teams per conference. Add two expansion teams to the West and move MEM to the East and you have 16 teams per conference: West: 15 + 2 - 1 = 16 East: 15 + 1 = 16 BNM
youre right I just hate having the Northwest Division including OKC and MIN we do by a wide margin the most traveling of any team and its bullshit. The only reason they havent realigned it is "because this is the way we've always done it" and it unfairly hampers exactly one team the portland trail blazers
Well, this isn't ALWAYS the way we've done it, just for the last 12 years. That was when the last realignment happened. At the time, there were still two NW teams in the NW division (VAN had already moved to MEM), but even then it didn't make sense to have MIN, two times zones away in the same division as POR and SEA. There have been several proposals for re-alignment, but I think the best would align the divisions based on times zones. It helps reduce jet lag and also helps schedule the road games so that they will be broadcast during prime time in the visiting team's home market, and higher TV ratings == more money. Right now, POR is the only team that doesn't have a single division rival in the same time zone, and half of our division rivals are two time zones away. That's bullshit. BNM
The DJ on 105.9 just mentioned that SEA may be getting an NBA expansion team. I don't usually listen to this station, but thought it was interesting that even a DJ on a local classic rock station is aware of the former Blazers/Sonics rivalry. BNM
