I’m not going to get into the debate over the pending relocation of the Seattle SuperSonics to Ford Center. But you’ve got to wonder if J.A. Adande at ESPN has ever stepped foot in Oklahoma City when he suggests at the end of this video that it doesn’t have enough hotel rooms to be home to an NBA team.
Say what? I didn’t see anyone resorting to using sleeping bags outside Ford Center on nights when it hosted Hornets home games. For what it’s worth, by 2009 downtown alone will have nine hotels with more than 2,000 rooms. And along I-40 and Meridan Avenue, about 10 minutes west of Ford Center, there’s another 4,000 rooms.
I also don’t recall any major complaints about room availability during recent sold-out Big 12 basketball and NCAA games.
Oklahoma City has taken a lot of hits in this debate - “dust bowl,” etc. - but it’s difficult to understand how this comment has any connection to reality.
- Thanks to OKCTALK for bringing this to light
April 17th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Could it be that you dont need hotel rooms in order to have an NBA team? I mean, won’t the fans come from Oklahoma City? So, why would there need to be massive amounts of hotel rooms - when OKC residents will be going to the games ? “roll-eyes” Sure, to host an All Star game, you need hotel rooms - i mean, most people will be from out-of-town for that game, right? So I wonder why this guy failed to use his head and instead tried to drag OKC down with something that doesn’t even make sense. ?? It only proves how stupid he really is!
April 17th, 2008 at 10:26 am
i believe he specifically said that okc did not have enough hotel rooms to support an NBA All-Star game. not a team in general. and in that sense, i doubt we do have enough hotel space of the quality that would be demanded by that crowd.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Here is what he said after asking why OKC couldn’t just get an All Star game instead of a team:
“If the city of okc is not large enough to host this game, it does not have the hotel capacity, it is not a big time enough place, it makes you wonder, why would you want to play 41 games a year there?”
It’s a somewhat odd question on his behalf. I’m curious what the hotel room supply is like in Sacramento, Charlotte, Detroit and Cleveland.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
People just don’t understand, and they won’t understand until we have an NBA team that is happy and successful here. That’s why getting an NBA team is so important- there are so many people who have this idea of OKC and will realize how wrong they were when we show them how we roll.
I can’t get over people acting all surprised that Bennett wanted to move the team to OKC- were the terms of the agreement not to look for a place in Seattle and then look elsewhere? Did Washington not vote down all the possible options for Bennett? Seems to me like the conditions of the contract were fulfilled.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:47 am
Because of it’s status in the hip-hop culture, Bill Simmons calls the NBA all-star game “The Black Super Bowl.” Besides the game, it’s a weekend of parties, corporate events, etc. JA is right when he states we don’t have the hotel/convention space to host something like that…