I wondered that when I read an AP story (found on SI.com) quoting Stern, in regard to the Seattle arena situation, as saying:
"I think it's just going to work itself out and I hope it does."Contrast that to Bennett's comments at the Sam Presti press conference (or as they call it in Canada, 'presser'):
"So we’re without a process that I’m aware of relative to public participation in a building."Add this into the whole Las Vegas debacle, when Bennett was called out on national television by Stern, and it leads you to believe that the commish may be slowly coming to the side of Seattle, leaving Bennett even more alone than he was before.
8 comments:
If Bennett can't move to Las Vegas, I just don't see how he can earn more in the long run by moving the team to either KC or Oklahoma City. The only revenues you can really count on are the TV revenues because attendance and luxury box ownership will fluxulate far more with team performance. Given that, the potential TV revenues in Seattle are FAR greater than what are possible in either of those markets. I really believe that Bennett was banking on Las Vegas, and now that that's out of the picture, he's basically bluffing and hoping the city of Seattle will blink. I don't think he will move the team because this guy is a businessman who only cares about the bottom line and the bottom line is much better in Seattle than in any other prospective cuty.
I agree 100%. If seattle calls his bluff, he's screwed.
I wouldn't count too much on calling his bluff; as a businessman, Stern would allow a team to go to an inferior market with a bad stadium deal, just to preserve the threat of moving for the rest of the teams in the league. If the Sonics were to come crawling back the city, the other teams in the league would lose a lot of leverage when they tried to blackmail their cities.
He might allow them to go, but if the city is smart and refuses to let them out of the lease short of something like 1 billion dollars, then it will be worth it for him and Stern to pay. His bluff is trying to get the city to bail on the lease... we have him there.
I get more and more disgusted with Bennett each and every day. I live on the COMPLETE opposite side of the country, but I firmly believe that the Sonics should remain in Seattle. I hope that arena funding comes through for you guys, because the Kansas City Sonics are nothing I want to be a part of.
Bennett's doing his best to be PE#1
The NBA needs Seattle more than it needs Bennett. I think he's just finding that out, and it makes him pouty.
That's an interesting point about Stern needing to maintain the legitimacy of the threat to move. Thus he may allow a (relatively) short term loss with a Sonic's move a terrible market to preserve a long term gain by helping future franchises leverage the threat to move into better stadium deals. I agree that the league as a whole would certainly rather see that threat remain credible, however, the man who has to weigh the financial decision is Bennet, and from his perspective, unless there are millions of revenue sharing dollars that I am unaware of waiting for him, he will be far better off financially in Seattle, regardless of whether KC or OKC lay out the red carpet for him on an arena. The TV dollars are everything and those markets just won't cut it compared to Seattle.
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