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NBA comes to the Peg  A rant by: Mastafella Ok I just want to say way to go to the City of Winnipeg for getting a real NBA Basketball Game to take place here on Oct 24th, I didnt think that the interest in Professional Basketball was worth of a NBA Presentaion, but apparently every good seat available for this game between the Toronto Raptors (of course) and the Portland Trialblazers is sold out, the only seats left are behind the hoop or in the nose bleeds. The only crappy thing is that our ticket prices are pretty expensive for this event, In Minneapolis you can get tickets to a regular season game in the nose bleed section for about 12 bucks US. For this game in Winnipeg the least expensive tickets are about 30 some odd dollars after your service fees. I hope to see the MTS Center full of fans so we can get some more Basketball games here more often. Support our City or go back to Russia << Back Add a Comment Comments ( Add a Comment ) Anonymous says: 2005-10-13 22:38:10 Winnipeg just isn't a basketball city. I'm glad the NBA is coming here for an exhibition game and I know it will be well attended though... perhaps they'll make this a yearly thing in Winnipeg? But why are the Trailblazers of all teams coming here? I heard half the team has criminal records. Good luck making it across the border! Anonymous says: 2005-10-13 23:55:41 Criminal Records are okay in the murder capitol of Canada, It helps us boost our numbers. I'm sure they'll have no problem if they cross at Pembina. Basketball is definately not a Winnipeg Sport. We're more of a roughneck kinda town. I agree though, it's great to see the MTS centre being filled for events. Hopefully it does turn into something good. FreedomFries says: 2005-10-14 00:29:07 If they could keep prices low enough they would have huge success and a large fan base. They have to target the families. The Moose did it, and I think a semi-pro basketball team could do it too. Anonymous says: 2005-10-14 01:16:50 Pfft... the only reason the Moose are semi-successful is because this city LOVES hockey and there's no other pro hockey team. Really now- how many people would bother showing up for Moose games if Winnipeg had a WHL team? It's not the Moose "targets families".. they're MINOR LEAGUE team.... and ALL minor league sports teams target families. BigB says: 2005-10-14 10:47:26 We have a hockey team? I kid, But seriously...I went to see the moose the first year we had them, free tickets. It sucked. The calibre of hockey just isn't action packed. If we do get a talented player that does good we loose him right away bcs he gets called up to the farm leagues. If we are such a hockey town how come we couldn't keep the Jets? The truth is Winnipeg is a cheap city. Everyone is self-consumed and frugal. We are the motherland of "sales" and discount stores. Anonymous says: 2005-10-14 14:05:04 BigB: The Jets left because of Winnipeg Enterprises (terrible landlords of Wpg. Arena and they took a big % of the proft the Jets made), the HORRIBLE Winnipeg Arena (NHL's worst arena), and the fact that Gary Bettman wanted more teams in big U.S. cities to get his "dream t.v. contract of NFL proportions" that will never happen. It wasn't the fans fault the Jets left. None of those things are obstacles anymore. The NHL will return to Winnipeg within the next 2 years, I'm 100% sure of it. A struggling southern U.S.A.-based NHL team will be begging to have a Winnipeg-based ownership group (consisting of people like David Asper) to take their team off their hands. Can't happen? Tell me why not? Geeves says: 2006-10-19 05:36:22 I don't want an NHL team back here. I don't care what anyone says they bailed on us and now the league is starting to do bad because unlike last year the hardcore fans aren't so urgent to come into the league. I've moved on, and it makes me feel better to know that the NHL is no longer considered a major sports league. You guys should too, they wanted to leave not the other way around. Rigel says: 2006-10-22 20:18:54 Forget about any semi-pro basketball in this city. It may be a great game, but in Canada it faces too much competition from hockey just as hockey faces too much from basketball in the US. Sure it's played all the way through high school and in numerous men's leagues across the country, but when it comes to international competition, it's like soccer, volleyball, and baseball: our men or women are usually outclassed. There are/have been the odd players who've done well in the NBA; yet look how long the Vancouver Grizzlies lasted, and unless the Raptors start becoming more competitive, I wouldn't be surprised to see them moved to places which have had NBA/ABA franchises in the past; e.g., Cincinnati, Kansas City, St. Louis and Pittsburgh. There's just not enough interest to sustain any quality basketball teams in this country, and Winnipeg is no exception. The odds of the NHL coming back here are long enough; basketball is even longer. Rigel says: 2006-10-23 19:57:50 Anonymous asks if anyone can tell him why the NHL won't come back to Winnipeg, and I can give him the main reason: he's overestimating the level of genius that runs that league. The NHL likes to pretend it's a big-league operation, so if and when some franchise like Anaheim, Atlanta, Florida, Phoenix, etc., which have genuine big-league teams in baseball, football and basketball, decides to give up the ghost, the commissioner and owners will not want to move to what they consider a minor-league city like Winnipeg that can boast only CFL and Northern League teams. It would be an admission of failure. Now I'm not saying I agree with their logic, but logic doesn't prevail in the NHL. They may have introduced new rules to speed up the game, but that hasn't done anything to attract a major US television contract and probably never will. In addition, the owners are letting the salary cap creep up again, they haven't been smart enough to reduce the length of the season, which was advised by a number of sports analysts, nor have they made a move to downsize operations, another recommendation. I know that die-hards like BlackThorne and others who are genuine fans that know the game well will present counter-arguments, but I have little faith in the collective wisdom of NHL brass. So I would still bet they'll be foolish enough to attempt to move one or more of the struggling southern teams to some other US cities; then when they wipe out there, they'll finally downsize leaving us out of the picture. The only thing I can see that could bring us back would be if another Canadian city Winnipeg's size---e.g. Hamilton or Quebec---could offer a new arena. Then the league might grudgingly make a shift back to Canada with a couple of teams, but I'll believe it when I see it. Geeves says: 2006-11-01 15:59:51 Rigel, The Raptors will never move from Toronto. Their attendance is too strong. Look at the facts and not opinion. When has Toronto lost a team in any sport? Vancouver is simply not a good sports town. |
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Good point. But didn't we go throught a couple basketball teams already? I remember the Thunder and then we had another team. Forgive me for not having all the facts. But i thought we tried one league, couldnt arise enough interest so we got a lower end league and ended up having to give up on having a basketball team. I know that the MTS Centre gets people into the stands, But if we have games here on a regular basis would we really fill the stands once the novelty wears off?