A Sad Day for the NBA in Seattle
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In a protracted process, the city of Seattle moved a step closer to losing its professional basketball team. The NBA owners have given overwhelming approval to the move of the Seattle Sonics to Oklahoma City:
“After NBA owners voted 28-2 on Friday to approve the Sonics’ relocation to Oklahoma City, team chairman Clay Bennett said he’d done everything possible to make things work in Seattle and remains hopeful of a negotiated lease buyout.”
link: NBA votes 28-2 to relocate Sonics to OKC
Kudos to Mark Cuban and Paul Allen for their dissenting votes. - It seems that there is little regard for the loyalty and support that the Seattle community has offered this franchise. Commissioner David Stern has not acted in the best interest of the fan base.
Professional sports teams have moved before and will move again in the future. Fans like to think of their sports teams as part of the fabric of the community. A community supports its local teams with tax incentives and paid attendance. This is just a harsh reminder that sports is a business and the owners will go where there is the opportunity to generate the most revenue. At least two multi-millionaires took note that a sports team is more than maximizing the revenue. It is regrettable that the other team owners did not appreciate what this means to the Seattle community.
Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/
[tag]nba, seattle sonics, oklahoma city, commissioner david stern, loyalty, fans, revenue[/tag]
2 Comments
bradleybradwell
April 19th, 2008
at 5:47pm
The Seattle Supersonics are obviously leaving for a reason. Not enough revenue. If the community is so close to the organization, why didn’t they go to the games. If people went to the games they wouldn’t be moving the team.
Correct me if i’m wrong but isn’t it kind of the communities fault for not going out and supporting the team?
Did i understand this post correctly?
T. Michael Testi
April 23rd, 2008
at 5:03pm
At least two multi-millionaires took note that a sports team is more than maximizing the revenue.
Yeah Right! Allen has sour grapes cause he didn’t buy the team; he bought the Trail Blazers instead and has screwed that team up. Cuban voted no because OKC is just down the street from Dallas and he doesn’t want it to cut in to his revenue. Real community supporter!
It is regrettable that the other team owners did not appreciate what this means to the Seattle community.
The NBA is not in business to support communities, it is to support the NBA; If it did it would be as bankrupt as the social security system. It is the community who has to support the team. Do you think that the Cubs would still be in Chicago if they didn’t have the support of the community? Same with Boston Red Sox.
Its a different story but when the Hornet’s had to relocate to OKC because of Katrina, there was no question of fan support and it became a top priority to get them and the Saints to move back as fast as possible. New Orleans had already lost an NBA team once!
I suspect that when and if Seattle gets a new team, it will become more of a priority.
T.