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New sports arena in Palm Desert CA

Started by Desert Man, July 19, 2018, 07:16:48 PM

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Desert Man

In Palm Desert CA, a 12,000 seat sports arena will break ground and open in 2020-21. An indoor football team, the new So Cal Coyotes (the old ones are outdoors in the winter). What about the Arizona Coyotes NHL team unable to find a new arena in the Phoenix area? We would be similarly sized like Green Bay WI (the NFL Packers), the smallest major league sports city. (Pop: 104,057 x 3 in its metro area) This is a larger arena than the 11,500 seat one (the Citizens Business Bank Arena) in Ontario CA near the airport, where the Clippers (NBA) G-League developmental basketball team, the Agua Caliente Clippers play, owned by the Agua Caliente band of Mission (Cahuilla) Indians in Palm Springs. The Ontario arena has indoor football, ice hockey (the minor league Reign) and indoor soccer. Riverside-San Bernardino counties have 4.8 million people now, its area extends to the deserts (Coachella valley-Palm springs and Mojave desert-Victorville).

https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2018/07/18/plan-calls-12-000-seat-indoor-stadium-and-sports-complex-thousand-palms/794592002/
Get your kicks...on Route 99! Like to turn 66 upside down. The other historic Main street of America.


MantyMadTown

That would be weird for Southern California to see a third NHL team. Would hockey even be a good fit for San Bernardino-Riverside? I don't even know if they have a market for major league sports teams, as they pretty much share everything with Los Angeles. I still think the Coyotes should move though. Hockey does not go well with Arizona!
Forget the I-41 haters

sparker

Folks in the Coachella Valley might attend hockey games simply because it's nice and cool in most of the arenas!  But seriously, if the Phoenix Coyotes can't come to terms somewhere in AZ, they could find a home in Sacramento (a town ever hungry for more pro sports) -- giving the Sharks a local rivalry potentially as intense as that of the Kings & Ducks down south!

Desert Man

In Arizona, the 2nd largest city is Tucson, with a good sports arena and the Coyotes' farm team the Roadrunners. Tucson has no major league sports team at this time and has grown alot in the last 60 years just like Phoenix and its suburbs. And rather smaller Prescott has a sports arena where the Northern Arizona Suns team play - developmental team of the Phoenix Suns. Interestingly, the Coyotes not just represent the Phoenix metro area, but the entire state.
Get your kicks...on Route 99! Like to turn 66 upside down. The other historic Main street of America.

Desert Man

#4
So Cal has 3 MLB teams (the Angels, Dodgers and Padres) and in 1982-95, 3 NFL teams (the LA Raiders, Rams and Chargers now in LA). Historically, 10 sites or teams of each sport in Sou Cal. - with nearby cities on state lines and borders, and doesn't include minor leagues or their sports teams.

Baseball:
Dodgers in LA, Angels in LA and then Anaheim (and 1980s exhibition games in Palm Springs), and Padres in San Diego (exhibition in Yuma AZ). Angels used to spring training in Cal and Padres in Az-Ca state line in Yuma. I believe the Padres were exhibition in Las Vegas when they had the triple-A team, the Stars in the Pacific Coast League in the 1990s. The Chicago White Sox spring trained in 1950s Palm Springs as well the Chicago Cubs in 1950s L.A./Long Beach/Avalon...and the Oakland A's in El Centro when they first moved to Cal. in the late 60s. But today, 15 out of 30 major league baseball teams train in Phoenix, AZ area.
American Football:
Rams twice in LA (they played in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena too), Raiders in LA and soon Vegas on Cal-Nev state line (45 miles up the road), and Chargers in San Diego now LA. In the 1920s/30s was the LA Brown Bears/Dons/Senors (in 3 different leagues?) - probably the state's first pro sports team, if not the Rams came in 1945 as Cal's first major league team.
Basketball:
Lakers in LA, Clippers in LA and formerly San Diego, the Rockets began in San Diego and ABA Stars/Sails in San Diego (formerly LA). Tijuana has a Mexican pro team, but they consider their market to have San Diego (do they also play there?). The 1968-69 Anaheim Amigos of the ABA (Orange county's forgotten pro sports team). And the WNBA LA Sparks (women's) are professional level...and don't forget the WNBA rival Las Vegas Aces. Minor league basketball in Mexicali (Mexican), Yuma AZ and Las Vegas NV.
Soccer:
LA Aztecs/Olympians in the 1980s, now the LA Galaxy and LA FC in MLS, Sou Cal Sunshine and Sou Cal Surf (both in Anaheim and Santa Barbara), and San Diego Sockers. Being Mexico, Tijuana and Mexicali has a pro team each in the country's league (2 divisions). Minor league soccer in Tecate, Yuma AZ, and Las Vegas NV (they had the NASL Lazers in the early 80s).
And Ice hockey:
LA Kings (first NHL team in western US since 1967), Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (now the Ducks), in the 1970s LA Sharks later in San Diego of the WHA, and the IHL's San Diego Gulls and LA/Long Beach Ice Dogs in the 1990s. And (Las) Vegas Golden Knights - Las Vegas itself had Coyotes exhibition games in the 2000s.

Southern California from Santa Barbara to San Bernardino to San Diego (cities and counties) have 18-22 million people (if you add populations of Kern county, San Luis Obispo and Imperial valley, excluding Mexicali, Baja Cal, Mexico) is the state's largest and nation's 2nd largest populated area. Just like New York City had 3 MLB teams until 1958 and 3 NHL teams since 1982, a very large metro , urban or megalopolis can support 3 teams of each one of the 5 American major sports leagues.
Get your kicks...on Route 99! Like to turn 66 upside down. The other historic Main street of America.



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