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Poor Durant. Having to go from such a great city of Seattle to that.
Blame Holt.
Associated Press
Updated: March 25, 2008, 9:05 PM ET
Comment
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Three NBA owners were impressed enough with a presentation Tuesday to believe Oklahoma City should be the future home for the Seattle SuperSonics.
To make his relocation request a reality, Sonics owner Clay Bennett now needs to win over at least 13 more of his peers.
After a tour of the Ford Center and a presentation from city and state officials, NBA commissioner David Stern said Tuesday a subcommittee of three NBA owners would suggest approval of the SuperSonics' move by the rest of the league.
"We made important progress today," Bennett said. "A lot more to be done, but a very important step. I think it was a very successful day and we look forward to the next step."
Gov. Brad Henry, Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops and numerous other representatives of the city, state and sports community came out to welcome Stern, New Jersey Nets owner Lewis Katz, Indiana Pacers owner Herb Simon and Los Angeles Lakers vice president Jeanie Buss as Oklahoma City brought out fancy cars and hard facts to woo its first major-league sports franchise.
"It was a pretty full presentation and pretty much a tour de force on behalf of Oklahoma that I'd say impressed the members of the committee greatly," Stern said.
While the relocation would mean a move to a much smaller market, Stern said he was encouraged by the amount of support from area leaders and fans, and the revenue potential the team would have in a downtown arena being remodeled with $121 million in public funds approved by voters earlier this month.
"I think Seattle is actually a terrific market. It just doesn't have an NBA-ready arena of the future that's been agreed to by all parties for many years," Stern said. "It's a very strong market that has in fact supported NBA basketball well over the years. When you come to a place like Oklahoma, you look for the single-team market as opposed to, for example, a market that has three or more professional sports leagues in it."
Katz said he was impressed that 62 percent of city voters favored taxing themselves to fund the Ford Center improvements and by the coalition of support among leadership including representatives of Tulsa that the NBA considered a part of Oklahoma City's broader market.
"This is wonderful for the league, wonderful for basketball, a strong wonderful ownership group that you have out here that can lead this thing," Katz said.
"My hope is that we'll find a settlement with Seattle that will give them the opportunity to have a replacement team. Seattle should have an NBA team, and I think David expressed that in the meetings. We all feel that way. My guess is you haven't heard the end of the Seattle story."
Katz, Simon and Buss will meet with the remaining four members of the relocation committee -- San Antonio Spurs owner Peter Holt, Miami Heat managing general partner Micky Arison, Chris Cohan of the Golden State Warriors and Ed Snider of the Philadelphia 76ers -- likely by telephone and make a formal recommendation to the rest of the league's owners.
All 30 owners will vote on the SuperSonics' relocation request during an April 18 meeting, with a majority needed for approval. The Sonics also have a federal court case scheduled for June to determine whether they can break their lease with Seattle that runs through 2010.
On Tuesday morning, City Council members in Oklahoma City approved terms of a 15-year lease with the SuperSonics that would require the team to pay the city $1.6 million annually to use the Ford Center and another $409,000 per year to be able to resell the arena's naming rights.
Former Oklahoma state Rep. Wanda Jo Stapleton voiced concerns to the council that the lease leaves the city in position to pay for any cost overruns on the Ford Center renovations and the construction of an approximately $24 million practice facility funded by the sales tax extension.
"It's in black and white there that the city will pay for the cost overruns, and there could be tens of millions of dollars in cost overruns because they've given the team owners free rein to make any changes, whatever they want, during the entire construction period," Stapleton said. "It's just a blank check, that's all it is."
City Manager Jim Couch assured Stapleton that the lease would allow the city to make any cuts necessary to keep the project within its budget. Mayor Mick Cornett said it was the city's intent to keep the renovations within whatever funds are raised by the sales tax extension.
"We have a very good history of building stuff on time and being financially responsible," Cornett said. "I understand that this is going to take a very high level of scrutiny and we accept that and look forward to once again living up to what we said we would do."
Poor Durant. Having to go from such a great city of Seattle to that.
now, just to understand how stern works. you do know that he and clay have been very good friends for many years now.. right? imagine that.. another owner he has in his pocket now..
Does this mean the Spurs have a chance of signing Durant in 2011?
What if Seattle got a new franchise by 2011 (since they retain the Sonics' name and Stern says it's a great market) and then signed Durant?
Would that be the first time in history that a guy was drafted by a team, the original team moved, and then he signed with the "new" team with the same name as the one that drafted him? Only other place this could have occurred in sports is if a Baltimore Ravens player signed with Cleveland shortly after Art Modell took the team. I know Jamal Lewis signed with the Browns, but I didn't think he was drafted as a Brown.
Stern's already said that Seattle is NOT getting another team if they don't take care of the Sonics.
And you believe him?
I'd just demand a trade if I were him. No use playing in a POS city in the middle of nowhere.Poor Durant. Having to go from such a great city of Seattle to that.
The NBA will expand to LV and Europe before the Sonics get another team. They already know to get a team they are going to have to move a team there.
CaptMike needs to stop posting anywhere except the College Sports forum. Let's keep the stupidity locked in a single area.
Is little ronnie following me around, AGAIN? ronnie, your mom told you not to wander off too far, you can't take care of yourself and this unhealthy obsession you have with me is bordering on... gay.
I'm sorry I never responded to your private message:
11-30-2007, 08:44 AM Truce
Wow, I just took ronnie off ignore to see exactly how obsessed he is. Of his last few posts, about 30% were made directly after mine with some rude rebuttal or in direct reference.
Today, 08:13 AM
Yesterday, 01:56 PM
03-24-2008, 04:04 PM
03-24-2008, 03:55 PM
03-24-2008, 03:18 PM
03-24-2008, 02:55 PM
03-19-2008, 09:07 AM
03-17-2008, 02:42 PM
03-17-2008, 09:58 AM
03-16-2008, 04:41 PM
03-15-2008, 10:00 AM
03-15-2008, 09:56 AM
03-14-2008, 11:00 PM
03-14-2008, 01:35 PM
03-14-2008, 12:38 PM
03-14-2008, 12:37 PM
03-14-2008, 10:09 AM
03-14-2008, 08:11 AM
All that from a Suns fan on a Spurs board. He even followed me to the politics forum to try a lame jab there.
Seems like the shut-in, invalid type that can't go outside his house type. They tend to fixate.
Sorta sorry I turned off ignore, now I'm all creeped out.
I don't know, Stern has been talking about it for years now. I think Las Vegas and KC/StL and maybe Pitt, Balt and Montreal would be the next in line, but Stern def would like to go to Europe from everything I read.
I don't remember going to the Political forum, but I may have.
And yes, I am gay for you CowpokeMike.
I think 30% "rude or indirect" isn't a fair assessment, because most of them directly related to what you just posted. Otherwise, I wouldn't have written anything.
And I didn't even respond to your terrible Tyler Hatch joke.
captmike is a butthole pole surfing and needs to be reprimanded. Ron is just doing his job. no surprises here.
Captmike can stop posting his gay for Clay Bennett love. It's embarrassing and wastes bandwidth. For somebody who claims to be a Spurs fan and "doesn't care" about the NBA expanding to the land of cousin ers and Indian reservations on the north banks of the Red River, it seems Sonics to OKC-related posts are the only thing that will get him to show up in the NBA forum.
Ah, see, you lie so much you believe yourselves. I think Clay Bennett is a tool; however is it completely his fault he stepped into a situation where neither fans nor govt were willing to pony up to keep a team? No, even tho everyone seems to try and make it look so.
You, he's back on ignore again, but:
Today, 09:47 AM
Today, 09:46 AM
Today, 08:13 AM
Yesterday, 01:56 PM
03-24-2008, 04:04 PM
03-24-2008, 03:55 PM
03-24-2008, 03:18 PM
03-24-2008, 02:55 PM
03-19-2008, 09:07 AM
03-17-2008, 02:42 PM
03-17-2008, 09:58 AM
03-16-2008, 04:41 PM
03-15-2008, 10:00 AM
03-15-2008, 09:56 AM
03-14-2008, 11:00 PM
03-14-2008, 01:35 PM
03-14-2008, 12:38 PM
03-14-2008, 12:37 PM
03-14-2008, 10:09 AM
03-14-2008, 08:11 AM
Poor Fin. Man, ya'll really need to do a little more research before you insert your foot. That's like the 5th time in your last handful of tries that you completely swing and miss.
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90381
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90399
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90316
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90316
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90343
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90343
and so on. Keep trying, tho, someday you will utter something rude and outlandish and someone might be able to find some iota of truth in it.
Ya'll just don't like to listen to me because I'm the Devil's Advocate and tell you how it really is, not how you wish or perceive it to be.
Last edited by MajorMike; 03-26-2008 at 11:09 AM.
The govt in Washington State couldn't bend over fast enough for Howard Schultz so he sold the team to a guy looking to move it rather than local investors. Schultz and Stern are the bigger villians here, but that doesn't let Bennett off the hook for being a complete nozzle. If he had just been upfront from the get go and said "Yeah, I'm taking the team to OKC just as soon as I can get out of the lease," instead of the dog and pony show he put on about "wanting to stay," it would bea tiny bit easier to respect him.
Again, they're still paying for renovations on Key Arena that took place 12 years ago. You'll change your tune if the Spurs demand $500 million in upgrades to the SBC Center five years after it opens while taxpayers are still paying off the original construction, and threaten to move if they don't get it. Get a ing grip. There's nothing unreasonable about Seattle's position. It's like saying if they're not willing to get bent over and have a train run on them, then they must not want love and romance.
Except the AT&T Ceneter (not SBC anymore) isn't a rat infested hole. Key Arena wasn't opened in 95, it was opened in 67. It was refurbished for 74 mil, which did nothing other than to fix the leaky roof, redo the locker rooms and add some restaurants. In late 2004 proposals for expanding KeyArena to nearly twice its current size to accommodate new restaurants, shops, and a practice court (the cost is to be approximately $220 million) were debated and denied.
Again... facts, buddy, facts.
Neither is Key Arena. It just doesn't have the same # of luxury boxes as more modern facilities. It doesn't cost $500 million to rectify that situation, which is what Clay Bennett is asking.
Here's a fact: Bennett can legally move the team once the disposition of the lease has been resolved and the NBA's Board of Governors approve the move. When he bought the team from Schultz, language in the sale stipulated that he make a "good-faith effort" to keep the team in Seattle by working with the state and local government. We already know from McClendon's comments that they never intended to honor this provision and in fact set about a plan for alienating the host community in order to grease the way to move the team.Again... facts, buddy, facts
Is asking the govt there for $500 million to build a new arena, way more than the cost of building Safeco and Qwest, even adjusted for inflation, a reasonable request and making a good-faith effort to keep the team in Seattle?
You can certainly fault the govt there for dragging their heels and not doing everything that they could have with Schultz, and you can certainly argue that legally there are few obstacles left for Bennett to do what he wants. But one thing you can't say is that they don't care about their team or don't care if the Sonics stay simply because they won't meet Bennett's demands, which were designed to alienate the Seattle community and make it easier for him to move the team. If you walk into a Subway sandwich shop and they're selling a turkey sandwich for $30, does that mean you're not hungry and don't want to eat? If your cable company wants to charge you a $1000 a month for DVR, does that mean you don't like to watch tv? The government there deserves some measure of blame for the situation, but they are having their team stolen from them because they refuse to acquiese to rape. I find it hard to fault them for their response to Bennett, even at the cost of losing their team.
Your assessment of the situation is stupid, and your insults and dismissal of the Seattle community and their fanbase is way off-base and misinformed.
America, eatin' my lunch from a single bowl in my parents basement, where I'm livin'. Happy Birthday, I'm forty-three.
Don't want to waste those precious calories...chewin'. Jesus come move my jaw for me, help me get my sloppy food down my throat
Again, you distort the issue. You CANNOT lay all the blame on Bennett as you and all of Seattle is doing, which is my entire point. You want to make huge orations about why its all his fault; I am merely showing you the people are just as much or more at fault.
Anything else is simply, proven, historical, truthfully, and factually false.
Did you read my posts? I said Schultz and Stern are more at fault, and I also noted that the municipal govt deserves blame too. They didn't take the threats of losing their team seriously enough. Once they realized that the threat was real, they stepped up their efforts to keep the Sonics. At this point, you can say it's too little, too late, but I object to this idea that they don't care about the Sonics at all simply based on their response to Bennett, or they didn't care about the Sonics because they didn't move fast enough or click their heels hard enough for Schultz.
If the exact same situation played out in San Antonio, you wouldn't be so condesencing and dismissive as you are towards Seattle.
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