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Can Memphis Support a Nfl Team


memphis born

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I think had Memphis landed a team before Nashville it would have had no problem suporting a team, but now that Nashville has a team the viability of the memphis market to support an NFL team on just WTN, portions of ARK, and NMS would be a hard task. Add to it the fact the city would then be supporting two pro-teams and I think you would be asking for hardships for both franchises.

A MLB team is not foreseeable or realistic either, but from the marketing standpoint it would have an easier time IMO working out in Memphis than the NFL for the simple fact it would pull from a larger geographic region with no overlap from competing franchises (being the closest franchises are St. Louis and Atlanta).

I think we should be happy we have the Grizzlies, the Redbirds, and the UofM teams for now. We have plenty of high quality sporting options for the city's size and the regional population's economic ability to support.

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I think Memphis would have no trouble supporting an NFL team. Football is king in the South, and just like Nashville, Memphis would sell out every game. If Memphis had the fortune of landing an NFL team ahead of Nashville, this would be a Nashville thread, and people in Nashville would be wondering the same thing.

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  • 3 weeks later...

In my humble opinion, if Jacksonville and Carolina can support NFL teams then Memphis can as well. I'm old enough to remember the old WFL and the Memphis Showboats and if memory serves me correctly the Memphis team was one of the few teams then to actually pull a profit and they sold plenty of tickets.

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Agreed! I have no doubt we can support an NFL team. I don't expect the league to expand anytime soon, however I do believe we would have a real shot at attracting a relocation team. Neworleans Saints as it stands right now have a lease thru 2009-2010, after that you best believe they will be relocating & Memphis may be on the list especially if we can resolve this OCS, Liberty Bowl situation soon. If the city builds a new state of the art stadium at the fairgrounds this will be a big boost toward landing the Saints in 2010.
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I don't believe Tom Benson nor his daughter who stands to inherit the team have plans to move to Memphis. Benson's expressed more interest in moving to San Antonio during the season following Hurricane Katrina. San Antonio officials offered many incentives for him to permanently relocate and Benson publically stated his preference to move there if the owners approved the move. Admitedly this could have all been bluster to try to get more from New Orleans officials, but there's no way to know for certain. He was asked by the Times Picayune newspaper and WWL sports if he would be interested in relocated to other locations (Memphis being one of the specific locations mentioned) and he expressed no interest in moving anywhere other than San Antonio.
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  • 1 year later...
Everything you just said is true. However, minds can be changed, and if Memphis put together a package and got advanced funding availabe for a stadum (needs to be private sector money), pre-sold enough season tickets and box suites and recieved enough support from local corporations (including Toyota in Tupelo) I garuntee you that if Memphis did these things they would be a serious contender. This isn't the same Memphis that went for a team almost 20 years ago now. We all know that.

However, an NFL team in Memphis will never work downtown. It needs to be out east, where the money is. It needs to be out off of I 40 near the new intersection of 40 and 269, and we don't need to waiste our money on a stadium until papers have be signed, but a group trying to lure the Saints could go ahead and purchase some land to show their seriousness. I know it could happen, because I believe in Memphis. Now as most of you know, I don't believe in our state government,or even our local government for that matter, but I do believe in the citizens of Memphis all of the way from here to Jackson and Tupelo and Little Rock, and we all together could make this happen.

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It simply is not going to happen for Memphis. This topic has been around for decades. It's useless beating a dead horse.

I too believe in the citizens of Memphis, and there is no question that help from the surrounding metro would go a long way in making a franchise here possible. I believe we have the best potential owner in Fred Smith & rumors have been swirling about him purchasing a team namely the ST. Louis rams & Jacksonville Jaguars. Here is a list of possible franchises we could land .

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/79776-n...e-new-orleans-m

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  • 1 month later...

Memphis sucks too badly for any NFL players, families, entourages, girlfriends, etc to want to live in such a hellhole, and the NFL don't want their players miserable, hanging out in a really really second rate, divisive, overgrown rivertown full of racists, bad entertainment, bad schools, bad politics, bad food, and high crime (ala Detroit..)

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