It was annouced yesterday that the Preadators are being sold to Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie. It is now being widely speculated that after the 07-08 season Balsille will attempt to move the team to Canada. He will have the opportunity to buy out the Predators contract with the city of Nashville if attendance does not reach 14,000 per game, which it has not reached in either of the last 2 seasons.
The reason I am mentioning this here is because it has raised an interesting question on the airwaves in Nashville today. Is Nashville a big enough market to support 2 professional sports teams?
The Titans are no doubt king of this town. Two years ago, when the Titans finished with a 4-12 record, the Predators were one of the hottest teams in the NHL's first half. Even with this being the case, the Nashville sports talk shows were dominated with talk of the Titans. People wanted to talk about the upcoming NFL draft rather than the Predators.
The other issue is the dollars the sports fan has to spend, whether it be personal or corporate. The Titans have no problem selling out their games and acquiring corporate sponsorships. The Predators have had a lot of trouble in both of these areas, especially with the corporate sponsors. The dollar only stretches so far, and when the Nashville fan has a choice between football and hockey, 9 times out of 10 football wins.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds for the Predators. I know many of you don't live in Nashville so may not care about this. I would be interested to see what the Nashville readers have to say about this. I would also be interested to see if some of you from other cities know of similar situations. This will provide a good discussion for a painfully slow Titans news day.
Let me hear ya....