Part 2: Why isn’t minor league basketball taken seriously?

(editor's note: After some minor site difficulties, we are now fully operational at our brand spankin' new webhost. We're celebrating this outstanding acheivement in the field of excellence by continuing our series on the wonders of minor league basketball. This entry was written entirely by co-bloggist draftmocker and I found nothing to add of my own, so enjoy!)

To get you up to speed, we're contemplating the state of minor league basketball. For the first in this series, click here.

And to finish up the series, I give you...the Eastern Division



Norfolk/Virginia Beach (1.65 million people, no teams): While this area is kind of spread out, it has a very nice arena in the Hampton Coliseum, more or less centrally located. Hampton is also close enough to draw from Richmond.

Greensboro/Winston-Salem (1.11 million people, no teams): Neither of these cities are huge (both about half a million), but they’re pretty close together. Raleigh-Durham might seem like a better choice in that they’re bigger and have better facilities, but they have the ACC trinity in Duke, UNC, and NC State within metro limits. There’s nothing like that in Greensboro-Winston-Salem. On the other hand, the Hurricanes’ arena in Raleigh may make that a better pick. Either way, there should be a team in central NC.

Hartford (1.19 million people, no teams): If you put the arena on the south side of Hartford, you can draw from New Haven (800k people). If you put the arena on the north side of Hartford, you can draw from Springfield, Mass (600k people). If you use the Whalers’ old arena, you don’t have to build a new one.

Louisville (1.2 million people, no teams): Louisville made a serious run at the Hornets and the Grizzlies when both teams were moving. Freedom Hall would make a decent facility, basketball is big in both Indiana and Kentucky, and Rick Pitino could fulfill his desire to coach in the NBA without leaving town or dealing with egos larger than his.

Columbus (1.7 million people, 1 team): I originally had Dayton in this slot, but Columbus is significantly bigger and has the Blue Jackets arena to poach. While there is some competition from OSU basketball, I don’t expect the Oden era to last 4 years.

Rochester (1.04 million people, no teams): While the population figures are extremely generous (I would put the number closer to 700k), and the city’s slowly dying, there used to have an ABA franchise in Rochester. If it doesn’t work out, they can always move. Also, according to the city website, they have a professional women’s football team. Any city which will support that will go see NBDL games.

Grand Rapids (768,000 people, no teams): Grand Rapids is a lot like Dayton or Toledo, but slightly bigger. Beyond geographic balance and lack of competition, there’s no great reason to put a team here, but it is close enough to Lansing and Kalamazoo to pull additional people from those cities. Franchise player: Mateen Cleaves.

Birmingham (1.01 million people, no teams): Birmingham is growing rapidly for no clear reason, and the megachurches desperately need some competition. Putting a basketball team in town satisfies everyone, as it provides both entertainment and something new to demonize.

Greenville/Spartanburg, SC (848,000 people, no teams): While it’s never good to have to put a state name after the city to make it clear which one you’re talking about it, this is actually a pretty busy area. Some of the outlying area is closer to Charlotte, and it might make more sense to bust the Bobcats down to the D-league- but since that’s not going to happen, this seems as good a place as any for a team.

Jacksonville (1.23 million people, 1 team): How does Jacksonville have an NFL team, again? I’m not sure about this last choice. It’s partially for geographic balance, because it seems like a bad idea to leave Florida unrepresented (and the closest other choice was Albany, which is too much like Rochester), and partially because it was one of the largest cities on here. Still, I’d feel better about putting a team in a place like Peoria, if only it were bigger. Not that there’s a reason for Peoria to be bigger. Jacksonville it is.

Other options considered: Cincinnati, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Nashville, and Tampa were all eliminated due to overrepresentation (and, in the case of Pittsburgh at least, failure to justify the existence of existing franchises). It would be something of an embarrassment to Tampa to have an NBDL team out-draw the Devil Rays; Cincinnati already has a team of professional-caliber miscreants, and putting a team in Buffalo would almost guarantee it a shitty name, like the Horns or the Herd. Nashville has redeeming qualities, but there’s already a lot to do there. Baltimore is like the Oakland of the East coast- we know it’s there, and it’s big and all, but have you ever heard anybody excitedly talking about their next trip to Baltimore? Like Oakland to San Francisco, Baltimore is the poorer, blacker sibling of Washington, DC, which is already very poor and very black. Not that poverty or blackitude is grounds for dismissal, it’s just overrepresented with teams as is.

Dayton: Very nearly got the nod over Columbus, mostly due to lack of representation in teams and proximity to Cincy suburbs. Would still be a decent pick, but we can’t have teams in both Dayton and Columbus. Or Toledo, also considered.

Albany: I considered this one instead of Jacksonville, but it seemed hard to justify two teams in upstate NY. I also insisted earlier that this would be a better site than Rochester, but after thinking about it more I’m not really sure. It always surprises me how many people live in those places (Syracuse, too).

Providence: Somehow, the census bureau puts 1.6 million people living in the Providence metro area, which is almost twice the population of Rhode Island. Until they can get their facts straight, they don’t deserve consideration.

New Haven: The home of Yale, and of smack. Too close to Hartford.

Syracuse: See Albany.

Madison: I like Madison, but it’s not big enough yet, and UW’s in town. It’s not fair to Bo Ryan to put a more exciting team in his backyard.

Knoxville: Growing like a weed, but full of football-loving bumpkins. No.

Richmond: Too close to Norfolk.