When the Sonics moved to OKC did all the OKC papers write about what a failure they'd be? How about the Hornets to NO or Grizz to Memphis? I guarantee there are cities right now that have arenas that would love the Kings and wouldn't have 75% or more of the journalists writing about what a lousy move that would be. The Maloofs really should think long and hard about this.
He lost me with these two comments:
"There will be some who buy season tickets just for the two Lakers visits per season."
"This basketball team will severely test our boredom threshold."
He's right. Tickets are really in demand for the extra home games they'll get. YOu can bet Jack Nicholson will want to be courtside rooting for his lakers. And LA gets bored with teams that don't A. have flashy players and B. teams that don't win.
Good article. Maybe it will discourage the Maloofs. In that sense it's the best news of the day.
All these articles and comments from the peanut gallery in the media, no matter how they think about the move, is all water under the bridge at this point. Where he got my attention was the:
"Sacramento will be the same city with or without pro basketball, just as Seattle is."
Umm...no...BIG PHAT NO! Seattle's loss of the Supersonics made a specific group of people upset, but they got over it because they have the Seahawks and Mariners, plus 2 major college sports programs(WSU and UW) to fall back on. We as Sacramentans have NADA! River Cats?? Nope, not gonna do it!! The freaking Mountain Lions?? BIG Nope!! C'mon, these fish hacks need to REALLY look at what they're writing to get their facts straight before they run off at the mouth with comments like these.
What I hate to say except I have been kind of saying it since last November when I returned to posting: Sacramento can't support a team. I'm not sure a new arena will make a big difference to the Kings. I think it would be great for the city but the city seems to think Kings/arena all as one entity. The major plus to the Kings about a new arena is that in the history of the NBA, every time a team gets a new arena, ticket prices jump quite a bit. That's a temporary fix.
This is the city that already lost a professinal basketball team that actually won a championship and it barely created a loud yawn. The Maloof owned Monarchs closed their doors. Now the Kings might leave. I think that a large part of the city will yawn. We are all upset. I'm upset but we aren't the voice of the city. I suspect a large part of this city simply doesn't care.
I think this is out of our hands unless there is some value in establishing who is to blame. That seems to be a huge topic on this forum. It won't sove any problem except it allows us to vent our anger at something.
I think there needs to be revenue sharing. The writing is on the wall for the whole NBA. If a move to LA actually works to the benefit of all three teams, more teams will be thinking of moving to larger markets. There are 12 million people in the LA area or so they claim. If that can support three teams then how many teams can the New York metropolitan area support? Four? How many can Chicago support? Two more. Three areas can support 1/3 of the league. I don't think that's what Stern had in mind.
David Stern wants to bring basketball to the world and all aroud the US but what might very well happen if the present plan goes forward is that basketball will contract and be located around large cities. The NBA could institute revenue sharing if they wished? Do they wish or will this pattern continue?