All The Blues That's Fit to Print
Posted Nov. 13, 2006 at 10:40 am by Mike SeelyI had dinner at Hattie's Hat last night with a sports broadcaster pal in town from St. Louis to watch the Rams' season end. He said that if I can find him a 24-hour driving range in Seattle, he'll drop everything and move here. I said if the Sonics end up relocating to St. Louis (this friend of mine seems to think David Stern will bend over backwards to give new St. Louis Blues owner/ex-Knicks GM Dave Checketts a franchise), I'll move back. Here's what the New York Times has to say about stuff like that (nice photo of Van Dyk in undertaker garb).
Topics: Sonics
Comments
The Seattle Times ran an article today which cited a "slumping economy" as a reason for the Sonics leaving.
What the f*ck are they talking about? Which is it "Poor Economy" or "Poor Economics"? Seems like bit of inflamatory journalism. The real story is again the years.. decades of a poorly managed Seattle Center, a poorly managed Sonics business and the fact that NBA basketball isn't the product it once was. None of these speak to a slumping economy...
On a seperate Supes note, I just want to reiterate from my previous post, the Sonics leaving is not about the Key Arena. It's about the benjamins. Here is a great article which puts that into perspective, where a USA today reporter went to every NBA venue. No surprise, the Key arena ranks near the top in Seats.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/2005-04-12-arenas-cover_x.htm
Which just reaffirms that this is an economics problem, not a physical plant problem. I've heard the knock the supes can't sell the luxury boxes which generate revenue for the same premium the hawks can at Qwest.
This again reaffirms this is an economics issue... If the Supes consitently win, year in and year out... toss in championship there. Demand for seats goes up and then the prices go up, then revenue, then profits. Without winning, NBA basketball is pretty boring and frustrating to watch — think TIn Vin or Big Ben.
In the end, I'd really like to see someone take the stance of defending the Key as a venue.
Posted Nov. 14, 2006 at 3:35 pm by Tom ChambersLooking at the USA Today article, Seattle doesn't rank near the top, but near the middle of the range in quality. But I do agree that the issue for the Sonics is economics. With the advent of new facilities for the Mariners and Seahawks, there aren't enough corporate dollars to go around for the Sonics to sell the premium seats and luxury boxes at the key. The spiraling salaries for NBA players also contributes to a dysfunctional pro-basketball economic model that forces owners to blackmail cities and states for more money to build bigger and better state of the art arenas.
I don't understand the logic of St. Louis getting the Sonics franchise? How does the Blues owner factor into the Sonics moving to St. Louis when the franchise is owned by Oklahoma businessmen who will take the franchise to OK City if they don't extort enough public money from our state for a new facility? It's more likely that Checketts will get the KIngs since they were recently turned down at the ballot box for new arena funding in Sacramento.
Posted Nov. 15, 2006 at 9:32 am by neo-realistI don't think the Supes will move to St. Louis either. It was just something my STL pal brought up as a darkhorse possibility. His point was Stern loves Checketts, and will bend over backwards to get a franchise to where he's at. If that happens, you've got a very legitimate question as to whether St. Louis can support four major sports franchises. My buddy says they can. I'm not so sure.
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