I'm not surprised to hear this, though I think Charlotte should be more of a relocation candidate than Memphis. Memphis is a straight up basketball city from prep to pro, that city loves basketball and they love the Grizzlies.
In comparison, the Charlotte Hornets have smaller fanfare in Charlotte compared to the Grizzlies in Memphis. Very niche fanbase, the city overall barely cares about them. The Panthers are immensely popular, abd Charlotte FC is a bigger deal than the Hornets; Hornets are third wheel in a 3-team city.
If the NBA is evaluating teams to relocate it should be the Pelicans and Hornets. Relocating the Grizzlies would be the wrong move, the fanbase there is like how the OKC and SLC support the Jazz and Thunder.
Generally speaking, IMO, the South is the worst region for basketball, especially at a pro level. The culture of basketball is lacking in those areas, as Southerners are not really big basketball fans
.
Collegiate basketball might be different, due to the whole school traditions, etc, but when it comes to pro basketball it is much better overall in the East, West, and maybe the Midwest.
I mean most of the southern cities support their NBA team really well. Its really only the Pelicans and Hornets who are outliers.
The NBA is just looking at its two smallest markets/cities, New Orleans and Memphis. They the smallest cities in the NBA, thats all this is.
Utah, Charlotte, New Orleans, Memphis, Sacramento can all get the fukk out. Contraction not moving cities though
Salt Lake, Memphis, and Sacramento are straight up and down basketball cities all the way around.
Charlotte is a football city. Soccer, golf, and NASCAR are just as or more popular as basketball is there.
All I hear is that Vegas is dying and The Strip is empty on weekdays. I think a lot of the Vegas talk has cooled. If the A's actually move there what expendable money is left to support a NBA franchise? A lot of tourist are staying away from Vegas, too expensive now they say. Unless things change, I don't see Vegas as a no brainer anymore. Not even sure if Seattle is still on the table. Weaker economy and the Sonics would have to compete with the Seahawks, NHL's Kraken, U Washington Football which has grown bigger over the years. Maybe I'm wrong tho
In addition to this, the NBA should have been concerned about oversaturation in Vegas from the start. Adding an NBA team there, would make Vegas a 4-league city; the smallest 4-league city currently is Seattle, which is nearly twice the size of Vegas.
There's no guarantee that Vegas could support a 4th team, just off of size alone it would be a gamble.
Seattle could more easily support a 5th team, as its bigger than both Denver and Minneapolis, both of which have 5 teams.
and historically not quite as loved as the Raiders (even though they predate the Raiders in LA), but the Raiders are losing fan share in LA.