OKC finally gets a pro franchise

[Paelos]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cs-080702-seattle-supersonics-oklahoma-city-move,0,3592307.story

Being that I'm not from Seattle and basically don't follow the NBA outside the playoffs, I'm not sure what the issue was behind this whole rhubarb. I'm also not sure what kind of market Oklahoma City is, but being that it'll be the only show in town, I'm sure they can work out something.

I know a few of yall are Seattle folks or are near there. Does this matter at all to yall?

[FatuousTwat]

I'm in Oregon, and a Blazers fan, but I still think it sucks.

I'm glad the same thing didn't happen to us when all the shit hit the fan around here not that long ago.

[Riggswolfe]

Being from OKC I have mixed feelings. We got the team mostly because of the Hornets. When we hosted them the stadium sold out every game and OKC finally showed it had an audience for a Pro team.The city is picking up the tab on a ton of stadium stuff and also giving huge tax breaks to the Sonics when they come. Net result? We're paying even if we don't go to the games. I know this is standard but I've never really liked the idea to be honest. Some local talk radio hosts are saying we're giving welfare to millionaires, which is true in some ways. That said, it can only help this city grow in the long run. Now if we can just stop having backwards hicks as our state senators and country folk who think cock and dog fighting are a-ok when they're not out lynching this state may make it to mid-20th century standards as far as civilisation.

[Lantyssa]

Normally I wouldn't appreciate giving millionaires money to move, but it's Oklahoma...

[sigil]

South Oklahoma has had pro franchises for years.

Cowboys, Rangers, Mavericks, Stars, FC Dallas...   

[Riggswolfe]

South Oklahoma has had pro franchises for years.

Cowboys, Rangers, Mavericks, Stars, FC Dallas...   

Cocks and pitbulls Don't forget these. These are big money. When we passed our anti-cock fighting law people were saying they were gonna lose their houses and go out of business.

[WayAbvPar]

Posted this a couple of other places-

I was probably 7 or 8 when I started watching the Sonics with my dad. I cried when they lost game 7 to the Bullets in 1978. I was 9 the next year when they won it all. I distinctly remember running outside as soon as the game ended so I could hear everyone around town celebrating. I was puzzled when I couldn’t hear anything- I hadn’t yet realized that not everyone was lucky enough to be a sports fan.

Those unlucky people are lucky today. They don’t feel like a part of their family is leaving, and for no good reason. I will relish every ‘OKC team having revenue problems’ that are guaranteed to come due to the much smaller market and the NBA’s crazy financial model. I will celebrate if/when the game fixing scandal brings down the smug David Stern. I sincerely hope the entire league is cast into chaos and folds.

I do not want another NBA team. I want nothing to do with them. I will vote against every single incumbent I can this year for this and for a variety of other reasons. I will spend my winters as I have since Bennett bought the team- ignoring them (it hurt less than following them knowing they were leaving), reading everything I can about the Hot Stove League, and watching hockey (T-Birds are moving in like 10 minutes from house!). I will survive, but my life is definitely less rich for this, and that sucks.

[Teleku]

[Riggswolfe]

hey WayAbvPar,

[Samwise]

I hadn’t yet realized that not everyone was lucky enough to be a sports fan.

Those unlucky people are lucky today. They don’t feel like a part of their family is leaving, and for no good reason.

No disrespect intended, but this is why I think being a "sports fan" is kinda dumb.  The people that you're cheering on like they're part of your family don't know you, don't like you, and probably feel a bit of contempt for you if anything.  They show up and play because they're getting paid.  Maybe once in a whiel if you're lucky they'll smile at a camera and pretend to like you because their agent told them to.  That's about as warm as their relationship with you gets.

And yet you get all emotionally invested in them and feel betrayed when they leave town for a better offer.

 

Again, no disrespect.  I know lots of people who act this way.  It just baffles the shit out of me is all.

[Engels]

What happened with the Sonics is a case study in how professional sports are entirely devoid of soul. If you like basketball, stick with college ball, where there is at least a semblance of genuine team spirit.  Everything else is corporate-level wheeling and dealing. You may as well root for Microsoft or Enron.

[HaemishM]

Who the fuck would want to move a pro franchise from Seattle to Okla-fucking-homa?

[Daeven]

Who the fuck would want to move a pro franchise from Seattle to Okla-fucking-homa?

Biased disclaimer: I'd rather see the NHL in Seattle anyway, but this entire situation was handled crappily at every level - from the city to the team owners.

The basic scenario is that Seattle refused to build a new arena on the whim of the owner, and he used that as an excuse to break the contract and move to Oklahoma.

One of the biggest cultural shifts I've had in my move from Denver to Seattle is how sports are viewed. Denver is a sports town. The events sell out and people get into the teams they root for. Hell The *lacrosse* team sells out. Here in Seattle? The general attitude is the more erudite disdain as displayed by Samwise - which, IMO fundamentally explains why the Sonics are moving. The community really doesn't give a damn outside of a few die hards.

*shrug*

[Engels]

Bullshit. The Mariners have no problem. The Sonics simply blow goats. Always have, and probably always will, and hence have a limited audience.

[WayAbvPar]

hey WayAbvPar,

Eat a cock, hillbilly.

[Daeven]

Ok. So what happens to the Mariners after 5 more seasons like this one, and the owners decide to move to Santa Fe?

Seriously. What happens?

Some die hards freak out, the city ignores whatever BS demands the owners set, and off they go.

*shrug*

That being said, I find this a significantly lower probably scenario with the Seahawks and the Mariners - new stadiums and all that. But you have to admit, the Sonics are definitely a 'second tier' franchise for Seattle. Fewer people care.

And the Sonics have definitely not always 'blown goats'. That's an absurd statement and you should know better.

[naum]

I lived a block away from Key Arena for a short while. While I am no big fan of NBA (on occasion, attend a Suns game but attended many more Thunderbirds (WHL hockey) games at the locale, it is a sad statement... ...but it no different that all the major league sports that play this game of "who can the most handouts, concessions and subsidies" and hold their "home" city hostage. During Sonic games, it was vibrant and I loved to just hang out in the vicinity...

A big reason I loathe "carpetbagger" franchises (like the Cardinals) though it's mitigated when they at least change the nickname and colors to suit the new locale (like the Titans and Coyotes did). Of course, with the passage of generations, people forget all about the carpetbagger teams -- LA Lakers , SF Giants, LA Dodgers for instance...

I was probably 7 or 8 when I started watching the Sonics with my dad. I cried when they lost game 7 to the Bullets in 1978. I was 9 the next year when they won it all. I distinctly remember running outside as soon as the game ended so I could hear everyone around town celebrating. I was puzzled when I couldn’t hear anything- I hadn’t yet realized that not everyone was lucky enough to be a sports fan.

Those unlucky people are lucky today. They don’t feel like a part of their family is leaving, and for no good reason. I will relish every ‘OKC team having revenue problems’ that are guaranteed to come due to the much smaller market and the NBA’s crazy financial model. I will celebrate if/when the game fixing scandal brings down the smug David Stern. I sincerely hope the entire league is cast into chaos and folds.

I do not want another NBA team. I want nothing to do with them. I will vote against every single incumbent I can this year for this and for a variety of other reasons. I will spend my winters as I have since Bennett bought the team- ignoring them (it hurt less than following them knowing they were leaving), reading everything I can about the Hot Stove League, and watching hockey (T-Birds are moving in like 10 minutes from house!). I will survive, but my life is definitely less rich for this, and that sucks.

[Riggswolfe]

Who the fuck would want to move a pro franchise from Seattle to Okla-fucking-homa?

Clay Bennett that's who. Let's just say that when he bought the team the idea was always to move them no matter what he told anyone else. It's easily explained by knowing his connections to the Gaylords, the richest family in Oklahoma, also widely regarded as the most corrupt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_L._Gaylord

Oh, and Way:

1) I was mostly giving you shit because I'm one of those people who don't "get" ardent sports fans. see Samwise.
2) Your tone did have a little sourgrapes in it.

Still, I was mostly just pushing your buttons to be silly. Hillbillies live in the Appalachians btw. Even Oklahomans look down on them as inbred racists.

[Jashan]

Seattle is a pretty white collar town. I think that's the reason there is a lack of sports fanatics. I mean, we have some. But not like other cities seem to.

It seems like every two years that the owners throw a tantrum about how the city needs to upgrade the key arena, and how the city needs to foot the bill. I just got sick of seeing them try to milk the taxpayer.

That, and the sonics choking in the 94 playoffs killed any interest in professional sports for me. Never again will I give a damn about a professional team. It isn't worth getting so emotionally involved in something that you have no control over. So yea, let em go.

[Riggswolfe]

It's also worth pointing out that we're not getting "the Sonics." The name, colors, and history stay in Seattle. We get the players and coaches of the "former" Sonics. I have a sneaky suspicion that a lot of them will try to find legal ways to leave their contacts ASAP as soon as they see what living here is like.

That said, if they keep the same salary they can live like kings in Oklahoma since the price of living here is so amazingly low. Yeah, I'm aware it's because people don't want to live here...

[Jashan]

Research sure put this in perspective.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=tortured/seattle

Good lord, no wonder we don't care about sports.

[Chimpy]

Research sure put this in perspective.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=tortured/seattle

Good lord, no wonder we don't care about sports.

Uhm, they said "no NFL playoff wins". Didn't the Seachickens go to the superbowl like 2 years ago?

[Engels]

I'm not sure that Seattle's disinterest in basketball has to do with being white collar. The surrounding areas of Seattle are plenty blue collar, from Everett to Tacoma and they all come to see the Mariners and the Seahawks.

And sorry, Daeven, didn't mean to impunge upon the honor of the Sonics; they may very well have been great at some point, but I've been here 15 years, and they never did much of anything. The team owners have whined and bitched about more money for an arena revamp, care of the tax payer, as was done with Safeco stadium.

See, that was a big swindle; Seattle voters by referendum voted AGAINST spending any money on making a new Kingdome, but it was ignored and done anyway on the city's dime, due to our entirely corrupt city government. You have the Sonic's team owners making the same noise about Key Arena and most seattleites see red and want to give them the finger.

Better public transport, which we've already been billled for for years on end, never emerges, but by god, that Safeco field went up literally overnight. Meanwhile, traffic heaps up, the roads go to shit, our public schools collapse into ignominy, and our homeless problem never abates. Yes, with these factors, having a basketball game to go to seems pretty meaningless by comparison, especially when you take into account Jashan's post of sports misery.

[Daeven]

Engles, no worries I get it. Maybe we can have another referendum on the viaduct to the effect of 'do nothing until it falls over' ;)

And don't even get me started on the I90 - 405 northbound interchange that is backed up at least a mile 24x7. :/