Why you no NBA

[WeaponOfChoice]

Out of market Pens fan here. I was just looking for some info on why the NBA hasn't expanded/relocated to Pittsburgh.
You guys follow the NCAA pretty good. Should be a prime market.

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[Malkinstheman]

Pittsburgh is the 27th largest metro area in the US and already has NFL, NHL and MLB teams. There probably isnt enough juice left for the NBA to be interested.

 

[WeaponOfChoice]

Pittsburgh is the 27th largest metro area in the US and already has NFL, NHL and MLB teams. There probably isnt enough juice left for the NBA to be interested.

Just asking, is it a wealthy metro? Do you think there's enough money for a 4th team in the market?

 

[Beauner]

Just asking, is it a wealthy metro? Do you think there's enough money for a 4th team in the market?

The real problem is that no one cares about the nba here. People barely care about Pitt unless they’re good

 

[Malkinstheman]

Just asking, is it a wealthy metro? Do you think there's enough money for a 4th team in the market?

That im not too sure of. Maybe a Pittsburgh native here can comment on that

 

[WeaponOfChoice]

The real problem is that no one cares about the nba here. People barely care about Pitt unless they’re good

I thought they had a good ncaa following?

Edit to add: i don't follow College sports. Especially US College sports.

 

[Beauner]

I though they had a good ncaa following?

Only when they’re decent. And even then, they don’t get a ton of press

 

[PenguinSuitedUp]

No thanks on basketball. Don’t need another sport for my favorite team to compete with.

 

[WeaponOfChoice]

No thanks on basketball. Don’t need another sport for my favorite team to compete with.

What about an MLS team? Seasons don't overlap as much

 

[GilbertSeinfeld]

What about an MLS team? Seasons don't overlap as much

They have the Riverhounds, and they do decently attendance wise, but I'm not sure in which league they play.

 

[WeaponOfChoice]

They have the Riverhounds, and they do decently attendance wise, but I'm not sure in which league they play.

Just looked it up. They play in the Second tier of US soccer (behind mls).

 

[PenguinSuitedUp]

What about an MLS team? Seasons don't overlap as much.

I’d be more interested in removing teams from Pittsburgh. Ones that have actively tried to be bad for two plus decades

 

[DesertedPenguin]

Out of market Pens fan here. I was just looking for some info on why the NBA hasn't expanded/relocated to Pittsburgh.
You guys follow the NCAA pretty good. Should be a prime market.

University of Pittsburgh basketball does well with attendance, but only when the team is good and even then it's usually driven by college students who get special tickets.

Pittsburgh is too small of a market to satisfy the needs of four major professional sports franchises.

The smallest metro area with four teams is Denver, which has 2.9 million people in the metro area. It also benefits by being the only major sports city in a significant radius. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, has about 2.3 million people in the metro area and has stiff competition nearby - Cleveland is two hours away, while Buffalo, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. are four hours away.

Because of this, Pittsburgh does not have the disposable income or corporate sponsorship base necessary for four pro sports franchises. While Pittsburgh has become a tech and medical hub that numerous major corporations and organizations call home, wages generally haven't grown. In fact, a number of tech workers in the region try to find remote work for companies based elsewhere; a company based in San Francisco will pay a remote worker living in Pittsburgh more than a company that is actually based in Pittsburgh will pay that same worker.

Finally, the NBA doesn't need Pittsburgh. This isn't a market that matters to them. Pittsburgh doesn't bring in a new audience. It doesn't bring in a wealth of new advertising or TV dollars. And it's not an area that's churning out high level college players - I think there are only two players born in the area playing in the NBA right now (TJ McConnell and Cam Johnson).

 

[Jacob]

Just asking, is it a wealthy metro? Do you think there's enough money for a 4th team in the market?

I think if they won and had a star they probably would. But that could go for a lot of cities.

Pittsburgh will support the Steelers always and the Pirates & Penguins if they’re winning. But our grasp on even 3 teams hasn’t always been very strong, so 4 would be really stretching the market pretty thin.

 

[Rave7215]

I thought they had a good ncaa following?

Edit to add: i don't follow College sports. Especially US College sports.

Not since they moved to the ACC

 

[Ryder71]

NBA sucks! No thanks!

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Out of market Pens fan here. I was just looking for some info on why the NBA hasn't expanded/relocated to Pittsburgh.
You guys follow the NCAA pretty good. Should be a prime market.

Because it sucks.

 

[Ignatius]

The NBA seems to do okay adding teams and areas where there is little to no competition for pro sports attention, think Memphis. All of the teams in Pittsburgh have been cemented with memorable periods of success and if you can't establish that then don't bother. If the NBA added a team in Pittsburgh they would need to be immediately successful like the Vegas Golden Knights were for anyone in Pittsburgh to maintain interest.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

Out of market Pens fan here. I was just looking for some info on why the NBA hasn't expanded/relocated to Pittsburgh.
You guys follow the NCAA pretty good. Should be a prime market.

Well the Pittsburgh Pisces didn't do so well, so....

 

[KrisLetAngry]

I don't think Pittsburgh is big enough for a NBA team


Don't live there but with 3 franchises out of the 4 pretty tapped

 

[Factorial]

Well the Pittsburgh Pisces didn't do so well, so....

We had the mythical Pittsburgh Pythons too. My brother and I went to the Civic Arena when they were filming it to be in crowd shots.

The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I don't think I could lay it out any better than @DesertedPenguin did, so I won't bother to try.

For me personally basketball is at the bottom of my major sport list and that's a product of the lack of an NBA team. Little kid me was way into basketball, but the lack of a team meant my interest just evaporated by age 12. Living down the road from the Staples Center didn't do shit to revive that interest in my 20s, but then again I hated both the Lakers & Clippers as a little kid so turning that fan switch on just didn't work the way I was able to with the LA Galaxy (whom I was indifferent to because the MLS was less relevant than Roller Hockey International was to a suburban Yinzer in the 90s).

Ultimately I think the MLS is significantly more likely than the NBA,...and I don't think the MLS is likely without a promotion/relegation system. There's just not enough people/money to make it worth it, plus the city's history with the sport is a bit of an ouroboros. There's no history of consistently supporting a team and there's no team that's been consistently worthy of support. If Pittsburgh got an NBA team instead of an NHL team in 1967 I have no doubt it'd be a basketball hotspot, but that's not the timeline we live on.

FWIW there's too many college teams vying for attention for Pitt to ever be fully adopted by the city as a whole. I grew up surrounded by Penn State alumni/fans, so Pitt was a non-starter for little kid me...and Penn State basketball means I've never really paid attention to the college game. That includes as a student; I went to every Montana football game and 1 whole basketball game...and that was only because a Finnish guy wanted to go.

It doesn't help the NBA team I did decide to ultimately adopt was the Seattle SuperSonics