REST IN PEACE SEATTLE SUPERSONICS (1967-2008)

By: Steve | July 9th, 2008

R.I.P. to the green and gold. Sold… for $75mn..

And where will that money go? To the children who had years of smiles and memories viciously torn from their tiny, frail hands? To the orphans who kept going because deep down knew they were one of Shawn Kemp’s illegitimate seeds? To the son of a father who took him to the 96′ finals only to see his team carved up by this one guy who I wish had never come out of retirement? To finance a new Sounders Stadium?

The Sonics are leaving behind a gaping hole in our city’s limited sports history. They take with them a championship banner and a 41 year legacy. The team was losing money fast so Howard Schultz, owner of Starbucks, sold both the Storm and the Sonics to a couple of carpet baggers from Oklahoma. Clay Bennett, along with support from his buddy David Stern gave Seattle an ultimatum, “Build a new arena or give up the team.”

This is the policy of the NBA, this is how the “NBA Cares.” Every 5-10 years, the league demands millions of taxpayers’ dollars to ensure each NBA franchise’s profitability. They ask us to give them money so they can make money… off of us, the fan. If the league is not granted these new arenas, they pick up and leave.

There is no faith, no honor and no loyalty from the league. Be careful, because your team could be next.

Supposedly, it is the fans fault. According to many so called experts, Seattlites are not interested or dedicated enough to sports. This is a ridiculous assumption and a result of East Coast bias. Ask anyone who was at the 96′ finals in the Key Arena if we are not true fans. Ask the people who still drag themselves to watch the practically minor-league Mariners on a daily basis. Check out a sold out Seahawks’ PRESEASON game for goodness sake.

The fact is, Seattlites are good sports fans, but we are also socially conscious and educated. We do not open our front door every time a professional sports franchise wants to go through our jewelery cabinet.

Seattle had just gone through a period of stadium building. $74.5mn was spent on reconstruction of the Key Arena in 1994. MLB execs and Mariners owners had told the city, “build a stadium of lose the franchise,” so we levied taxes %.05 to fund construction. Later, when the Seahawks threatened to leave, Qwest was built for $460mn, but with $160mn coming from Paul Allen’s pocket, which made the %.01 tax raise easier to stomach. Clay REDNECKPIECEOFSHIT Bennett demanded $300mn to build a new arena in Seattle or renovate the Key Arena for the second time in 15 years.

So allow me to correct the pundits of ESPN and other major sports networks who call our city apathetic to sports, who say we were not interested enough in the team to fight against the departure:

Clay Bennett had no intention of keeping the team in Seattle.

His proposal cited $300mn in public funding for the arena, but he did not offer a dime of his own cash. Meanwhile, the hick from the sticks is pouring his private funds in to upgrading the Ford Center in Oklahoma City for his stolen team’s arrival.

The Sounders are coming but can they fill the gap? Tens of thousands of fans will be left with no team to watch, but how many will focus their energy and enthusiasm on a soccer team? We still have the mighty Hawks, the broken Mariners and the Storm (who actually cares about the Storm?).

There is a lot of talk about how sports franchises help a city. Although it is not an exact science or a given, professional sports teams tend to generate a culture of community, revenues, jobs and publicity. With the Sonics gone, city government should look to the new Sounders as a way to stop-loss the damage done by the Sonic’s departure. City and Sounder officials alike must try and take advantage of the available “sports market share” left behind by the Sonics.

So, what can we learn from the Sonic’s departure? Well, obviously that we can no longer trust the NBA. The “NBA (doesn’t) Care” and they never will. This is the problem with sports in America in general. The teams are very rarely community-based. There is no sense that the fans are truly part of the organization. The owner acts based on what is good for the owner, and that often means the bottom line.

However, there are many exceptions in the world of soccer.

Many soccer teams began when communities and neighborhoods got together to form a team. The clubs have roots entrenched in the very cement where they first began to play. A team is not a franchise or an organization to make profit from, it is an essential fixture of the community. Like the Yankees or the Red Sox and several other limited exceptions in American sports, a football club is much more than just a dynamic and transferable product that can be moved from market to market.

This same concept of soccer in America is what US soccer fans deserve and what would be very much welcome in Seattle right now. So far, so good. We not only have the ability to fire or retain our GM every several years, but we were also given the right to choose our team name.

The USL Seattle Sounders are, then unbeknown to most, the second most historically significant team in Seattle. The Sounders were established 34 years ago in 1974, making them only slightly younger than the 41-year old Sonics (1967-2008). The fact that the fans voted to bring the team name to MLS is a sign that there is already a base, a sense of pride that we, as wounded Seattlites and Sonics fans, must make sure we build upon.

The stage is bigger, the marketing opportunities more abundant and the talent better. The Seattle Sounders FC have a chance to capture the city’s heart and claim itself a chunk of what the NBA lists as the 13th biggest sports market in the country.

Sure, basketball and soccer are not the same sport, but my hope is that the new franchise will help us forget the NBA, at least until the Seattle Super Grizzlies arrive in 2015.