Will Louisville ever get a professional sports team?

[Plasticman]

^I haven't heard anything about that yet. I now OKC really is wanting to land the Hornets if they move, esp. after they hosted the team after Katrina.

It seems like Louisville would be a logical choice since it could form quick natural rivalries with Indy and Memphis. However, I have heard it said though by many folks that KY is a collegiate sports state, thus any pro-sports franchise would have a hard go - at least at first. I don't know to what degree that would hold true though.

[ATLBrain]

Pretty interesting topic as this is what just about every midsize metro thinks it wants. As NHL talk stirs Nashville, the NBA is on the ropes too with referee corruption and player misbehavior.

I really don't know a lot about how well positioned Kentucky is for an NBA franchise. However, one thing to consider in the comparisons are the relative sizes of the states currently. I truly believe that metros of the size of Nashville and Louisville and Memphis and even Indianapolis have to rely on the draw from their respective states (and border regions in the case of L'ville and Memphis et.al.). Having said that, it's my observation/opinion that Indy, Nashville and Charlotte have drawn well from their states. I don't have the slightest clue about Memphis. Anyway, given the respective sizes and existing loyalties of the local populations, it seems that KY would have a tough time attracting the NBA in the near future.

I give as an example, the Titans and their move into Middle Tennessee about 10 years ago. I'm very familiar with Nashville (went to undergrad there) and my wife is from Knoxville, where I go to most of the football games at UT each year. Of course, TN is a football state whereas KY is a basketball state (no duh!).

Now it's worth mentioning that the Titans had to build a market from the ground-up even before they actually moved to N'ville. It wasn't easy, but it turned out to be a convergence of good timing and decision making in an underserved pro-football market consisting of all of TN and parts of adjacent states. Not to mention, Nashville was at the beginning of a growth spurt. Still it was difficult to convince the UT faithful that the Titans were not planning to steal their thunder and steal from their loyalties.

Certain things helped at that time:

1. NFL schedules are weekly games and do not conflict with NCAA Saturdays.

2. Nashville is a major market for UT grads, and following the Titans was a natural move for a football hungry group who could "adopt" the team with little/no risk to their UT loyalties.

3. Nashville has long been a big event town, and the Titans simply added to the mix.

4. The team marketed itself to the whole state (e.g. Tennessee Titans). Contrary to its image, TN is actually a very populous state. Borrowing from the above poster's point about density, its population is quite dense and able to travel (quite easily) to the Titans home games in the middle of the state.

Now looking at KY, I see several things that could hurt its chances of landing a NBA team:

1. Small media markets. In comparison (not to start a p***ing match), TN has apx. 50% greater populaton than KY. Also, I've read comments on this board and SSC that Louisville/KY have a bit of a contentious (dare I say love/hate?) relationship with the populaton of KY outside of the Louisville area. If that's not true, then I've totally misread the comments. This is not insurmountable, but makes me wonder how favorably Birmingham might compare in this regard (in the middle of AL, 12% larger state population, two nearby metros, etc.).

2. Perhaps most importantly, KY has two traditionally strong (often national powerhouse) collegiate basketball teams within spitting distance from each other. Not only is it NOT in the best interests of the respective colleges for a professional team to locate in their backyard for conflicts with team support... but IMO, the boosters of the respective teams would have a huge task of getting past (what I called) the risk of supporting another team. Remember, that NBA schedules have lots of potential overlap with the NCAA schedules, a problem the NFL/NCAA football don't have. (Once again, I think Birmingham might have the upper hand in this comparison as there's no college powerhouses in that metro, and (oddly) it sits in "neutral ground" between the fierce rivalry between UA and Auburn.

So I think professional sports are highly overrated. True, it's nice to have that outlet available for entertainment, but it's really not what I consider the "nuts and bolts" of a great city/state. From what I've read on this board, it sounds like the two major cities in KY are doing a lot of good things to increase their appeal as great places to live.

That's my take on things.

[cashville]

^ One advantage Louisville has is the fact that the Lexington market is only about an hour away, thats 500,000-600,000 people in the MSA and a top 60ish TV market that some (maybe all) the games would be broadcast on and would also draw a lot of fans to attend the game. There are a lot of UK alums in the NBA and UK fans love to watch them in the NBA.

Also the Cincinnati market would be more of an asset for an NBA team, there are over 400,000 people on the KY side of the metro that are also only an hour or a little more away from Louisville. The way Fox Sports Ohio is set up there is a way where a Louisville NBA team could get games on the Cincinnati section of the network. When I lived in NKY and got FSO in the Cincy market there were several times Caviliers games would be the scheduled game on TV but it would never be on instead they would show some other Fox Sports programming or BlueJackets Hockey games, neither of which are much of a draw in the area. FSO is also in the Lexington area so even if local Lexington station doesnt carry the game it could be shown on FSO.