This past Sunday, a great era in sports may have come to an unfair close, while yet another example of the utter greed of professional sports reared its ugly head.
Two nights ago, the Seattle SuperSonics possibly played their last home game, a stunning 99-95 win over the Dallas Mavericks, after 41 years in the city.
And the entire sports community ““ players, coaches and fans ““ is worse off because of it.
That is because fan loyalty and the belief that sports are played for the love of the game has been unjustly destroyed by multi-millionaire owners with secret and personal agendas who do not care for the fans who pay for season tickets, buy team merchandise and watch the games on TV.
Simply put, this incident with the Seattle Sonics has revealed a disturbing fact about the state of professional sports: The fans don’t matter. The only thing that matters is money, no matter what actions ““ lying, backstabbing, etc. ““ it takes to make that extra buck.
In case you are unaware of the travesty occurring in Seattle with the Sonics, it is a snowball of greed and exploitation that keeps gaining ground.
Owner Clay Bennett wishes to buy out the final two years of the Sonics lease with the Key Arena and relocate the team to Oklahoma City. And as recent reports indicate, Bennett ““ who is from Oklahoma City ““ has made every indication of making the move a reality.
Bennett and his group of Oklahoma City business partners ““ Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward ““ bought the team in 2006 from a local Seattle group comprised of former Sonics president Wally Walker and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
Upon buying the team, Bennett gave a “good faith” oath that he would do everything in his power to keep the team in Seattle. Walker reportedly voted against selling the team to Bennett and his partners.
But the events that have transpired since they bought the franchise have run directly counter to that “good faith.”
There are hard facts that show there was never an intent made by Bennett and his associates to keep the Sonics in Seattle.
Last week, e-mails between Bennett and his partners surfaced that revealed the ultimate desire of the owners to move the team to Oklahoma City by the start of the 2008-2009 season. The e-mails, composed on April 17, 2007 (before the financial plans for a new arena in Seattle were finalized), clearly state the intentions of Bennett to move the team.
In one of the e-mails, Ward asks Bennett, “Is there any way to move here (Oklahoma City) for next season or are we doomed to have another lame duck season in Seattle?”
Bennett responds, “I am a man possessed! Will do everything we can. Thanks for hanging with me boys, the game is getting started!”
And the icing on the cake comes with Ward’s enthusiastic response: “That’s the spirit!! I am willing to help any way I can to watch ball here (in Oklahoma City) next year.”
McClendon got in on the action too, and was quoted in an Oklahoma publication in August 2007 as saying, “We didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here.”
Finally, as if the e-mails and the quotes in publications weren’t enough, the total shame concerning the construction of a new arena in Seattle is just disheartening to see.
Bennett wanted a new arena for the Sonics and wished to have it built in suburban Seattle for the hefty price tag of $500 million.
And how did Bennett propose to fund the construction of the arena?
Largely through public funds. Instead of funding it themselves or through corporate funds, Bennett and his partners wanted to tax the public of Seattle, while the three of them sat back and watched their pocketbooks expand. The Washington legislature thankfully turned them down.
Yet, being the cunning businessmen they were, they used this as evidence that the city did not want to keep the team, and Bennett sought ways to buy out of the lease. On June 16, a court will decide who is right.
The hard evidence should rightly incriminate Bennett, Ward and McClendon. It should be enough to show that the partners went against their word that they were committed to keeping the Sonics in Seattle and lied to the multitudes of fans that have followed the team from the heyday of the late ’70s and the mid-’90s, even to the low depths of a 19-62 season this year, the worst in franchise history.
Yet it seems to mean nothing. NBA Commissioner David Stern ““ a longtime friend of Bennett ““ sides with him, agreeing that they made a “good faith” effort to keep the team in Seattle.
Mr. Stern, one question: How can you state that Bennett made a “good faith” effort to keep the team in Seattle when you have read the reports about the e-mails, followed the story as it has developed and seen the fans in Seattle cry out to keep their team? Is it because you’re buddy-buddy with Bennett?
But then again, it seems like an easy task to trick Stern. The man doesn’t seem to care if he is being lied to.
On Aug. 17, 2007, months after the e-mails were sent, Bennett reportedly told Stern, “I would never breach your trust. As absolutely remarkable as it may seem, Aubrey and I have NEVER discussed moving the Sonics to Oklahoma City, nor have I discussed it with ANY other member of our ownership group. I have been passionately committed to our process in Seattle, and have worked my (tail) off.”
This statement is ridiculous. The e-mails from April prove there was correspondence between Bennett and his partners about a move to Oklahoma City. If bamboozling the commissioner of a professional sport in order to fulfill a personal agenda is this simple, then steroids might be the least of the sports world’s issues.
Stern’s legacy will be tied to how this situation plays out. In the middle of one of the greatest seasons the NBA has seen, Stern could be tainted forever by the simple fact that he has been swindled into allowing one of the greatest travesties in sports to occur.
Stern has said that it’s always difficult to see a city lose a team. Then do something about it, Mr. Stern. This should not stand to be.
The people of Seattle, who have been great supporters of their team and the NBA, have been deceived, lied to and are about to be stolen from, all of which was evident in that last home game.
Rookie Kevin Durant said he almost cried.
Former Sonic Gary Payton said it would be “a disaster” if the Sonics were to leave.
But former UCLA and current Sonic point guard Earl Watson may have put it best: “When I came into this arena today, my main thing was I looked at the young kids that won’t understand if you explain it to them. And for me, it was the ushers that have been here forever. What do they do?”
Good question.
With reports from Bruin wire services. E-mail Howard at ahoward@media.ucla.edu.