Seattle SuperSonics Thread

[100027]

I think people really lose sight of the fact that part of the 2 billion dollar figure is attached to the team being in LA. The value greatly decreases moving to Seattle, and that isn't a shot to Seattle. LA just has a greater marketable reach

Well sure, but Seattle has a greater marketing reach than Oklahoma City, and Bennett still chose to make that move.

 

[do work son]

I think people really lose sight of the fact that part of the 2 billion dollar figure is attached to the team being in LA. The value greatly decreases moving to Seattle, and that isn't a shot to Seattle. LA just has a greater marketable reach

Well sure, but Seattle has a greater marketing reach than Oklahoma City, and Bennett still chose to make that move.

Seattle : OKC =/= LA : Seattle

 

[Sinner]

 The waiting continues. 

 

[rck3sactown]

We should welcome Ballmer buying LAC - not because he'd keep them in LA but bc he's the guy to take them to Seattle http://t.co/eJymftvAyu
— Bill Reiter (@foxsportsreiter) May 30, 2014

[h1]  [/h1]

[h1]New owner deserves new city: Let Seattle have the Clippers[/h1]

[h3]Bill Reiter[/h3][h3]FOX Sports[/h3]

MAY 30, 2014 2:35p ET

LOS ANGELES --  The NBA and its fans should welcome with open arms Steve Ballmer’s reportedly $2 billion agreement with the Sterling family trust to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers.

But not because Ballmer has pledged to keep the team in Los Angeles. The league should embrace the Ballmer bid because of what is surely his preference to relocate the Clippers to Seattle.

Yes, Ballmer told The Wall Street Journal earlier this month that if he succeeded in purchasing the Clippers he would not seek to move the team to Seattle,  where he has ties due to his long tenure as CEO of Microsoft.

Let’s dispense with that first: The man is a billionaire, a place you don’t ascend to without a healthy amount of moxie, guts, smarts and ruthlessness. Is it possible Ballmer really wants to keep the Clippers in Los Angeles – that the team’s incredible brand, prime location, string of sellouts, 10-year lease and universal goodwill after the Sterling ugliness would keep him committed to Southern California?

Sure it is.

It’s also possible that a man this bright – who surely understands that to bring a team to your hometown you must steal it from another city, just as Clay Bennett stole Seattle’s and brought it to Oklahoma City  – has decided to use his money and play the long game.

That, too, is a staple of becoming a billionaire: the ability to play the long game and win it.

And that, too, is a fact of life for any location, from Anaheim to Kansas City to Vegas to Virginia to Seattle, that craves an NBA franchise of its own: It’s Ownership Darwinism, folks. Only the strong, the brutal, the brave, the lucky and those willing to win at the expense of others are going to survive.

None of this should be an issue. The fact is, Seattle had its team robbed from it, and on this I’m of two minds. I love that the Thunder  are in Oklahoma City, a smaller, Midwestern market that has embraced Kevin Durant  & Co. with great joy. But I also want to see Seattle get back what it deserves, and that ultimately means one team being taken from another city to make it so.

What do you prefer? Robbing Milwaukee of the Bucks, Memphis of the Grizzlies, New Orleans  of Pelicans, or some other small market of one of its most cherished public institutions? I lived in Kansas City for a very long time, and to that town and those like it, a professional team is more than a billionaire’s toy. It’s part of the fabric of the community, something, as sports tend to be, that makes the place more than it otherwise might be.

Los Angeles has a team. The Lakers  are one of the two most storied franchises in the NBA, along with the Celtics, and they are beloved here. There are DMV offices and other public institutions that are shrines to the purple and gold. It’s bizarre to move here and come to terms with it. This is a Lakers town, and they have a vast monopoly on the hearts and minds of this city’s NBA fans. That isn’t going to change for a long time, if ever.

Los Angeles doesn’t need another professional basketball team. Seattle does.

And if the Clippers did move – if Ballmer, when the time was right or, wisely, the league and its owners allowed it – the Clippers name could finally disappear into the past. Let it. Allow it to go. Banish it. Sterling owned the Clippers for more than two decades despite what was well known about him.

Why not let that name and its reminder of how long the league and the rest of us tolerated Sterling’s awfulness be put in history books and left behind?

I’m all for erasing every vestige of his tenure and time in the league, and that includes the team name. Especially if the upshot is a deserving city like Seattle gets a team from a market that won’t really suffer – and I’m talking fans here – when it leaves.

Surely the Lakers would embrace such a move, if quietly. Surely the Staples Center would be just fine minus one of its major tenants. And do we really doubt, now or later, that a billionaire like Ballmer who took the gloves off to try to buy the Sacramento Kings last year and move them north would love the idea of bringing a team back to Seattle?

Yes, let’s celebrate the Ballmer bid. Then let’s root for it to lead to the return of the Seattle SuperSonics.

 

[dman14]

if the clips moved to seattle, la fans wouldnt even be outraged. do it ballmer
#endracism

 

[elpablo21]

 

We should welcome Ballmer buying LAC - not because he'd keep them in LA but bc he's the guy to take them to Seattle http://t.co/eJymftvAyu
— Bill Reiter (@foxsportsreiter) May 30, 2014

 

They gotta stop pushing all this false hope out there

 

[noblekane]

They gotta stop pushing all this false hope out there

Yea that article is ******ed

Looks like it was written by some angry laker fan who wants the clippers out of los angeles

 

[100027]

if the clips moved to seattle, la fans wouldnt even be outraged. do it ballmer

#endracism

 

[twozerosix]

We're not getting a team for a long time I think |I

 

[Sinner]

I have no idea where to post this... 

 

[dakid23]

Report: Chris Hansen, Thomas Tull planning bids to bring NBA’s Atlanta Hawks to Seattle


Chris Hansen speaks to media after his group’s presentation to the NBA on April 3, 2013, in New York City. Having lost his bid for the Sacramento Kings that May, Hansen is now reportedly planning to bid on the Atlanda Hawks. (Richard Drew/AP Photo)
Despite the Atlanta mayor’s assertions that he will do everything to keep the Hawks in Georgia, two potential suitors are planning to submit separate bids to buy the NBA franchise and move it to Seattle, according to a report.

ESPN’s Bill Simmons reported Tuesday that Sodo arena investor Chris Hansen and film producer Thomas Tull are planning separate offers for the Hawks, which were put up for sale this week, each with hopes to relocate the team to Seattle.

Hansen has largely fallen out of the headlines since his 2013 bid for the Sacramento Kings fell through. Furthermore, since the NBA rejected Hansen’s purchase that May in favor of a bid organized by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, co-investor and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer moved on and purchased the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion.

Thomas Tull Steelers
Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull is reportedly planning to bid on the Atlanta Hawks and move them to Seattle. (George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
Not one to seek the spotlight, Hansen reiterated his commitment to bringing the NBA back to Seattle in a Dec. 22 blog post on the website for his proposed Sonics Arena, which is still going through Washington state’s environmental review process. The Seattle City Council and King County Council approved a public-private financing plan in October 2012 but, under the agreement, construction on the proposed $500 million arena cannot start until the city lands an NBA franchise.

Hansen has yet to publicly address the recent availability of the Hawks.

Tull, meanwhile, is a new name to the “Sonics Reborn” conversation. An avid sports fan and partial owner of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, Tull is best known as the chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures, whose movie titles include the “Dark Knight” and “Hangover” trilogies.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution first reported Friday that the Hawks’ minority stakeholders have agreed to join majority owner Bruce Levinson in selling the franchise, putting the team 100 percent up for sale.

Levenson announced in September that he planned to sell his controlling interest in the NBA franchise, after revealing he wrote a racially insensitive email to team officials two years ago. Levenson said he voluntarily reported the email to the NBA after 2014′s Clippers saga, in which former owner Donald Sterling was barred from the league and forced to sell his stake in the team following racist remarks.

From the AJC:

Several people have expressed interest in being part of an ownership group soon after the controversy came to light. Former NBA players Dikembe Mutombo and Chris Webber and New York entertainment lawyer Doug Davis are known to have interest. Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed has said numerous parties have expressed interest. …

The Hawks are unlikely to be sold and moved, as the Atlanta Spirit did with the NHL’s Thrashers in 2011. Reed said the city is committed to keeping the Hawks in Atlanta. In addition, the NBA would not want to lose a franchise in a Top-10 market.

A purchase price for the Hawks would likely fall somewhere between the $550 million for which the Milwaukee Bucks sold in April and the $2 billion Ballmer spent for the Clippers. Buying the Hawks would also carry an extra $75 million fee to break the team’s arena lease with Atlanta and Fulton County, Georgia, before it expires in 2017.

Levenson’s ownership group unsuccessfully tried to sell the Hawks to a California developer in 2011. It is widely thought the Hawks’ current owners would not agree to sell to an ownership group that would seek to relocate the team.

I don't know why Thomas Tull would want to move them to Seattle.


When it's all said and done I want Hansen to be the owner of the Sonics

 

[rck3sactown]

pretty sure everyone is rooting for the Hawks to get sent to Seattle 

it'd be nice to having a more than competent squad ready to go as the new Sonics 

Bring back the Sonics 

 

[elpablo21]

I'm not holding my breath.

 

[OTG]

keep hoping... it ain't happening.

 

[a55a5in11]

I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Retroballer]

So Seattle fans cool with an owner buying a team just to move them?

 

[elpablo21]

So Seattle fans cool with an owner buying a team just to move them?

Uh sure...why not?

Doesnt matter anyways...Seattle without a team is the perfect threat for the league to use on other owners and new arenas.

 

[a55a5in11]

So Seattle fans cool with an owner buying a team just to move them?

Your god damn right

 

[Sinner]

The difference being... the intent was stated from the very beginning... we wanna buy to relocate.  

 

[elpablo21]

Seattle being used as a threat as usual but nonetheless

Bucks' Feigin: If arena deal not approved, NBA will move team to 'Las Vegas or Seattle'

Milwaukee Bucks  president Peter Feigin  told Wisconsin lawmakers Monday that time was of the essence in approving $250 million in public funding for the proposed arena in downtown Milwaukee or the NBA  will move the team to another city.

At an informational hearing held by the state Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, Feigin said the Bucks owners' purchase agreement for the team includes a provision that construction of a new arena start in 2015. If that does not occur, he said the NBA will buy back the team for a $25 million profit and move them to "Las Vegas or Seattle."

New York City hedge fund executive Wes Edens,Marc Lasry  and Jamie Dinan  purchased the team for $550 million in May 2014.

"The window is closing," Feigin said. "We can't wait months, even weeks to start the public process."

The Joint Finance Committee hearing was continuing Monday afternoon with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett  and Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele  set to testify. The state Senate could take up the bill as early as Tuesday. It was dropped from the proposed state budget last week.

Feigin said the team needed to start construction by October or November to avoid the NBA starting a process of seeking buyers for the team. The team's lease at the BMO Harris Bradley Center expires in 2017, he said.

"The NBA  does not want the Bucks to extend the lease in an inadequate facility," he said.

Feigin also promised that once ground was broken on the arena project, the Bucks owners would also start a $30 million practice facility on the nearby Park East corridor land yet in 2015.

The Bucks owners and former owner Herb Kohl  have pledged a combined $250 million to the project and are seeking a $250 million public match. The Bucks owners also have created a separate real estate development company that they say will invest $400 million on commercial projects near the new arena over the next decade.

The arena-funding plan calls for the state to provide $4 million per year for 20 years to cover a $55 million state contribution plus interest.

The proposal also calls for Milwaukee County to contribute $55 million and the city of Milwaukee, $47 million. Another $93 million would be generated from new debt issued by the public Wisconsin Center District.

Feigin said over the past decade, about 65 percent of financing for arenas across the country has come from the public.

"This is about building a winner and building a brand and a product," Feigin said. "It is similar to what the (Milwaukee) Brewers and (Green Bay) Packers have done."

State Sen. Lena Taylor  (D-Milwaukee) was the most critical of the deal, saying backers are "screwing over the Wisconsin Center District." Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau staff said the Wisconsin Center would not begin repaying the bonds it would issue for about 13 years.

"Who has a loan for 13 years and you don't pay anything, but you let the interest run? Who does that? You wouldn't let your kids do it," Taylor said. "And you sure as heck wouldn't do that to your constituents."

 

[a55a5in11]

I literally just read that article

 

[dmbrhs]

I know it's the first time someone associated with the Bucks has come out and said something about it, but the timing is no coincidence. The arena funding is going to a vote this week, and they have to dangle that threat in front of everyone. Ultimately, the Bucks will get their arena, because no city/state is going to allow what happened in Seattle (and this goes back to before Clay Bennett bought the team). I think the NBA does everything in its power to not move teams anymore, and will do everything it can to ensure it doesn't happen in this case. Sucks, but that's how it is.

 

[a55a5in11]

Milwaukee journel writer on KJR saying he thinks the deal will get done but it would be a last minute deal. Sounds like there is a lot of issues to work out

 

[The Glove]

wake me up when the relocation papers get signed. we've done this dance too many times to get our hopes up :\

 

[Sinner]