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I agree OKC seems to have more of the drive you mention, but that is incredibly subjective, I couldn't personally back that up with any substantial facts, other than to say I have not heard any news of anyone there trying to get a sports team. Is anyone? If not then I guess this is all moot..
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I think ppassafi may have been talking about the Hornets deciding to move to New Orleans rather than Louisville from Charlotte back in 2002. If I remember correctly, Louisivlle was working hard and was close to landing the Hornets, but they ended up coming here.

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The Hornets had signed a letter of intent in 2002 to relocate to Louisville ON CONDITION that the city assist in constructing a new downtown arena to replace the 50 yr old freedom hall. Well the mayor slacked off and missed the deadline and nothing ever happened. There has been a whole book written about it called Airball. Look it up online. This also went down with two other franchises who almost moved to Louisville, the Rockets and the Grizzlies, although these two teams had never signed a conditional letter of intent to relocate.

Anyways, Louisville is larger than OKC in city, metro, and CSA, and it is a substantially larger Urban Area, meaning more people live closer to a downtown arena venue. Anyway you slice, it Louisville is larger than OKC. Furthermore, Louisville and Lexington share a similar distance and relationship as OKC and Tulsa. So again, you have another moot point. Sure OKC and Louisville are kind of similar, but only in the way Louisville and Nashville are similar. Look at stats and corporate buying power to see what I mean.

Either way, Louisville is a much older, denser, more vibrant city than OKC with a greater basketball tradition. Louisville had an original ABA team that competed against Indianapolis and San Antonio in the 1970's--two cities who moved their franchises to the NBA while Louisville's owners chose not to (again its all detailed in the book, Airball). And of course Louisville is well known as one of the nation's top college basketball meccas, with UK arguably being number one and UNC number two.

Furthermore, it seems you are unaware of the current boom in Louisville. Just next year, we will break ground on a $450 million state of the art arena with 70 luxury boxes on the river downtown. It will have a attached retail and a luxury 15-20 story hotel. www.louisvillearenaaouthority.com

Further down the street on Main, ground will break on a 61 story tower known as Museum Plaza that will house lofts, offices, retail, condos, and a contemporary art museum. www.museumplaza.net

Also breaking ground will be a 1500 unit urban village on the river called River Park that will contain several 16 story condo towers lining the river. www.riverparkplace.net

So, while OKC is certainly deserving, Louisville is much more deserving IMO with more money, more population, a better arena, and a better downtown. In the end, however, the most deserving city is Las Vegas, but that is a whole other story. I think Las Vegas is the no brainer to get a team, with Louisville and OKC being good options as well. For Louisville, its just a matter of getting the right leadership to lure a team once the arena is built (and by all indications, it may be the highest end arena in the country when complete and its preliminary function is to be home to UofL men's basketball team).

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LOL. I'm sure you'll say it was a "mistake", but you listed the CSA population for all of the metros except Louisville. The Louisville CSA has an estimated 2005 population of 1,342,918, which is slightly more than the estimated population of the Oklahoma CSA that you listed. Or if you meant to only compare MSAs, the Oklahoma City MSA has an estimated 2005 population of 1,156,812, which is slightly less than the estimated population of the Louisville MSA that you listed. Either way Louisville has a larger metro. Granted 50,000 people is little to argue over when determing who deserves a franchise...
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I never understood the whole town/village thing. In most of New England there are a number of villages with specific names, but they don't have their own government layer, they're mainly just names for parts of towns or nieghborhoods. Town/city government and state government are really the only entities, and counties are practically useless except for court districts and the national weather service... When I lived in New York I always thought it was odd to have a village goverment in a larger town, like where do you live, the Village of Colonie or the town of Latham?
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If Louisville and Oklahoma City had 600 sq. mi. boundaries that surrounded their densest contiguous census tracts Louisville would have a population of 893,983 while Oklahoma City would have a population of 854,263. While Louisville may have a more "urban" core due to it being a much older city, at 600 sq. mi. they aren't that much different as far as density is concerned. Granted, population and density don't directly relate to urbanity, but urbanity has nothing to do with professional franchises.

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If you guys want to argue about the growth of your cities go to this website recenter.tamu.edu this site is a census stat monster. When you go in there click on data. It will put all of your population growth and housing permits into perspective compared to other cities. By the way aren't the Hornets temporarily in Oklahoma because of Katrina so what is that arguement about anyway.

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New Jersey and Pennsylvania are two other states that are composed completely of incorporated municipalities. The town/township interchange exists there too. I doubt most people in NJ know (or care) whether their municipality is a town, township, borough, city, or village

Virginia is a strange state in that incorporated cities are separate from the counties that surround them. In effect Virginia's cities are themselves mini-counties. Maryland has one such city--Baltimore.

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LOL. I'm sure you'll say it was a "mistake", but you listed the CSA population for all of the metros except Louisville. The Louisville CSA has an estimated 2005 population of 1,342,918, which is slightly more than the estimated population of the Oklahoma CSA that you listed. Or if you meant to only compare MSAs, the Oklahoma City MSA has an estimated 2005 population of 1,156,812, which is slightly less than the estimated population of the Louisville MSA that you listed. Either way Louisville has a larger metro. Granted 50,000 people is little to argue over when determing who deserves a franchise...
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eh, they arent too off in metro or CSA, but Louisville is CLEARLY bigger in those categories by 50-100k.

What matters most is the actual CITY of Louisville is just so much bigger and denser. And furthermore, the basketball tradition and superior urban and new arena environment by 2010 makes it a better choice. I am not sure, but it would be my guess that the OKC MSA cover a sick geographic area and I also know that counties out there are just massive. Still, it may come down to which city wants it more (assuming a team wants to move which I am not convinced they will anytime soon plus they dont want any more expansion for now).

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You can count on the Hornets being back in New Orleans at this time next year simply because David Stern and the NBA want them here, and will not accept "no" for an answer. A few months ago, George Shinn was out in both cities saying that he wasn't sure if the Hornets would be back; the next week, David Stern said that the decision had been made with no if, and's, or but's, the Hornets would be back in New Orleans in 2007, and would remain here at least until their lease expires in 2011. Shinn may not want to come back, but at this point, it's really no even his decision anymore. You may have noticed that since Stern came out and made his statement, Shinn has been almost completely silent in terms of discussing the team's future location, because the NBA has made their decision.
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I see the Sonic commericals all the time as well, but they are everywhere around here. Not many in the actual city of New Orleans, but they're everywhere in the suburbs. The same can be said for Baton Rouge 70 miles to the west.

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Oh yeah, Sonic is great! :D And having never before seen their headquarters, I must say I'm EXTREMELY impressed. Very nice!!

We've always had Sonic as long as I can remember, but only recently have they really started expanding out. I have 3 of them within 2 miles of my office, for example. One to the east, one to the west, and one to the north. They also have a 'Sonic Bayou Cafe' on the second floor of our Bass Pro Shop. It's a normal Sonic as far as the food goes, but it's a sit-down restaurant and is completely indoors except for some balcony seating overlooking the river and the skyline.

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