The city of St. Louis is also one of the biggest cities in North America and is in a prime location.
When ranking every other city in the United States, St. Louis ranks 20th in total metropolitan area population. This means when combining the main city and all the suburbs, they only sit behind 19 other cities. Only three of those listed above them are potential expansion locations for the NBA (Seattle, San Diego, and Tampa).
This should at least count for something as it is larger than many other cities that already have NBA teams. They also have a larger population than Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Louisville.
St. Louis is also incredibly far away from any NBA teams. Going by car, it is four hours from Memphis, nearly five hours from Chicago, and over seven hours from Oklahoma City. This is ridiculous for a city of this size.
In comparison, Las Vegas is only four hours from Los Angeles, a city with two teams, and nearly five hours from Phoenix. They are much closer to the three closest teams. Not to mention Baltimore which is incredibly close to numerous teams.
Combine the huge area that this team’s fanbase could take up and the huge population of the St. Louis area itself, they could be a huge team for ticket sales. Especially when considering what’s coming next.