HUGE NEWS! Clay Bennett & Co. buy Supersonics!

[JavaDaves]

Why do people shop at Wal-Mart or go to McDonald's, when locally owned businesses sell the same things?

Disconnect or indifference.

People buy what they want and think little about who is making money off of it.

Umm, because Wal-Mart is cheap.

[Easy180]

the Seattle Seahawks were packing up the moving trucks headed to Los Angeles , when at the last minute the legislature gave them a new arena.

Big difference in the interest level of keeping the NFL and in keeping the NBA

[writerranger]

I can understand Steven Pyeatt's view in his letter above. I would probably feel the same way. This is just a tough issue that involves more than what we can wrap our hands around. It involves what responsibilities a city has to privately owned professional sports franchises, the increasing player salaries (already obscene), league politics, local politics, investors hometown ties, forty years of history and emotions, TV & Radio rights and its relationship to market size.....one could go on and on with all of the complexities of this deal. It's tough on both ends. But Steven Pyeatt's view that he eloquently outlined in the post above is certainly understandable.

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[BDP]

Umm, because Wal-Mart is cheap.

Ummm, exactly! People's loyalties can be bought. Give them what they want (or think they want, at least) at the price they want and they don't care who is making money off of it. In terms of sports teams, they don't even have a choice. You like basketball in Seattle, you go see the Sonics, you don't do a bakground check on ownership.

That's not to say that there aren't community concious consumers. There are, but Wal-Mart, McDonals's, etc. are examples that most just do not care. Price and product (sometimes) are all that matters and, in the case of sports, it's often just product that matters, because they can't really price shop in the same market.

[metro]

This guy from CBS Sports wrote a few months back that OKC is only dreaming and is preoccupied with lust for the Sonics and Hornets but says we'll never get a team. Let's all make sure to write him an email after we get a team within 2 years, probably sooner.

Oklahoma City Sonics? Hornets? Not gonna happen - CBS SportsLine.com

[mranderson]

Umm, because Wal-Mart is cheap.

No, they are not "cheap." They are inexpensive. The people that shop there do so because they do not like wasting money.

[JavaDaves]

No, they are not "cheap." They are inexpensive. The people that shop there do so because they do not like wasting money.

Same difference.

[mranderson]

Same difference.

No. You are wrong about that. Cheap is low in quality and inexpensive is low in price making the latter a good value. Two totally different things.

[BDP]

Actually a lot of it is just cheap. You get what you pay for, even at Wal-Mart. A lot of that stuff is made cheaper just for wal-mart, but with the same brand. Most don't notice until they're back at WM 6 months later replaceing the same cheap crap.

Anyway, what were we talking about?

[jbrown84]

Cheap is low in quality

exactly.

Wal-Mart

[JavaDaves]

As I said before, Wal-Mart is cheap.

[metro]

Don't turn the Sonics thread into a Wal-Mart thread. Please..........

[Patrick]

Don't turn the Sonics thread into a Wal-Mart thread. Please..........

I concur. Back to topic.

[AFCM]

Let's keep this thread about the Sonics...ALWAYS!

[okclee]

This thread has gone sixteen pages and is still on track, very impressive.


Now back to the Sonics and Bennett.......


Easy180.............I have been trolling around on the Seattle area message boards and I do agree, that the Sonics are not the Seahawks. However by reading posts from the Seattle people they feel as if they have seen this all before.

Like I said about the Seahawks they were already moving and Seattle gave them a new arena. Then there was the Mariners, they were going to move as well, but ended up with a new arena.

The people on the message boards in Seattle are all saying the same thing, "We have seen this all before", and each time Seattle gets it's new arena and everyone is happy.

[writerranger]

Actually a lot of it is just cheap. You get what you pay for, even at Wal-Mart. A lot of that stuff is made cheaper just for wal-mart, but with the same brand. Most don't notice until they're back at WM 6 months later replaceing the same cheap crap.

Anyway, what were we talking about?

You know, BDP, I didn't realize this about Wal-Mart until recently. I bought a Sony product there and later learned that the particular model number is available only at Wal-Mart and it is not of the same quality as comparable Sony products. I am glad to know this. I'll stay away from certain things at Wal-Mart because of it.

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[writerranger]

Let's keep this thread about the Sonics...ALWAYS!

Honestly, this thread has become a bit beastly. A new Sonics Thread (Post-Hornets) makes sense to me.

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[metro]

NBA to study possible move to Vegas

Associated Press
Posted: 3 hours ago



NEW YORK (AP) - There are no plans yet for what happens if the SuperSonics leave Seattle. Las Vegas still has hopes of being the possible destination.

Las Vegas' goal of landing an NBA franchise is still alive after commissioner David Stern said Friday he will appoint a committee of owners to study the proposal Mayor Oscar Goodman submitted about how his city would handle a team.
Stern has been opposed to playing in Las Vegas while there is gambling on the league, though he invited Goodman during All-Star weekend to make his proposal and said he would include it on the agenda during the two-day board meeting.

Goodman's letter failed to offer a compromise that would block betting on a potential Las Vegas franchise, but that hasn't yet ruined his chances. Stern said that after subsequent discussions with city officials, the owners asked for the committee so there could be further study "without prejudging anything."

"We're not sitting still because we're forming an owners' committee," deputy commissioner Adam Silver said.

Silver said the committee likely would be established in the next several weeks, consisting of owners from stable franchises with no potential of moving. Besides the gambling issue, the committee would study where the team would play and what a possible relocation fee would be.

The NBA currently has no team to move. But that could change in a year.

Stern said the SuperSonics updated the board on the "disappointing week that they had there in terms of not even a vote on their measure."

Washington's legislative leaders recently announced they wouldn't vote during the current session on a proposal to use county taxes to help build a new $500 million arena in the Seattle suburb of Renton.

The Sonics' lease at Key Arena runs through 2010, but the Sonics aren't obligated to play in Seattle past next season without a new arena deal, and owner Clay Bennett said after the failed vote measure that he doubted they would do so.

Oklahoma City would seem to be the likely destination if the Sonics do move, since Bennett is from there and the city strongly supported the New Orleans Hornets over the last two seasons. But nothing was decided this week.

"There's no current Plan B," Stern said. "There's a willingness by the team to meet with any and all who are in Seattle."

[Patrick]

Let's see.......Bennet owns the Sonics, and he's from Oklahoma City? What are the chances of him moving the team to Las Vegas? Wishful thinking on their part.

[metro]

I agree. People just don't want to come to realization that OKC is a lead contender for a major league franchise.

[HOT ROD]

okclee and others,

one thing you are not realizing (and some of my fellow Seattleites posting there [who are just fans by the way and do not represent the majority up here]), is that the Seahawks and Mariners ARE AND WERE locally owned at the time of their stadium initiatives. Also, the Seahawks and Mariners have a MUCH LARGER following than the SONICS. These two teams are THE ONLY MLB and NFL teams in the Pacific NW, and both leagues are ahead of the NBA anyways - so it means MUCH MORE to Seattle/WA to finance those teams' arenas (as Seattle needed to replace the Kingdome which it blew up anyways) but the same is not the case for the SONICS.

You should have also seen a few of the majority opinion which is - the SONICS have an arena which was expanded 10 years ago. The SONICS are not a top team nor is the NBA a top league. And finally, they are owned by an outsider group - so it will be a little sad to see them go but "see ya later" if you expect us to build you an arena.

Seattle is not in the same position as OKC is. Seattle is a Top Tier II city and has a very large impact on its region (not that OKC doesn't). But Seattle was major league 40 years ago, so it doesn't need the SONICS to define its big city status whereas OKC does. This is why we will not build the SONICS an arena - especially one in a low-class suburb that Renton is just so Boeing/Bennett/Prentice can go get rich while the city of Seattle and most of the region loses. It's just not worth it for us.

In addition, as BDP mentioned - we have HUGE issues regarding our infrastructure up here. We have freeways in worse condition than I-40 yet would cost billions to fix due to earthquake damage as well as its location fronting puget sound for instance or spanning a 2-mile wide lake for other instance. In addition, think OKC schools are/were bad, ours are worse. Hard to believe but we have some major problems and it all has to do with funding. but we need to fix what was done (we diverted some $3 billion+ to Boeing to retain part of the 787 airplane mfg when they moved their hq to Chicago, this came from the education funds by the way with the intention of using bonds/incremental sales tax Bennett wants us to give him to pay them off - same for the Safeco Field and Qwest Field construction). This is how the state magically came up with those funds, using education; but this has also contributed to the fall of our system - teachers make avg $38,000 per session in an area whose median salary is above $55,000.

The legislature will ask voters in November to approve a comprehensive $12B+ plan to improve our transportation infrastructure over 20 years. I plan to vote no because I hate these "comprehensive plans" as you quickly lose visibility on what project cost what and which project's accountability. I liken this to a "blank check" and will vote no. I would vote yes, however, if each project was individual.

But I digress - These are much more pressing issues than the SONICS and even given they are ALREADY starting to advertise for that comprehensive tax and the problems we have with our infrastructure, the SONICS are a day too late to step in line for a handout.

[metro]

from today's Seattle Times:


Sunday, April 22, 2007
Sonics' solution so simple
By Danny Westneat

Seattle Times staff columnist



Related

Danny Westneat's columns via RSS

Forget Renton. Forget building the world's most expensive arena out in the 'burbs.

It's time for the Sonics to come home. Now that state lawmakers have sensibly ignored the bloated fantasy of a $500 million Sonics and Storm palace in Renton, the burning question is: What next?

Are the teams as good as gone to Oklahoma?

Is Seattle stuck with a debt-ridden KeyArena?

Is this broken relationship irreconcilable?

Without a big shift, the answers are yes, yes and yes.

But the 40-year marriage of team and city doesn't have to end like this. Compromise is a lost art, but there is one right under our noses that could save the Sonics without exorbitant public subsidies.

It would build a modern arena with double the space of the tiny Key. It would eliminate the debt that's crippling Seattle Center. It would involve no state money and no sales taxes.

The idea is simple. Sonics owners say they're willing to spend "more than $100 million" on the Renton arena that the state just shunned. What if they put that $100 million-plus into KeyArena instead?

A year ago, the team, under different owners, was pushing a $220 million rehab of KeyArena that would create, the team said, a "first-rate multipurpose facility."




Trouble was, then-owner Howard Schultz had lost a lot of money and wasn't willing to pony up much more. But the new owners say they are. With Renton all but dead, why not meet back at the Key?

The Sonics and the public could go 50-50 on the cost of renovating KeyArena. Say the price is up to $250 million. That's $125 million each.

The Sonics were going to spend at least that much in Renton, anyway. For the public, it's a quarter-of-a-billion dollars less than Renton.

It would leave us with just one basketball arena — happily, the one we've already got. We could drop the sales tax on restaurants. Imagine: a tax canceled! There would be zero state money needed. The entire public share could be paid for by extending local hotel/motel and car-rental taxes.

Seattle Center would get a new arena, with money to pay off the old arena's debt — lifting a white elephant from the city's back. There's even money left over, $35 million that could be used for arts or recreation projects around the county.

Best, it would keep the teams where they belong. In Seattle. Even Chris Van Dyk, backer of Initiative 91 limiting sports subsidies, said he could support such a meet-in-the-middle deal. And that it could comply with the initiative.

I ran it by the Sonics and some government types. All were skeptical. The Sonics now say fixing the Key is a "Band-Aid," despite hawking it a year ago. The politics are radioactive. The city and team have not spoken this year.

C'mon, are we really this dysfunctional? Here's an idea to save the Sonics, save Seattle Center and, compared to the alternatives, save some money.

Of course, it requires leadership from our politicians. And compromise from our pro sports team. So as good as I think this idea is, I don't suppose I'll hold my breath.

[jbrown84]

Sure is interesting that he's suggesting this when we have people here saying a $100 million upgrade of the Ford Center won't be enough...

[Easy180]

He is recommending spending $250 Million on the Key...That would build a world class multi functional arena here with the costs so much lower

A $100 Mil on the Ford Center would make it a gem for sure...But only for another decade

[HOT ROD]

Yeah, he's scrambling.