Mayor Sharon Weston Broome is pitching the New Orleans Pelicans to make Baton Rouge the site of the planned Pelicans-affiliated G-League basketball team.
The Pelicans have been eyeing a minor league squad since 2012, when Tom Benson purchased the franchise, Douglas Miller, communications-broadcasting manager for the Saints and Pelicans, says in an email. The plans became more concrete over the past year after the NBA and NBA Players Association struck a new collective bargaining agreement.
Since then, the Pelicans have sent requests for proposals to 11 communities throughout Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. The franchise has received letters of intent from six of those regions, including from Broome’s office in Baton Rouge. The others are Jackson, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; Pensacola, Florida; St. Tammany Parish; and Shreveport.
The deadline for proposals is June 7, and Miller says the Pelicans will likely pick a city by the end of the summer.
The NBA D-League, which has been the minor league of NBA basketball since 2001, will be known as the G-League starting in the 2017-2018 season after the NBA struck a deal with Gatorade.
“The Capital Region includes a large number of sports fans, and while I recognize this community’s strong support of our existing sports teams at LSU and Southern, I thought we should at least explore this opportunity,” Broome says in a statement.
The mayor says she will seek input from the Metro Council and other stakeholders before going through with the RFP. Broome did not respond to questions about the possible site of the team, whether she is in talks with the Raising Cane’s River Center to host the squad, or how much the endeavor would cost the city-parish.
“We haven’t had any discussions or any contact with anyone about this,” says Raising Cane’s River Center General Manager Michael Day. “But we’re in favor of having another full time sports event here.”
The Pelicans are aiming for the 2018-2019 season to have a G-League team up and running. The team will be owned and operated by Benson, who said in a statement in late March he hopes to land a site in “nearby proximity” to New Orleans.
The current D-League features 22 teams, all of which are directly affiliated with NBA squads. The Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies and Milwaukee Bucks are expected to add affiliate teams for the upcoming season, according to a Pelicans news release.
D-League teams play 50 regular season games plus a postseason from November to April.
—Sam Karlin
