Division Realignment & Future Expansion Teams

Portland would have a problem trying to get the money to build a stadium. There's no way the taxpayers are going to vote for a bond to pay for it. Phil Knight is the only billionaire in the state and he's busy paying for Oregon's sports. Beside's he's 86 and isn't going to be around much longer.

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:

Portland would have a problem trying to get the money to build a stadium. There's no way the taxpayers are going to vote for a bond to pay for it. Phil Knight is the only billionaire in the state and he's busy paying for Oregon's sports. Beside's he's 86 and isn't going to be around much longer.

The tax payers wouldn't necessarily have to. I mean, Reliant paid 300 million for naming rights for the Texans stadium over 20 years ago. Perhaps naming rights plus private funds would be enough.

Originally posted by WINiner:

Originally posted by captveg:
Historic rivalries > geographic perfection.

Flipping the Bucs and Cowboys would unnecessarily ruin 60+ years of Cowboys vs. Giants/Eagles/Commanders rivalry, for example.

As for expansion to St. Louis, there's a perception problem with them losing two different NFL teams in the past, and the current owners also had to pay the city a bunch of money due to moving the Rams, which will make them the opposite of eager to give them another team. I'd put such places as Portland, San Antonio/Austin, Mexico City and even San Diego above St. Louis.

San Diego was an awful fanbase. There's a reason they are the LA Chargers in the same geographical area.

the move to LA had nothing to do with fan base. It was purely a financial decision by ownership. The city didn't want to fork out the mega bucks that ownership wanted from taxpayers to finance their stadium. Like every good California fan, they turned on the team when they announced their intention to move to LA. The fans reacted just like we would if our team moved to LA. Hate the Dodgers, Rams, and Lakers. If you're a true NC fan you do the same.

lot of teams now, and i am glad they did alignment back in the day. back in the day atlanta was somehow west. and phoenix was somehow east. it didn't make much sense. now what i want to see is 18 games regular season. an odd number of games gives an imbalance, more home than road for some teams. you do 2 preseason and 18 regular. instead of 3 preseason and 17 regular. 20 either way.

I don't think they could get a stadium built unless someone paid for it themselves, but Toronto could be a massive success for an NFL team.

As a Canadian I don't want it to happen because it would be the final nail for the CFL as all sponsorship money would move to the Canadian NFL team, but if the Skydome was football friendly a Toronto team would be huge. I'm too lazy to google it, but I imagine it would be top 10 in local market size, and also become at least semi-popular across the country the way the Blue Jays are.

Originally posted by bigmur49:

I don't think they could get a stadium built unless someone paid for it themselves, but Toronto could be a massive success for an NFL team.

As a Canadian I don't want it to happen because it would be the final nail for the CFL as all sponsorship money would move to the Canadian NFL team, but if the Skydome was football friendly a Toronto team would be huge. I'm too lazy to google it, but I imagine it would be top 10 in local market size, and also become at least semi-popular across the country the way the Blue Jays are.

I've heard a lot of talk of Toronto but don't know how popular that team would be with locals.

Originally posted by Monsterniner:
Cowboys-Saints and Dolphins-Jaguars would become 2 great new rivalries

About the expansion teams I think that Oklahoma City and Salt Lake City would be good markets because Thunder and Jazz have been very successful in terms of interest from the city but everything is about money as always and I don't know if those cities would approve new taxes for a fancy stadium.

About Birminghan I think that Alabama is all about college football.

14 years in OKC. For football it is Sooners, OSU Cowboys and then Dallas. Deep bonds with college teams. Population density for NFL stadium and subsequent sustainment of it does not favor the idea either as you correctly allude to. IMHO.

Originally posted by 49erFaithful6:
lot of teams now, and i am glad they did alignment back in the day. back in the day atlanta was somehow west. and phoenix was somehow east. it didn't make much sense. now what i want to see is 18 games regular season. an odd number of games gives an imbalance, more home than road for some teams. you do 2 preseason and 18 regular. instead of 3 preseason and 17 regular. 20 either way.

18 game season is inevitable. I think Roger Goodell has hinted at that. But they have to give 2 bye weeks to let players heal. First before the 9th game and the other after.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
Portland would have a problem trying to get the money to build a stadium. There's no way the taxpayers are going to vote for a bond to pay for it. Phil Knight is the only billionaire in the state and he's busy paying for Oregon's sports. Beside's he's 86 and isn't going to be around much longer.

The tax payers wouldn't necessarily have to. I mean, Reliant paid 300 million for naming rights for the Texans stadium over 20 years ago. Perhaps naming rights plus private funds would be enough.

That's part of the problem. Oregon doesn't have a lot of big companies. They went through this when they tried to get a baseball stadium built. It's why Oakland lost the Raiders, As and Warriors. No corporate money in that town. Oregon football is king in this state. It would be hard to build a fan base since everyone here is a49er or Seahawks fan already. I'm sure Seattle would fight it too since the NFL has declared this is their territory.

Originally posted by DrEll:

Originally posted by 49erFaithful6:
lot of teams now, and i am glad they did alignment back in the day. back in the day atlanta was somehow west. and phoenix was somehow east. it didn't make much sense. now what i want to see is 18 games regular season. an odd number of games gives an imbalance, more home than road for some teams. you do 2 preseason and 18 regular. instead of 3 preseason and 17 regular. 20 either way.

18 game season is inevitable. I think Roger Goodell has hinted at that. But they have to give 2 bye weeks to let players heal. First before the 9th game and the other after.

18 game season they say is too long, and player safety concerns.. my idea would be players can only be active 16 games. your idea is more likely.

Originally posted by 1ovydog:

Originally posted by Monsterniner:

Cowboys-Saints and Dolphins-Jaguars would become 2 great new rivalries

About the expansion teams I think that Oklahoma City and Salt Lake City would be good markets because Thunder and Jazz have been very successful in terms of interest from the city but everything is about money as always and I don't know if those cities would approve new taxes for a fancy stadium.

About Birminghan I think that Alabama is all about college football.

14 years in OKC. For football it is Sooners, OSU Cowboys and then Dallas. Deep bonds with college teams. Population density for NFL stadium and subsequent sustainment of it does not favor the idea either as you correctly allude to. IMHO.

I think the only reason OKC roots for Dallas is cause they have no team. I think they'd go absolutely insane to have their own NFL team.

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:

Portland would have a problem trying to get the money to build a stadium. There's no way the taxpayers are going to vote for a bond to pay for it. Phil Knight is the only billionaire in the state and he's busy paying for Oregon's sports. Beside's he's 86 and isn't going to be around much longer.

The tax payers wouldn't necessarily have to. I mean, Reliant paid 300 million for naming rights for the Texans stadium over 20 years ago. Perhaps naming rights plus private funds would be enough.

That's part of the problem. Oregon doesn't have a lot of big companies. They went through this when they tried to get a baseball stadium built. It's why Oakland lost the Raiders, As and Warriors. No corporate money in that town. Oregon football is king in this state. It would be hard to build a fan base since everyone here is a49er or Seahawks fan already. I'm sure Seattle would fight it too since the NFL has declared this is their territory.

Fair point on Niners fans claiming that area but you never know. Salt Lake City though, I still think that's a growing sports market and it'd be nice to have another team in the West.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
Portland would have a problem trying to get the money to build a stadium. There's no way the taxpayers are going to vote for a bond to pay for it. Phil Knight is the only billionaire in the state and he's busy paying for Oregon's sports. Beside's he's 86 and isn't going to be around much longer.

The tax payers wouldn't necessarily have to. I mean, Reliant paid 300 million for naming rights for the Texans stadium over 20 years ago. Perhaps naming rights plus private funds would be enough.

That's part of the problem. Oregon doesn't have a lot of big companies. They went through this when they tried to get a baseball stadium built. It's why Oakland lost the Raiders, As and Warriors. No corporate money in that town. Oregon football is king in this state. It would be hard to build a fan base since everyone here is a49er or Seahawks fan already. I'm sure Seattle would fight it too since the NFL has declared this is their territory.

Fair point on Niners fans claiming that area but you never know. Salt Lake City though, I still think that's a growing sports market and it'd be nice to have another team in the West.

I don't think the NFL will come to Portland, too small a market. The push for a baseball team is going nowhere and it would likely have priority over the NFL, we can barely keep the Blazers and they are loved

Originally posted by ChaunceyGardner:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
Portland would have a problem trying to get the money to build a stadium. There's no way the taxpayers are going to vote for a bond to pay for it. Phil Knight is the only billionaire in the state and he's busy paying for Oregon's sports. Beside's he's 86 and isn't going to be around much longer.

The tax payers wouldn't necessarily have to. I mean, Reliant paid 300 million for naming rights for the Texans stadium over 20 years ago. Perhaps naming rights plus private funds would be enough.

That's part of the problem. Oregon doesn't have a lot of big companies. They went through this when they tried to get a baseball stadium built. It's why Oakland lost the Raiders, As and Warriors. No corporate money in that town. Oregon football is king in this state. It would be hard to build a fan base since everyone here is a49er or Seahawks fan already. I'm sure Seattle would fight it too since the NFL has declared this is their territory.

Fair point on Niners fans claiming that area but you never know. Salt Lake City though, I still think that's a growing sports market and it'd be nice to have another team in the West.

I don't think the NFL will come to Portland, too small a market. The push for a baseball team is going nowhere and it would likely have priority over the NFL, we can barely keep the Blazers and they are loved

Portland itself has about 600,000 residents. Once you get outside the metro area there aren't a lot of people. The next 2 largest cities are Salem (about 40 miles south) and Eugene (about 100 miles south). Between them they have about 320,000 people. Just not enough to support a sport that charges $250 or more per game. Salt Lake City is the same way. The city has a population of 210,00 with about 1,200,000 in the metro area. That's not a lot of people since not everyone is a football fan.

I could see swapping the Cardinals and the Chargers. That would set up a natural rivalry between the Rams and Chargers and the Cardinals and the Raiders.