27 October 2008

Grading the Expansion Candidates V: Vancouver (UPDATED)

What was Steve Francis thinking? We may never know...
Alright, time for the second Canadian city on our list: Vancouver.

Remember when Stevie "Franchise" Francis was drafted by the then-Vancouver Grizzlies? Remember how he pouted for the rest of the televised draft, and then forced the Grizz to trade him to Houston?

I wonder what the hell he was thinking...and I'm sure that at some point during his first road trip to Vancouver as a member of the Rockets, he asked himself the same question: "What the hell was I thinking?"

With that aside out of the way, let's get to the numbers!
Dining: 4 A very good city for food. No denying it.
Entertainment: 3 Good but not great.
Site-Seeing: 4 Bonus point for all the cool outdoorsy stuff in the vicinity.
"Entertainment": 4 Hey, they've got an "entertainment district," right? Plus, with all those Japanese businessmen in town, you figure they've gotta have some decent, uh, establishments.
Drinking: 3 - bonus point for drinking age of 19, but point deducted for early closing time, assuming this article about bars closing at midnight outside the entertainment district is correct.
Climate: 4 Summer league and all that...

Final score: 22 25 out of 30. Not quite enough to take the top spot away from Miami...and Although with Portland and Montreal still to come, well, it looks like it won't will it be enough for Vancouver to make the MLS Rumors² cut? Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Taking Big Rob's comment into account, we are awarding Vancouver a 3 point "BC Bud Bonus." Why? Because that's how we roll, that's why. Of course, this just increases the "what was Steve Francis thinking?" factor.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are missing a crucial component in this eval--the ready availibility of really good "BC Bud" and the quite open attitude towards drugs in general in BC. They should add 4 or 5 points.

I see Vancouver as a strong second to Portland in the overall race.

EdTheRed said...

Good point...major editorial oversight on our part. We might have to update the entry.

Anonymous said...

sorry but I see Miami as good or better than Vancouver.

Tony/ Chicago

EdTheRed said...

@Tony:
If MLS was a *winter* league, I'd be right there with you...but Miami loses points when it comes to summertime climate.

If I'm planning a road trip in January? I'm going to Miami. August? Vancouver, here I come.