Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

The Louisville taxpayer fraud thread got me thinking. With the Yum! Center so far in the red, a NBA team is likely the only saving grace.

That being said, the Kings are relocating to Seattle. I don't know what other teams are looking into moving.

Teams really haven't done well attracting in college basketball states. The Bobcats haven't done well in North Carolina (UK, Duke) and Indiana does well when the Pacers win. I think the team would work if a team was winning, but otherwise fans will stay with college.

I think the state needs an NBA team to save the Yum! Center, but would it work out in the long run? I don't see it happening.

Re: Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

Could it work? Maybe, but a significant draw from the Cincy area would be a must. That stated, I also don't see it happening for one major reason:

1) I can't see the board of Governors allowing a team so close to one of the smallest markets - Indy.

As far as NBA teams in huge college BBall states, only an imbecile like George Shinn For Brains could have screwed up what was a great situation in Charlotte. People forget that Charlotte was among the leaders in attendance during the Alonzo Mourning / Larry Johnson Hornet years. And it doesn't help that the Bobcats have seemingly made bad personnel / draft decisions since their inception.

The mystery of failure in a college basketball state was Kansas City. Despite an exciting, competitive team in the early 80's, support for that team went out the window. And that was during a down period, relatively speaking, for the Jayhawks.

Once again, I believe that Sacramento is getting hosed by the Malgoof brothers, miserable, inept owners as they are.

Re: Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

The Kentucky Colonels were one of the best ABA teams with attendance in line with NBA teams at the time, it could work.

Re: Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

If they want to make it, it better not be named the Louisville something's.

Better make it the Kentucky something's or else it's doomed to fail

Re: Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

A revisiting of the Kentucky Colonel name would make sense, as that team had a great-- though short-- pedigree.

And, yeah, I think it'd work well as an NBA city. Louisville's centrally located and can draw from larger cities (Cincinnati, St. Louis) and smaller ones (Lexington) for a broad fanbase. The key, IMO, is signing local players.

Then winning.

Re: Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

It's been my experience that the NBA has almost zero appeal outside of it's team cities. I don't know that a franchise in, say, Louisville would ever be able to count on consistent support from Cincinnati.

Re: Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

If they sign a UC guy or an X guy...

Re: Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

Making a concerted effort to sign local guys is a terrible way to run an NBA franchise.

Re: Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

A hypothetical Louisville franchise could use it as a means to try and laydown some roots. You have UK, Cincy, Louisville, Dayton, Xavier all pretty good history of producing NBA caliber players to choose from. What if you could get a small spike from bringing in one of those guys at first just to try and get the hook into the area and then its upto said franchise to keep it?

Were not talking about a whole team of them but at most 1 or 2 of the higher end guys (whether through draft or even summer leagues). I think it could hypothetically work given the number of quality programs (and players) in the area... Just don't hire Cal or Pitino to coach it!

Re: Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

The Pacers have done fine even when they dont win. The reason is Indiana is a basketball crazy state. I think Kentucky is no different. The biggest problem is getting 10,000+ to attend home games 41 times a year. I dont know if Louisville can don that, but the Cincy metro area sure as heck could.

Re: Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

This would be my thinking on potential problems as well.

Cincinnati is a pro sports town like indy. Any NBA team in Louisville will come in third behind UofL and UK when competing for fans dollars.

The best comparison to the Louisville would be Charlotte, which will always be third behind UNC and Duke. Does Charlotte do well in attendance? My impression is they don't but that may be due more to the fact that they're awful.

Re: Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

Charlotte has proven in the past that they'll support an intelligently desgined team with playoff aspirations.

Louisville would do the same.

Cincinnati has proven in the past that it won't.

Re: Could a NBA team make it in Kentucky?
 

I believe it would do a really good job pulling from Southern Ohio, Southern Indiana, and all over Kentucky.

It would require a restructuring of the current lease with UL because they're set up to block it and they would do just that. Seeing the arena turn a profit isn't on the current agenda.

It seems to me that the well run organizations are usually not the ones looking to move.

Edit: But I think the NBA would be great for the city of Louisville. I just don't think the opposite, that Louisville would be great for the NBA.