Sac only fought hard when they had a gun to their head. The Maloofs have been trying to get an arena deal with that city for YEARS.
Hold the phone, grandma. Hansen has announced that he looks forward to hearing from the league regarding limited partnership with Maloofs.. Go to sonicsarena.com for the announcement. On phone and its hard to post on it.
Hmm if Hansen wants to still buy part of the Kings then they have to believe the Arena deal is horrible and will collapse letting them buy the Maloofs share next year or the year after and then try and move them again.
Two irons in the fire. Maybe arena collapses and Seattle gets the team. If not, Hansen gets his foot in the ownership door and looks to expansion or a failing team
It's still more than Seattle did to keep their team. I said it the other day, and I'll say it again. Right now, there are some "in the know" that feel Seattle is more valuable to the NBA without a team than with a team.
I don't know if it'll stay that way. Seattle's mayor is up for re election and he likely won't be back near as I can tell. Some candidates want the sonics back and some don't. Seattle is useful only if they're a threat to buy a team and that could die down pretty fast. People weren't to thrilled with the NBA decisions in the past and I'm guessing there will be more hatred now
Different set of facts between Seattle then and Sac now. To make it similar, let's say that Hansen pays $100million for that 20% ownership. Do you think the arena gets built if Hansen and the Maloofs use Bennett tactics?
Stern really is a dick. Starting it out with the "I need to go to OKC to see a playoff game" statement was lame.
Thought it was funny personally. He go involved in a lot of those negotiations and told them they may never get a team again. As they say..... Tough shit!
I don't follow how that applies. Makes no sense really. Seattle had someone come in and steal their team. They tried the same in Sacto. Guess I'm not following how its ultimately different.
In Seattle's case, Bennett came in saying the goal was to keep the team in Seattle but it was a lie from the start. He made ridiculous arena demands and was willing to contribute $0 to the arena and alienated people in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Hansen's mistake is that he was honest and admitted the relocation goal from the start. He should have pulled the Bennett maneuver and tanked the local situation before making public the intent to relocate. Take relocation out of the Hansen deal theatrics and imagine it only being a purchase by Hansen to supposedly keep the team in Sac. I'd bet good money the outcome today is different and that Hansen owns a team. Spend another 18 months making crazy arena demands and he's ready to get the moving trucks headed to Seattle. Also, how long as Sac needed a new arena? A very long time. In Seattle's case, Key Arena had been completed only 10 years before (and no, it was a simple refurbishment...it was a rebuild.) If anything, Sac was a much bigger laggard on the arena front.
I really don't get your attitude. As I've been watching it all unfold in Seattle, I can't tell you how many times I've thought "there but for the grace of God go I." Is it some sort of provincial thing that you like to see the rival city stuck in a bad place? You act like Seattle got what it somehow deserved. Maxim's got it right -- Portland could be in the same place in ten short years, possibly less. I wonder how you'll view it then. Any time you think Stern has said something funny, you may want to rethink it. Dude's an ass and I'd thought all Blazer fans were on board with that. Edit: apologies to maxiep, but when I said maxim up above, I meant maxiep. I'm not saying you're anything like maxim, maxiep. lol
Kind of an interesting approach, but one of the Seattle times columnists thinks Hansen should kick back and stop being used as a pawn to get other teams new arenas. Basically wait for expansion. I just don't think expansion makes sense from a talent standpoint...but maybe that's just because our bench sucked so badly last season. It seems like the driver is demand for teams and that doesn't seem like the right reason. http://seattletimes.com/html/jerrybrewer/2020993783_brewer16.html