Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
Quebec City will not pay $500M for a team. Quebecor balked at the price tag in the last expansion. If they were game to pay that, there would be a team in Quebec City right now. No one in Canada is ponying up $500M USD for an expansion team. Not even someone in Toronto.
Houston is probably not in the mix for expansion either. Expansion will be a result of a market wanting to plant their flag and beat out the competition from the other leagues. Las Vegas was game, because they knew they would be able to have a two year lead on the the NFL coming to town. Houston will be a secondary tenant to the Rockets, so it will be a cheaper relocation scenario (Calgary or Arizona IMO). Seattle might be willing to cough up that money for expansion, just to force the hands of the NBA. This is a situation that will need monitoring as I think it could go either way. The Seattle market is great sports market, but you have acknowledge pecking order for the sports ticket dollar.
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I think the league will agree to give Quebec a discount. Why? It will restore balance, they can argue it closes the loop on this round of expansion and therefore not precedent setting, and thirdly it's the only way to get their hands on say 400 mil.