BY Jon Solomon
Birmingham News
14 June 2012
With what major corporations investing in a franchise? With what assurances of filling a new arena and luxury suites for 41 days a year? With what interest from the NBA to relocate into a county drowning in the largest bankruptcy in U.S. municipal history due to a botched sewer project filled with corruption?
As intriguing as the NBA sounds, it's a pipe dream.
It doesn't rise to the absurdity of ex-Mayor Larry Langford creating a 2020 Olympics committee. (Note to Birmingham: We lost. Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul somehow beat us as the 2020 finalists.) But the NBA is not practical, either.
It's not that basketball fans don't exist in Birmingham. While this will always be a football city first, the dirty secret is basketball has a following, too, albeit much smaller.
Regular-season NBA games on ESPN this season drew a 2.4 rating in Birmingham, meaning 2.4 percent of households were watching. Stunningly, that's second in the country only to Memphis (2.7); the national average was 1.4.
Check out the top 10 TV markets for Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Notice the one that's not an NBA market?
With what major corporations investing in a franchise? With what assurances of filling a new arena and luxury suites for 41 days a year? With what interest from the NBA to relocate into a county drowning in the largest bankruptcy in U.S. municipal history due to a botched sewer project filled with corruption?
As intriguing as the NBA sounds, it's a pipe dream.
It doesn't rise to the absurdity of ex-Mayor Larry Langford creating a 2020 Olympics committee. (Note to Birmingham: We lost. Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul somehow beat us as the 2020 finalists.) But the NBA is not practical, either.
It's not that basketball fans don't exist in Birmingham. While this will always be a football city first, the dirty secret is basketball has a following, too, albeit much smaller.
Regular-season NBA games on ESPN this season drew a 2.4 rating in Birmingham, meaning 2.4 percent of households were watching. Stunningly, that's second in the country only to Memphis (2.7); the national average was 1.4.
Check out the top 10 TV markets for Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Notice the one that's not an NBA market?
Oklahoma City, 44.4.
Miami-Fort Lauderdale, 30.5.
Tulsa, 27.7.
West Palm Beach, 17.9.
Cleveland, 17.8.
Memphis, 15.8.
San Antonio, 15.6.
Birmingham, 14.6.
New Orleans, 14.4.
Chicago, 14.2.
Then again, I'm convinced ESPN could televise Birmingham rush-hour traffic on 280 and it would draw a 1.0.
The larger issue with an NBA franchise is applying professional sports ticket prices and filling a new arena that would have to be built. It's one thing to periodically attend NBA games. It's quite another to buy season tickets and suites.
Pro sports relies heavily on corporate dollars. It's hard to imagine enough corporate dollars could support the NBA and continue giving the same amount to Alabama and Auburn sports.
Consider the city of Memphis, which often wonders if it can support the NBA long term. Memphis has three 2012 Fortune 500 companies: No. 70 FedEx ($39.3 billion in annual revenue), No. 111 International Paper ($26 billion) and No. 320 AutoZone ($8.1 billion). Tennessee has nine on the list of largest corporations in the country.
New Orleans, whose pro teams have considered leaving, has one Fortune 500 company: No. 239 Entergy (11.2 billion). Two other companies in Louisiana made the list.
Birmingham? Our only Fortune 500 company is also Alabama's only one: No. 343 Regions Financial ($7.4 billion), which dropped 50 slots from last year's list. Thirteen years ago, Birmingham had six Fortune 500 companies.
In Oklahoma City, which has two Fortune 500 companies, the Thunder have helped make the city known for more than a senseless bombing. Oklahoma City is now home to some of the world's best basketball. There's a bond between the city and franchise since Thunder owner Clay Bennett ruthlessly brought the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma City.
The Thunder created a sense of community that too often we lack in fragmented Birmingham.
Maybe that's why Birmingham leaders often feed us sports as a savior for civic pride and new tax revenue, even as city schools crumble and the population dwindles.
The idea is so tantalizing of a Kevin Durant bringing us together. Blacks and whites, rich and poor, Alabama and Auburn -- all pulling for one cause.
It's a nice thought. But with the NBA, it's not based in reality.
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