National Basketball Association

Columbus mayor makes pitch for NBA team

Published May. 10, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

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Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman has sent an overture letter to NBA Commissioner David Stern that Ohio's capital city would love to have an expansion or relocated team play in its downtown arena along with the NHL's Blue Jackets.

In the letter sent earlier this month and made available to The Associated Press, Coleman makes his pitch for a team in Columbus, citing the publicly-owned Nationwide Arena and the city's largest-in-the-state metropolitan population of nearly 2 million. He also wrote Columbus had a strong economic climate featuring 15 Fortune 1000 companies.

A spokesman for the Cleveland Cavaliers, located just 120 miles away from Columbus, declined to comment on Coleman's letter and Columbus as a possible NBA city.

In an email, NBA spokesman Tim Frank said, ''At the moment, we have no plans to expand and no teams have applied for relocation so it wouldn't be prudent to comment on the possibilities of another market.''