ping path12 (the only fofc sonic fan left?)

[korme]

simmons left a mailbag where it's only seattle fans writing in

it's a good, depressing read. you might cry reading through it.

it's also worth it to read if you aren't a sonics fan, but are an nba fan, and do not understand why it's such a big deal.

[path12]

The night the Sonics won the championship I was 17. I went to Alki Beach which was jammed with cars, girls, beer and noise. It was the first time I ever got laid by someone I had met the same night. It remains an awesome moment.
But that team is gone, just gone -- even if they're still here for two more years. I can't stay invested in it.

[Subby]

I love the NBA and I love what Presti is doing with that team. I am completely disgusted with how Stern is dealing with the whole situation.

I feel for Sonics fans.

[vex]

I'm a Sonic fan

[Logan]

Damn kid, it was on the first page:

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ad.php?t=61438

[korme]

yea but there was a specific article i wanted to point out, not just about the supes moving

[chesapeake]

Too depressing for words. I hope Howard Schultz is enough of a human being to feel some regret for deliberately setting this into motion.

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

simmons left a mailbag where it's only seattle fans writing in

it's a good, depressing read. you might cry reading through it.

it's also worth it to read if you aren't a sonics fan, but are an nba fan, and do not understand why it's such a big deal.

Reading that article reminds me of how I felt when the Expos left, I used to love major league baseball, but now it really doesn't register anymore, I just watch the local (whatever random league their in now, maybe the one Rickey Henderson ended off in) team and that's it. I almost get some satisfaction from the steroids mess and how bad Bud and the owners look over it.

[aran]

I beat Sonic 3 & Knuckles a few months ago.

Great game.

(Isn't it the Seattle Supersonics?)

[korme]

Yes, and I'm sloppy when it comes to that - "I'm a Red', yea but now that I keep looking at it, Sonics is a pretty big no-brainer for the thread title. Ah, well.

[dawgfan]

Howard Schultz is a complete fuck for selling to these guys.

David Stern is doing what he's paid to do - look out for his owners, which in this case means continuing the attempts to blackmail communities for more revenue to stem the red-ink from the NBA's failed economic model. But, I think Stern knows he's in a bad spot, because he knows he doesn't want to abandon the Seattle market. He'd probably prefer to move the Hornets instead, but that's not going to go over well PR-wise because of the whole Katrina/New Orleans situation.

Bennett and his crew are doing what everyone expected. Doesn't mean I don't think they're overly greedy fucks, but I can't blame them for attempting to move the team to their hometown.

The City, County and State have dragged their feet on figuring out an arena solution, but I can't blame them too much - people here are tired of being blackmailed by ultra-rich sports team owners after financing the majority of a billion dollars worth of new stadiums for the Seahawks and Mariners, and after completely revamping the old Coliseum into the Key Arena in '94.

There are local ownership groups willing to step up now and figure out an arena deal and once that's done, make offers to Bennett, but where were they when Schultz was selling?

[korme]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3347564

Reports: Schultz to claim Sonics owners breached terms of sale


The former owner of the Seattle SuperSonics plans to sue the current owners to get the team back, arguing they breached a condition of the sale to make a "good-faith effort" to keep Seattle's oldest pro sports franchise from leaving town, according to Seattle-area media reports.

Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard Schultz, who sold the Sonics to an Oklahoma City-based group led by Clay Bennett, will not seek monetary damages, but wants the team back, according to his attorney, Richard Yarmuth.

"It's not money damage. It's to have the team returned," Yarmuth said, according to The Seattle Times. "The theory of the suit is that when the team was sold, the Basketball Club of Seattle, our team here, relied on promises made by Clay Bennett and his ownership that they desired to keep the team in Seattle and intended to make a good-faith effort to accomplish that."

The team's ownership group has sought NBA approval to move the team to Oklahoma City for next season. The city has taken the team to court to enforce its lease at Key Arena, which runs through September 2010.

The lawsuit, expected to be filed in the next two weeks, comes after the city obtained and made public e-mails among members of the current Sonics ownership group, in which they are seen privately discussing a move to Oklahoma City at the same time they were publicly pledging to continue "good-faith" efforts to remain in Seattle.

After purchasing the team and the WNBA's Seattle Storm from Schultz in July, 2006 for $350 million, Bennett promised to spend one full year after the purchase was approved to seek a viable home for the Sonics in Seattle. The NBA approved the sale of the Sonics in October 2006.

Bennett's trips to Washington state to lobby for a proposed $500 million arena in suburban Renton and his hiring of a Seattle-based lobbyist and architectural firm have no bearing on the lawsuit, Yarmuth told The Times.

"We're talking about fraud at the time the contract was signed," Yarmuth said, according to the newspaper. "It's not merely what activities, good faith or otherwise, were engaged in after the contract was signed so far as lobbying for a new stadium."

Bennett and ownership partners Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward exchanged e-mails in April 2007 in which they discussed whether there was any way to avoid further "lame duck" seasons in Seattle before the team could be relocated.

Bennett responded: "I am a man possessed! Will do everything we can. Thanks for hanging with me boys."

Four months later, after McClendon was quoted by an Oklahoma publication that "we didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here," Bennett told NBA commissioner David Stern in an e-mail that the group had not discussed a move to Oklahoma City.

"I haven't studied them but my sense of it was that Clay, as the managing partner and the driving force of the group, was operating in good faith under the agreement that had been made with Howard Schultz," Stern said on a conference call Monday. "His straight and narrow path may not have been shared by all of his partners in their views, but Clay was the one that was making policy for the partnership."

The NBA's owners are expected to vote on the proposed Sonics move Friday. The league's relocation committee has already approved the move.

[Young Drachma]

He's just trying to save face. I thought the gesture was a day late and a few million dollars short.

[path12]

He's a putz if he thinks anyone is going to believe that for one minute. This whole thing stinks to high heaven. Watch them get the #1 pick and take Rose this year also on the way out.

Bastards. All of them.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

He's just trying to save face. I thought the gesture was a day late and a few million dollars short.

It's my understanding that Schultz was losing money with the Sonics and finally gave them up because the stadium lease was so poor and there was no hope of rectifying that. I know people hate his guts there (when I'm in Seattle I can't go for more than 20 minutes without someone mentioning his name), but I'm not really sure he's the issue or has ever been the main issue.

Seattle built wonderful stadiums for the Seahawks and Mariners. Key Arena is a dump compared to either. The Sonics want the same thing. I'm not sure why people didn't realize this was going to happen awhile ago. Yes, they renovated Key Arena in 1995, but it's not that great of an arena now and the benefits for an owner there are almost nil. (very little luxury boxes. no parking benefits, etc.)

I still hope something can be resolved for the fans of Seattle, but I think all of the blame going to Schultz is a little ridiculous. He bought the team to save basketball in Seattle. He used his political pull to get things done on a new stadium that would have guarenteed this to happen. It didn't work and he got out.

I don't care about his reasons for doing the lawsuit, he owes the Seattle populace nothing. All he's done for them is create thousands of jobs (and was giving full benefits to 20 hour a week emloyees while he did it) and millions for the Seattle economy.

The bad guy in this is Howard Stern. If he'd worked with Seattle, he could have gotten this solved. Instead he chose to be a jerk about it. Seattle fans will pay the price for that.

[path12]

Originally Posted by TroyF

The bad guy in this is Howard Stern. If he'd worked with Seattle, he could have gotten this solved. Instead he chose to be a jerk about it. Seattle fans will pay the price for that.

David Stern didn't help much either.

[Logan]

Anna Nicole Smith is rolling in her grave.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by path12

David Stern didn't help much either.

LOL. Why the hell did I type that? Maybe it's because I put the two scumbags on the same level.

[JHandley]

Originally Posted by TroyF

Seattle built wonderful stadiums for the Seahawks and Mariners. Key Arena is a dump compared to either. The Sonics want the same thing. I'm not sure why people didn't realize this was going to happen awhile ago. Yes, they renovated Key Arena in 1995, but it's not that great of an arena now and the benefits for an owner there are almost nil. (very little luxury boxes. no parking benefits, etc.)

This is where people get confused on this issue. Yes, Seattle contributed to building these new stadiums, but they didn't have to foot the whole bill. You cannot compare the situations surrounding Safeco and Qwest to a new Sonics arena.

Quest Field - Seahawks owner Paul Allen funded $160 million of the stadium's $460 million cost out of his pocket,^[5] the remainder being paid by a funding package of user fees, sports lottery revenue, and taxes on related industries.

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwest_Field )

Safeco Park - Private Financing: 28%: Mariners contributed $145 million

( http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/al/SafecoField.htm )

Sonics Proposal - $500M Arena, Sonics contribution would be zero.

Seattle will not build a half a billion dollar arena without some contribution from the ownership group, whichever ownership group that is.


There are plenty of bad guys to go around on this deal, but Schultz deserves plenty of blame. When he still owned the team, he gave up on a new arena deal because the state and city governments wanted to put it to a public vote. Schultz wanted no part of that. He wanted a huge check, and he wanted it without the people of Seattle voting on it.