Jackson Jambalaya

Setting aside the press release itself, this is a good idea. Why not take a shot at it? I have no interest in professional basketball, but maybe Jackson can leverage its proximity to New Orleans and land a D-league team. What about the Memphis Grizzlies? Could that be another option?

FIX THE DAMN STREETS.

This ought to turn out well, do you think there is grant money avaiable?

I agree with Suburb Guy. Assuming a D-league team is available (not an NBA or D League follower and admittedly have no idea), this is good idea. Downtown needs an attraction that pulls economic activity on a regular basis. The Braves would have been great. This could too.

Too bad they have to play in a horse barn. Someone please put the Coliseum out of its misery. Maybe we could get some real musicians to make a stop in Jackson.

Gulfport and three other cities in Louisiana are in the running for this d-league team. Good luck to Jackson in what should amount to a short kid going for his first basket from outside the arch.

Where would they play? Please don't say the Coliseum.

Where will they play? Maybe the convention center. Lord knows there's nothing happening in THAT facility.

Who are these "major players" in Jackson? Or are they "major playas"?

I can see it now: The Jacktown MedgarEverses, co-owned by prominent and inscrutable members of the local hip hop community, including Kamikaze, David Banner, Ray Ray "Skybox" Kersh, Milli Montana and Lil Tank Marshall, among others.

Maybe the city can propose another 1 cent sales tax to pay for this. It seems to be working for the infrastructure.

Good for them for at least trying to bring something positive to the city. I am doubtful but hope it works out. I don't live in Jackson but I want to see it get better. Perhaps this could be a start. They've got to make people want to go to Jackson.

A low rent franchise in a low rent facility in a low rent city. How can this be anything but amazing?

Didn't Jackson have some sort of semi-pro basketball team back in the early 2000s? Maybe I'm hallucinating, but wasn't Richard Williams the coach? I believe the games were played at JSU.

What was once a joke is now actually happening. When will we see hover buses floating down Farish, I wonder.

Bring back minor league hockey!

Yawn! Here we go again. What, are we looking for another failed team to add to the city's sad history?

This town can't support a pro any kind of team, period. Shall I list the ones in my lifetime that have gone bust?

Jackson Mets (baseball)
Jackson Generals (baseball)
Jackson Senators (baseball)
Jackson Diamondkats (baseball)
Jackson Jammers (basketball)
Jackson Wildcats (basketball)
Jackson Rockers (soccer)
Jackson Chargers (soccer)
Mississippi Stars (football)
Mississippi Pride (football)
Jackson Bandits (hockey)

Add to it that ridiculous scam about putting a dome on Smith Wills for an Arena Football team and you have a list of failures. Yeah, the Braves are still going, but they are costing Pearl a ton of money and there and LOTS of empty seats, even on weekends.

Sports teams are sexy and cool and we'd all love to have one, but history has shown over and over that this city does not support pro teams that are based here. It just isn't in the cards.

Our water/sewer system is crumbling and our roads are damn near gravel, but let's get a roundball team! Hell yeah!

This sounds great! Where do I sign up to be a consultant? I would be willing to mentor or oversee the contracts, or whatever. I'm flexible as long as the $$$ are right. Of course I would be willing to share a portion of the proceeds in exchange for getting this gig. You understand?

Meanwhile the Green Bay Packers are a successful professional NFL franchise.

A good contrast when a city is all in and working together.

I see the Coliseum is a stakeholder. So that means State Ag Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith has joined the team. And if the Coliseum is going to be the arena how are they going to host the Dixie National and all of the associated horse events? The Fairgrounds is booked solid in late January thru February and March. And the State Fair takes up October. If the ag department is involved --- lookout. Here comes the Legislature putting its nose in the trough.

Don't forget that the fairgrounds is also the place where the Mississippi legislators and senators live in their trailer homes during the sessions.

The Coliseum and Fairgrounds are state-owned. The revenue will go primarily to the state if the games are in the Coliseum.

This was one of the arguments used for the Jackson Storage Facility...I mean Convention Center - that the Trade Mart and Coliseum were on state property and the Convention Center would be a city facility.

People bust the chops of the city leadership regularly, but a bunch of property is in state hands and is exempt in part or total from city taxes and governance. The fairgrounds, UMC, Memorial Stadium, Jackson State, LeFleur's Bluff State Park, the Ag Museum, the Capitol complex. It makes it hard to collect revenue when the state is squatting on prime downtown real estate.

If a team comes (which I highly DOUBT), the city will get the shaft again.

Why not Jackson? I think the games would sell-out. Easily. It's basketball and that means whites and blacks will go to it. Besides with the outdoor music venue being built in Brandon, we don't need an indoor venue. And Bob Dylan and the band Chicago play Thalia Mara--as well as the MS Symphony. All of those are real musicians.

Here comes JSU with their hand out for a new basketball stadium!

We did this once.

It was such an abortion....like fall down 12 flights of stairs in to a vat of coat hangers abortion.

Their office was in (now) Regions Bldg and it was purple while the couches were pink and cherry red.

There was even a fancy sign that read all official "International Team Of Stabilitated Conglomeratental Transunional Functions"

Complete waste of TIME! Read this link relating to recent Memphis Grizzlies D-League relocation:

http://www.nba.com/grizzlies/news/grind-city-media/wallace-dleague-170123/

“It’s a complete game-changer,” said John Hollinger, Grizzlies executive vice president of basketball operations. “Our affiliation with Iowa has been very effective for several years, both in terms of player development and basketball ops to both cities. To operate our own D-League team in your backyard - the direct access to the development process of our player talent - makes the process so much more efficient"

As you read, the trend is to have teams close to parent organization. As much as we would like to believe we are in the New Orleans backyard, we aren't. The team will go to Baton Rouge, Gulfport, or somewhere close to NO. Now, quit wasting time and FIX THE DAMN INFRASTRUCTURE AND QUIT PRETENDING TO BE A BIG SHOT. If the roads continue to look this way, the only conventions we will get is monster truck. Geez, Louise...F*&K, I'm so sick of reading about stupidity!

Here comes JSU with their hand out for a new basketball stadium!

Why not buy Metrocenter and turn it into a basketball complex? The city owns half the mall anyway, and they love selling old buildings to JSU for pennies on the dollar. Turn center court into a basketball court - HOME OF THE TIGERS, and make the rest classrooms or labs or something.

I mean, the campus is about a mile from Metrocenter as is. They could share the court with the new D-league team. They'll only be in operation for a year or two max before folding up and moving to Baton Rouge or Monroe.

We gone get some hoop baby!!!!!

State flag = a racist flag.

Don't bank on it

How could this be a loser? Roundball at the coliseum. Nearby Waffle House with new outside lighting. It's been a long time now since that murder and it's history. Motel Six on 55 is no longer a place of remembrance for the murder of the Bass Pro Contest fisherperson.

Reopened Bar B Que shacks on High Street. Cops will sweep the area along the old Ramada periodically. Cops under the bridges on 55 will be instructed to allow six mph over limit instead of four. The hoes on 80 will buy billboard space next to Danny's on I-220 and incoming gentlemen will flock to it.

The Dildo Shop on 80 under the stack will run specials and continue advertising career opportunities if you call Cindy Diamond- Glitter. Gunn and Reeves will welcome backers to the legislative halls and present keys to the Pearl One Lake Project. How could this possibly lose?

The City of Jackson needs to stay up to date: the D-League is not even the D-League any longer. Thanks to a deal with Gatorade, it will be called the G-League beginning next year. Guess that fact escaped those interested in submitting a proposal.

State flag = a racist flag.

Don't bank on it

Dude, our state flag could be a picture of Martin Luther King and Mohandas Gandhi hugging the Dalai Lama and we STILL wouldn't get this. It's pie in the sky BS and it won't happen.

D-League ball is decent basketball. Have been to a number of games over the years. Obviously not as good as the NBA and not as good as European Pro but definitely way better than semi-pro.

The product will be good and the players hungry to make it to the next level. The venue, marketing, etc will have to be as good or better to get fans to buy tickets. Both the Coliseum or JSU will work.

"Decent Basketball"? Bullshit.....you can find 'decent basketball' at Madison Central and J.A.

This has got to be a ploy by the New Orleans franchise to get Baton Rouge to sweeten their deal. When you look at the proximity,numbers, and the facilities (B.R. Centroplex), there is no real comparison. Baton Rouge would have to not just say no, but Hell No! before Jackson would even be considered. Or Jackson would have to offer a hell of a lot more than it really has... Oh Oh...Sorry I brought it up.

4:42, hahahaha. you must be a native jacksonian.

I just remembered when Jackson was going to invest millions in building a ice hockey stadium and the team evaporated before the bill was ever passed

I assume someone will be painting some lines and installing some hoops in the lovely trademart

Yarber referred to it as a 'cultural attraction'; I thought it was sort of sports?

Yarber's use of the word 'cultural' is simply code. But you knew that.

FIX THE DAMN STREETS!

Pitt Panther @ 11:59....how long have you been in this state? Real musicians played there a thousand times years ago. Same building. Same acoustics. Same roads. Same parking. Same steps to second level. Same pitiful concessions. Same stage. Same lighting systems.

Different demographics carousing the skreets. Different police. Different hotels. Different restaurants. Different safety.