Sonics bound for OKC from the get-go

[sandman]

You don't think as successful as the Blazers (a CHL team - just about the lowest form of minor league hockey) that OKC wouldn't keep selling the NBA?

For those of you who don't know, OKC has supported hockey in massive quan ies. None of the schools in Oklahoma have a major hockey team, yet people support it. They lead the all minor league hockey teams in attendance every year. Attendance went up the last 2 years even with the Hornets in town.

2007 - 8902
2006 - 8609
2005 - 8245
2004 - 8763
2003 - 8988
2002 - 8849
2001 - 9096
2000 - 9413
1999 - 9100
1998 - 9453
1997 - 9750
1996 - 9564
1995 - 10016
1994 - 10438
1993 - 7827

Considering OKC brings in almost as many fans for minor league hockey as some NBA teams will bring for games, I don't see how you could possibly argue OKC couldn't support an NBA team full time.

I'm not necessarily agruing that OKC could not support a team full time, just merely expressing concerns that relocation in the NBA have been targeting smaller market towns, some of which have no other major pro team. It is not a given that just because they are the only big show in town that they will sell out like when the Hornets were OKC/NO, especially when they are in the inevitable cyclical downturn in the life of a sports franchise. When the luxury tax is the NBA version of revenue sharing to help create some financial parity, bringing in more small market teams is not the direction in which the league should be looking to move, IMHO.

Again, no offense to OKC. This is not a "OKC is a pissant town that doesn't deserve a team" rant. The only thing I hate about the entire state of OK is the Sooners, and I think we are in agreement over that one. Heck, if SA was not winning championships right now, they would be a no-news small market team being a drain on the league. Now have three of those same small market one-sport town in the same geographic area along with a small market 2-team town in NO, and the fan base has shrunk for the league. Maybe not the people who are going to the games (if their team is putting a good product on the table), but the TV and merchandising markets have definitely shrunk. That impacts the bottom line in this business, and it is a business.

The personal side of me is happy that they are going to OKC, but the business side of me wants them to stay in Seattle. Who knows, maybe it will follow the Sac-town model and be a huge success. Let's hope it's doesn't follow the Charlotte model.

[MajorMike]

I think it would be very hard to compare to any other market. 1st off, it is very much like San Antonio. No major college in town, no other pro sport in town. Considered a small market. The 2 main diffs are OKC (500k) is about half the size of SA, but SA has 2 major metro areas with competing markets within 4 hours drive. OKC doesn't have that compe ion. Dallas to SA to Houston almost exactly equates to KC to OKC to Dallas, however KC has no basketball. The next closest NBA team to OKC is actually Houston. Memphis is almost 500 miles away. There are no NBA teams to the north until you get to Denver. The same way people in OKC or KC or Omaha become NBA fans of some other geo-unlocated team, who is to say that kids in Tulsa (400K) and Wichita (350K) and Omaha (350k) and Lincoln (250k) and Topeka (200k) and KC (650k) and Albuquerque (500k) couldn't become fans? None of those areas have anyone close to them, either.

To say the OKC area peeps are Mavs fans is pretty incorrect. Most of the OKC residents have never been Mavs fans, they are historically either Rockets or Lakers fans. The franchise has to be good for more than just a few years to grow fans in adjacent areas, and the Mavs simply haven't been. When I grew up, 80-90s, most kids were big Lakers fans and then some became Rockets fans when they were going to the Finals in that period. I myself was a big Larry Legend fan. The Mavs never farted above a whisper until just recently.