Hoopster, could you take a look at this timeline and incorporate it into your reply to my previous post please?
Having read this, my relatively unbiased opinion is that while Clay Bennett may have been a bit sneaky, he did not drop to Maloofian levels. If the Seattle city leadership team had made some sort of gesture to assist the Sonics rather than "hoping something might happen" and trying to keep the status quo, then they would have had more leverage to cry foul. By doing nothing, they made it easier for Bennett to plead his case to the NBA to allow relocation. It is clear that the fans got reamed in all of this. I won't even say "they should have mobilized like Sacramento fans did" because that is not a fair statement; fans will do what they can and feel motivated to do.
Plus, your mayor Nickels SETTLED with Bennett! How the heck can you be angry with the NBA and with Bennett, but you aren't angry with the man who settled and sold out the Sonics? If KJ had settled with the Maloofs to release all obligations and let them roll out of town with the Kings, he'd never be able to set foot in Sacramento again. Why haven't you mentioned that in this thread thus far?
I'm going to copy and past the last part of that link with the author's comments, with the moderator's permission:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So what can a Sacramento Kings fan take from all of that?
The Citizens of Seattle who were actual Sonics fans rocked and showed unwavering support for their team, but it wasn't enough.
Schutz and Stern tried to get a state public subsidy for an amount MUCH less than had already been given by the state for MLB and NFL arenas. Had this been agreed to, or even negotiated on, the Sonics would still be in Seattle.
The City of Seattle never offered a new subsidy either, but they had put $74.5M previously into a renovation of Key Arena, even though the $7.4M a year for 10 years it worked out to for the renovation apparently was only able to keep the arena viable for 10 years.
Everyone in Seattle should have known from the beginning that Bennett's greatest desire was to have a team in OKC.
With that said, Bennett said from the beginning that he would only try to make things work in Seattle for 12 months and after that he would have to look at relocating.
Whether fans, media or public leaders felt Bennett's Renton arena plan was a valid plan or not, the truth of the matter is that NO alternative funding plan was ever consummated to counter Bennett's proposal, and in fact a new law was passed by a super majority of citizens stating they wished to make it even harder to publicly support professional sports arenas.
Bennett did wait over 12 months before trying to break the Key Arena lease in order to move the team.
There was no public support for subsidies nor city nor state leader support during the entire process.
Stern, from day one, made no bones about it that a subsidy would be necessary if the team were to remain in Seattle. To claim Stern somehow lied or misled about this is disingenuous. One may not agree that a new arena was actually necessary, but one can't say Stern didn't make himself clear on what the NBA's priority was on the subject.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Which leads us finally to what Sacramento did right.
As soon as the Maloofs made it clear that the team was actually for sale:
1)The Citizens of Sacramento who were actual Kings fans rocked and showed unwavering support for their team, but it wasn't enough.
2) Sacramento's Mayor made it clear he would do ANYTHING to keep the Kings in town.
3) The CA State legislature made it clear that they would support efforts to streamline keeping the Kings in town.
4) Sacramento City, encouraged by a strong grassroots presence, attracted multiple viable owners willing to pay substantial money to not only buy the team at a previously unheard of price to keep the team in town, but put $1 billion in total money into a combined arena plan and development around the arena and in the city.
5) Sacramento City agreed to provide a substantial public subsidy, not just a loan, to partner with the new ownership group.
In fact, not only did the mayor, citizens and City of Sacramento come up with all of this after the Maloofs indicated they were willing to sell, but they came up with a similar NBA approved plan BEFORE the Maloofs were willing to sell two years previously!
Where Seattle leaders believed they shouldn't have to do anything to keep their team, Sacramento leaders went above and beyond to meet every desire of the NBA.
And with the recent revelation by the Miami heat owner that keeping a team in their city is always the first desire of the NBA as long as the other needs are met, it is clear now why Sacramento, it appears, will keep their team while Seattle could not.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's that simple my brother. Remove the beam from your own eye, fix the problems in your own city, work with the league that will run whatever team comes there, and you shall get your hearts desire.
