debbieyd

I'm from Washington State and was just wondering if there are any fans of the Seattle SuperSonics and what their opinions are of the latest outbreak/shocking news! I hope they never leave Seattle!! It was televised yesterday that a Oklahoma businessman bought "our team"

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[font=Garamond]RainbowDreamer

Kio-Manche

We're gonna change their name to the Oklahoma Prairie Dogs. J/K!!!
My understanding is the attendance there has gone down year after year lately, and that the city Seattle isn't willing to help them out with arena improvements. If that is true, who can blame them?

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Kio-Manche
Oklahoma Proud!!!

Wakalapi

I haven't been following this as closely as some and the last report I saw on Yakima news was around Monday or maybe even last Thursday? Dunno. Anyhow, according to that news, the deal was the Sonics would stay in Seattle if they can get a better performance venue. The purchaser told the news that he respects their history with Seattle and did not make the purchase with the intent of moving them to OK. But he carefully worded his statement as not to make a "no-matter-what" promise they would stay.

The City of Seattle and King County just spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the last few years on new stadiums for the Mariners baseball team and the Seahawks football team. In fact the new baseball stadium was actually voted down by the population, thereby telling the M's "have a nice trip to wherever" because the taxpayers did NOT want to foot the bill. But political shenanigans led to the people's vote being overrode and the funding went through, anyway. The new football stadium was also called into question, financially, since it replaced the existing King Dome which first had to be blown up and torn down even though it was not even yet paid for!

I haven't really paid attention to the Sonics since the days of Jack Sikma and Gus Williams, when I was in about 3rd / 4th grade. If the team ends up in OK, I hope they enjoy their trip. But if they stay, I hope it isn't because politicians chose to waste more of our money for a few cheap frills.

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"Friends don't let friends drink decaf..."

Redstone

I agree with Wakalapi, let the Sonics go. It seems the Sonics did not want to deal fairly. The city and county spent millions of dollars a few years back renovating the Seattle Center without one dime from the Sonics. Their performance hasn't been that great, and now they want more renovations or a new stadium. The fact is the city has tried to negotiate a fair deal, with the city kicking in 200 million dollars and the Sonics around 50 million. Of course the Sonics manager didn't even respond. The other choice was the city would do 20 to 50 milllion in renovations, and got no response with that either. It seems the team wanted the city to kick all the money in, and then wanted the profits from the ticket sales as well. So when does it end. Why should a city support a business that cannot even support itself. You don't see any other businesses saying pay me to stay or I'll go. Frankly, I'm tired of my property taxes going up year after year to pay for their business so that the players and management can reap high salaries. Teams need to start giving back to the local community and not always sticking their hands out for a handout.