{"id":778917,"date":"2026-07-23T01:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T01:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/778917\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T01:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T01:05:13","slug":"why-not-have-the-nba-in-st-louis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/778917\/","title":{"rendered":"Why not have the NBA in St. Louis?\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – The question of whether St. Louis could land an NBA franchise is drawing responses from fans, elected officials and sports business leaders. While enthusiasm runs high, significant barriers remain.<\/p>\n

The conversation gained momentum after U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt said the Blues would welcome a second tenant at Enterprise Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Saint Louis is a great candidate for it,\u201d Schmitt said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a great facility there. So I\u2019d love to see it happen. I don\u2019t know that it\u2019ll happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple fans said Enterprise Center would be a natural fit for an NBA team, noting that other cities already share hockey and basketball venues.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Blues said the venue could accommodate a second tenant but that no serious inquiries have been made.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the operators of the city-owned Enterprise Center, the Blues organization is certainly open to hearing from teams or leagues that share our ownership group\u2019s passion for St. Louis and the collaborative spirit we enjoy with the city\u2019s existing professional sports franchises,\u201d the statement read. \u201cWhile the venue\u2019s current annual event schedule could accommodate the addition of a complementary tenant, our current ownership group has not received any credible inquiries from outside entities. Our organization remains squarely focused on continuing to strengthen the business of the St. Louis Blues Hockey Club and further stimulating the local economy through our work with the St. Louis Sports Commission to bring national and international sporting events to this region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Current NBA expansion plans do not include St. Louis, the league is approaching 32 teams, and no franchise is publicly for sale.<\/p>\n

\"CurrentCurrent NBA expansion plans do not include St. Louis, the league is approaching 32 teams, and no franchise is publicly for sale.(First Alert 4)<\/p>\n

The most likely path to an NBA team in St. Louis would be a local billionaire or an ownership group buying and relocating an existing franchise.<\/p>\n

Sports commission: League prioritizes growth markets<\/p>\n

Marc Schreiber of the St. Louis Sports Commission said an NBA team would succeed in St. Louis but acknowledged the city faces a structural challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cNBA would do great here. Team would be successful, especially if it wins,\u201d Schreiber said. \u201cThe reality is, leagues like the NBA and the NFL for that matter, they\u2019re looking to plant franchises in vastly growing markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how a metro population of 2.8 million is not enough, Schreiber said the issue is growth rate, not size.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not growing like Las Vegas is and other regions that the NBA might be looking at,\u201d he said. \u201cSt. Louis could be labeled as a somewhat saturated market. The league strategically are looking at where\u2019s the greatest opening, where\u2019s the greatest room for growth. And I think we have to be realistic in this and just to understand that in that conversation, we may not be at the top of the list.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Louis metro larger than OKC, Memphis<\/p>\n

The latest census data shows the St. Louis metropolitan area has roughly 2.8 million residents, larger than the Oklahoma City metro at about 1.5 million and the Memphis and Salt Lake City metros at around 1.3 million each.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe latest census data shows the St. Louis metropolitan area has roughly 2.8 million residents, larger than the Oklahoma City metro at about 1.5 million and the Memphis and Salt Lake City metros at around 1.3 million each.(First Alert 4)<\/p>\n

Fans have pointed to those smaller markets as evidence St. Louis could sustain an NBA product.<\/p>\n

Chaifetz group previously pursued WNBA bid<\/p>\n

Ross Chaifetz, whose ownership group recently acquired the Portland Trail Blazers, said St. Louis is an elite sports market. His group previously pursued a WNBA expansion bid for St. Louis.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little over two years ago we met and exceeded the whisper price for the expansion bid for the franchise fee and investments in facilities,\u201d Chaifetz said. \u201cFor reasons out of our control, the league gave the franchise to an NBA owner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaifetz said he sees opportunity for the NBA in St. Louis, though he noted his new investment in Portland limits what he can say publicly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a great market for basketball, male or female, and St. Louis is an exceptional sports market no matter the team or competitive sport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

St. Louis has NBA history<\/p>\n

St. Louis previously hosted the Hawks, who won an NBA title in 1958 while playing at Kiel Auditorium before relocating to Atlanta in 1968.<\/p>\n

\"St.St. Louis previously hosted the Hawks, who won an NBA title in 1958 while playing at Kiel Auditorium before relocating to Atlanta in 1968.(First Alert 4)<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s profile in the league has grown in recent years with Jayson Tatum and Brad Beal becoming prominent figures in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Fans said the region\u2019s sports appetite is comparable to markets that already have NBA teams and that a basketball team would draw fans from across the region, similar to how the Cardinals draw from neighboring states.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to root for a St. Louis team,\u201d said Jordan Ashford, a St. Louis sports fan. \u201cIf we have it, people are going to come to the game. Just give them a team. We\u2019ll embrace it like we embrace anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KMOV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – The question of whether St. Louis could land an NBA franchise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[331876,355,331878,331874,99,331875,331877],"class_list":["post-778917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-enterprise-center-nba","tag-nba","tag-nba-relocation-st-louis","tag-nba-st-louis-expansion","tag-sports","tag-st-louis-nba-team","tag-st-louis-sports-franchise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}