Wednesday Attendance Wrap-Up

Here's another resolution I could have thrown on the pile from the other day: Putting a weekly wrap-up of the league's attendance figures on the site.

In keeping with my previous goal of toning down the bitterness, I'll just present the numbers and let you interpret them how you will. First, a side-by-side comparison of last year's game-by-game numbers and this year's. In both graphs the pink indicates the 07-08 season, the blue is 08-09.

And, a look at the same numbers, but with the totals for Oklahoma City and New Orleans removed.

And, on a side note, a look at how the league's attendance played out as the season progressed. There was talk earlier in the year that the low attendance numbers were more indicative of the time of the year than they were of any problems in NBA popularity. There might be some validity to that argument.

Funding Getting Tight

The big story today – well, the big story after the Midwest-style snowstorms we’ve endured for the past two weeks – is Governor Christine Gregoire’s decision to parrot the budget cuts her opponent, Dino Rossi, advocated during the recent election.

Translation to Sonic supporters: No soup for you.

It’s not quite that dire, but when the liberal governor of a left-wing state calls for a quarter-million reduction in health care expenditures and skips pay raises for teachers, even an out-of-shape Danny Fortson could stretch to the conclusion that it will be extremely difficult to get any arena proposals through the legislature this session.

As Chris McGann quotes a Gregoire aide, “That November [economic] forecast kind of changed the game.” Which is to say, the governor was all for spending money on the stuff her constituents wanted, back when she felt she had the dough on hand.

Now that the state’s revenue forecast has dropped by nearly two billion bucks? Not so much.

In fact, it doesn’t take much of an analyst to see just how tough it’s going to be to get any money this year. The governor will tell you herself:

“The state must squeeze every ounce of value out of every taxpayer dollar while maintaining our priorities of protecting families and kids the best we can.”

The argument as to whether funding arenas pay for themselves or whether they are hopeless boondoggles that primarily benefit billionaires is for another day. The primary message you should get from these words is this: Opponents of any KeyArena proposal are going to have very easy sledding this coming year. When times are tough and budgets are being cut, even the most inept politician is savvy enough to realize that taking a stand against arenas and stadiums is an easy political win.

It would appear that the arena’s only hope is to be presented as a work project which would bring jobs in the short-term, and economic benefit in the long-term, which is what Brian Robinson at Save Our Sonics has been saying all along. Whether that message will gain traction in an icy legislative environment remains to be seen.

Tom Ward Joins the Parade

The Thundercats' ownership apparently shares the same broker, as Tom Ward has joined Aubrey McClendon in off-loading a boatload of shares of his company's stocks.

From the Associated Press:

"Tom Ward, the chief executive officer of SandRidge Energy Inc., has sold 8.9 million shares of his common stock in the company to Tulsa businessman George B. Kaiser. ... Kaiser bought the 8.9 million shares for $50 million, or $5.62 per share."

How bad of a deal was that for Mr. Ward? Well, consider this additional piece of information, from June 2008:

"President and CEO Tom Ward purchased 460,000 shares at $48.95 on May 19th/20th, which increased his already substantial holdings to nearly 36.95 million shares, or a 25.27% stake. ... His only other open-market purchase came in November 2007, when he took down 4.17 million shares at $26.00 in the company's initial public offering."

Let's look at those two purchases and sales:

1. 460,000 shares @ $48.95 a pop: $22.5 million
2. 4.17 million shares @ $26.00 a pop: $108.4 million
Total value: $130.9 million

And, after the sale yesterday:

1. 460,000 shares @ $5.62 a pop: $2.6 million
2. 4.17 million shares @ $5.62 a pop: $23.4 million
Total return: $26 million

I'm no math wizard, but that's a $104.9 million loss Tom Ward just took yesterday, not to mention the fact he just gave up a heckuva lot of control in his own company.

Geez, I can't imagine why Ward would be needing a wack of cash ....