Don't catch feelings now. Having family in and around the Toronto and Montreal area, it's safe to say that no city, nay, country has stayed more loyal than Raptor fans. They started from scratch only to get screwed over by their superstars, whether its faking injuries, wives bitching about the city, or simply giving up on their team, I find it hard to believe there's even a Canadian basketball team. And if you still won't buy in, the whole country supports that team, not just one province. And I'm too lazy to talk about the Jazz.
The Blazers were last in attendance at one point. Sometimes you just can't force yourself to the arena.
Well, then the Blazers weren't the most rabid fanbase those years. Just like Sacramento isn't the most rabid fanbase these days.
First off, I'm most certainly a prick! Secondly, and in all fairness, I did use the obligatory green font to denote sarcasm.
Key Arena isn't a dump. You're comparing it to the luxury Rose Garden (thank you, Paul Allen). Key was designed per NBA instructions to minimize cost to the taxpayers. When Key was new, Stern said Key was great, and there are quotes of that. It was built from scratch (it is NOT merely a renovation) in about 1997. Only about SIX YEARS LATER, Sonic owners started whining theat they had to have the taxpayers make enormous renovations. The politicians correctly said, go to Hell. It IS true that Seattle Mayor Nickels dropped the court fight too soon. He was only in it to win a settlement (which was never collected, because it was contingent upon renovations to Key). The purpose of the court case should have been to punish Bennett by forcing the team to stay 2 more years until the contract ended. And now for the real reason the Sonics couldn't make money. Key Arena is a smokescreen. Irrelevant. The contract with the City prevented ownership from making money. It was the only contract in the NBA which came out taxpayer-neutral. In other words, the team paid its own way 100% without subsidies. Stern has built the league on irresponsibility. That's what they meant when they said that his economic model is broken. These millionaires must have public subsidies, taking away money from winter shelters for hoboes in the snow, hungry welfare children, etc. The contract was to end in 2 years, in 2010, at which time it could be renegotiated. The vast majority of Seattlites demanded that the contract not be redone midstream before it ended. In the court case, the asinine judge was siding with Bennett (she was trying to look tough and neutral), and the City put up clown witnesses. Stern is intimate friends with Bennett (see picture in this thread) and because of Hurricane Katrina, OKC had just finished demonstrating that it can support a team. This rare confluence of events caused Seattle to lose the Sonics. I haven't mentioned that attendance was down because of the economy and because the team had sucked for a decade after Wally Walker replaced Bob Whitsitt, who set a gold standard that could not be duplicated. I haven't mentioned that Sonic ownership was unusual in that no one guy dominated (Shultz didn't really dominate). There were about 80 owners and they couldn't afford to put up money when needed. I argued this for 2-3 years on the ESPN Sonic board (which died because I left and came here). There are more general themes of this conflict that I could fill you in on, but I'm tired of typing. Man, I have proven this over and over on the now-dead board, and now I have to argue this all over. I had to argue this out with Okies, not Seattlites. The roofline is just that, a curved line on blueprints. Yes, the curve was duplicated on the brand new, not renovated, Key Arena. The roof's physical materials were all new, and not from the Coliseum, which was built for the 1962 World's Fair. Only the DESIGN of the roofline continued, not the physical roof. Everything, and I mean, everything, was new, not brought out of the Coliseum. There might have been a hot dog stand or something tiny that was reused (even the builders couldn't say for sure that some detail had not been rescued from the garbage), but all the walls, seats, floors, roof, foundation, etc. was ALL NEW. There is ONE exception--the four cornerstones. These were giant, curved metal girders, one at each corner of the building, that held up the roof like the spokes of an umbrella. They were stylish and were retained. They extended far beneath the ground. EVERYTHING else was new. Many websites get this wrong and call Key a renovation of the Coliseum. Wikipedia has it wrong. I have some sites that get it right, and I used to cite them in posts on the ESPN Sonic board. But I don't really care about sites backing me up, because I have a witness I trust more-- When I drove past the construction site, it was a massive pile of rubble. Recognizable were the 4 skeleton girders that I described. They towered about 200 feet up (I used to have the exact height and weight, I can find the sites and everything again if need be). Beneath them was total chaos--50 foot long splinters, hills of debris within mountains of debris.. The wrecking ball had taken down the Coliseum. Key Arena is NOT the Coliseum, renovated and refurbished. This was a BIG argument made by Okies to justify their theft. The Sonics were NOT playing in a 45-year old stadium, they were playing in a 10-year old one when they stole the team. I used to give a link or two here to back me up, and I can find it all if need be, because there are sites that tell the truth, and there are sites that are too lazy to care. I've lost my sharpness on details but I could get it back. Damn Okies. The only reason that the 4 corner girders were retained is that they are anchored in underground concrete blocks that each weigh a couple of hundred tons. To take those out would have been expensive and unnecessary. A second reason for keeping them was that they enabled the curving roofline to continue (which as I said, was built from all new materials--the roofline design, not the roof, was retained). The Sonics had a very new arena, not a 45-year-old one. Stern praised it when new (his office had recommended the specs), but then under Bennett, Stern said that the arena MUST be replaced, not refurbished, and then once Bennett moved the team Stern flip-flopped to a stance that refurbishment would be adequate to bring in an NBA team. Stern was obviously lying to help his best friend Bennett make up an excuse to do his original intent (e-mails proved intent) to move to OKC, no matter what happened. I haven't mentioned his insane demand for a $500M arena, totally paid for by taxpayers (Sonic ownership refused to put in a dime), out in the sticks in Renton or the Eastside where downtown movers and shakers would not have attended, making it a sure moneyloser. But to remind you of the big picture, all this controversy about Key is irrelevant. The real reason the Schultz group didn't make money was that they were a bunch of impoverished guys who were only worth a few million each, and because the most responsible contract in the NBA didn't subsidize them. They couldn't wait for the contract to end before renegotiating to get big subsidies beginning in 2010. And even had Seattle given in and made a new contract in 2008, the Bennett group intended to move no matter what, as proven by e-mails.
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I've been to Key Arena quite a few times, and it's far from a dump. Not as great as the Rose Garden obviously, but I'd venture to guess there aren't many arenas in the league that are. Nor did they have shitty attendance. In 2006-07, despite a record of 31-51, they were 12th in the league in attendance percentage (93.5), higher than the Blazers 81.9% and 22nd place. The attendance didn't drop until the following year when it became clear that regardless of what the fans did, the team was leaving. http://espn.go.com/nba/attendance/_/year/2007/sort/homePct
it's my understanding that teams site paid attendance not butts in seats. Facts being what they are, Portland was dead last in paid attendance when they were last in the league in wins just a few short years ago. STOMP
seems that one misunderstood point is that AT NO POINT AND TIME did there ever exist an opportunity for a Seattle, a King County, or a Washington State voter to weigh in on the issue by vote. Maybe Ed's legion of haters would've voted it down. Maybe not. But it's ignorant to say something like "well, the voters/taxpayers brought this on themselves". If by that you mean they kept Mayor McCheese in office too long, then I somewhat agree. But there was never a measure to extend the stadium tax to Key (like there potentially is for Husky stadium), or to add to the "hospitality tax" for downtown.
