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+---- Thread: An eye towards the future: NSFL expansion sites? (/showthread.php?tid=2251)
An eye towards the future: NSFL expansion sites? - 4D Chess - 07-17-2017
[div align=\\\"center\\\"]An eye towards the future: Cities the NSFL could expand to[/div]
As the Season 2 draft inches closer and closer and the knots in prospects and GMs stomachs start to get even bigger, I thought I’d take a step back from the seriousness of the draft process and examine something a little more light-hearted! Let’s look at some possible expansion locations for potential franchises in Season 3 of the NSFL, and beyond.
First some background: It would be pointless to dive right into the possible expansion locations without first looking at where the teams we have now are currently placed.
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![[Image: UvKlXt6.png]](http://i.imgur.com/UvKlXt6.png)
[/div]Okay folks, it looks like we have the Southwest covered. With Las Vegas, San Jose, Orange County and Phoenix all within spitting distance of each other it seems as if it would be in the NSFL board’s best interest to maybe lay off on the teams in the desert for a little while. Meanwhile on the East Coast, Philly and Baltimore are located in each other’s backyard, which should make for an exciting rivalry between the two teams. The Yetis are perhaps the most evenly spaced out team in the league, with Denver making a suitable home for the team and in the quickest growing metropolitan areas in the United States of America -- not to mention the legalized weed and weed culture that is overtaking Denver and Colorado gives the Yeti an inherent advantage when it comes to luring in free agents who enjoy “toking up a big fat jibber” after a long practice, surely the Yeti must keep new teams away from legalized weed in mind when thinking of further locations. That leaves one team…. Yellowknife. I’m not even going to get in the travel semantics of having a team way the fuck up North like that -- you have to admit whoever agreed to put a team in a city with like three dozen people has some serious fucking balls. And the people (all 42 of them) in the Northwest Territories are goin absolutely bananas for the Wraith. Does it make any sense at all to have a team there? No. Is it completely and totally awesome? Hell yes.
So my extremely elementary study has concluded the following: the two areas of development most ripe for expansion are the Midwest and Deep South.
Midwest locations:
Chicago -- Okay, I’ve got to admit I’m biased by putting this one first. I live in the Windy City and it’s my absolute favorite place on Earth, but geographically and media market wise this move makes sense as well. Chicago currently has the Bears, but years of mediocrity and overpriced tickets have led to something of a live football vacuum in the nation’s 3rd largest city. Plus, there’s a lot of really large scale development going on in Chicagp right now, DePaul basketball just got a new arena near McCormick Place and that area has a lot undeveloped land that could be converted into a new stadium. Add in the Obama Presidential Library goin in near Jackson Park and you’ve got two areas that could grow with a new NSFL team. Also, I thought of a really cool nickname if you were to put the team on the South Side the “Chicago Stockyard”… isn’t that cool? I think that’s pretty cool. I would play for a team called the Chicago Stockyard.
4D’s trademarked arbitrary and completely baseless ranking: 9.5/10 (points missing because of the Bears still occupying the town)[div align=\\\"center\\\"]
![[Image: extralarge.jpg]](https://assets.dnainfo.com/photo/2016/11/1479330889-282278/extralarge.jpg)
[/div]Louisville -- Is Louisville in the South or Midwest technically? I don’t fucking know. So they’re going in the Midwest category -- sue me if I’m wrong Papa John. Now Louisville isn’t a massive city (approx. 253,000 people) but there’s also no team in the NSFL that would be in a potential expansion team’s backyard. Kentucky is a hotbed of passionate sports fans, and yet they are severely lacking in professional sports team. For a league like the NSFL that’s trying to be a trailblazer, I think a city like Louisville may be an interesting sleeper choice. And the nicknames for this one are easy! Something horse related: Louisville Thoroughbreds, Louisville Racers, Kentucky Jockeys, The Kentucky Horses (okay maybe not that last one).
4D’s trademarked arbitrary and completely baseless ranking: 8/10
St. Louis -- Okay another town I have a personal connection to, but this one makes a hell of a lot of sense. The Rams left for L.A. quicker than my father left when my mom told him she was pregnant and left a gaping hole in the St. Louis fans hearts. That’s where the NSFL comes in: as the “rebound” if you will for a city that’s been so royally screwed by the Kroenke family. It checks all the boxes a potential NSFL team could want, and then there’s the added bonus of the Edward Jones Dome just kind of chillin’ waiting for something to happen. I really hope whatever team goes there doesn’t name the team after the Arches. The Arch is really overrated; I’ve never gotten the hype. There was an ABA team called the Spirit of St. Louis who had a dope ass logo, I wouldn’t even be mad if we just stole that idea.
4D’s trademarked arbitrary and completely baseless ranking: 10/10
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![[Image: jones-dome2.jpg]](https://cbsstlouis.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/jones-dome2.jpg)
[/div][div align=\\\"left\\\"][/align]Toledo -- Per our friend Perry’s suggestion I thought I’d take a look at Toledo, and to my surprise it wouldn’t be an awful pick. Toledo would have the built-in advantage of being able to grab fans from both Ohio and Michigan. I have an inherent bias towards scrappy blue-collar towns, and Toledo fits that demo. Toledo has over 270,000 people and currently supports the AAA Toledo Mud Hens who routinely draw some of the biggest audiences in the MILB system. I wasn’t too keen on the idea when Perry suggested it, but what the hell! I think it would be cool.
4D’s trademarked arbitrary and completely baseless ranking: What the hell… 9/10
Deep South Suggestions:
San Antonio -- Kckolbe and I arrived to the same conclusion: Texas is a massive football market that is currently not being serviced by the NSFL. More specifically, San Antonio lacks a pro football team and putting a team in San Antonio would allow the NSFL to avoid any conflicts with existing NFL teams. Couple that fact with the knowledge that San Antonio is growing and could be one of the first major Latino markets for the NSFL and it seems like a damn near perfect solution for the next group of investors who joins the NSFL. I hope they have a logo with a big ol’ Texas ten-gallon hat on it, that’d be pretty sweet.
4D’s trademarked arbitrary and completely baseless ranking: 10/10 (has chance to go up to 11/10 if they get a cool logo with a big hat.
Austin -- Our second Texas team that came from the suggestions bag the state capitol makes for an interesting selection. Like San Antonio, Austin is a pro football-free city in a state that’s football crazy. Would the direct competition with UT fans cause some difficulty? Yeah I’d have to think so, but it wouldn’t necessarily be a nail in the coffin if a team did want to come to Austin. What if we just split the difference and put a team in San Marcos? (I’m kidding that’s a really bad idea). Same cool hat logo rule applies for Austin.
4D’s trademarked arbitrary and completely baseless ranking: 9/10 (has chance to go up to 10/10 if they get a cool logo with a big hat on it.
![[Image: AUSTIN_KELLY20RUCKER20PHOTO-2.jpg]](http://cdn.theeverygirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/AUSTIN_KELLY20RUCKER20PHOTO-2.jpg)
[/div]Birmingham -- Now this is the type of creative suggestion I was hoping to see, so cheers to bovovovo. What Birmingham lacks in population (only 210,000) it makes up for in football furor. Some people are weary of putting a pro franchise in an area so dominated by college ball, but I tend to have the opposite opinion. The chance to unite ‘Bama and Auburn fans alike behind the banner of one pro team would be an amazing experiment, the trick would be coming up with a logo that doesn’t use: Red, Gray, Blue or Orange so it’s seen as a truly impartial team. Bovovovo’s suggestion of naming a team after the Tuskegee Airmen is borderline genius, and any owner group that decides to go that route would earn the NSFL “woke points” thus ensuring that our league is looked upon favorably by Tumblr blogs across the world!
4D’s trademarked arbitrary and completely baseless ranking: solid 7.5/10 that goes to 9/10 if you take the Airmen theme.
New Orleans -- Like Chicago, New Orleans has proven that they can easily take care of multiple professional organizations. While I think an NSFL team could exist in harmony with an NFL team, what worries me about the potential of New Orleans is that it’s a town with so much other stuff to do. Like Las Vegas there’s plenty of drinking and good times to be had in New Orleans, combine that with the competition against the immensely popular Saints and all of a sudden I’m not so sure this is a top-tier selection. As bzerkap said, New Orleans is a world-class city by any stretch of the imagination -- but that actually may end up being somewhat of a negative in this case.
4D’s trademarked arbitrary and completely baseless ranking: 6.5/10
All of Florida -- Listen Florida is a really odd, sorta gross state and I don’t like it for a lot of reasons. I mean, I’m sure there’s beautiful parts of Florida don’t get me wrong but I just don’t like the whole vibe. Plus, they can’t support a sports team correctly (see: Jacksonville Jaguars, Tampa Bay Rays, Florida Marlins). Not to mention the three existing NFL teams in Florida already, which is a crime in its own right. While I’ll concede Florida is a hotbed for football talent, any NSFL team that thinks a move to the Sunshine state is a good idea SHOULD BE SHOT IN THE HEAD.
4D’s trademarked arbitrary and completely baseless ranking: 0/10
Puerto Rico - I mean there would be some positives for moving a team way down South, but I’m really not sure Puerto Rico would be the answer. The obvious knock on Puerto Rico is there’s just not enough American football fans to fully support a team at this point in time. If we wanted to look to go some place exotic, even a place like Mexico City is slightly farther north than San Juan (where I’m assuming the team would go) and they have millions of people living there.
4D’s trademarked arbitrary and completely baseless ranking: 1/10. I see no reason a team should go there, though I guess many said the same thing about Yellowknife -- hence the 1).
Oklahoma City -- Last but not least we have the only location that Sapp sent in that fit my Deep South or Midwest stipulation (don’t worry buddy I’ll do another edition that features Great Plains, the Northeast and international) -- Oklahoma City. OKC and Denver are [i]somewhat close together, and while it wouldn’t clog up the map like we currently do the Southwest, I’d personally like to see the NSFL spread out even more. That being said there are some serious upsides to putting a team in Oklahoma: there’s a lot of football fans and it’s certainly shown it can loyally support a pro franchise (Thunder). For some reason I feel that many owners wouldn’t view Oklahoma City as a “sexy” pick but for a team looking to embrace a gritty, underdog image OKC may just be the perfect fit.
Overall impressions Honestly, this piece was a lot of fun to write and think about. I know that there is one million different directions you can go when picking a location, especially in a sim league where it means absolutely nothing. I think there is a bunch of original places the NSFL could put a team, and personally I think it’s pretty fun when a sim league team goes to a place that may not have an NFL history, as it makes our league unique, even if it’s in a very tiny way. At some point I will write a new article that looks at places in the northeast, international, and great plains to see if there are any cities worthwhile there. Thanks for reading!
(Word Count 2,064)
GRADED
An eye towards the future: NSFL expansion sites? - kckolbe - 07-17-2017
Texas is the 3rd largeSt state in population, and is nuts about football. Maybe San Antonio?
An eye towards the future: NSFL expansion sites? - Jiggly_333 - 07-17-2017
I wanted to bring in a team into Chicago, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. We have to get a team in Vegas.
An eye towards the future: NSFL expansion sites? - Perry87 - 07-17-2017
Since population doesn't seem to play a factor in a cities viability as a NSFL location, I though about a Toledo, Ohio team.
The Toledo Wranglers. The Jeep Wrangler/Willys has been built in Toledo since WWII, and is an icon of the city. A prime location too as far as logistics goes, being where I75 and the Ohio Turnpike meet. Philly and Baltimore are less than 10 hours drive away.
An eye towards the future: NSFL expansion sites? - 4D Chess - 07-17-2017
(07-17-2017, 11:04 AM)kckolbe Wrote:Texas is the 3rd largeSt state in population, and is nuts about football. Maybe San Antonio?
This was number one on my list for Deep South actually, will certainly be included.
@Perry87 Toledo, or another blue-collar town in Midwest would be cool. Maybe Akron?
An eye towards the future: NSFL expansion sites? - bovovovo - 07-17-2017
@4D Chess
Birmingham, Alabama should be in serious consideration I think.
Sure you have to compete with the college teams that control that market, but it's deep south and you know the population is rabid for football and there's no NFL team (or any professional sports team that I know of) to compete with
You could name them the Alabama Bombers after the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-African-American military pilot group in America, who also played a big role in WWII...it's both patriotic and historic! Just spit balling here lol
An eye towards the future: NSFL expansion sites? - RavensFanFromOntario - 07-17-2017
(07-17-2017, 12:16 PM)Jiggly_333 Wrote:I wanted to bring in a team into Chicago, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. We have to get a team in Vegas.
To be fair, I was told to have my team in the West. I would've placed it in Montreal had I been able to.
An eye towards the future: NSFL expansion sites? - Roshambo - 07-17-2017
Anchorage, Alaska !
Another cold weather stadium with a natural cross-border rivalry with the Wraiths
I am kidding, but I did grow up there.
An eye towards the future: NSFL expansion sites? - 4D Chess - 07-17-2017
Updated with all suggestions to this point (except alaska! Sadly it doesn't meet my Midwest or Deep South theme for this article, maybe in another)
Keep em coming folks and I'll keep writing!
An eye towards the future: NSFL expansion sites? - Jiggly_333 - 07-17-2017
Oh yeah, if you want a deep south team, I was toying around with the idea of a team in Austin.