After signing the new deal I wonder if their next venture would be to promote small markets to try and increase popularity both within and outside of the city/state, hoping to sign an even larger contract 9 years from now. I feel like they are beginning to do just that with us this year. Makes sense, exciting young team, national surprise story last year vs rockets(we knew what was up!), good fan support (you want a team that shows support within, or else no one outside would be inclined to support them). They will never promote small markets over large market teams, but it seems like they are ramping up their promotion of certain small markets. Edit: I guess the title could be worded better. Perhaps it should read "Is NBA increasing small market promotions"
Winning championships promotes small markets. Look at the Green Bay Packers. If it weren't for the Packers, nobody would know where Green Bay is. San Antonio is a small market.
nba promotes parity, nba promotes stars. parity->stars get onto small market teams-> small market teams are helped by the nba
NBA has gone out of its way to promote Lillard, putting him in 5 All Star events. Plus he has national commercials and the cover of NBA Live.
So you both believe the increased attention is simply because of Lillards marketability? Would be hard to disagree. I would be interested in similar examples to support that thought. I guess we will have to see how Wiggins pans out in Minnesota. Kind of crazy how much national attention Dame gets if you look at it in perspective. You would never guess that he is going into only his third year. Wouldn't this support an argument that the NBA values players over teams.
Well KG was a huge name in the NBA for many years in Minny. Durant and Westbrook in OKC. Chris Web was huge nationally in Sactown. There is really anything new. If you are a superstar, you will be exposed anywhere.
I agree with all of you, perhaps we should look at how long it took for some of these players to get their recognition. I think it was more than 2 seasons for Durant in SEA?
I think Lillard's agent has done an amazing job marketing his brand. I've never seen this much media ink given to Blazer let alone one with 2 years playing experience. Pretty impressive. LaMarcus seems to be more in the conversation going into this season. I don't think the Blazers are a secret anymore.
San Antonio is a small market? It's the 7th most populous city in the country and second in Texas. I don't know why it's assumed they are a small market. But if "small" constitutes low population then SA is far from a market.
I thought it was smaller too for some reason, but it's not. Especially when you consider the "market size" not just the population of the city. The Rockets, Mavs and Spurs probably divide up the population of all Texas, which is huge. Most teams get the support of the majority of their state. Utah is the only state with a smaller population than Oregon with a pro sports team. OKC is almost exactly the same size. So the Thunder, Jazz and Blazers are the real small market teams.
In the NBA San Antonio has always been considered a small market. Houston and Dallas are not though. It's like you need a baseball team and a football teamas well as a large media center to be considered a large market
San Antonio is actually considered a small market based on media exposure bro. It is not based on population. http://www.sportstvjobs.com/resources/local-tv-market-sizes-dma.html
San Antonio is one of the lowest markets (37th), even lower than Salt Lake City, Utah. http://www.stationindex.com/tv/tv-markets To put it into perspective... Portland is 22nd, 15 spots higher than San Antonio.
Their entire metro is barely 2million. Their 'proper' is very dense, though. Smaller than Portland, bigger than OKC.
