The PI has a great article up now about "The Day Seattle got the Supersonics," including a link to the original Dec. 1966 story in the newspaper that broke the news (for PDF version, click here).
Of particular note is the purchase price that the story's author, John Owen ... well I'll let Mr. Owen explain:
It is estimated that the next franchises will cost $1,800,000 each and the new owners will have paid out $3 million in all by the time they are able to put a team on the floor.
In case you're wondering, $3 million 1967 dollars is roughly equivalent to $20,000,000 in 2010 dollars, or about $280,000,000 less than what the New Orleans Hornets could be expected to fetch.
Wednesday, December 22
Tuesday, December 21
Tuesday, December 14
Save Our Hornets
No matter what your stance on the Seattle/New Orleans/Hornets tug of war, you gotta admit, this is kind of creepy.
Monday, December 13
Movers
Note that of the 10 teams shown, only the Charlotte Hornets qualified for the playoffs, losing in the second round. As it stands, the New Orleans Hornets will be the best team to relocate in the past 40 years (if, of course, they continue their current pace and if, of course, they wind up moving). The 1968 St. Louis Hawks, who lost in the Western Division Semifinals to San Francisco, won 56 games before moving to Atlanta, the best showing previous to New Orleans' success this year.
Friday, December 10
Mariners and Hornets
I suppose there may have been a more avid fan of the Seattle Mariners in the early to mid 1980s than me; I never met him, but it is entirely possible he existed.
It is unlikely, though, that this phantom fan exceeded my fandom by a large degree because I was flat-out devoted to the Mariners. Listen to the games on KVI? Check. Watch the road games on KSTW? Oh, yeah. Phil Bradley glove? Definitely. Read the box scores in and clip out articles from the Seattle Times? You better believe it. Read week-old reports in The Sporting News? Well, of course!
If you were a fan like me, you no doubt recall that at the conclusion of each broadcast either Dave Niehaus or Rick Rizzs would do a wrap-up called “Mariner Log” (it was usually Rizzs; I can only presume Niehaus pulled rank so that he could beat the traffic home). For those unfamiliar, Mariner Log was a 2- to 3-minute spiel with the highlights from that day’s game.
Um, I recorded Mariner Log.
Well, not every game. Only the wins. Because, you know, recording the losses would be obsessive.
I think that establishes my bona fides as a devoted Mariner fan circa 1985. At the time, the Mariners were about as popular in Seattle then as David Stern is now, so you can imagine the mocking I got from Seahawk fans. Seattle, they told me, was a football town, and would always be a football town.
And for 10 more years they were right. Then Griffey, Edgar, Randy, Bone, and 1995 happened, and that certainty went up in smoke.
-----
I bring this up because the 2010 New Orleans Hornets have more than a little in common with the 1985 Seattle Mariners. Granted, success knocks on the Hornets’ door more often (the Mariners were, to be brutally honest, brutal), but the Hornets are clearly second-class citizens, maybe even third-class if you throw in LSU.
Like the Mariners, the Hornets are a second chance for New Orleans to prove they deserve a team. The Pilots left Seattle after a poor showing at the box office, much as the Jazz left New Orleans in the late 1970s for Salt Lake City.
Like the Mariners, the Hornets have an unsettled ownership and are mired in debt.
Like the Mariners, the Hornets are on the verge of moving.
And, like the Mariners, the Hornets are being lured by a handful of cities intent on hosting a team of their own.
And while you’ll hear plenty in the next few months about how abysmal the Hornets’ support is, to be perfectly honest, the Mariners’ was even worse.
Between 1983 and 1988 the Mariners finished either last or next to last in attendance in the American League every single year. Not coincidentally, the team finished no higher than fourth in that time frame.
Contrast that to New Orleans. In the past six full seasons spent in New Orleans, the Hornets have finished 19th, 28th, 30th, 26th, 19th, and 23rd in attendance. Were they the best-drawing team in the league? Not even close. But were they the worst? Not by a long shot.
---
Further, let us consider something else – the ongoing bilking of taxpayers by the NBA.
How much money has been spent on arenas which are no longer in use – arenas lavished upon and then rejected by the league? I’m not talking about arenas that clearly needed to be replaced due to age; I’m talking about buildings that were less than 30 years old and in fine condition, just lacking the excessive luxuries NBA teams now require.
When adjusted for inflation the amount is easily more than $1 billion, and if you add in the remodeling costs many of those arenas needed to placate NBA teams until a new building was completed, we’re approaching $2 billion.
Two billion dollars.
Again. Two. Billion. Dollars.
And for what? So that 10-15 years later, the team can extort yet another new arena?
I get it – arenas get old, times change, etc. etc. But we’re not talking about Boston Garden, or Chicago Stadium … heck, we’re not even talking about the Cow Palace. We’re talking about Amway Arena or Charlotte Coliseum … buildings that were less than 20 years old before they became “obsolete.”
What does this have to do with the Hornets and Seattle, you ask?
Everything.
You see, if the Hornets come to Seattle, it is entirely possible that the team will be in Bellevue, not Seattle, meaning that KeyArena will become even more of a white elephant, and that the 10-year-old New Orleans Arena and its $114 million price tag will be added to the list of NBA Arena Casualties.
Maybe that sort of thing doesn’t matter to you. Maybe you think that having an NBA team is worth it, that your enjoyment of basketball is so important that it’s worth wasting more than $2 billion of tax revenues.
Well, I don’t. Maybe I’m crazy, but when I read that Washington State is looking at a $1.1 billion deficit, and the drastic cuts in public services that accompany them, my first thought isn’t necessarily, “Hey, how about we spend some money on getting an NBA team?”
---
And so we come back to New Orleans. New Orleans “isn’t a basketball town,” our local imbecile columnist wrote two days ago, and that crap makes me angry beyond words, reminding me of all that same nonsense people said about the Mariners 20 years ago. Whether New Orleans is capable of supporting an NBA team is impossible to say, but how can anyone make any sort of judgment when the team has been there for less than 10 years? Or when its owner is the most reviled man in the NBA? How is that even close to being logical? If Seattle got a chance to prove that it loves baseball, why can’t New Orleans get that same chance? Wouldn’t it be better to allow the New Orleans market to develop with strong, local ownership, rallying around a transcendent point guard and an astute front office? Is it not possible that 10 years from now, New Orleans is the new San Antonio, with the added inherent craziness the locals would bring to any championship parade? What if the Saints falter in five years, stop selling out, and the Hornets seize control of the city’s heart? Wouldn't that be a better way to use the $114 million New Orleans spent on an arena 10 years ago?
What’s that, you say? It’ll never happen?
Right, because New Orleans is a football town.
Yeah, I’ve heard that one before.
It is unlikely, though, that this phantom fan exceeded my fandom by a large degree because I was flat-out devoted to the Mariners. Listen to the games on KVI? Check. Watch the road games on KSTW? Oh, yeah. Phil Bradley glove? Definitely. Read the box scores in and clip out articles from the Seattle Times? You better believe it. Read week-old reports in The Sporting News? Well, of course!
If you were a fan like me, you no doubt recall that at the conclusion of each broadcast either Dave Niehaus or Rick Rizzs would do a wrap-up called “Mariner Log” (it was usually Rizzs; I can only presume Niehaus pulled rank so that he could beat the traffic home). For those unfamiliar, Mariner Log was a 2- to 3-minute spiel with the highlights from that day’s game.
Um, I recorded Mariner Log.
Well, not every game. Only the wins. Because, you know, recording the losses would be obsessive.
I think that establishes my bona fides as a devoted Mariner fan circa 1985. At the time, the Mariners were about as popular in Seattle then as David Stern is now, so you can imagine the mocking I got from Seahawk fans. Seattle, they told me, was a football town, and would always be a football town.
And for 10 more years they were right. Then Griffey, Edgar, Randy, Bone, and 1995 happened, and that certainty went up in smoke.
-----
I bring this up because the 2010 New Orleans Hornets have more than a little in common with the 1985 Seattle Mariners. Granted, success knocks on the Hornets’ door more often (the Mariners were, to be brutally honest, brutal), but the Hornets are clearly second-class citizens, maybe even third-class if you throw in LSU.
Like the Mariners, the Hornets are a second chance for New Orleans to prove they deserve a team. The Pilots left Seattle after a poor showing at the box office, much as the Jazz left New Orleans in the late 1970s for Salt Lake City.
Like the Mariners, the Hornets have an unsettled ownership and are mired in debt.
Like the Mariners, the Hornets are on the verge of moving.
And, like the Mariners, the Hornets are being lured by a handful of cities intent on hosting a team of their own.
And while you’ll hear plenty in the next few months about how abysmal the Hornets’ support is, to be perfectly honest, the Mariners’ was even worse.
Between 1983 and 1988 the Mariners finished either last or next to last in attendance in the American League every single year. Not coincidentally, the team finished no higher than fourth in that time frame.
Contrast that to New Orleans. In the past six full seasons spent in New Orleans, the Hornets have finished 19th, 28th, 30th, 26th, 19th, and 23rd in attendance. Were they the best-drawing team in the league? Not even close. But were they the worst? Not by a long shot.
---
Further, let us consider something else – the ongoing bilking of taxpayers by the NBA.
How much money has been spent on arenas which are no longer in use – arenas lavished upon and then rejected by the league? I’m not talking about arenas that clearly needed to be replaced due to age; I’m talking about buildings that were less than 30 years old and in fine condition, just lacking the excessive luxuries NBA teams now require.
When adjusted for inflation the amount is easily more than $1 billion, and if you add in the remodeling costs many of those arenas needed to placate NBA teams until a new building was completed, we’re approaching $2 billion.
Two billion dollars.
Again. Two. Billion. Dollars.
And for what? So that 10-15 years later, the team can extort yet another new arena?
I get it – arenas get old, times change, etc. etc. But we’re not talking about Boston Garden, or Chicago Stadium … heck, we’re not even talking about the Cow Palace. We’re talking about Amway Arena or Charlotte Coliseum … buildings that were less than 20 years old before they became “obsolete.”
What does this have to do with the Hornets and Seattle, you ask?
Everything.
You see, if the Hornets come to Seattle, it is entirely possible that the team will be in Bellevue, not Seattle, meaning that KeyArena will become even more of a white elephant, and that the 10-year-old New Orleans Arena and its $114 million price tag will be added to the list of NBA Arena Casualties.
Maybe that sort of thing doesn’t matter to you. Maybe you think that having an NBA team is worth it, that your enjoyment of basketball is so important that it’s worth wasting more than $2 billion of tax revenues.
Well, I don’t. Maybe I’m crazy, but when I read that Washington State is looking at a $1.1 billion deficit, and the drastic cuts in public services that accompany them, my first thought isn’t necessarily, “Hey, how about we spend some money on getting an NBA team?”
---
And so we come back to New Orleans. New Orleans “isn’t a basketball town,” our local imbecile columnist wrote two days ago, and that crap makes me angry beyond words, reminding me of all that same nonsense people said about the Mariners 20 years ago. Whether New Orleans is capable of supporting an NBA team is impossible to say, but how can anyone make any sort of judgment when the team has been there for less than 10 years? Or when its owner is the most reviled man in the NBA? How is that even close to being logical? If Seattle got a chance to prove that it loves baseball, why can’t New Orleans get that same chance? Wouldn’t it be better to allow the New Orleans market to develop with strong, local ownership, rallying around a transcendent point guard and an astute front office? Is it not possible that 10 years from now, New Orleans is the new San Antonio, with the added inherent craziness the locals would bring to any championship parade? What if the Saints falter in five years, stop selling out, and the Hornets seize control of the city’s heart? Wouldn't that be a better way to use the $114 million New Orleans spent on an arena 10 years ago?
What’s that, you say? It’ll never happen?
Right, because New Orleans is a football town.
Yeah, I’ve heard that one before.
Thursday, December 9
Hypocrisy Hype
Whether this whole Seattle Super Hornets deal happens or not, one thing that won’t go away anytime soon are the folks shouting “HIPPO CRATEZ!” at Sonics fans anytime we pine for another city’s team. Given that the only way Seattle ever gets a new squad is via relocation and not expansion, those shouts are only going to get louder if and when some beleaguered franchise trucks itself up here.
Are those accusations on point? Are we any different from the Okies who came to our blogs in ‘08, drooling over our team and insulting our town? Are we hypocrites for wailing and crying in a valley of tears when our team was taken, but then circling like vultures two years later as soon as another team looks vulnerable?
...In a word: yes. Yes, we are being hypocrites. And after some soul-searching, I realized: I’m okay with that label, because it turns out I was a hypocrite before I lost my team anyway. Heck, in a very “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” kind of way, pretty much every sports fan is a hypocrite to some degree. And since I want back into their club, I gotta own up to it.
How do I figure? When the Hornets moved from Charlotte to New Orleans, did I declare a personal boycott of the league and its corporate partners? Mm, no. When the Grizzlies relocated to Memphis, did I write angry, profanity-laden emails to David Stern every day for 14 weeks? Nope. Or, bigger picture, how about when the Browns were taken from Cleveland, the Oilers from Houston, the Expos from Montreal and so on? Did I stand up and say anything, did I curse the leagues, did I turn my back on the sport in solidarity with their fanbases and never return?
No, I didn’t. And unless you lived in those towns, none of you a-holes did either. Like most people outside of those cities, I basically shrugged and said “Man, that sucks. Oh well, at least I still have my team. Now what channel is TNT again?”
Oh, but when it was my team? You bet I got fired up, posted on blogs, made posters, attended rallies. (Instantaneously I am reminded of the Tea Baggers who, all of a sudden, are scholars of the Constitution and the writings of Ayn Rand. Yes, I see the irony.) Yes, looking back, I shake my head at my naivete, thinking that the world would surely reward my loyalty and passion. Ha!
But then let’s look at it from the new cities’ perspectives. Did the folks in New Orleans and Memphis (and OKC) go, “No, we will not accept this team because you have wronged the good people of its original city! Be gone, interloper!” Did the fans in Baltimore say to Art Modell, “Mm, no thanks, we’re gonna wait until the Colts come to their senses and leave that no-good whore, Indianapolis.”
Look, if you are a sports fan devoted to “your” team, chances are, you got your team through some shady, long-forgotten deal that screwed over another town. And of course it sucked for that town and those folks hated you and cursed your ancestors, but only until they could turn around and screw over some other town. If this doesn’t apply to you, congratulations, you’re a Sheffield FC fan and what are you even doing here?
Basically, being a modern sports fan REQUIRES different degrees of hypocrisy. You get all sanctimonious and condemn college athletes for taking money from agents, but think it’s fine if the university makes millions showing his games on TV or selling his jersey at Champs. It’s awful if Barry Bonds breaks the home run record while juicing, but you wear five LIVESTRONG bracelets on each wrist because you love Lance Armstrong. It’s great when your city gets a franchise from some other town, but it’s terrible when your team gets jacked.
Admit it, and go on with your fandom. If you’d just own up to your double standards, you’d be no different from the boxing or NCAA football fan who acknowledges the corruption, condemns it, but holds their nose and goes on rooting. They’re doing okay, aren’t they?
So the question for the Sonics fan shouldn’t be, “Am I a hypocrite?” It should be, “To what degree am I a hypocrite, and can I live with that?” I know my colleague Pete’s answer.
Regardless of yours, please refrain from sharing any douchey, unsympathetic thoughts on Hornets, Kings or Grizzlies blogs and news stories. Hypocrisy is one thing, but assholery is never excusable. Let’s try to keep it classy, shall we? Thanks.
Sonics/Hornets: Attendance
The chart shown below displays the per-game attendance for the Seattle Sonics and the New Orleans Hornets for the last seven years they played at their respective homes. Note that the New Orleans data does not include the two seasons the team spent in Oklahoma City.
Information gathered from ESPN.
Information gathered from ESPN.
Monday, December 6
The Sonics and New Orleans
I could have written 1,000 words about this, but I'll just let Joe Gerrity's headline from Hornets 24/7 do the talking for me:
Sonics Fans Make Throw Up a Little Bit in My Mouth
In all honesty, though, listening to New Orleans expressing moral indignation is about as ridiculous as seeing Vlade Divac complaining about flopping, inasmuch as the Hornets were swiped from Charlotte a decade ago. Still, Gerrity's point is accurate, and he can be forgiven his outrage in that he's on the verge of entering the hell we all went through two years ago.
Which is precisely the point: Sonic fans went on ad nauseum (yours truly included) about how horrible and wrong it was for the NBA to orchestrate the kidnapping of their team ... tens of thousands of words written, rallies held, movies made, heck a federal trial was convened!
And now, two years later, they (and I do mean they, in this instance) are chomping at the bit to inflict the same pain upon another city's fan base that they had inflicted upon them. Gerrity's headline and accompaying story is the first of its type to emerge that I've seen, but it will certainly not be the last.
Because while it may be argued that it's perfectly fine for Seattle to steal the Hornets from New Orleans because New Orleans stole them from Charlotte to begin with, that is the sort of moral relativism I expect from scumbags like used car salesmen, politicians, or David Stern ... not from Sonic fans.
Sonics Fans Make Throw Up a Little Bit in My Mouth
In all honesty, though, listening to New Orleans expressing moral indignation is about as ridiculous as seeing Vlade Divac complaining about flopping, inasmuch as the Hornets were swiped from Charlotte a decade ago. Still, Gerrity's point is accurate, and he can be forgiven his outrage in that he's on the verge of entering the hell we all went through two years ago.
Which is precisely the point: Sonic fans went on ad nauseum (yours truly included) about how horrible and wrong it was for the NBA to orchestrate the kidnapping of their team ... tens of thousands of words written, rallies held, movies made, heck a federal trial was convened!
And now, two years later, they (and I do mean they, in this instance) are chomping at the bit to inflict the same pain upon another city's fan base that they had inflicted upon them. Gerrity's headline and accompaying story is the first of its type to emerge that I've seen, but it will certainly not be the last.
Because while it may be argued that it's perfectly fine for Seattle to steal the Hornets from New Orleans because New Orleans stole them from Charlotte to begin with, that is the sort of moral relativism I expect from scumbags like used car salesmen, politicians, or David Stern ... not from Sonic fans.
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