They'd throw open their doors and 4,000 people would show up and Heisley would start thinking, hey, the Bucket looks pretty good after all. And, frankly, it was a reasonable thing to worry about. I was flat terrified myself. Memphis has a mixed history of fan support. Heisley ripped his team out of Vancouver after one miserable year.
Tickets are pricey.
Memphis will be the smallest market in the league. Now folks have postponed the release of season ticket sales, it's hard to believe they're going as well as they'd like. So it was important to protect against the downside, to make certain the town didn't get stuck with a new arena and no team. The city and county negotiators did exactly that. The Grizzlies are locked in for 10 years.