The city’s sports authority is doing a study of whether the market can handle an NBA team.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has never really been in the conversation when it comes to potential National Basketball Association expansion cities. It is thought once the NBA gets a national TV deal done, the league would expand with Seattle and Las Vegas the lead candidates for the two expansion slots. There are some other cities that might attract NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and his expansion committee’s attention, when a committee is formed, such as Mexico City, Mexico and two Canadian cities, Vancouver and Montréal. There are people in Louisville, Kentucky who also would like a shot at landing an NBA expansion team. Pittsburgh has not seen a major league professional team since the American Basketball Association’s Pittsburgh Condors’ ownership group, Haven Industries, closed the business on June 13th, 1972.
The City of Pittsburgh’s Sports and Exhibition Authority will pay a consulting firm up to $90,000 for a NBA team feasibility study. The consulting firm is, of course, going to come up with the result Pittsburgh should bid for an NBA franchise and while Pittsburgh is at it, a Women’s National Basketball Association franchise would be nice. That is the easy part. The hard part is finding an owner willing to spend two or three billion dollars to buy an NBA franchise and place it in Pittsburgh. After that, the owner would need government support although there is a modern arena in town. Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox franchise subsidiary owns the local regional sports network so there could be a cable TV and or streaming deal available. The final question is how much corporate support would be allocated for a Pittsburgh NBA franchise. Pittsburgh had an original Basketball Association of America franchise in 1946-47 which folded. Pittsburgh had a franchise in the American Basketball League throughout the league’s 15-month life in 1961 and 1962. Pittsburgh also had two ABA franchises.
