The Seattle SuperSonics have officially been stolen.
Basketball fans have been sold out by politicians that have allowed their team to be robbed without even putting up a fight.
Barring a miracle, or a victory by Howard Schultz with his litigation against the Sonics, the team is gone. During his press conference from OKC, Bennett has already stated the team begins its move tomorrow.
This is an example to every person who has even a passing knowledge of politics to understand why it is important to elect capable politicians. Politicians that care about the region where they live and who won't sell out their constituents for a bagful of silver and who'll put their political lives on the line rather than allowing a 41-year cultural institution to be snatched away in such an underhanded fashion.
Every Sonics fan that has watched this catastrophe unfold can point their fingers at a series of scoundrels: Democrat Greg Nickels, the Democrats on the Seattle City Council and the Democrats in the state legislature.
The first thing the Sonics fans can do to make their voices heard in a politically pragmatic manner is to punish Democratic governor Christine Gregoire who has shown no leadership on this issue. They can do so in November by voting for her opponent, Dino Rossi who has been more than ahead of the curve on this issue.
Posted by DonWard at July 02, 2008 05:05 PM | Email ThisUmmm... last I checked, "stealing" involved taking something from the rightful owner against the owner's will. Howard Schultz was the rightful owner. He sold them to Bennett. Now Bennett, the rightful owner, is moving them.
I'm not saying Bennett isn't a shmuck... he is. But explain to me how the Sonics were "stolen"?
Sorry Don, but this isn't Green Bay. The Seattle Supersonics organization is a private company. You don't own them. The city didn't own them. Fans don't own them. Bennett does. The fact that you're a fan doesn't entitle you to decide where they will and won't play. Only the rightful owner gets to make that decision. And he wants them to play in OKC.
Posted by: Mike H on July 2, 2008 05:47 PM"Now Bennett, the rightful owner, is moving them."
Excuse me? He is no rightful owner unless he made a "good faith" effort to keep the team. There was no "good faith" effort made by any means. He does not "rightfully" own the franchise.
The Sonics were stolen.
Posted by: Warren A on July 2, 2008 05:54 PMF-k Bennett and f-k the NBA. It's only because we have Paul Allen that we're not in the same boat as you honestly.
Posted by: Don on July 2, 2008 06:00 PMIf Schultz proves your argument in court, then yes, you're correct. But the burden of proof is on Schultz, not Bennett. As of right now, whether you like it or not, Bennett is the rightful owner.
Posted by: Mike H on July 2, 2008 06:00 PMEveryone with half a brain knew as soon as the sale to Bennett's group was announced that they had no intention whatsoever of keeping the team in town. The emails that came to light during the court case prove that pretty plainly.
On the plus side, the crime rate will go down, fewer gas guzzling luxury cars......
On the down side....gee, I am drawing a blank...
Posted by: Hank on July 2, 2008 06:05 PMThe team has been stolen. That is the appropriate terminology. The Seattle SuperSonics are a unique cultural part of the region just like the Space Needle (which is also privately owned).
This is demonstrable just by the marketing that major league sports teams do themselves.
Every sports franchise brands itself as belonging to the fans. They aren't just A baseball team or A football team or A basketball team doing business in a given region.
They're YOUR Seattle Mariners, YOUR Seattle Seahawks, YOUR Seattle SuperSonics. You buy the clothing labels, trading cards, season tickets and watch on TV not because the team is just some abstract business but because the owners of the franchise want you to become personally invested in it.
It is a partnership between fans and the team. And it is a partnership that has been breached.
If you lived here, Mike, in the 1990s or the 1970s you know how important this team is to the region. Admittedly there are a lot of out-of-staters that have moved here since then who just don't get it.
Millions of local sports fans have a 41-year emotional (not to mention financial) investment in the Sonics. And to have that stolen from them in such a sordid manner is a crime.
The citizens of this region went through too much to get this franchise in the first place. Community leaders in this region invested too much in the 1960s to allow a bunch of nimrods (Democrats) running the local government now to get an easy cop-out here.
If you don't get that, well, I'm sorry.
Posted by: Don Ward on July 2, 2008 06:06 PMWill it be reinvested in Key Arena? Will it go towards luring another franchise?
Will it go towards stabilizing the number of police officers or prosecuting attorneys?
Will it go towards shoring up the financial position of Seattle Schools?
Or will it just go towards some politicians pet projects?
Posted by: SouthernRoots on July 2, 2008 06:14 PMSonics important to this region? In what way? Oh my gosh......
Good Lord, the Sonics are these days nothing but NBA gang wannabe juvenile diliquents masquerading as entertainment.
Don, my man, obviously not a Seattle native; are you as indignant about the
Sonics fate as you are about the City of Seattle basically systematically driving the unlimited hydros out of Stan Sayres Pits for the benefit of a few dozen rowers??
The hydros put Seattle on the national sports map, for those of you fact, history and reality impaired, aka imports, liberal pantywaists.....
Oh, probably not....
If any sport has a Seattle heritage, it is hydroplanes, minor league Rainier baseball, Husky football, not necessarily in that order.
Sonics........bummer......jailbait......losers..
Posted by: Hank on July 2, 2008 06:20 PMI'm with Mike H on this. They are only YOUR [name the entertainment company] because it is good marketing for the private firms to say so. Sells tickets, helps keep the tax subsidies alive, etc. It is standard, old school marketing - nothing more.
Hey, I'm a Pepper. He's a Pepper. She's a Pepper. You're a Pepper. I say we riot in the streets if the Doctor sells out to Mr. Pibb. We're Peppers gosh darn it. It's OUR high fructose, carbonated beverage!
When it comes down to it, I'm going to guess that the now defunct Sunset Bowl and Leilani Lanes contributed more in the way of direct affordable, family entertainment to the area than five tall guys running around in their underpants. Add to the mix other entertainment franchises like the Cinerama, any number of Lowes Theaters and Wild Waves. Would they be ours, too if the owners put that in a press release? C'mon Don.
The local sports entertainment franchises are not "ours." As a bitter blogger once wrote, "if you don't get that, well, I'm sorry..."
Sorry, but I don't hold some romanticized view of the team. I can't. I get that they're fun to watch. I get that a lot of people enjoy going to the games frequently. But to be outraged that you're somehow being "robbed" is just plain silly to me.
Posted by: Mike H on July 2, 2008 06:38 PMAnd the NBA's culture of the 70s and 80s where players stayed with the teams and were a part of the community is long gone as well. I remember bumping in to Trailblazer players and their families at the breakfast hangout in Portland on Sundays. They were friendly and engaged with the community.
Now, the NBA's product has declined to a deplorable state. Players don't care too much about the game or their teams. And with that, so has the interest of many of the fans. I use to be an avid NBA fan, now I could care less. NCAA action is far better basketball.
Interesting times we live in.
Posted by: Jeff B. on July 2, 2008 06:39 PMConsidering that the Seattle Coliseum was built by the citizens of Seattle to attract an NBA franchise and considering that the Coliseum was renovated by the citizens of Seattle to keep aforementioned NBA franchise in town does give the citizens in this region a vested fiduciary role in the ownership of Sonics.
Not to mention the millions of man hours invested by local fans supporting this franchise. This makes the Sonics quite a bit different business modle than the Sunset Bowl and Leilani Lanes.
But then I can argue that rain is wet to someone who believes rain to be dry.
Hank,
Third and fourth generation Washingtonian here. My great-great grandfather was the minister for the downtown First United Methodist Church.
When did you move here? Now that our who is a real Northwesterner bonafides are in order, why are you on the same side of the same, out of state liberal pussies that got rid of the hydros again? Because they're the same out of state liberal pussies that want to get rid of the Sonics.
Posted by: Don Ward on July 2, 2008 06:42 PMAll of you "Go Sonics and take the Mariners with you" folks. Why are you so eager to join up with the Democrats in Seattle and Olympia that have fought so hard to kick Sonics out of town.
Does it seem at all strange that you happen to be on the same side of the coin as the Greg Nickels, Nick Licatas and Frank Chopps of the world and are at odds with Republicans like Dino Rossi, Steve Pyeatt, Slade Gorton and Pete Von Reichbauer?
Posted by: Don Ward on July 2, 2008 06:48 PMPro sports are so corporate that the strong team oriented fans and players, family values and reasonable pricing that built the kind of loyalty that is in Don's words has been destroyed. Now all you see are corporate functions renting blocks of seats where people are there because they got free tix. And there are so many BS promotions and stupid songs playing, childish videos on the jumbotron, etc. It's all a distraction and you get the sense that the players are just there for the show. They rarely play hard the whole game. And many of them have severely dysfunctional attitudes and personal lives. The role models are gone, replaced by thugs.
It's not about the sport anymore, but all of the surrounding junk. So the type of fan that is now attracted to the venue is either the see-and-be-seen rich white liberal with the trophy wife who leaves early, or the ghetto punks that worship the players for all of the wrong reasons.
Let it go Don. It will come back when enough fans just stay home and economics force change.
Edit note by DW- Jeff. You are factual incorrect about family friendly ticket prices and have fallen for the propaganda. I can't let your statement be.
At Key Arena there are seats from $10 to $25. You might sneer that they're "upper level" but having sat there a time or few, they're pretty damn good seats. This is one of the reasons why Key Arena, contrary to the argument, is such a great place to watch NBA basketball.
http://www.nba.com/media/sonics/07_08_sonics_pricing.pdf
Oh, and voting out Democrats and not economics will force the change...
Posted by: Jeff B. on July 2, 2008 06:51 PM"They're YOUR Seattle Mariners, YOUR Seattle Seahawks, YOUR Seattle SuperSonics. You buy the clothing labels, trading cards, season tickets and watch on TV not because the team is just some abstract business but because the owners of the franchise want you to become personally invested in it.
It is a partnership between fans and the team. And it is a partnership that has been breached."
We're forgetting a few of the other "partners." There are the owners -- you know, the people who pay the players' exhorbitant salaries so they can entertain the fans. There are the politicians --they're the people who are supposed to promote the city's interests by providing state-of-the-art facilities so that the owners can make a sufficient return on their investment to incentivize them to remain in the city.
Americas are learning some hard lessons. Auto workers no longer have the "right" to earn $50.00 per hour installing fenders when people in other parts of the world are willing to perform the same work at a fraction of the cost. If another city, or state, or country offered Microsoft, or Boeing, or even Starbucks, enormous tax or other incentives to move their headquarters or opertations, they would leave in a heartbeat, despite their "partnership" with the city and its residents.
Posted by: Sonicsfan on July 2, 2008 06:53 PMThe underlying philosophy of the region is collective, Progressive and broken. Until that gets fixed, all bets are off.
So yeah, vote Rossi, and maybe we can start to turn it around. But don't get attached to the garbage that now passes for Seattle culture. I spend my dollars and my emotional investment on the few things that are still functional in the region. I seek them out, and it's a lot more gratifying than the empty feeling one gets after viewing any of today's Progressive entertainment.
Posted by: Jeff B. on July 2, 2008 06:59 PMHe says they must approve the massive tax hikes for a new stadium.
But what I heard him say was he was going to start spending the 45 million on a Seattle Center renovation, so the way he spends it will be gone in no time, cause 45 million is chump change to that dude, and he won't get the other 30 million unless they approve a spending plan which the will do even though they know it will not see the light of day for a Basketball team or arena. But it will get the other 30 million delivered and that will give Nichols 75 million for part of his renovation, and the OK to build a new stadium, but no team will be gotten.
It's very carefully worded to force the legislature to spend another Billion or so in Seattle.
Posted by: gs on July 2, 2008 07:01 PMFor my money, I'd much rather take the family to a Rainier's game where we can sit right up close for the same price or less. There's a lot less pretension, and baseball seems to be a lot less affected by the meltdown of American pro sports, and it still maintains a modicum of sportsmanship and standards amongst the players and traditions.
And I'm not saying get rid of the Mariners. Only that the Sonics and the NBA are a bad apple.
Posted by: Jeff B. on July 2, 2008 07:11 PMThe people complaining about ticket prices must not go to games, if you did you would know that they always had family specials and kids could get soda and hot dog for a buck.
I understand that if you are not a sports fan, you may not have much sympathy; but having a professional sports teams is one aspect that makes Seattle a world class place to live and visit. Today Seattle and all of Washington State slipped a little closer to becomming a dull, second-rate state.
Posted by: Whole Lotta Rosie on July 2, 2008 07:32 PMDoes it seem at all strange that you happen to be on the same side of the coin as the Greg Nickels, Nick Licatas and Frank Chopps of the world and are at odds with Republicans like Dino Rossi, Steve Pyeatt, Slade Gorton and Pete Von Reichbauer?
So let me get this straight. Increasing your taxes and essentially handing the extra revenue to a *private* business is okay? Geez. You guys would cut off your noses to spite your face... are you only opposed to all of this because liberals are taking the position that fiscal conservatives should be taking here?
Posted by: demo kid on July 2, 2008 07:50 PMDino Rossi doesn't really figure into this situation, but nevertheless he is the candidate who will bring accountability back to State Government, which the current Gov. is good at finger pointing but not at taking responsibility for her faults. For those reasons, I vote to reelect Rossi for the third time in two elections and hopefully the third time will be the charm !
Posted by: KS on July 2, 2008 08:21 PM"They're YOUR Seattle Mariners [nope], YOUR Seattle Seahawks [nope], YOUR Seattle SuperSonics [nope]. You buy the clothing labels [nope], trading cards [nope], season tickets [nope!!!] and watch on TV [not really] not because the team is just some abstract business [yep] but because the owners of the franchise want you to become personally invested in it [yep, a sucker's born every minute]."
We should thank our leaders...by losing the Sonics, we will have more money to pay teachers, more funds for the Homeless, raises for State Employees.
Remember letting the Sonics go is...
"For Our Children"
Posted by: Pacific Grove Phlash on July 2, 2008 09:22 PMTax subsidies to sports teams? There's nothing genuinely Republican about that.
Posted by: hinton on July 2, 2008 09:42 PMWhat was his position- I don't believe he said definitively he would use taxpayer money to subsidize them, even though he may have postured for them staying. That is a weak reason for switching to Gregoire, given her dirty laundry list...
Slade Gorton would have supported public financing, just as he did for the Mariner stadium back in 1996.
Posted by: KS on July 2, 2008 09:57 PMNope. It means that decades of sincere support from Seattle was ignored by a greedy owner. Seattle repeatedly paid to keep the Sonics here, and the owner just demanded more. That's not a partnership, it's an abusive marriage, and the abuser just left. (The victim will fell more relieved after the abuser really does not return.)
Seattle's voters recently required that any sports partnership actually produce a decent rate of return for their city. That's called good fiscal responsibility, and it's amusing to see a "conservative" blog complain about such prudence.
Posted by: tensor on July 2, 2008 11:04 PMnot a cent for the Coliseum!!!!!!! Let Key Bank fix it up...it just was spiffed a "few" years ago.
Nothing...nothing....nothing ZZZZEROOOO $... State Legislature..ya hear. Oh wait right I am zip zero nada in today's politics.
Does Howard Shultz have a DWI like Richard Petty...Only if Frank Chopp SEZ So to kill a deal when we are $2.3 BILLION upside down. Or will the $300 Million Flow like water for 12 "Dudes" and NASCAR reeled from being kicked in the head and hard.
Posted by: Col. Hogan on July 2, 2008 11:24 PMSeems very republican to let the business owner move their business wherever the heck they want to, and I've never understood why the government is paying for stadiums. Don't we have important infrastructure to worry about?
Posted by: Cassie on July 3, 2008 01:38 AMSeems very republican to let the business owner move their business wherever the heck they want to, and I've never understood why the government is paying for stadiums. Don't we have important infrastructure to worry about?
Posted by: Cassie on July 3, 2008 01:51 AMHypocrisy is fun
Posted by: Andrew Brown on July 3, 2008 07:53 AMI'm not switching to Gregoire. I'll be sitting this one out.
No matter how tax dollars are collected, unless they're collected as a result of a vote of the people, I cannot support any candidate who advocates utilizing tax dollars to subsidize pro sports. Of any kind.
Rossi's advocacy of using tens of millions of dollars for a non-public purpose is just one of the reasons why he's going to lose (And he IS going to lose) because we have yet to grasp the fact that we cannot win in this state by out-democrating the democrats.
Posted by: hinton on July 3, 2008 08:00 AMNow I won't be able to see my World Champion Boston Celtics play in Seattle.
As a Swedish-German-Russian American, I am highly offended by the use of "Celtics" to name a sports team. Please try to be a little more politically correct in the future. : )
Posted by: NW Denizen on July 3, 2008 08:43 AMHave you ever been to Boston? There's a lot of actual Celtics there, especially around Southie, and they don't seem to mind. :-)
Anyway, speaking of Boston, they don't do public funding of their sports teams. Public money poisons things.
I don't get it.
Posted by: cpk on July 3, 2008 09:24 AMThe only thing sports businesses do for me is raise my taxes (which are already 5 times too high). Therefore they make me mad as hell and I'm glad to see them go.
Posted by: GoodRiddance on July 3, 2008 11:11 AMNope, I have never been to Boston. Maybe someday. I think it would be an interesting place to visit. No, I have never heard of anyone being offended by "The Fighting Irish" either. Political correctness is baloney.
Posted by: NW Denizen on July 3, 2008 11:23 AMThankfully Gregoire did not give in to political pressure from 'small government??' rossi to steal more money from taxpayers to try and keep the team here.
Today is a victory for citizens opposed to corporate subsidies!
Posted by: Lysander on July 3, 2008 05:02 PMTo properly commemorate the event and those who brought it about, I think they should spend the money on a whole bunch of automatic toilets, called "The Gregoire/Nichols Sonics Memorial Auto-Crapper Network".
Posted by: scott on July 3, 2008 06:29 PM