The Day That Was
SEATTLE — Oct. 31 has come and gone. Same for Nov. 1. Now what? Will Clay Bennett file for relocation in the coming days? What will it mean if he does? The team is tied up in a federal court case that could keep them in Seattle until 2010 no matter what. Answers are likely to come soon. Let’s hope so. I spent my Thursday trying to get a feel for the mood of Seattle Sonics fans. It was a rat race of a day, between navigating an unfamiliar city, setting up and trying to keep interview appointments and getting my story in by deadline, which given the time zone difference is always a tall task in and of itself whenever out west. I met many interesting people along the way, though, and have gained a deeper and greater respect and understanding of the Seattle people. I ran into a lot of fans who couldn’t care less about the Sonics anymore and just as many who’d give their left arm to keep them in town. What linked them all together is their knowledge. This is a very knowledgeable sports town and one that deserves to keep its oldest sports team. For as much as we in the media have made about this potentially being a lame-duck season, the announced attendance was a sellout crowd of 17,072. Still, think there isn’t passion for basketball in this state? Yes, there are 40 more home games remaining. And yes, the Bobcats, Hawks and Wolves will come to town, too, not always the high octane Phoenix Suns. But give Seattle credit for supporting this team despite all the uncertainty.
Several times throughout Thursday’s game I thought about the very strange scene playing out before me. I was 2,000 miles from home watching a team that I might be covering next season — in Oklahoma. While I don’t think that will happen, I can only imagine what the fans were thinking Thursday, especially those who’ve invested 10, 20, 30 years of their lives, forget money, into the Seattle SuperSonics.
That said, the Sonics need a new arena. All the talk about $100 million for renovations is nonsense. No amount of renovations will fix that place. Again, great place to watch a game. Too small to make big money. Problem is, a new arena will never be built as long as Clay Bennett and his partners own the team. Won’t happen. The damage has been done. The politicians feel insulted. Bennett feels mistreated. Like he never was given a fair shake. I see this whole situation ending favorably for Seattle. I think Bennett and his group eventually will sell the team to local owners. I think, just like the Seahawks situation, the city will pony up a good chunk of change (not all) for a new arena to satisfy local businessmen who they know will keep the team in town. Oklahoma City will one day get a team (and no, it won’t be the Hornets). Hopefully it will be an expansion team and not this city’s most storied franchise.
-DM-
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Comments
hr, what part of ” I ran into a lot of fans who couldn’t care less about the Sonics anymore and just as many who’d give their left arm to keep them in town,” didn’t you understand?
-DM-
HR obviously doesn’t represent Seattle.
DM,
Nice article and pretty much right on. I think the best solution to this problem is for the city of Seattle to work a deal out for a new arena, a sale to a local group and a new franchise for OKC.
This situation in my opinion is a big game to get the new arena built. Seattle tends to wait until things get desperate to act. Both the Mariners and the Seahawks got to that stage. Now the Sonics are there also. I truly hope that Stern,Seattle and Bennett can work out a deal to keep the Supes in Seattle with a nice shiny new franchise for OKC to create their own tradition.
It would be helpful for more media members in OKC to do just what you did with this article….demand a new tradition for OKC and not someone else’s tradition. Out here many people believe that Bennett and OKC are a bunch of scam artists trying to “steal” the Sonics from their home of 40 years…..OKC is bigger than that and deserves more than someone else’s memories. OKC deserves their own franchise and their own memories. JMHO.
The writer is correct.
This is the SEATTLE Sonics.
Why are OKC fans being excited by this? It’s not your team.
Plus, moving from Seattle to OKC?
Maybe the Yankees will move to South Dakota someday too.
Yes, a real upgrade.
Why would someone claiming to be from Seattle be reading this blog if they didn’t care if Bennett was trying to take the Sonics to OKC? Obviously, we have a troll here pretending to be from Seattle. The fact that he said “you can’ come here (Seattle), ” where he felt it necessary to put Seattle in parentheses as though there would be no mistaking that his comments were from someone in Seattle is evidence of this. Also see the reference to the people of Oklahoma as being “Okies,” because any person from Seattle would clearly be so insulting. Give me a break.
Also, he said: “back in history, it was the Mariners and Sonics, with the Seahawks as the “ok, I guess we have it” franchise.”
This is completely ignorant. In the 80s, the Seahawks had a huge waiting list for season tickets and the Mariners couldn’t draw 15k a night.
Perhaps “Back in History” means 1995-96 when the Sonics were in the NBA Finals and the Mariners were in the playoffs as well. Any city will be crazy for teams that are at the top of their respective league.
NOPE, I am a Seattleite, Im not a Sonics fan.
I dont care what you say about my opinion, Im not going to jump on the bandwagon just because Im from Seattle and some Okie reporter placates his hosts by saying the sonics should stay here. DM can look up my IP address (it begins with 76), there are others here who agree with me (actually we are the majority, remember I-91 – I voted YES).
And as for trolling, I dont troll. But I also dont buy into the lies that people in this area like to pretend to be. Look at downtown Seattle, all of those stores are EMPTY, all of the time. And when people are there, they browse. We have those stores just SO we can pretend to have a retail district, when in reality Bellevue Square, alderwood, Southcenter and other malls are where it’s at.
Im sure DM saw all of that downtown stuff and was wowed by it, because I am sure OKC doesn’t have it. But the fact of the matter it is just pretention so we can Look like a big city – we can’t even build a replacement arena and we arent going to as long as there are people like me who think the NBA is yesterday’s news.
As for back in history, excuse me I was living here and in the Kingdome – never sold out, unless michael jordan was in town.
Excuse me, but the Seahawks have never been good until now. Ive been to numerous games in the kingdome and there was almost NEVER a win unless the mariners were playing.
Back then, it WAS the Sonics and Mariners. The Seahawks were the afterthought. Now the roles are reversed.
We’ve always been a two sport town.
Just like we have posters on the SeaTimes forum (parallelforest) who speaks the truth about OKC, I speak the truth about Seattle. Our so called wealth aint gonna save the sonics, too late – they should ahve done something before Bennett bought the team. Plain and simple. You loser Sonics fans need to realize that, Bennett aint going to sell (I wouldn’t if I were in his shoes).
We are a ‘has been’ city, when it comes to the NBA. Face it, admit it. How come the national media still doesn’t care about the Sonics:?? How come there are no front page stories about the Sonics except here on newsok and the seattle media. Id say, the Sonics fans (and the few Okie idiots here) are the ones with their heads in the clouds. There should be no person in OKC who is against the Sonics moving there.
Get real, stop pretending. Seattle is yesterday’s news, it took me to set your blog straight DM. The Sonics will relocate to Oklahoma City!! And Im sure the NBA wont ever come back here, I say – who gives a fouoholkhjnklhlkjk. !!!!
Now let’s move on.
i am from seattle, born, raised and still live…im not really an NBA fan, but i do support my local teams…
“Out here many people believe that Bennett and OKC are a bunch of scam artists trying to “steal” the Sonics from their home of 40 years…..OKC is bigger than that and deserves more than someone else’s memories. OKC deserves their own franchise and their own memories. JMHO.”
if you do not understand that clay bennett IS a scam artist then you do not have a pulse…he is basically taking advantage of the system and he is pretty much doing it and will probably get away with it…if that idiot minority owner would have shut his mouth, OKC would have gotten the sonics and there probably wasnt much to do about it. if he would not have said those words, bennett would not look like he is waltzing up and just stealing the sonics from under us. before bennett could just say there was no interest or viable option and we probably would have believed him and let them go, but when your partners say that the whole idea is to move the team, how can we expect to believe you when you say that your first intentions were to keep the team in seattle?
let local ownership have the team and keep them in seattle and award OKC with expansion…
at this point there are options out there and MR. STERN could help this situation out….he “says” he wants to keep the franchise in seattle and we have a group of owners willing to buy the team…so unless MR. STERN is just like clay, the option should be to tell clay to sell the team and we will give him a new franchise that he can grow, develop and can have its own history in OKC….
“As for back in history, excuse me I was living here and in the Kingdome – never sold out, unless michael jordan was in town.
Excuse me, but the Seahawks have never been good until now. Ive been to numerous games in the kingdome and there was almost NEVER a win unless the mariners were playing.”
how many NBA franchises are going to sell out a 60,000 person venue?? that statement is rediculous
you oviously do not remember the times when the sonics were playing in the kingdome and WON the NBA TITLE in there, or when the seahawks used to sell the kingdome out EVERY year. from 1983-1988 when the seahawks were 2nd or better in their division and actually made it to lose to the LA Raiders in the AFC Championship….
im also pretty sure you do not remember the seahawks selling that same stadium out every year, but when it was Ken Griffey Jr. poster night my mother just dropping me and my best friend off at the kingdome while she parked and said to get tickets where we always sit…not where we have to sit because it is a sellout, but because there was no one there and you could “PICK” where you wanted to sit…
my dad was a usher at the kingdome, i was at the AFC championship in the LA, i had season tickets to the seahawks, i watched about 30 mariners games a year as a kid…..
dont try to set a blog straight with some bogus lines about something you obviously spent zero time thinking about….
each team has had success at different times, you cant just pick and choose to make your arguement better…
ive seen ALL seattle teams be very successful and very bad all in my 29 years of being in seattle…
HR,
You have a mean hateful heart towards Seattle and obviously towards Oklahoma citizens whom you refer to as “Okies”. It’s one thing to disagree with a public financed arena, it is another thing to misrepresent our city. We are a tolerant city with a rich culture. I am sure there are a lot of transplanted Oklahoma natives out here. I am ashamed to listen to the hateful spew that drips from your mouth.
You really need to look into your attitude. My uncle is a therapist in the Seattle area, I could refer you to him to get help. Obviously, by your own comments, you are an unhappy person with a dark heart. There are things that can be done for you, but you need to seek it before we get into the long rainy dark suicidal winter. So seek help my friend.
MALLS? You’re talkin’ about MALLS?
So you’re the creepy guy at the mall checking out the pre-teens. I don’t know about all this Mr. “pretend” Seattle guy. Malls may be a big deal back in OKC, but not so much in the pacific northwest. There are much better things to do than hang out at the mall, unless that’s the only place your mom will drop you off on a saturday afternoon.
dmayberry, you cant come here (to Seattle) and hide out in downtown and expect that to be the atmosphere of this metro area. Sure, if you hand out downtown and only talk to fans, you will think that EVERYBODY up here feels that way. But if you were to venture away from downtown Seattle you’d discover a different opinion. You stated that Seattle deserves this team because we had it for 40 years. It looks like you fell into the trap that Seattle fans want you media people to; like Seattle DESERVES this team. Please, if we built an arena and our politicians worked with Bennett and the NBA for such, then we’d deserve this team. But you know that isn’t the point and Clay owns the team – so we dont Deserve anything. You have to prove it, and coming here during an opening night (that was NOT a full house/sellout despite the announcement) and making a subjective comment that we deserve the Sonics is preposterous! You just proved yourself to be wowed by the pretention that exists in downtown Seattle – pretending to be something it’s not and trying to make you Okies guilty for what is being done. The truth is, there is a reason why ESPN, TNT, and the NBA wont come here anymore and voice the same supportive opinion that you fell into (see trap). And that reason is, they all know Seattle is a two sport city – there is always support for only two franchises. Back in history, it was the Mariners and Sonics, with the Seahawks as the “ok, I guess we have it” franchise. Today, its the mariners and Seahawks who are on top, with the Sonics as the ‘has been, and we’re bout to lose it,’ franchise. Another fact is, we aint building an arena regardless of local ownership. So Clay might as well take the team to OKC. The ‘battle’ in the courts was brought about NOT because here is this huge amount of people who want the team here – NO, it was brought about because those politicians are up for reelection next week – and they wanted to get the sonics fans to vote. That’s it. Otherwise, none of them could really care less about the Sonics. Sometimes the truth hurts, and I speak it. Despite the reception you got – trying to convince you of this ‘overwhelming support’ the true national media knows otherwise what Seattle’s true colors are. If you had ventured outside of downtown Seattle you also would have seen the true face of this region, and there is no fault of Clay Bennett or any other Okie owner. If you really want the team, dont come here and fall for the wow-factor (which your paper even wrote a while back as ‘window dressing’). Report the truth!