Dear Maloofs, re: Seattle ...

by Tom Ziller on Apr 16, 2008 8:10 AM PDT in Commentary

Please vote against Clay Bennett's relocation of the Seattle SuperSonics. The circumstances are so sleazy, and the existing questions so profound, it would behoove you (and the league) to wait for existing legal concerns to be resolved before casting your lot with these hustlers.

We fans have little representation at the league's governing table. You know we can't boycott, you know we're loathe to protest. Don't use that against us. Fans across the nation have almost unanimously squealed at the horror of Bennett's bad faith negotiations with the city/state and his merciless misrepresentation of Sonics fans.
Sacramento fans are particularly sensitive to the specter of a relocation (as you might understand). When shrouded in such evidence of malfeasance (or at least mal intentions), it's clear why we'd be united with Sonics fans on this matter.

It makes no economic sense. It makes no practical sense. It makes ... no sense. At least consider withholding a vote tomorrow at the Board of Governors meeting; tell Bennett and the commissioner you aren't OK with how this went down. Mark Cuban has said he will vote against the application. Join him. It's the right thing to do for fans of the NBA.

Poll

Should the Maloofs vote against Clay Bennett's Sonics relocation application?

Yes

629 votes

No

45 votes

674 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 23 comments | 1 recs |

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Read More: sonics, arena, league, stern, Oklahoma City Thunder

Comments

Sonics to OKC

Damn, Tom—you didn’t say WHERE they were moving. I haven’t been following this drama nearly as much as you appear to have.

OKC is a natural target for anyone to move into. They were mighty supportive of the Hornets while they were there (though its hard to say if that was real fandom at the start or mostly “lets help those — guys out from down south with a little team support”, post-Katrina). Anyone looking for an out has a proven audience for basketball.

Problem is, the Sonics aren’t the Hornets. Sounds like dude is trying to resolve his mediocre fan turnout by relocating which might be a short-term solution but isn’t going to get the team turned around. I don’t know if your typical OKC fan is going to show up for a .235 season any more than your typical fan anywhere else.

I voted “no” because, well, damnit, Squatch needs a home, though I suppose if he really needed work he could go down to Portland—still prime Bigfoot territory. Besides, the league needs a team named the Supersonics and there’s no place else in America where you could have such a team. We’ve already got the Jazz in a place without jazz and the Lakers without lakes.

KEEP THE SONICS IN SEATTLE.

by ogre lawless on Apr 16, 2008 8:43 AM PDT reply actions

TZ asks:

Should the Maloofs vote against Clay Bennett’s Sonics relocation application?

ogre lawless answers:

I voted "no" because, well, damnit, Squatch needs a home, though I suppose if he really needed work he could go down to Portland—still prime Bigfoot territory

Huh?

God bless you, Corliss. You always played as though you knew how expensive my tickets were. -section214

by KK on Apr 16, 2008 7:46 PM PDT up reply actions

The Sonics mascot

He’s talking about Sasquatch, the Sonics mascot. What IS the Blazers mascot anyway, a pyromaniac?

by Carl on Apr 17, 2008 1:57 PM PDT up reply actions

Blaze the trail cat.

No lie. Unless they retired him after his first season.

I get that he’s talking about Sasquatch, I do. That was probably a bad quote to pick without doing some editing.

What I didn’t get is why he voted no to the question; Should the Maloofs vote against Clay Bennett’s Sonics relocation application? Yes, OKC supported the Hornets in a substandard (by NBA standards) building for two years. God bless those fans, I was happy for everyone. The Sonics are not the Hornets and there’s no reason to believe the Sonics/Carpetbaggers will be embraced by the OKC fans in the same way. I also hate hate hate that this move, if approved, puts the rest of the league’s teams and fans on notice that if you don’t roll over for the NBA owners, you’re toast. The longer fans/municipalities accept this business model, the longer they’ll get raped by the NBA. No team is safe, no arena is new enough, no “shiny” is something any team can do without. If the economy is horrible, the team is losing money for 1-2 years, the owners have the right to pick up stakes and move the team to any city that believes that the NBA will save them.

No honor, no history…nothing will stop owners from picking up stakes and moving to the most gullible city that will have them…until the electorate and public officials are bled dry and the NBA moves on to its next victim. I am all for team owners making a profit on a business they own, but when the fans can’t give them that profit, isn’t it time to look at what the business is paying its employees rather than moving their business to another location and bleeding that tax base dry before moving on again?

Really, aren’t we all just a little tired of getting screwed over by billionaire corporate owners/management, whether they own an NBA franchise or an investment bank, or worthless equity funds?

I still don’t understand any part of his post that would cause him to vote no. Hence my “huh?” moment.

No worries, it’s definitely not worth considering further.

God bless you, Corliss. You always played as though you knew how expensive my tickets were. -section214

by KK on Apr 17, 2008 8:56 PM PDT up reply actions

Yeah, don't worry about accuracy in quoting or anything.

I would have never figured out what your pointful “huh” was about with that complete mis-direct. Thanks for explaining. I thought my two cents as “Problem is, the Sonics aren’t the Hornets. ” would have made the point clearly enough.

In a perfect world Seattle would support the team no matter how crappily they were doing. In that same perfect world their management would be falling over themselves to create a quality product. I can’t say why the franchise ownership thinks the OKC market will pay for shit product. If you’re looking at a short investment - and this moves seem short-sighted - moving would allow you the opportunity to shill a bunch of new fools into first-year season ticket holder deals maybe. Every market will have folks who want to throw money at something though—just look at the Clippers.

Seattle really deserves a team, though and I think its going to be a loss for the West Coast as well.

by ogre lawless on Apr 21, 2008 1:37 AM PDT up reply actions

Au contraire

We’ve already got the Jazz in a place without jazz

http://www.slcjazzfestival.org/

TickTickTickTickTickTick

by LeaguePassAddict on Apr 16, 2008 2:04 PM PDT reply actions

Bennett has said the Sonics name belongs in Seattle (not that I'm sure anyone here gives a damn)

We could build ping-pong ball shrines and make sacrifices at them, like broken ping-pong paddles, or burning Peaches in effigy--LPA

by pookeyguru on Apr 16, 2008 5:10 PM PDT up reply actions

TZ

The reason the Maloof’s will vote Yes is simple. They get a share of the 29 available that Bennett and his partnership will pay with the 150 million relocation fee.

We could build ping-pong ball shrines and make sacrifices at them, like broken ping-pong paddles, or burning Peaches in effigy--LPA

by pookeyguru on Apr 16, 2008 5:11 PM PDT reply actions

Now that I can post

Surprisingly Mark Cuban makes the most sense out of all of this. Alienating a top 15 market in favor of the 45th largest market makes no sense. Aren’t Finals ratings down because they feature the Spurs every other year? Sure the Sonics aren’t making the Finals anytime soon, but why would the NBA want to make the pool of available larger market teams SMALLER? Isn’t that counter-productive to that whole revenue thing?

Muff rules. http://vegaskings.blogspot.com

by Muff209 on Apr 16, 2008 5:48 PM PDT reply actions

Seattle loves Sac town

AGAINST!!!!
If you want to know more about the situation in Seattle I urge you to visit. http://sonicscentral.com/blog/ this is the heart of the Save our Sonics team and we welcome all to comment.

Seattle is the proving ground for this to happen again and again and again until the succubus Stern has sucked the soul out of hoops forever.

Seattle has 3 generations of Sonics fans that can talk about the game and relate on a level that is not common in the modern nuclear family dynamic. Save our Sonics, Save your own team from this hijacking…

by Zonics on Apr 16, 2008 6:58 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs

Question for TZ.

One of the articles I read re: this effort was to find a way to contact team owners with news that many fans intend to boycott any/all games featuring the OKC Whatevers both in person and on TV. Will you be attempting to contact the Kings ownership or management with the results of this poll?

God bless you, Corliss. You always played as though you knew how expensive my tickets were. -section214

by KK on Apr 16, 2008 8:36 PM PDT reply actions

Good question

I’ll boycott the OKC Okees next year and until Seattle gets a new team.

by Kfan in Korea on Apr 16, 2008 9:15 PM PDT up reply actions

I will boycott the OKC Carpetbaggers

forever.

Pookey has a great diar err fan post about this. True Hoop has some great links as well.

A couple of years ago, I was all for the additional .25% sales tax increase to support the Kings and keep them here. Now? Not so much. I want the team to stay, don’t get me wrong but…geez. So much has changed within the last 2-3 years in the entire country, moreso in California than in most other places.

It really does seem (with a couple of years hindsight) that the NBA is simply blackmailing any/all current cities to provide ever more profit to the owners while threatening to take the team away to a sports deprived city that will give them whatever they want…until 5-15 years pass and the NBA attempts a new blackmail scheme to get even more out of the taxpaying fanbase.

Hey! NBA! Yeah, YOU! We buy your overpriced tickets, we buy your overpriced merchandise, we watch your TV broadcasts filled with advertising segments (unless we watch CSN then we watch 3.5 hours of endless Maloof driven spin and advertising!). We even offer to pick up a portion of the cost of your new arenas, but that’s not enough!!! You gold-digging black-hearted bastards.

Meh…what millionaire (billionaire) expects any less out of a business deal. I guess that’s why they’re wealthy and I’ll always be a middle-class fool.

This shouldn’t be classified as a rant, I wasn’t that upset. Color me resigned and pessimistic.

I understand that can seem somewhat ironic given that Greg Luckenbill did pretty much the same thing 23+ years ago.

God bless you, Corliss. You always played as though you knew how expensive my tickets were. -section214

by KK on Apr 16, 2008 9:52 PM PDT up reply actions

And here I thought you were just ignoring me this whole time KK

We could build ping-pong ball shrines and make sacrifices at them, like broken ping-pong paddles, or burning Peaches in effigy--LPA

by pookeyguru on Apr 16, 2008 10:15 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm sorry, were you talking to me?

J/K.

Contrary to some posters opinions, I don’t respond to every article, but I did recommend your diar err fan post. It was a good one. Sometimes, they’re a little hard to read but they’re always valuable.

God bless you, Corliss. You always played as though you knew how expensive my tickets were. -section214

by KK on Apr 17, 2008 9:02 PM PDT up reply actions

I was kidding as I'm sure you know

And I agree some of my diaries are hard to read. I’m working on it. Just not this week. :)

We could build ping-pong ball shrines and make sacrifices at them, like broken ping-pong paddles, or burning Peaches in effigy--LPA

by pookeyguru on Apr 17, 2008 10:31 PM PDT up reply actions

Yeah

I’ll try to pass this on today. Thanks for the suggestion.

by Tom Ziller on Apr 17, 2008 6:51 AM PDT up reply actions

Thanks, TZ.

That seemed to be the biggest point, at least to me.

God bless you, Corliss. You always played as though you knew how expensive my tickets were. -section214

by KK on Apr 17, 2008 9:04 PM PDT up reply actions

Whoops

For some reason, I voted no but meant to vote yes.

Not that I normally mind being in the minority, but not on this issue.

"Boo Lakers! Boo Kobe! Go Kings! Go Giants! Boo Dodgers!" - my 5 year-old daughter - 4/15/08

by otis29 on Apr 17, 2008 1:46 PM PDT reply actions

Disappointing

Owners approve Sonics’ move

and more Disappointing:

Owners voted 28-2 in favor of the move, with Dallas and Portland voting against.

by Kfan in Korea on Apr 18, 2008 3:15 PM PDT reply actions

Interesting

Portland votes no because OKC is too far away, while Dallas votes no because OKC is too close.

SACTOWN ROYALTY - Try our thick creamy shakes!

by section214 on Apr 18, 2008 4:31 PM PDT up reply actions

Haha

I think Portland voted no because Paul Allen lives in Seattle and owns the … Seahawks?

by Kfan in Korea on Apr 18, 2008 6:05 PM PDT up reply actions

Yeah and he owns EMP, and made his billions off Microsoft

Paul Allen is also heavily involved with the University of Washington (as is Bill Gates—it’s both guys alma mater). In otherwords it was a vote that costs him absolutely nothing to cast that way. There was some good about this very topic for those wishing to delve further.

We could build ping-pong ball shrines and make sacrifices at them, like broken ping-pong paddles, or burning Peaches in effigy--LPA

by pookeyguru on Apr 19, 2008 2:08 AM PDT up reply actions