War is on in Seattle
The war is on in Seattle.
It’s even moving to the media. One of Seattle’s sports-talk radio hosts, Mike Gastineau, has engaged me in emails the last 24 hours, trying to convince me that Clay Bennett is a liar. Here is a sampling:
“Trust me, Seattle gets the whole ’arena or we’ll leave thing.’ It’s just that in this case, it’s finally become obvious to people that these guys are liars. Their stated goals and actual goals don’t match up. If his stance was really ‘I want to do business in Seattle and I’m willing to listen to anyone and any idea,’ then he’d find some help up here. But that’s another example of him saying one thing while doing another. He refuses to discuss a renovation. He refuses to meet with the Muckleshoot Tribe. He refuses to consider local minority owners.
“He wants to move the team to OKC. It’s obvious. It’s natural. It makes sense. That was the plan from day one. All the rest is just needless BS including your theory that Seattle has somehow blown this. Seattle never had a chance. Trust me on this one. If, in 30 years, seven guys from say, Omaha, buy the Oklahoma City SiloSonics and then start talking about how they REALLY don’t want to move the team to the town where they LIVE, WORK, and WERE BORN, then you’ll have a much better grasp of how people up here feel.”
Now, I don’t like getting into media horseplay on issues. I write what I write for the paper and I say what I say for the radio, and I don’t see why I need to debate an individual who obviously has a different viewpoint. But I always answer my email, and this guy was no different. Here was my response:
“Mike, your declaration is a self-fulfilling prophecy. ‘You guys don’t really want to be here, so we’re not going to do any real talking, and so when you leave, we’ll be right.’ That’s called shooting yourself in the foot.
“If it’s finally become obvious that these guys are liars, where were the arena ideas when it wasn’t so obvious? What’s become obvious is that no one in Seattle seems serious about trying to keep the Sonics.
“There is nothing to talk to the Muckleshoots about. They’re into gambling, they’re too far away (from downtown Seattle) and they’re an Indian tribe. No way does an NBA owner want to do business with an Indian tribe.
“Local minority owner? Why does he need minority owners? He doesn’t need new influential friends’ money? He needs new influential friends who can help him get an arena. If someone can help him get an arena, he wouldn’t sell him a portion of the franchise, he might sell the whole danged thing and be glad to make a profit.
“Yes, if Omaha guys buy an OKC team, it would seem likely they’d want to be in Omaha. The cities are fairly similar. But if Topeka guys bought an OKC team, it wouldn’t be a natural to move. They couldn’t make nearly as much money in Topeka as they could in OKC. Unless Topeka could give them what they want (and OKC wouldn’t).
You’ve oversimplified it. Clay Bennett is from out of town, therefore Clay Bennett doesn’t want to be here. Sports, past and present, are full of owners from out of town. Oklahoma City provides Bennett a nice little parachute if Seattle doesn’t build an arena. He gets to be the hero in his hometown. But he’d prefer to be the rich visitor in Seattle.”
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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