Oklahoma City's mayor insists, the ballot measure is not "Sonics-specific," and that the city just wants an NBA team. But clearly, the vote is timed to send a message to NBA owners, who are about to consider the Sonics' potential move.
One thing I found interesting about this ballot measure in Oklahoma City. It's a one-cent increase in the sales tax (replacing an existing school improvement sales tax, so supporters are advertising that it's not a tax increase), and it only lasts 15 months. In that time, the city calculates it can raise $121 million dollars. Isn't that an interesting concept? In the Northwest, we tend to consider ballot measures that raise the sales tax by tenths of a percent, not a full percent, and our taxes last for years. OKC's mayor says, a penny may be a steeper tax, but in 15 months, voters feel it's short-term and then, the city pitches the next project. Just thought that was an interesting way to sell a tax.
Oklahoma City voters go to the polls on Tuesday. If they approve a sales tax hike to remodel their Ford Center, will that pave the way for the Sonics to relocate? OKC's mayor says, it's his city's opportunity to become a big-league city...
Robert,
Thank you so much for doing a story on this issue. It is time for all of the local media to put this issue front and center and in more detail and you are leading the way.
The show won't be aired for a couple days but our group wanted to be the first to thank you for helping show that the region does want to keep this valuable asset.
Robert,
Great idea to do this peice. I think it's important that the NBA knows that Seattle is a basketball town, and this is one more way of showing that. I know your peice is impartial, but just to get the debate going is a step in the right direction. Go Sonics!
DC
Dear Robert,
There has been so much confusion around the sale, the ownership, the NBA and the arena issue that clarification is welcome. As five year season ticket holders, we are quite concerned that the city may lose its franchise. How likely is it that the NBA will move another team here in future, if the city/region/state isn't able to acknowledge the benefit a team brings to it? I am very concerned that if the Sonics leave, the NBA may not consider Seattle for another franchise for quite some time. I understand there are several parties interested not only in purchasing the team from Mr. Bennett's group, but also in renovating the Key. Is there any hope that this might happen, or are the Sonics bound for Oklahoma?
CK
Thanks for doing this important story. As an 12-year season ticketholder, I have many memories attending games with my two sons. It would be a shame if they could not take their sons to Sonics games. Also, a pro sports franchise brings many intangible benefits to the greater-Seattle area.
I am disappointed in my elected representatives, and in Seattle city politicians in particular, for their sometimes hostile attitude towards pro sports teams. Ask local businesses how they feel about Qwest/Safeco field bringing 45,000/70,000 fans into downtown Seattle on game day...
We already blew our chance to work out a partnership with NASCAR (not a NASCAR fan - never watched any car race in my life); lets not screw this one up. This WILL take a contribution from the City/County/State to make it happen, but we will get that investment back and then some...
Excellent story Robert, thank you. Those of us at saveoursonics.org appreciate your help and hope that everyone will visit our site and sign up to join in the fight to keep the Sonics here. Sonics fans or not when someone tries to steal something from you it is important to fight to stop them.
It is very clear that Clay Bennett is not the honest man the Mayor of Oklahoma City thinks he is.
When he first came to Seattle he made promises that he would "honor the Key Arena Lease". This was before he knew that the lease does not have a buyout clause. He now is trying to break that lease going back on his word.
Second he agreed to put 12 months worth of "good faith" effort into getting an arena solution here. He has NEVER been willing to meet with the City of Seattle to discuss redoing the lease, upgrading Key Arena, or a new facility elsewhere in the city. Hardly a good faith effort there.
He then delayed engaging the state until it was too late to get a deal done, brought a deal that wasn’t fully developed, made a very limited effort to get it passed, and then completely stopped trying after the legislature asked him to come back this year with a fully developed plan.
Everyone wondered why until his business partner admitted that there was no intention to keep the team in Seattle. So Clay Bennett signed accepting the lease, then tried to break it, signed a good faith agreement and broke it, and then expects people to think he is a man of integrity. Sorry, that one doesn’t pass the smell test.
Steven Pyeatt was right. The NBA owners are not about to let one of the best NBA markets go without a team if we do what needs to be done to keep the Sonics here.
If the good people of this region band together we can stop this from happening.
Check out the show today:
The show airs at 9:30am on Channel 5 (or HD 5-1) and is replayed on KING and KONG several times on Sunday and also is shown on NWCN at 8pm.
Thanks Robert for keeping the Sonics issue on the forefront. We absolutely need to assure that our local political and business leadership is aware of not only how much support there is for the team here in Seattle, but also how big of an impact the team has on local businesses.
We also need to continue to fight the trend seen in the national media that "Seattle has given up" or that "Sonics fans don't care enough" to keep the team here. We all know these things are not true, yet we continue to hear them repeated over and over again in the national media.
I look forward to catching your segment today at 9:30AM on Channel 5.
Cheers,
Jeremy Ward
SonicsFansUnited@yahoo.com
Robert,
Thanks for dedicating part of your March 2nd broadcast to the story about the Sonic's imperiled stay in Seattle. I have literally "followed" the Sonics wherever I have lived watching games around the country whenever the Sonics played road games. When I was able to finally move back to the great Northwest I was dismayed to discover the 40 year tradition was threatened. I have two young sons who LOVE the Sonics and attending games. Please continue to cover and provide updates on your show of the MANY planned protests and citizen actions (such as the flying of a banner at the All Star Games). Thanks again for you and your team's coverage of both sides of this important Seattle tradition.
David Schulz
It was the sonics who were sucessful in keeping the NHL out of seattle. I find it amusing now that the sonics want to leave, all those sonic fans are in an uproar. Maybe after the sonics move to OC, the NHL will take another look. It would be nice, to not have to drive to vancouver to see something other than high school hockey. Enjoy your sunday!
Sure looks like George Schultz doesn't like our team, and right now he's more important than Howard Schultz.
Dear Robert,
Thanks for keeping this topic updated for us. Many people in this city are interested in the Sonic's fulfilling their civic obligations. While I am for keeping the sonics, I am completely disinterested in any more money coming out of my wallet for it. I cannot abide the disparity of the Seattle Public Schools struggles over less than $10 million in budget shortfalls while we are discussing much more massive expenditures of capital for 41 games per year.
I would love to see you put Mr. Starbucks Schultz under some scrutiny. I am appalled the way he treated all of us in this region. If he was interested in selling the sonics, he should have shouted it far and wide so our local civic leaders, whether they be politicians, business people or otherwise wealthy citizens, could have partnered up to try and resolve our own problems. I think it is very unbecoming of Howard and his ownership group to have dropped this all on us.
Now we find out that Mr. Sims and Mr. Nickels have helped organize and connect some local investors (Griffin et al) together for a NBA team to replace the Sonics should they leave.
I think Mr. Howard Schultz breached his civic duty to all of us and should be held to account. He should at least apologize for putting us in this position.
I think that those of you who want to keep the sonics should consider applauding the efforts our local political leaders are putting forth to protect us from the extortion like tax-tics that Clay Bennett would have for us.
Why is it that if the Key Arena lease worked out really well for the Sonics and not the city, we wouldn't be able to go back to them in the middle of the lease to ask for a higher lease rate. Instead, we would have to just grin and bear it. I don't think the rules should be any different for the few than for the many.
We gave them the arena THEY wanted and now they want us to fix their mistake. I don't think so.
Robert, thanks again for exploring the multi-faceted issues we face in this dilemma.
Its not a dilemma. The City and the taxpayers had yet another sports team put the build-us-a-facility-or- else-we-leave gun to our heads and most everyone who has to pay called B.S. on it. Too bad though that a tradition like the SuperSonics has to end it like this. And yes, its over. This is what pro sports and its owners have become. Call it a day folks. This marriage is all done.
Bub-bye Sonics. Oh, and Clay...there's still a small bar tab that you need to take care of before you board that plane for the last time..You get the whole enchilada remember..
The fact that has gotten lost here is Lying Clay Bennett is just that, a liar. He has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars with his sham efforts to get an arena deal. Making absurd demands does not qualify as a "Good Faith" effort.
He needs to be held accountable for his deceit and not only be forced to finish out the lease, but pay the City and State damages for wasting their time and lowering the City's revenue.
We need to make an example of Lying Clay Bennett .
What amazes me is how people with so little real understanding of this issue get so caught up in rhetoric and misinformation. Those that have a let the team leave, accept a buyout, or "none of my tax dollars for this" attitude don't realize what is realy happening.
If the Sonics leave Key Arena would still require major investment by the city and it is likely that Seattle Center would go bankrupt without the influx of revenue associated with the NBA. This investment would be made no matter what the next use would be or even if they decided to tear down the building. So why make that investment and lose the NBA when you can make that investment and keep the NBA.
Replacing the NBA with an NHL team doesn't work. A whole new facility would have to be built because Key Arena was not built to support the NHL. The NHL doesn't bring in the revenue that the NBA does either. However if you build a facility that supports both you spend a little more but almost double the influx of revenue coming into the city.
In OKCity they pay for this with sales taxes on everything, including food, while here we pay for it with targeted taxes so that the tourist industry pays the lions share of the cost. That means that we get the benifits of having a team here with very little of the cost born by city taxpayers. If people would give up the rhetoric and look at the big picture we might actually get a win-win situation here. If we keep proving we are not smart enough to figure out the big picture then we could lose our team and that would cost us far more.
What Clay Bennett is doing is wrong in every way. It is wrong from a business standpoint, it is wrong from a legal standpoint, and it is wrong from a moral standpoint. What matters though is that we don't let this rustler steal our team.
This is not over. It is not over until the Fat Okie Sings and when he does it is going to be "Hit the Road Jack" not the musical "Oklahoma".
No, the Sonics are not "our" team. Its a BUSINESS. Their business. They belong to no one except the front office person who wrote the last check. Just where do people get off expecting other people to dig down deep and build gawddamn sports palaces for those precious few that use it??
I would rather see the Seattle Center with a 650 million dollar makeover than a Key Arena re-rebuilt. At least it would be a universal go-to place for everyone rather than a building to take care of the sports junkies.. It will never be enough. They'll always want just a little more and a little more and a little more. One city gets luxury boxes, another city thinks its a great idea and has to have it too. Then 10 years goes by and we start hearing about how it's all now in disrepair, falling down and out of date so we need to open discussions about a brand new whiz bang place that "meets the team and the community's standards" (gag). If the taxpayers hedge even a little then out comes the gun with the "threaten to leave" bullets in the chamber ready to fire. Its is NOT a win-win situation and by the way, morals have nothing to do with anything here. Its all business and nothing but business. Period. Clay is a snake and he and his group pulled it off. Okee Dokee?? By the way..HOCKEY? Hockey would go over in this area about as well as the NFL does in Japan. The last great Hockey team in Seattle was the Totems. And it wasnt even about Hockey back then. It was about watching them have full-on bench clearing call-the-cops fights with the Portland Buckaroos. And they didn't have luxury box seats either. Just bad 2% beer.
It IS really simple. Sonics are a private business. They do not "give" money back to the community or anyone else. The owners and players enjoy the profits, not the city or its citizens. They are no more entitled to my tax money than is Safeway, Home Depot or Mom & Pop at the corner store. Either they succeed on their own or fail. Why is it that supply and demand is not the philosophy when it comes to pro sports? No public money for private enterprise. Period.
Bye bye Sonics. Been good to know you.
thanks for playing this important story
i hope that Oklahoma city loses the vote
for the sales tax to remodel the ford stadium
because it would support the sonics staying in seattle
we love this team
and they can do better
say no to the ford stadium sales tax
To claim the Sonics do not give back to the community is absurd.
Most of these players have their own foundations as well as support many charities in the region. Former players such as Detlef Schrempf and Lenny Wilkens raise and contribute millions of dollars.
Secondly there are over 3,000 jobs associated with having the team here. Most of them are family wage jobs or second incomes that help people make ends meet. To dismiss them because you don't understand the big picture tells these people you prefer they not be able to support their familes.
Next the city benifits greatly because the vast majority of those that attend the games come from outside the city limits. This means the money they spend in Seattle gives them an economic boost that they can't replace if the team leaves.
The spending of KeyArena patrons and businesses in 2005 created $353 million in business activity, 3,252 jobs, and $102 million in labor income in King County.
State and local governments receive $13.3 million in tax revenues as a result of the business activity at KeyArena.
Lastly we subsidize business on a regular basis in this state. $64 billion annually including $98 million in airline gas tax credits, offered to ensure that more airlines route their flights through Sea-Tac. From Boeing to Safeway, and yes, the local mom and pop grocery all get tax incentives. To think otherwise is just a bad case of denial.
If you want know the truth about these issues check out http://www.saveoursonics.org/Resources/Media/tabid/356/Default.aspx?PageContentID=32
where you can find details that prove this rhetoric wrong.
Thanks for airing this story. I don't expect the vote to fail in OKC but that doesn't mean the team will necessarily move. Holding them to the lease is most important. That will then give more time to find a solution to keep the Seattle Supersonics here (hint - it won't be with Clayton Bennett's group). Let's continue to support our team with all it's great history.
It's important you hear us...WE WANT THE SONICS TO STAY IN SEATTLE!
The local media has an opportunity and a responsibility to get the public involved. We the Seattle public feel very helpless. There are no local leaders, and the Sonics ownership wants desperately to sneak out of Seattle.
Thank you for publicizing this story, I hope you do not let up. Please know what we can do to help keep the Sonics here!
Thanks,
-Michael
I personally hope the Sonics do leave.
I personally hope you're right. To compare the sonics with a mom and pop grocery store or sea-tac airport is like comparing them to a mom and pop grocery store or sea-tac airport. One business serves a few, the other serves many. It cracks me up that there are actually some people in the government and business community that are still touting themselves as "fans". Its all about money. Nothing more. Seattle will survive. Fx McCrorys, the Hilton hotel,Pioneer square, Pike Place Market, Doc Maynards, The Space Needle, Olympia Pizza, EMP, The monorail (well, maybe not that one), and the KOMO, KING, KIRO sports departments will come out of it just fine. By the way, the local news media, in case you havent noticed is all-but-not covering the sonics anymore. They don't care much anymore because the majority of the public doesnt either. The sonic self destruction began with the exit of George C. Wally and company couldnt get him to wear a tie and it went from there. A runnaway train carrying a great team. Stop blaming yourselves Seattle. Its not about you.
Thanks Robert for airing the story!! We need to KEEP THE SONICS IN SEATTLE!!
From the beginning, the new ownership has been undermining the Sonics team in anyway possible to try and beat down the local fan base and decrease attendance. They traded all-star players under the "ruse" of rebuilding, they fired Lenny Wilkens, Jack Sikma and Detlef Schrempf distancing the current Sonics from part of our successful 40 year history.
I am hopeful the Sonics will be held to their 2010 lease to give us time to work for a successful arena in Seattle, so we can enjoy another 40 years!
First off I am from OKC. The issue we are voting on tomorrow is not for a new tax. It is to extend a tax that we are already paying. To clarify something else it is the Ford Center not Ford Stadium. We take pride in OUR downtown and the opportunities that it has given us. While the Hornets were here we set attendence records. We also have set attendence records with the OKC Redhawks (Texas Rangers Triple A affiliate), OKC Yarddogs (Arena Football), and hold many attendance records in the CHL (Central Hockey Leauge-averging a little over 8,000 fans a game- about 3,000 more than any team in the leauge) with the OKC Blazers. Besides the sporting events we have had a lot of high profile concerts- Cher (Farewell Tour twice), Elton John and Billy Joel, The Eagles, LinkinPark, Kenny Chesney, and many others. What people outside of OKC don't realize is that with this sales tax it will renovate the Ford Center even if we do not get the Sonics. Getting the Sonics or any NBA team for that matter would be wonderful. However, that is not the issue. The issue is wether we want to invest in OUR future to better our community and city now or wait until it is to late and costs more for renevations later. Feel free to take a look at the links I posted at what OUR tax dollars have done to make OKC a great place!!! http://www.myriadgardens.com/about.html, http://www.bricktownokc.org/p/8089/Default.aspx
Chris,
Good luck on the vote. Your comments sound like all the comments in Seattle about 10-15 years ago when Seattles Sports teams started threatning to walk unless we built the mansions they demanded. We were conned twice and left holding the tab for a stadium we blew up to a pile of dust a few years ago. We're still making payments on faciltys that doesn't exist anymore. Oklahoma City can make history today/tuesday, by changing professional sports and the way they put their hand out for tax dollars to help them along. Sure, maybe the Sonics arent the only item on the Ford Arena upgrade menu, but I'll guarentee you that if the Sonics somehow were not to leave Seattle (not likely by the way) the Ford upgrade would be limited to new light fixtures and a few new parking spaces, and not full blown luxery boxes, comfy seats and locker rooms that rival the bathrooms at an upscale marriot. Oklahoma City is a nice place. I just hope the people there dont fall into some of the traps and con jobs that we did....
I enjoy pro sports in Seattle, Im also tired of paying taxes for professional teams (private business) numerous times.... Enough is enough! If Sonics or any other team in Seattle need more money/Stadium/Arena, They need to anti up!!!!
How about instead of taking a random sample of 500 we poll the whole city, i guaruntee you there are more than 500 people who want the sonics to stay
I am really tired of supporting a bunch of millionaires running around chasing a stupid ball. If they want the sports teams to stay, then let the PLAYERS pay for it. Stop asking for my tax dollars to support a silly waste of time! Believe me, everyone will find something else to do when they are gone!
If the Sonic Owners feel they need to go to Oklahoma or TimBucktu for a new arena, then let them GO! Tornadoes might be a nice change of pace for our Seattle players. I agree with the previous comment. I too am Sick & Tired of supporting a bunch of millionaires chasing a stupid ball!!! If they want a new sports arena, then the owners can pay 100% for a new arena!! I still havent gotten over the fact that I am having to pay for the other two sports venues!
So my question is this: If the "Sonics" name came from the supersonic jet that was to be built here, does the name stay? I don't think it should be the Oklahoma Sonics. More like the Oklahoma Tornados......Bye bye sonics.
As the founder of a nonprofit in Tacoma I would like to think the professional sports teams and the players who have donated all their personal time to kids and the generous monetary donations they have made. We were lucky enough to have received the contributions from the 2007 Detlef Schrempf Golf Tournament and have been able to help 100's of children living in foster care though out Pierce County. Most tend to forget that government is not doing much for them (foster kids) either, but to us what these sports teams and players do for our local charities is PRICELESS!
GO SONICS!