Sonics, Seattle negotiating a settlement
Hours before Judge Marsha Pechman announces her ruling in the Sonics case, the city of Seattle are negotiating a settlement of the lease dispute. Here’s my story.
Pechman will post her ruling at 6 p.m. central time. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and other city officials are scheduled to hold a press conference at 7 p.m. central time. And Sonics Chairman Clay Bennett also is scheduled to address the media in Oklahoma City at 7 p.m. central time.
We’ll have much more throughout the day on NewsOK.com and in Thursday’s editions of The Oklahoman.
-DM-
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Comments
Looks like a pretty cool energy drink. I didn’t know about the long history of knights in oklahoma, so thanks. Why not just order jerseys from ebay and pick a name out of a hat? And um, Lebron? Seriously? Put Earl Watson in that jersey and it becomes considerably less cool. Sounds unlikely Durant’s gonna stay… http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sonics/2008031154_sonireax030.html….
maybe you can get Damien Wilkins to come around though, good luck with that.
well, i was never for this deal, but i love seeing the haters from seattle go from, “you’ll get this team” to making fun of a concept logo, etc…
why am i not surprised you’re sore losers?
oh yeah, where’s the “see y’all in june!!” guy?
why am I not surprised you’re a classless “winner”? OKC can look forward to the limp-wristed support of guys like ‘donuteyes’ when they’re hoisting their duplicated banners and creating copies of our trophy. I guess that’s what you’d call “class”.
Seriously, all trash-talking aside, duplicating banners and trophies is a disgrace and an embarrassment. Have some respect for yourselves and the game.
this is a tragic day. i feel sick,violated,and angry. all these old memories are coming back to me, when my dad took me to my first supes game, when i was 5. i had a world championship t- shirt that was a couple of years old(at that time), the shirt was too small, my mom said i couldnt wear it, but my dad over ruled her. i wore the t-shirt. i dont remember much, but i remember it being in the old kingdome. we played the spurs. and i remember my dads favorite player, jack sikma. on that night, 26 years ago, a passion and deep love was born inside me. and yesterday afternoon it was taken from me. i just want okc to know that you have done wrong. your celebration is naive. your celebration is flat out cruel.
and id like to say goodbye to a few people( that arent that bad)
first darnell, your a good writer. get out of okc! next donut, your a nice guy who likes his town, i can appreciate that. and lastly, old phil. phil is a giant prick, we have had many squabbles. but, when it really comes down to it, he is a decent man who also cares for his town.
and finally, take care of my beloved supes. or whatever the hell your going to call them.
were gettin a new franchise very soon! i think i smell a rivalry!
this is a digrace, if you want an nba team get your own, don’t have a couple of hypocrites steal it for you… disgusting, there are no words. despicable.
Been a Sonics fan since childhood, but soured on NBA and Stern over the years. Now that OKC has a team, it is THEIRS to lose. The NBA allowed teenagers to become millionaires and become nothing but overpaid punks. There are exceptions and some classy players still in the game, but the best times may be in the rear view mirror. I watched the ‘79 Champs, rose from my seat in the Seattle Coliseum to watch ally-oop-dunks from Payton to Kemp, and watched ownership screw the team with bad trades and even worse draft picks in the years to follow. If I were OKC NBA fans I’d be leery of their new team’s ownership group in such a small market and with a losing record. Sam Presti may well get them to the top in a few years. Yet when he leaves for another team, Clay-Clay might just hire Yosemite Sam to draft the next Robert Swift from the high school ranks. Fans are fickle and nobody can root for a loser year after year, let alone buy the tickets. OKC, the clock is ticking on your NBA team. Enjoy…
wow, is joey leaving? don’t go, you’re one of the few decent people, okc or seattle, that frequents this blog.
oh, is mark the “see y’all in june” guy? i can’t remember. honestly, this whole deal stinks, and i probably will not support the team. but for me, it is kinda funny knowing how mad you are. your capitalized, obnoxious rants about the sonics and softball were ridiculous. so i feel sorry for sonics fans, but not for you. you sir, are a douchebag, and i will NOT be seeing you in june, july, or any other month in which you won’t see your (former) team.
I have no idea what you’re talking about or who you’re referring to. Softball? WTF are you talking about?? Who talks about softball on an NBA blog? Or at all, for that matter? And I’M the douchebag? Regardless, I have no idea why you frequent a blog about the NBA when you don’t care about basketball and get in arguments about softball. Your posts are consistently pointless. Great work.
first i feel obligate to say this, i’ve been an nba fan for the better half of my life, i love the game and the players and especially the history, but i also love my city(OKC-even though it’s not very much and will be a small market). now growing up i was a chicago bulls fan, and i always dreamed about going to a game, now that seems very possible…
but on behalf of myself and anyone who truly is a basketball fan, i have to display my sympathies for the city of seattle, you all have caught a raw deal with this and got caught in the trap that is “the business of the game”. now there’s alot of parties who are to blame and fingers can be pointed in every direction, but in the end the overall truth to it is this, there’s no NBA team in Seattle no more, and Seattle has every right to be bitter about that, so i’m not going to go off on one of those immature rants that no doubt is going to be spoken by someone, somewhere.
Oklahoma City has a Professional Basketball team now…our first real chance at managing any professional franchise(since the Hornets)…that won’t make the city or the state better, but it does give us more to do and more to root for other than the cowboys and the sooners for once. Yet it also means we have more of a responsibility…and that means buying more than tickets and jerseys, but that also means they better do some winning real soon.
Seattle has my sympathies, but it’s time for OKC to show what it’s got, and we have a long way to go perhaps…
if you frequented this blog, then you would know what i’m talking about. it’s michael u. that is the “see y’all in june” guy, the guy who is always talking about softball. where is he? he was so sure the sonics would stay. i wish he would have been right, but i’m glad he’s sad.
oh, mark, i don’t know who you are. sorry if i made you cry, it was mistaken screen-name identity. did you read my post? if you’re not making capitalized, obnoxious rants about the sonics and softball, then you should figure out i’m not talking to you. but thanks for taking offense on michael u’s behalf, i’ll take it until he comes out of hiding.
This has been an interesting experience… The worst part is that it isn’t even over yet.
Losing a team sucks, how it came about makes it even worse – I would respect and accept it more if Clay was not such a douche… but, OKC deserves a team as much as any other city does, and if they support it, so much the better. Being in a small market makes keeping a team more difficult, but Green Bay is also a small market…
But I really look forward to the Howard Schultz lawsuit as the case is going to be groundbreaking no matter what the outcome is. Obviously Schultz sold the team to the wrong people if he really was so interested in keeping the team in Seattle, but then again Clay promised much… and if you really believe that Clay is innocent in all this, you must really be wanting a team very badly.
The question that the Schultz lawsuit will answer is if Clay is guilty enough to lose his team. That to me is way more important than the lease hearing ever was… as long as Clay and Co. owned the Sonics, the Sonics were sure to move… the Schultz lawsuit gives an oppertunity to seperate Clay from owning the team which I would absolutely love to see as I think Clay is the worst possible type of sports owner…
Seattle Times – . . . “Longtime Seattle journalist David Brewster said the lack of groundswell for the Sonics reflects Seattle’s civil transformation into a destination city. Seattle is more concerned about the effects of growth — housing costs and traffic — than it is eager to gain the status that comes with an NBA franchise, he said.
“The city has arrived,” said Brewster, publisher of the online news site Crosscut.com. “The quest to have major-league status is really intense when you don’t have it, or just got it.”
A city like Seattle, Brewster said, doesn’t have an inferiority complex, or the need to prove that it’s big time — “because it is.”
Asked in June 2006 by nonpartisan Elway Research if taxes should be used to renovate KeyArena, 78 percent of those surveyed said they’d rather let the Sonics leave Seattle.
A second poll, commissioned by the team late last year and used during the recent trial against the city of Seattle, found two-thirds of Seattleites were indifferent or glad to be rid of the team. In contrast, roughly half of the poll’s respondents said they would grieve the Seahawks’ or Mariners’ departure.
And in the November 2006 ballot, Seattle voters approved an initiative limiting public financing for stadiums by a 3-to-1 ratio.”
“I would say so, but then I’m a little emotional right now,” said Damien Wilkins, who has played his entire four-year NBA career with the Sonics. “I’m really, really mad. I’m disappointed for the city of Seattle. I’m disappointed for the fans and the people that supported us for the last 41 years.”
“Kevin Durant, who won the rookie-of-the-year award last season with the Sonics, expressed dismay when told his first season in Seattle would be his last. “I’m a little shocked and a little disappointed,” he said. “First of all, I didn’t know we would be leaving Seattle this soon. I feel for the fans in Seattle. Even though it wasn’t a great year for our team, they always supported us. I feel for the fans. Me and my family made Seattle our new home, and it’s going to be tough getting up and moving.”
“”I’m still optimistic something will happen to keep us here,” Collison said an hour before the game.
Collison just bought a house up the hill from KeyArena. The former star at Kansas is married and wants the family he is just starting to grow up in Seattle.
“It will be a sad, sad day if that happens,” Collison said of moving to Oklahoma. “It would be a tough thing for a city that has been so good to the NBA.
“There’s not a lot of positive things we can say as players about this situation. But I’m still optimistic.”
“A lot of people don’t realize, it’s not about the NBA player, the professional career. You pretty much expect one player won’t stay with one team anymore,” Earl Watson said. “When I came into this arena today, my main thing was I looked at the young kids that won’t understand if you explain it to them. And for me, it was the ushers that have been here forever. What do they do?”
“I almost cried, to be honest with you,” Sonics rookie star Kevin Durant said. “It was phenomenal.”
“”It will be a disaster if they move them after 41 years,” Gary Payton said before halftime. “I don’t think these fans deserve that.”
…and my personal favorite…
“It’s dumb, it’s stupid,” O’Neal said. “They should have to wait from the bottom like everyone else.” “Seattle has tradition, the Space Needle, and there’s water here,” Shaq said. “Oklahoma City’s a college town. You’re not going to have the TV market there.” He said he’d rather play in Seattle than Oklahoma City any day of the week, month and decade. “When I think of Seattle, I think of G.P., the Reign Man, Sikma, Lenny Wilkens,” Shaq said. “The Oklahoma City Sonics? When my son asks me about that, I’ll say there’s no such thing.”
…….And Shaq will be right. There is no such thing. The Sonics no longer exist. They died of neglect.
Poll: Loss of Sonics won’t bother most people in Seattle…..
For all the fuss over the Sonics’ departure, polls indicate that most people in Seattle may not really care that much.
By Jonathan Martin
Seattle Times staff reporter
While talk radio and online forums are aflame with the grief of angry Sonics fans, Carla Tobis may reflect more accurately the feelings of the majority.
“I’m thrilled they are leaving,” said Tobis, a 52-year-old Mercer Island resident leaving the downtown REI with a pair of water bottles.
“It’s a ridiculous waste of taxpayer dollars. I don’t think we should be spending that money on pro-sports stadiums.”
A pair of public polls and a 2006 election show that the percentage of Seattleites who adamantly wanted — and were willing to pay for — the Sonics to stay was roughly equal to the approval rating of George W. Bush.
How did Seattle become so apathetic about a 41-year-old institution?
Asked in June 2006 by nonpartisan Elway Research if taxes should be used to renovate KeyArena, 78 percent of those surveyed said they’d rather let the Sonics leave Seattle.
A second poll, commissioned by the team late last year and used during the recent trial against the city of Seattle, found two-thirds of Seattleites were indifferent or glad to be rid of the team. In contrast, roughly half of the poll’s respondents said they would grieve the Seahawks’ or Mariners’ departure.
And in the November 2006 ballot, Seattle voters approved an initiative limiting public financing for stadiums by a 3-to-1 ratio.
Unfortunately Phillip, 1/3 of Seattle’s metropolitan area population is still greater than all of Oklahoma City’s. And “52-year-old Mercer Island residents leaving the downtown REI with a pair of water bottles” aren’t the types going to games. That would be like me waiting outside the Oklahoma Auto Shoot and asking people who their favorite And 1 Street Baller was.
But more to the point, this poll reflects how destructive Clay Bennett and David Stern were to casual fans, obvious by the different responses to both Seahawks and Mariners. Am I an avid fan? Yes. Would I be willing to pay 500 mil to Clay Bennett’s corporate welfare fund? F_ck no. Which is all irrelevant anyway since arena “plans” were a publicity stunt, evidenced by Stern’s comments on KeyArena before and after the settlement. You really have to be an idiot/Oklahoma resident to not see that.
This is like the movie “Major-League”, except they don’t get good at the end. And rather than being a hot chick, Clay Bennett is a fat pasty oaf with a buzz cut and negative sideburns. He went through the process of alienating fans, well documented elsewhere, and then demanded our hard-earned cash. Our response: a collective “F_ck You”. Your response: “Yes sir may I have another?”. And you call that being a fan.
As a Sonics fan, I hold no animosity towards OKC residents. I do, however, hold much animosity against Bennett and Stern. I would expect any rationale person or fan to be able to cut through all the emotion of this situation and boil it down to the following.
Bennett and Stern are best buds, note Bennett’s email saying Stern was one of his favorite people in the girl. Perhaps he should just ASK HIM TO PROM.
Stern lied repeatedly about Key Arena. Now, it’s fine renovated for a future NBA team (possibly). Anything to back Bennett and his pursuit of a team. Seriously, any OKC fan dispute that’s bunk?
Bennett repeatedly lied. Oh yes, he’s a man possessed. Even when caught in the cookie jar with his associates, let’s fool EVERYONE and tell them we really were to stay in Seattle. Let’s say no to the tribe, let’s say only if $500 Million were built in a new stadium.
Yes, Bennett spent a few million, but what’s that prove? He threw out 45M to get the team, what’s a few spare millions to him?
The team, 99.9% is gone ( I suspect Shultz will withdraw his suit), I can 100% say Bennett is a lying con man who conned Howard Schultz and the Sonics.
I look forward to seeing the crowds throughout year 1 and ESPECIALLY year 2 when if losing continues, the novelty wears off. Note attendance fell more and more as Bennett dismantled the current Sonics team, which helped, in part, breed public negativity.
As we all know, winning cures most wills, losing exposes all flaws. I could respect Bennett if he simply would say this was a grand plan to buy the team, promise to stay, set a “golden ring so high” for public financing that it would be tough to attain, turn the team into a performance laughingstock, then watch as fan apathy helped their case. Stern followed along and they got their wish.
For once, now that you won, Clay, tell the truth.
alright, so if one third of seattle’s population is more than all of okc’s, then there are twice as many people who don’t care about the sonics than there are in okc altogether. hmm.
why does it seem like seattle residents were either passionate sonics fans, or they couldn’t give a crap? i guess we know which side is larger.
Duplicate banners being disgraceful? Tell that to the Lakers who are hanging banners from their MPLS days.
I think we should hang banners and keep the trophy. There is a rich history associated with this team, and it shouldn’t be forgotten simple because it is in a new locale. I would hate for these banners never to hang again at a professional games. You can even argue that those are the memories of another city, but I can tell you that I’m remember watching Payton and Kemp in the 90’s. Sure, I wasn’t there, but I share those memories with your fellow citizens. Even the colors and name should be in OKC, at least until Seattle can revive the green and gold. We are essentially treating out team like an expansion team for the fans of Seattle, but they don’t seem to realize that.
Dai, you answered your own question – the Lakers retained their name in the move, while the Sonics did not, and “Sonics” are only a Seattle team, ergo, OKC does not deserve the history… OKC got what they want, they deserve no part of Sonics history that is good since Clay and company did everything to make the Sonics look bad to more easily seperate the team from its city… mission accomplished – Clay achieved the worst season in Supersonics history, and that even included an expansion season – Clay as the owner of the Sonics was a disgrace to the good name of Seattle sports. Thankfully, he must soon enough defend his actions in a court of law over a sales contract and agreement that he signed… baseless as he may consider it to be.
“Sonics fans, meanwhile, shouldn’t cling to hope of ex-owner Howard Schultz steering the team back to Seattle with his lawsuit. He’s the guy who created the mess by failing to invest enough in the franchise before selling it to Bennett. Lately, he’s struggled to run his own coffee shop. Does anyone truly think he’ll do any better in a courtroom?” — Yahoo Sports NBA editor Johnny Ludden
“It’s not like Boston. A few people are upset. There are just a few people talking about it. More people are talking about us winning a championship. Winning it all is big. It’s a business move for them. It makes financial sense. It didn’t work here (in Seattle), but it will work for them there (in Oklahoma City).” — Boston Celtics forward and Washington native Brian Scalabrine
“If half the people who supposedly were so linked to the team actually had shown up at games, this might never have happened…If the Sonics were such a beloved part of the community, consistently finishing near the bottom of the league in attendance was a strange way of proving it.” — Sacramento Bee columnists Scott Howard-Cooper
“Seattle has no idea what they have lost. It’s something that $75 million will never be able to buy.” — Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban
knights is a terrible name, stop it with that. what is this, northwest classen?
the banners, trophy, and history should remain in seattle. brent is dead-on. the sonics won the ‘79 title, not the okc whatevers. if bennett tries to pull that, i will never attend a game. i probably won’t anyway for a while.
i mean really, what would the banner say?
would it say Seattle Supersonics 1979 Champs? in okc? ridiculous.
how ’bout Oklahoma City 1979 Champs? no, even more ridiculous.
hanging a championship banner in the ford center would be an insult to the ‘79 sonics team, and an invitation for (even more) mockery from the rest of the league.
hang the banner in seattle’s city hall.
Phillip, did you just cut and paste that from the Oklahoman? Wow. Need I remind you NONE of those people are in favor of the move?
BOO-HOO Seattle. You were wrong before you are wrong now. Put your pathetic efforts into Future NBA team!!!!
The quotes are what they are, Stalker. Need I remind you that it doesn’t matter what they or anyone else favors, the team IS moving to OKC. Oh and Chopp will block funding for an arena, letting Bennett off the hook for the other 30 million and it will be decades before Seattle sees the NBA again.
Sorry you don’t read anything outside of Berry Tramel and Darnell Mayberry. At least you can stay current on how much everyone around the league just totally loves the OKC move. Hey I heard Jenni Carlson has a great video up about hotdogs, you should check that out.
So if it “doesn’t matter what they or anyone else favors” why are you posting their comments?
I posted them because I knew that you would enjoy them, Stalker. Here’s another……….. “I just feel for the (Seattle) fans,” Durant said. “But I’m still excited to play for Oklahoma City and I can’t wait to get there.”
true supe fans, keep your heads up high! we did nothing wrong. we paid 2000 a year for season tickets,8 american dollars for a beer, 6 american dollars for popcorn. we did it for forty plus years!
ignore this forum and okc. i can assure you, they wont be around long. we will have a club soon! okc wont!
Oklahoma City Knights?
check out some logo concepts I did. . .
http://jeffreyvancealbertson.com/okcinnba.html