2 teams. 2 different leagues. 2 new places to play come 2013 *or sooner...*
First off, the NFL's Minnesota Vikings. The Metrodome is done. The lease is up, and the explosion devices will soon be up and along with it, many years in the NFC North. Despite the many people asking the State of Minnesota and city of Minneapolis to save their team, the congress/state government didn't want to pay.
Kinda ironic since 5 years ago, they were willing to chip out hundreds of millions to put the Minnesota Twins in a new venue, don't you think??
Regardless, it is over. 2 cities...far away from Minnesota are now vetting for an NFL team. The Cities, respectfully are the favorite Los Angeles....who haven't had an NFL team since 1995, and the underdog but hold on....city of San Antonio, Texas.
In order to begin in 2013, a decision will have to be made soon in order for renovations to occur. LA would be playing in the Memorial Coliseum (See the 1984 Olympics and current home of the USC Trojans) for at least 2-3 years and would have to swap home games with the forementioned USC. The other option is believe it or not, the Alamodome. It currently holds about 2-3 football games a year, and last saw any major NFL action in 2005 when it was home for 3 games for the New Orleans Saints after Hurricane Katrina.
Now people of both states will be complaining that California and Texas have too many teams (Cali would have 4, Texas would have 3) but unless Oklahoma City decides to take a shot, or the NFL wants a new team in Utah, I honestly don't see any other places right now....
The other team bound to move, is in the NBA. That's the Sacramento Kings.
The Kings are owned by Ralph Maloof. He has for YEARS been dissapointed in the city of Sacramento, a small, undermined city by sports standards. Arco Arena is too in disarray, and the Kings are constantly towards the bottom in terms of yearly attendance in the league.
So after Sacramento announced they wouldn't help build a new arena as well, 2 places with arenas in place are at the top. One is only about 200 miles down the road, the other is about 1000 but it would keep the Western Conference in tact.
The further one is considered the favorite. Kansas City has the Sprint Center, a nice modern arena built in 2006 that has been home to the NCAA Big 12 Basketball championship the past 2 of 3 years. The other one going around the water cooler...surprize! It's the city of San Jose :O
HP Pavillion is home of the NHL San Jose Sharks. Rumor has it that such a big, thriving living city (not known for the big buildings) might actually be a great place to have an NBA team. San Francisco doesn't have one and god only knows how much longer Golden State will be in that poor Oakland area.
So there you have it. The next few weeks/months should be really interesting for these two teams. For the NBA, it's the first move since Seattle left for Oklahoma City (sorry "King" city...your on the other side looking in right now). For the NFL it could lead towards a much more dramatic shift in conference play and cold also invoke franchise teams or other moves. So stay tuned!
