.

....and then of course, there's the Raptors? So, no, they probably won't change the name.

I'm sure Stern's sitting in his office right now, laughing under his breath and rubbing his hands together. He (and the NBA) has no intention of awarding a team to Seattle. Those who trust Stern are idiots.

Totally agree. I see NO indication that Seattle is a priority to the NBA at all. We should set our sights on an arena that would fit for an NHL team, like the proposed Tacoma Dome rebuild. Makes much more sense. The NBA looks a decade away to me, at best. db

The grizzlies were their team for what, 3 seasons ? LOTS of overwhelming support there.

HA HA HA Who cares!

The Griz had better attendance for their 7 years in Vancouver than they ever have had in Memphis. Bet Michael Heisley feels like an idiot for moving them, and for signing that $100 million lease buyout clause. db

Despite assurances to the contrary I suspect an NBA team in Seattle would partially be subsidized by taxpayers - even if that subsidy comes in the form of road improvements... I'd like to think that 20-30 years from now history will show that Seattle was visionary in showing the NBA the door and thus making NBA teams pay for their own facilities.

That makes you an idiot.

close enough for NBA fans in seattle to go see. far enough for those of us who could give a rip about NBA to not be impacted by the traffic or taxes! win win!

We could do that now in Portland if we wanted to.

We could do that now in Portland if we wanted to.

Go North NBA.

Jessamyn, how can you write an article on a possible Vancouver NBA team without some mention of the Grizzlies? Why did the Grizzlies fail?

1) In 6 seasons, the Vancouver Grizzlies finished in the bottom of the division 5 times. 2) Their attendance dropped every year and in their last season they had the league's 3rd lowest attendance #s. 3) The owner's lost money and sold the team after 5 years and the new owner couldn't get out of Vancouver fast enough! 4) American basketball's popularity in Canada is like hockey's popularity here - a few hard core fans, but otherwise not a lot of interest. 5) Canadians aren't as stupid as Americans when it comes to putting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into building arenas for billionaires so they can peddle $10 hot dogs and $100 jerseys and have a place for their millionaire athletes to frolic.

This is in response to Fins2theleft's ignorant comments about Vancouver being unlikely to get an NBA team. 1) Why does it matter that the Grizzlies were such a poor team? That has nothing to do with the cities ability to host an NBA franchise. The Grizzlies had a terrible GM that made terrible decisions and, as a result, their team sucked. Oh and it didn't help that the league handicapped the team by making sure they couldn't draft first overall for their first three years of existence. There are plenty of teams with crappy players, but you don't see the NBA trying to relocate them. 2) I challenge you to find the city that has good attendance when their team is god awful. Winning = attendance and the Vancouver Grizzlies never had anywhere close to a winning team on the floor. Given how bad the team was, they actually had pretty good attendance. It was certainly a lot better than the flies that the Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Bobcats draw to their games. 3)The new owner was a Southern redneck that never intended to stay in Vancouver in the first place! He just pretended he did to appease David Stern so the initial sale of the team would be approved. That guy was a massive fraud. Also, the Canadian dollar was in the dumps back then and there were even NHL franchises that lost money and relocated. Heck, the Canucks could have relocated and look at how well they're doing now as a business. With the Canadian dollar being essentially on par with the American dollar right now, putting an NBA team in Vancouver is much more financially viable. 4) Yes, there's not as much interest in the NBA in Canada as there is in America, but there's a lot more than you think. Every year, the B.C. provincial high school basketball championships draws good crowds and if you paid any attention to how much interest there is in the Raptors around Toronto and even the rest of Canada, you'd know that plenty of Canadians are big time Basketball fans. Besides, your hockey comparison holds no weight because there are 23 NHL franchises in America, despite your claim that there isn't a lot of interest in that sport. Even if that's true, I'm pretty sure the NBA could manage to have 2 NBA franchises in Canada if there's 23 NHL franchises in America. 5) This just proves your ignorance because Vancouver already has an NBA-ready arena! It's the same arena that the Grizzlies used to play in and the same arena the Canucks currently play in. Also, it's a privately owned facility so the taxpayers wouldn't have to pay a dime. Done. Take a hike Fins2theleft! You've just been owned!

Stupid cynical posts like this one. If you don't like sports, don't go or watch them. If you think Canada is better run than the US then move there. And since the owner moved to Memphis th Griz have never outdrawn what they did in Vancouver.

Get some local tv coverage for the team, adopt them as our own. I can't/won't root for the Trailblazers.

The NBA is becoming a joke and it is all thanks to the pathetic leadership of Stern. The fact that there are teams financially unviable is directly the result of his business model. He wants taxpayers to finance everything while all proceeds go directly into his billionaire buddies pockets. Ticket prices are so high nobody can truly afford them, his product has become lame, and he has proven he no loyalty to any of the fans who are financing this garbage. Remember his brilliant idea to make regular season games pay per view long ago? Look who is the head of his relocation committee, Clay Bennett. Anyone think either of these snakes would give Seattle a team? Does anyone in the area really want anything to do with the NBA while Stern is in charge? They are fools if they do, Stern will just screw us again once he has sucked more money from the PNW. Let's all just sit back, sip a latte, and watch as Stern destroys what was once a great product. It will happen, just wait and see.