A new slogan the state of Virginia is now pushing says “Virginia is for lovers of college sports.” Of course, Virginia doesn’t have any choice but to love college sports, as it has no major league professional sports. If I were a billionaire, I would seriously consider buying and relocating an NBA, NFL, NFL, or Major League Baseball team to Virginia. I would also be willing to completely fund the stadium or arena that it would play in, and not depend on public funds for such a thing.
If the team were profitable, fine, but that would not be the reason I would want one. In fact, I wouldn’t care how much money it lost. My sole purpose, rather, would be to give Virginia the one thing it currently lacks. Sadly, our wonderful Commonwealth is the most populous state in the U.S. without a major league sports franchise to call its own. Even states like Minnesota, Utah, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Oregon, all of which have much lower populations than Virginia, have teams.
Virginia is losing out big time by not having a team. It makes the state look pathetic. It’s losing out on all the potential bragging rights and prestige that could come from having a team win a world championship. Its citizens end up supporting out-of-state teams, spending their money outside the state on tickets, parking, concessions, souvenirs, etc. That’s a major source of revenue that Virginia can’t afford to keep missing out on. Maybe one of Virginia’s actual billionaires can eventually rectify this problem.
Dont need one, and really we cant have one. Redskins stadium is too close and Virginia cant have a baseball team within 250 mile radius because of the Orioles owner putting that as a stipulation in owning the O's. (ever since the Nats came). So Virginia doesnt like hockey, there are 2 NFL teams close with the skins and Ravens, and we cant have a baseball team. And NBA? Please there are the wizrds right up the road.
Posted by: Slaps | November 29, 2011 at 10:40 PM
Ha! That's like saying you don't need a TV because your neighbor has one. People like you are the reason Virginia doesn't have any pro sports teams.
Posted by: Terry Mitchell | November 30, 2011 at 03:28 PM
Why does everyone assume Virginia is so close to DC? Northern Va. Yes. But that's only one of the 4 major regions of VA. Roanoke in the west. Richmond the capital in the middle, And the 7 cities which include the largest city of Virginia Beach, in the tidewater are all like 2-4 hour drives from any pro sports team.
If they put a team in any of the 7 cities I'm sure fans from the other 6 would drive the 20-30 minutes to see the games on a regular basis. Along with fans from Richmond, and N. Carolina.
They say the capital Richmond is to small a city to host a team, yet Green Bay is way smaller. And when they count the population of Richmond they can't count the populations of surrounding counties like Chesterfeild, Henrico, Chester, Highland Springs, Hanover, Mechanichsville, Glenn Allen, Ashland, Amelia, and Varina. Along with people driving up 95 20 minutes from the cities of Petersburg, Hopewell, Colonial Heights, Dinwiddie, and the military base in Ft. Lee.
Richmond would probably be the better location. There's a lot of room to build a stadium in the downtown area or in a surrounding county like Chesterfield. It's also in a central location in the state. Interstates 95 and 64 both run through Richmond so travel from the remaining regions away would be at the least 2 hours away or less. Also it's far enough from DC to not take away to much of the fan base.
Just a thought
Posted by: Sean Elijah | January 15, 2012 at 08:37 AM