Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, July 19, 2006
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/14279517p-15088129c.html
Beware, Sacramento. The moving vans could be pulling up to your house next. While city/county officials and the Maloofs maintained their private standoff Tuesday regarding a financing agreement on a new arena, Seattle SuperSonics owner Howard Schultz went before the public and basically sold out.
Schultz -- the dapper Mr. Coffee, Tea or Me of Starbucks fame -- sold the venerable 40-year-old franchise to a group of opportunistic businessmen from Oklahoma City, the smallest of all NBA markets. He sold because of his problematic lease agreement at Key-Arena, because the Sonics are the third professional act in town, because taxpayers are tapped out after assisting the Seahawks and the Mariners, and because franchise stability in professional sports has become increasingly less significant than ownership's liquidity.
The NBA is mapping its future sites in pencil instead of ink.
Sure, the new Sonics ownership group headed by Clay Bennett could reach an accord with the city of Seattle before the current lease agreement expires in 2010, securing the NBA's presence in the Pacific Northwest for another generation. But come on. Connect the dots.
Clay Bennett is an impassioned Oklahoman. David Stern is morally committed to returning the Hornets to New Orleans. Howard Schultz is getting out with a $350 million cashier's check.
Someone wins, someone loses.
In the most probable scenario -- sort of a future shuttle diplomacy -- the Hornets within the next few years will leave Oklahoma City and return to a home that was decimated by Hurricane Katrina, the Sonics relocate to the functional and vacant Ford Center in Oklahoma City, and officials in cities such as San Jose, Kansas City, Las Vegas and Anaheim -- to name a few -- continue to pursue franchises that are jeopardized by lagging attendance and/or arena issues.
Or perhaps the Hornets stay put and the Sonics time their exit to coincide with New Orleans' recovery a few years and many miles down the road?
Regardless, this is where Sacramento emerges as a potential player. Call it the timber-down effect. Seattle falls, and the wannabes go sniffing after the next victim.
There are only 30 teams and at least four markets besides Seattle with serious arena issues: In New Jersey, the Nets are determined to leave the obsolete and horribly located Continental Airlines Arena for Brooklyn. In Orlando and Milwaukee, cities with 18-year-old arenas that lack the amenities and revenue stream potential of the modern arenas that have become so common throughout the United States, discussions about new facilities are under way. And then there is Sacramento, where Arco Arena was built (1988) on the cheap and not designed to last, and, in fact, is in the worst physical condition of all of the above.
The threat of leaving is legitimate -- in Orlando, Seattle, Milwaukee, New Jersey -- and closest to home, the matter ultimately comes down to this: The Kings and Monarchs could leave, and the region would still need a modern sports/entertainment facility. And how much more costly is it to wait? And how much more difficult to lure a primary tenant? And where exactly is the contribution from the private sector going to come from?
Going, going, gone … ?
If it can happen in Seattle, where the city leaders and its citizens fatefully opted to renovate and rename rather than replace the old Coliseum in 1994 -- and one has to assume that the Sonics are preparing to skip town -- it can happen anywhere. Indeed, if developments progress as expected and the city does not respond favorably to Bennett's demand for a new arena agreement within 12 months, the NBA's long-term resistance to relocation will be shattered.
Not so long ago, during the 1980s and '90s, Stern stubbornly endorsed moves only for clubs suffering from chronic attendance woes and community apathy. (The New Orleans Hornets being the exception.) But, again, these days it's less about market size and population base than it is the building.
Consider that Oklahoma City has a population of approximately 1.1 million and ranks 45th among television markets. Consider, too, that Oklahoma City residents approved a temporary sales tax in 1993 for a $350 million downtown revitalization project that featured the Ford Center, includes a library, music hall and an entertainment district that took 10 years to complete.
Someone noticed. Stern noticed.
Sacramento is on the clock.
Reach Ailene Voisin at (916) 321-1208 or avoisin@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/voisin.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/14279517p-15088129c.html
Beware, Sacramento. The moving vans could be pulling up to your house next. While city/county officials and the Maloofs maintained their private standoff Tuesday regarding a financing agreement on a new arena, Seattle SuperSonics owner Howard Schultz went before the public and basically sold out.
Schultz -- the dapper Mr. Coffee, Tea or Me of Starbucks fame -- sold the venerable 40-year-old franchise to a group of opportunistic businessmen from Oklahoma City, the smallest of all NBA markets. He sold because of his problematic lease agreement at Key-Arena, because the Sonics are the third professional act in town, because taxpayers are tapped out after assisting the Seahawks and the Mariners, and because franchise stability in professional sports has become increasingly less significant than ownership's liquidity.
The NBA is mapping its future sites in pencil instead of ink.
Sure, the new Sonics ownership group headed by Clay Bennett could reach an accord with the city of Seattle before the current lease agreement expires in 2010, securing the NBA's presence in the Pacific Northwest for another generation. But come on. Connect the dots.
Clay Bennett is an impassioned Oklahoman. David Stern is morally committed to returning the Hornets to New Orleans. Howard Schultz is getting out with a $350 million cashier's check.
Someone wins, someone loses.
In the most probable scenario -- sort of a future shuttle diplomacy -- the Hornets within the next few years will leave Oklahoma City and return to a home that was decimated by Hurricane Katrina, the Sonics relocate to the functional and vacant Ford Center in Oklahoma City, and officials in cities such as San Jose, Kansas City, Las Vegas and Anaheim -- to name a few -- continue to pursue franchises that are jeopardized by lagging attendance and/or arena issues.
Or perhaps the Hornets stay put and the Sonics time their exit to coincide with New Orleans' recovery a few years and many miles down the road?
Regardless, this is where Sacramento emerges as a potential player. Call it the timber-down effect. Seattle falls, and the wannabes go sniffing after the next victim.
There are only 30 teams and at least four markets besides Seattle with serious arena issues: In New Jersey, the Nets are determined to leave the obsolete and horribly located Continental Airlines Arena for Brooklyn. In Orlando and Milwaukee, cities with 18-year-old arenas that lack the amenities and revenue stream potential of the modern arenas that have become so common throughout the United States, discussions about new facilities are under way. And then there is Sacramento, where Arco Arena was built (1988) on the cheap and not designed to last, and, in fact, is in the worst physical condition of all of the above.
The threat of leaving is legitimate -- in Orlando, Seattle, Milwaukee, New Jersey -- and closest to home, the matter ultimately comes down to this: The Kings and Monarchs could leave, and the region would still need a modern sports/entertainment facility. And how much more costly is it to wait? And how much more difficult to lure a primary tenant? And where exactly is the contribution from the private sector going to come from?
Going, going, gone … ?
If it can happen in Seattle, where the city leaders and its citizens fatefully opted to renovate and rename rather than replace the old Coliseum in 1994 -- and one has to assume that the Sonics are preparing to skip town -- it can happen anywhere. Indeed, if developments progress as expected and the city does not respond favorably to Bennett's demand for a new arena agreement within 12 months, the NBA's long-term resistance to relocation will be shattered.
Not so long ago, during the 1980s and '90s, Stern stubbornly endorsed moves only for clubs suffering from chronic attendance woes and community apathy. (The New Orleans Hornets being the exception.) But, again, these days it's less about market size and population base than it is the building.
Consider that Oklahoma City has a population of approximately 1.1 million and ranks 45th among television markets. Consider, too, that Oklahoma City residents approved a temporary sales tax in 1993 for a $350 million downtown revitalization project that featured the Ford Center, includes a library, music hall and an entertainment district that took 10 years to complete.
Someone noticed. Stern noticed.
Sacramento is on the clock.
Reach Ailene Voisin at (916) 321-1208 or avoisin@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/voisin.
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