Chief
04-14-2008, 07:13 AM
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2004342765_soniced13.html
From the day Seattle owners sold the Seattle Sonics to Oklahoma businessmen, we should have known.
The new owners had little desire for serious business in faraway Seattle. The center of their world was, and remains, Oklahoma. The owners reveal a lot about their effort to make the team viable in Seattle in recently discovered e-mails loaded with duplicity.
Granted, some e-mails were written shortly after the Legislature refused to approve a plan for a publicly financed, $500 million arena. The owners had offered a vague pledge — more like a mumble — that they might contribute $100 million. Any community would turn this down. Mission impossible was a proposal they knew few lawmakers would approve.
Gov. Christine Gregoire, a few state lawmakers and local government officials were still working on their behalf while the owners chirped among themselves, via e-mail, about moving the team to Oklahoma. Ethical business conduct be damned.
E-mails obtained by Seattle Times reporter Jim Brunner show co-owners Clay Bennett, Tom Ward and Aubrey McClendon talked about moving the team to Oklahoma amid an important one-year, good-faith period. This was a time when they promised previous owners and the National Basketball Association they would make a reasonable, "good faith" effort to keep the team in the Northwest.
"Is there any way to move here [Oklahoma City] for next season or are we doomed to have another lame-duck season in Seattle," wrote Ward on April 17, 2007. Bennett, the primary owner, replied: "I am a man possessed! Will do everything we can. Thanks for hanging with me boys, the game is getting started."
Disregard for the lease and hometown fans does not surprise. We have seen this act before in the 1990s with Major League Baseball.
The sad thing is, some local Sonics owners were willing to sell only because of the good-faith provision.
The e-mails are disturbing to anyone who believes in ethical business practices. These owners should have difficulty convincing anyone they were sincere about making the team successful in the Northwest.
**SCHNIPP**
I'm putting this up here as a placeholder, to see if the Seattle Times changes their tune when Paul Allen offers to move his Trailblazers to Seattle in exchange for that new Stadium...and Paul Allen will certainly offer up more than a measly $100 Million...
Bet me a burger that the Blazer's days in Stump-Town are numbered...
;)
From the day Seattle owners sold the Seattle Sonics to Oklahoma businessmen, we should have known.
The new owners had little desire for serious business in faraway Seattle. The center of their world was, and remains, Oklahoma. The owners reveal a lot about their effort to make the team viable in Seattle in recently discovered e-mails loaded with duplicity.
Granted, some e-mails were written shortly after the Legislature refused to approve a plan for a publicly financed, $500 million arena. The owners had offered a vague pledge — more like a mumble — that they might contribute $100 million. Any community would turn this down. Mission impossible was a proposal they knew few lawmakers would approve.
Gov. Christine Gregoire, a few state lawmakers and local government officials were still working on their behalf while the owners chirped among themselves, via e-mail, about moving the team to Oklahoma. Ethical business conduct be damned.
E-mails obtained by Seattle Times reporter Jim Brunner show co-owners Clay Bennett, Tom Ward and Aubrey McClendon talked about moving the team to Oklahoma amid an important one-year, good-faith period. This was a time when they promised previous owners and the National Basketball Association they would make a reasonable, "good faith" effort to keep the team in the Northwest.
"Is there any way to move here [Oklahoma City] for next season or are we doomed to have another lame-duck season in Seattle," wrote Ward on April 17, 2007. Bennett, the primary owner, replied: "I am a man possessed! Will do everything we can. Thanks for hanging with me boys, the game is getting started."
Disregard for the lease and hometown fans does not surprise. We have seen this act before in the 1990s with Major League Baseball.
The sad thing is, some local Sonics owners were willing to sell only because of the good-faith provision.
The e-mails are disturbing to anyone who believes in ethical business practices. These owners should have difficulty convincing anyone they were sincere about making the team successful in the Northwest.
**SCHNIPP**
I'm putting this up here as a placeholder, to see if the Seattle Times changes their tune when Paul Allen offers to move his Trailblazers to Seattle in exchange for that new Stadium...and Paul Allen will certainly offer up more than a measly $100 Million...
Bet me a burger that the Blazer's days in Stump-Town are numbered...
;)