The NBA coming to OKC

NBA Now in OKC
Well, as anyone following the Sonics saga knows, Oklahoma City will be getting the "Franchise Formerly Known as the SuperSonics" in time for the 2008 season.

I am glad for my city, but I understand the pain and anger of basketball fans in the city of Seattle. I have always said that I wish we were getting the Los Angeles Clippers instead. Not only does LA already have an NBA franchise, I really don't care much for the city (what I've seen of it). On the other hand, Seattle is where 3 members of my family; my father, mother, and sister; live. I also consider it the most beautiful city in America that I have visited (even better than San Francisco).

However, I am happy for the city that has been my home for all but 9 years of my life. The NBA box score will now have "Oklahoma City" or OKC in the standings.

Welcome Seattlelites

Post Card from the Seattle World's Fair of 1962. Key Arena is in the foreground to the right.

I wrote about my blog on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer forum on the Sonics, and some from the Emerald City have been visiting.

When I was in the 4th grade and living in Kansas City, Missouri, Seattle hosted the World's Fair which gave the city the Space Needle. It was very exciting for all of us.

We had a family reunion in Seattle and had a meal together in the Space Needle restaraunt. The meal was a bit average and way over priced, but the view was magnificent.

Key Arena was also a result of the World's Fair. Now it's a part of the fight between Seattle and Oklahoma City over the relocation of the Sonics basketball team. What not many know, excepting those in Seattle, is that the reason the team name, "Super Sonics," was chosen because Boeing had been awarded a contract to built the SST, or Super Sonic Transport aircraft which was to be America's answer to the Anglo-French Concord.

The contract was later cancelled. So this town too has had its (pun alert!) ups and downs. We will see how this latest sports opera plays out.

OKC V. Seattle

Oklahoma City V.
Seattle

The way our city and the city of Seattle look at the Sonic situation interests me. The latest twist in this "Sports Opera" is that Howard Shultz, the former owner of the Sonics and founder of Starbuck Coffee (sic), has followed through on his promised lawsuit to void the sale of the team to the Professional Basketball Corporation headed by Clay Bennett. The headline in The Oklahoman, the newspaper in OKC, reads "Ex-Sonics owners follow through on lawsuit threat".

In The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the headline is "Bennett knew he could "flip" team. The story discusses how e-mails discovered through Shultz lawsuit allegedly indicate that Bennett was not interested in owning a team in Seattle, and that had the move to OKC not worked out, his group would have sold the team to another group of owners and used the proceeds to buy a team he could have moved.

Both articles carry the same facts, but from the outset, our paper emphasizes the "ex-owner" who is making a threat while the Seattle paper focus on Bennett personally and his motives for owning the Sonics.

It's a well known ploy in politics that if you can make your opponent the issue, you have gained a major upper hand in your fight. Looks as though both papers are doing their part in the battle.

"Stealing" the Sonics?

Will They Be Moving?

In my previous post endorsing the extension of the sales tax to do improvements to the Ford Center, I deliberately left out my thoughts on the prospect of moving the Seattle Supersonics to Oklahoma City. This is even more problematic than voting to fund an NBA team in the first place.

First, let me say that I really, really like the city of Seattle. Forget the fact that part of my family lives there. Seattle, for me, is the most beautiful city in America. I love the region's politics. If I could live anywhere else in America, I would probably choose to live there.

Second, like most of my fellow citizens, if we get a team from another city, I wish it would the Hornets. We all fell in love with Chris Paul. New Orleans doesn't seem to be able to support the team, and didn't really do so before Katrina. That's not likely to happen for a variety of reasons though.

So how do I feel about taking a franchise away from its original home, away from a city that has supported it for over 40 years because it's home arena has been deemed inadequate? I feel about it probably the same way someone might have felt about Los Angeles stealing the Brooklyn Dodgers: bad for them, good for us. If Oklahoma City is ever to get a major league franchise, then we will certainly get it at the expense of another city. The NBA, NHL, MLB or anyone this side of Arena Football will not expand their league just to get at the coveted Southern Plains market. The US market is pretty much at the saturation point, and if any new teams are created, they are going to be placed outside the US. This is particularly true of the NBA which openly covets an opportunity to establish itself in South America, Europe and Asia.

Prior to Katrina, Oklahoma City had already been turned down by the NBA and the NHL. We became a player in the NBA because we had prepared ourselves for the opportunity which is the best definition of luck I know. [Senaca's Definition of Luck] Baring any new change of events in the present situation, I feel that Oklahoma City will probably get the Sonics. For us, this will be the culmination of a long time of planning, work and patience. For Seattle and others, we are mere opportunists, but that only looks at one side of the formula.

However, when I go to visit Seattle, I probably will tell anyone who asks that I live in The Village.