Sonics ... or Sooners?
Jeff Alworth
When Clay Bennett bought the Seattle SuperSonics last year, everyone speculated that he would abscond to Oklahoma City with team. Now it's official:
Clay Bennett reiterated Friday that the Sonics are not for sale and informed NBA commissioner David Stern that his ownership group intends to relocate the team to Oklahoma City as soon as they can get out of their KeyArena lease.
Rather than conflict with his team's season opener on that date or Thursday's home debut at KeyArena, Bennett waited until Friday to drop the news. But the results are the same, with the announcement starting the clock ticking on the team's potential departure.
He still has a few hurdles to clear, but Bennett's moving ahead aggressively to get it done and says he absolutely won't sell to local buyers. If he succeeds, Portland will lose a kindred spirit in Seattle. Worse, if the Sonics move, it means the "Northwest Division" would include teams from Oregon, Minnesota, Colorado, Utah, and Oklahoma. Ironically, our nearest rivals--the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors--wouldn't be in our division. (Driving round-trip through the new Northwest Division would take you 5,600 miles.)
Not a great day in Northwest sports. Fortunately, the Oregon Ducks have a chance to become national-title contenders with a win in Eugene tomorrow, so maybe we won't have to spend too much time crying in our beer.
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Nov 2, '07
Actually, they aren't going to be the Oklahoma City "Sonics." They're going to be the Oklahoma City "Sonics" as in the Oklahoma City-based Sonic Drive-In fast food chain.
http://www.sonicdrivein.com/index.jsp
Sonic Drive In is already lined up to buy naming rights for the OK City arena.
Isn't that just dreadful? I wonder if that annoying guy and his wife sitting their car in the Sonic Drive In national spots are going to be the mascots?
4:26 p.m.
Nov 2, '07
Too bad they're not moving to California. The "In-N-Outs" would be a much better name.
Nov 2, '07
I wouldn't start waving bye-bye to the Sonics yet. The team just lost an important court case relating to getting out of the lease before its expiration (9/30/2010). The team's long history in Seattle and the support they've had there still count for something. One solution is to engineer a deal that gives Mr. Bennett what he's always really wanted (a team in Oklahoma City) while finding a local owner for the Sonics. I think a local ownership group can achieve the NBA's real goal (a new arena for the team with better revenue streams).
There's a long way to go. This battle's only just begun.
7:49 p.m.
Nov 2, '07
if nothing else, the precedent of how the Ravens left Cleveland might be the light at the end of Seattle's tunnel: the team goes, but the name, the trophies, the history stay. they get a bunch of contracts and not much else. then when Seattle gets a new team (which would probably happen pretty quickly) the Sonics are not re-born but awakened from their coma.
i loved Luke Ridnour with the Ducks; making that poor boy move to Oklahoma would be just too cruel.
Nov 2, '07
This concerns us a lot more than you might think. If Bennett succeeds in moving the Sonics to Oklahoma City, then Paul Allen will try to move the Blazers to Seattle. It may take a few years, but if Seattle doesn't have a franchise, Allen will move to fill the void. Probably right about the time that Roy, Aldridge, Webster and Oden start jelling and competing for an NBA title.
Portland will then land another team, either an expansion franchise or some hapless team from elsewhere (New Orleans?). Which sucks. Portland fan pressure was instrumental in the remaking of the Blazers from the Jailblazers of years past to the respectable team they are today.
Nov 2, '07
The loss of many Freightliner jobs is more important, when you get right down to it, than what any pro "sports" team does.
10:38 p.m.
Nov 2, '07
Gil--
Yes, that worries me as well. Paul Allen really wants a team in Seattle, and I brought this topic up to my husband (he's a Blazers fan, I'm a Rockets fan) some time back. I told him I was afraid the Sonics owner would move the team, which would give Paul Allen the opportunity to move his team to Seattle.
And this does indeed affect Oregon, since the players pay a good amount of income tax. Not to mention other revenue to the various levels of local/state government, jobs, etc.
Nov 2, '07
Actually Peter, sports teams are pretty big economic factors. Income taxes from all the players who play in your city, jobs for all the team and arena staff, tourism, etc.
11:30 p.m.
Nov 2, '07
Far be it from me to suggest that anyone should ever take a sports team owner at his word, but I'd like to offer a word of encouragement to Blazers fans.
I was born and raised in Baltimore, an Orioles fan. Washington, DC (just 50 miles down the road) was without a MLB franchise from 1962-1969 and 1971-2004. In 1980 the Orioles were sold to Washington attorney (and Washington Redskins part owner) Edward Bennett Williams. Orioles fans had always been totally paranoid about the prospect of the team being moved to DC and Williams' purchase jacked that paranoia up to a very high level. He offered repeated reassurances that it was not his plan or desire to move the franchise, but Baltimoreans never really believed him. Despite all that paranoia, Williams owned the team and kept it in Baltimore for the rest of this life. As time passed, he came to a deep appreciation of the importance of the Orioles to the cultural fabric of Baltimore. I knew him a little and I believe that he would never have moved the club.
I've heard Paul Allen offer similar reassurances. Maybe he means it and maybe he doesn't. But he might.
Nov 3, '07
Given the tax dollars that are spent on many of these teams as far as I am concerned the owners are a bunch of welfare bums.
M.W.
9:24 a.m.
Nov 3, '07
Yeah, it's a bit of a concern that Allen will move the Blazers north, but it is substantially mitigated by the fact that he got that Rose Quarter deal done. Allen now has a personal financial stake in keeping the Blazers put. I agree it's one of those back-of-the-mind worries, but I'm not getting to worked up over it yet.
Nov 3, '07
The choice for Sonics fans right now seems to be limited to 1) caving in to this arrogant, greedy idiot and giving him his playpen; or 2) withdrawing their support and giving Bennett and the NBA a great case for moving the team. Choice #1 seems unlikely because Bennett has poisoned the waters in Seattle, making it difficult to get any arena deal done. He demands public assistance (MW's comment about "welfare bums" seem especially appropriate here) while not wanting to share any of the revenue streams to help pay off the arena costs. The only positive result will come from the emergence of a local ownership group that can sell the arena plan and allow Seattle residents to save face. Making the arena NHL-ready would also help sell the play, but you would need owners willing to cooperate. Bennett doesn't appear to be interested in doing this.
I think the Blazers have a solid footing in Portland. One problem would be the loss of the regional rivalry. On a pro sports level it only happens with the NBA. Such a relocation would affect the Blazers' scheduling. It also would diminish credibility for the entire Northwest as a professional sports venue. I'm not as worried about Allen moving the Blazers as I am the possibility that he might want to become involved in a Sonics ownership group. Who would purchase the Blazers and the Rose Quarter? Could Oregon produce an ownership group?
Nov 3, '07
One concept that was offered up in the past was "schooling the Blazers" in which a non-profit is created to buy ownership of the team, and a ticket surcharge is added to support Portland Public Schools.
I suspect that if we were able to create some kind of quasi-public ownership and a revenue stream that supported public education, there might be enough grass-roots support from fans and local philanthropists to raise the money.
I have no idea if the NBA, or whoever approves these purchases, would allow a public non-profit group to buy a team off of a private owner.
Personally, I love the idea of quasi-public ownership of a pro basketball team. Get enough of a share in a locally based non-profit, we can keep a non-tax-based revenue stream to support the schools, and put a permanent end to stadium blackmail.
4:53 p.m.
Nov 3, '07
I'm not sure how easy it would be to get such an ownership structure approved by the NBA Board of Governors. At the risk of generalizing, the NBA Board of Governors (and MLB, and NFL, and NHL) is largely made up of rich white guys who like doing business with other rich white guys. The Green Bay Packers business model is not being emulated elsewhere. These guys like being able to pick up the phone and call another guy, whom they know personally from all the meetings and retreats, who has the juice to make a decision on the spot, without a vote of a local advisory board, etc.
I'm not saying don't try. I'm just saying, this kind of structure is disfavored by those who hold the votes.
7:26 p.m.
Nov 3, '07
"I think the Blazers have a solid footing in Portland. One problem would be the loss of the regional rivalry. On a pro sports level it only happens with the NBA."
Exqueeze me? Cubs/Cards? Bears/Packers? Leafs/Sens?
Nov 3, '07
Exqueeze me, torridjoe, for not being excruciatingly specific. The move of one or more of the franchises you mentioned to the Northwest may have occurred this weekend, but as far as I know, the Cubs, Cardinals, Bears, Packers, Leafs, and Senators (Ottawa, for those of you who are not familiar with the National Hockey League), do not play in either Portland or Seattle. My reference was to a Northwest regional pro sports rivalry between those two cities.
8:31 p.m.
Nov 3, '07
Well, since Portland doesn't have any MLB, NFL, or NHL franchises, uh, yeah.
Thanks for explaining because I too was having trouble figuring out what you meant.
1:11 a.m.
Nov 4, '07
I have no idea if the NBA, or whoever approves these purchases, would allow a public non-profit group to buy a team off of a private owner.
No, all of the major leagues have explicit rules against this. In the NFL, the Green Bay Packers are grandfathered in. (Note, though that it's a community-owned for-profit, not a non-profit.)
Rep. Blumenauer has previously introduced legislation called the "Give the Fans a Chance Act" that would require the major leagues to allow community ownership.
Nov 4, '07
The road to the Sonics ouster from Seattle was graded and paved years ago. First it was lackluster performeance, bloated super egos and players that failed to continue identfying w/the community.
The deal was sealed when an arrogant democratic city mayor and Kounty executive ignored voters and went ahead and committed building Safeco Field for the Mariners. By plunging the county and city furtherinto debt they killed any chances for voter support of a Key Arena retrofit.
<h2>A shrewd carpetbagger from Oklahoma sized up the situation and correctly figured that he could get his team at pennies on the dollar.</h2>