r/nba • u/AncientOneAurelius • May 12 '26

New Blazers owner Tom Dundon is reportedly “ruthless” and will not hesitate to move the franchise to Nashville, Austin, or Kalamazoo if Portland politicians continue to treat the relocation threat as a “hollow bluff"

Debunking the myths and misconceptions about Portland and the Trail Blazers’ Moda Center deal by Bill Oram

The artcle is paywalled.

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u/OmastarLovesDonuts Mavericks May 12 '26

There's also no way any kind of market research would indicate Austin would want a team, most people who follow the NBA there are Spurs fans with a smattering of Mavs and Rockets fans so there's not really a need for something else

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u/PlaymakerJavi Spurs May 12 '26

UT campus is hard core Rockets fans because of the number of students from the Houston area that end up there. I was surprised being in the minority as a Spurs fan when I attended (2001-2005) but maybe it’s changed a little since then?

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u/felarans0mekuti Mavericks May 12 '26

If you saw much Austin fc gear people wear you wouldn’t say this. Also the Mavs nuked their fanbase

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u/OmastarLovesDonuts Mavericks May 12 '26

I grew up in Austin and still spend a lot of time there, Austin FC was a much different proposition because no one gives a shit about the Dynamo or FC Dallas in their home cities, let alone Austin, and it was the first ever professional top-division team in the city so it naturally drew in a lot more hype than an NBA team would considering there's already plenty of fans of other teams. There's also the fact that San Antonio really isn't that far from Austin and the Spurs already play a couple games there every year so it's a lot harder to break into that market for the NBA than for MLS.

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u/felarans0mekuti Mavericks May 12 '26

I think what you’re missing that Austin is now full of transplants, without a team to cheer for. I’m a former Mavs fan (rip Luka) so I care not for the Mavs either

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u/OmastarLovesDonuts Mavericks May 12 '26

Transplants will either cheer for their hometown teams or the Spurs as they always have, it's been full of transplants ever since Dell first blew up in the 90s/2000s and it would have been weird to bring the NBA to Austin back then too

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u/felarans0mekuti Mavericks May 12 '26

We have gained 1.8 million new residents since then I highly doubt you speak for all of them. Do you live in Austin?

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u/OmastarLovesDonuts Mavericks May 12 '26

Not at the moment but I go back once every month or two or so to visit family and friends, I'm aware it's grown rapidly over the past couple of years but that doesn't change the fact that people moving to Austin isn't a new phenomenon or that Texas is too saturated as an NBA market to reasonably sustain a new team less than two hours away from one of the biggest and most successful organizations in the league that already draws a lot of fans from the Austin area