Seattle Sonics

[heathj]

I have so much hate for Howard Schultz right now its ridiculous. He is screwing over the city that made him rich in the first place. 40 years and he shows no remorse. They held a press conference and said that it will make basketball in seattle better. How? By taking away the only basketball we have.

Thanks Howard.

p.s.If no one knows about this yet, the Seattle Sonics (NBA) and the Seattle Storm (WNBA) have been sold for $350 million to some company in Oklahoma.

[heathj]

Does anyone from Seattle have any comments?

[LC]

Isn't the reason that they are thinking about moving the teams because of the stadium? I thought that the city of Seattle wouldn't pay for a new stadium and the league is pushing for them to leave because of that.

Hopefully they find some way to keep the Sonics in Seattle and not move them to Oklahoma.

[JaredG]

Wow, I haven't heard of this. If this happens, it would be our one and only professional team. (at least for sports that matter) They must have some plans to build a new stadium as well, because as far as I know, we don't have anything large enough for the professional level.

[heathj]

LC, the lease runs out in 2010. It will cost $200 mill to do the renovations that are wanted. The city proposed that the taxpayers pay $150 mill and Schultz pay $50 mill, Schultz refused to pay.

[razorcut]

Does anyone from Seattle have any comments?I'm not from Seattle, but I am originally from Oklahoma....and I love this news. Oklahoma City was a tremendous host for the Hornets last season. The NBA in OKC is long overdue. I think this move is likely a done deal behind the scenes or the OKC ownership group would have never made the purchase.

[lifter4life]

It pisses me off a bit but the Sonics are garbage anyways. I lost interest in them the season of '04.

Schultz is a douche.

[heathj]

razor, i agree its good for you since you have no team. but think of it the other way around.

the sonics have been in seattle for 40 years. seattle also helped make schultz a millionaire or billionaire because of starbucks. now he turns on the city that made him rich. after 40 years of sonics!

lifter4life - obviously you are a fairweather fan then, but at least you hate schultz.

[MixmasterNash]

Ugh. Cities need to start buying teams. And Congress needs to pass some legislation banning the league restrictions on collective (ie public) ownership.

[razorcut]

razor, i agree its good for you since you have no team. but think of it the other way around.
I understand what you mean, believe me. I've never been a Sonics fan, but I can certainly respect the tradition and success they've had in Seattle over the years. That respect and tradition is the very reason I would rather have them in OKC than the Hornets or some random expansion team. It will be interesting to see how things go down over the next few months.

[Guido]

Ugh. Cities need to start buying teams. And Congress needs to pass some legislation banning the league restrictions on collective (ie public) ownership.I think Congress should start focusing on issues that really matter. But that's really neither here nor there....


Sucks for Seattle.

[MixmasterNash]

I think Congress should start focusing on issues that really matter. But that's really neither here nor there....


Sucks for Seattle.

In the sense that I think municipalities are being scammed out of hundreds of millions of dollar each to enrich a few powerful people, I think that it is a reasonable issue to consider, considering the anti-trust issues of interstate monopolies are one of the few things that Congress really is supposed to directly address.

I think that the Packers, the only publicly owned major league team, should be the model.

[lifter4life]

lifter4life - obviously you are a fairweather fan then, but at least you hate schultz.

You're right, I just can't stand watching a team that seems like they don't even want to be playing. I'm not trying to put them down, but the way they play and represent themselves turns me off.