Quote:
Originally Posted by DatFiyah
Until Gayle Benson is dead, the Saints & Pelicans aren't going anywhere. Baton Rouge metro and Gulfport-Biloxi metro are both within an hour's drive of downtown New Orleans and take the overall population of the region to 2 million plus. Throw in Houma-Thibodaux, which is even closer than the rest, for extra measure. If you think all four of those metros are all comprised of impoverished people, you're mistaken.
Also, the entire State of Louisiana is willing to sell it's soul and resources to keep those teams happy in New Orleans. I only wish that the NBA team would have gone with "Gulf Coast whatevers" instead of New Orleans Pelicans. Or at the least, used a one-syllable word for the team. Still better than the Baby Cakes I suppose.
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None of those regions are particularly rich and you have to deal with college basketball in some cases.
And Baton Rouge is more like an hour an a half from New Orleans, especially when you consider it's more than literally just driving from Point A to Point B at 70 MPH but rather having to leave your home, get to the freeway, fight traffic, get off it, get to the arena, park and walk in.
Looking at it like that, it's a 3-4 hour round trip in traffic most nights. You'd have to be a diehard NBA fan to want to put up with that regularly. Even if you left with 5 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, you're looking at getting back home at 10:45-11:00 P.M. not to mention potentially missing an exciting ending often times. If you work a normal job or go to school that's gonna be hard to do.
It's not impossible but not convenient either except as an occasional thing. Luckily for the Pelicans, a significant number of their ticket buying fan base lives close to the arena, not to mention a few tourists. I'm still shocked they've lasted this long.