Should the LA Clippers move north and be the new Seattle Sonics?

[The_Admiral]

Well it's not the city it's the team that matters.

Maybe to you but I know the Jazz have lost some players and haven't been able to attract some due to the lack of "night life" Salt Lake City has.

You arrest people for rapping at a McDonald's drive thru.

I don't even want to know what they do to people who get busy in a Burger King bathroom.

[IceCap]

Well it's not the city it's the team that matters.

Maybe to you but I know the Jazz have lost some players and haven’t been able to attract some due to the lack of “night life” Salt Lake City has.

Again, look at the Green Bay Packers. They don't have a problem keeping players in Green Bay because it's the f'n Packers. I have a hard time believing the city of Green Bay (no offence) is attracting players to it on its own.

If the Jazz build a reputation for themselves as a well run organization dedicated to winning players will stay despite the lack of a "night life."

[Saintsfan]

Well it's not the city it's the team that matters.

Maybe to you but I know the Jazz have lost some players and haven?t been able to attract some due to the lack of ?night life? Salt Lake City has.

Again, look at the Green Bay Packers. They don't have a problem keeping players in Green Bay because it's the f'n Packers. I have a hard time believing the city of Green Bay (no offence) is attracting players to it on its own.

If the Jazz build a reputation for themselves as a well run organization dedicated to winning players will stay despite the lack of a "night life."

I think for a young man, I would imagine that Green Bay is a lot more exciting sounding that Salt Lake City. (SLC is still a dry town isn't it?) But I think the general point that players want to play for succesful teams is spot on. But I think the point with the Packers is not that they are super succesful, but that they are a historic franchise. People want to put on the green and yellow, and follow the likes of Bart Starr and Lindy Infante and Brett Favre etc etc. I think its why players are happy to sign for the Lakers or Celtics or Knicks, even when they aren't doing great, and why the Clippers struggle to sign the best players, when the Lakers can almost sign whoever they want.

[BBTV]

Well it's not the city it's the team that matters.

Maybe to you but I know the Jazz have lost some players and haven?t been able to attract some due to the lack of ?night life? Salt Lake City has.

Again, look at the Green Bay Packers. They don't have a problem keeping players in Green Bay because it's the f'n Packers.

Comparisons to NFL are not good. The way the NFL is run, with its revenue sharing and cap, there's only so much money to go around, and other than the absolute blue chip guys who are going to get all the up-front money from the big-market teams, players are just going to follow the available cash. I really don't think there's 23-year old guys sitting around just wishing that they could play for the Packers. Players will sign anywhere that has an extra 5 mill under the cap.

In the NFL, other than the tier-1 guys (and even then it's tough), not too many players are in a position to dictate where they play. It's all about timing and available money.

[Korkie]

Memphis- Just doesn't strike me as a basketball kind of town??

are you serious

I agree with the admrial. I would also say the same about Philadelphia. Philadelphia has one of the best bastketball (high school, college and pro) heritages of any city in the country.

[The_Admiral]

There's this one team called the Memphis Tigers. They're kind of a big deal. However, I'm not sure if the Memphis/northern Mississippi area really has the population and the wherewithal to continously support an NBA team that isn't continuously good. That's no indictment of the region's basketball heritage, just the economics of borderline markets.

[Jimmy!]

I live in Seattle. People aren't holding vigils in the streets, but this community does very much miss the Sonics and would happily accept an NBA team back (especially if wore gold and green and was called the SuperSonics).

That said, the market wasn't a failure, and given the constraints placed on the city (continuing to pay bonds on the 1996 KeyArena renovation as well as SafeCo and Qwest construction), I don't think the civic leaders can be faulted for not tapping the taxpayers for more funding.

The reason the Sonics left Seattle is because Howard Kurtz put them in the hands of people he knew couldn't wait to move them, and David Stern happily pissed all over the market. What happened in Seattle is especially jarring when you consider how hard the NHL fights to keep loser teams in Phoenix and Miami (not actually sure about the latter, but there must be SOMEONE fighting to keep that team there).

The Sonics were profitable, but just not as profitable as they *could* be if the citizens of Seattle had stupidly voted to tax themselves for a third arena, during a recession, that would increase the wealth of Clay Bennett.

It's a frustrating story and the city deserved a lot better.

Couldn't agree more. I'm a long-time Seattle resident, and I'd love to see the Sonics back. I'm not sure I'd want them back under Stern's watch, but that's a different conversation. To say he pissed all over the market isn't exactly a fair statement, though. Bennett, Schultz, the Seattle City Council, and Gregoire did their fair share of pissing all over the market and the fanbase.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

After Safeco and Qwest, no arena was going to get any kind of financial support from state, county or city government. Both Shultz and Bennett knew that. Although the legislature's inability to pass the "give Seattle $30 million" bill last session is especially maddening.

Either way, Seattle fans did exactly what they were supposed to do: buy tickets, merchandise and show up to games. That greedy sports economics took an NBA team away from a good market is shameful.

[dfwabel]

Well it's not the city it's the team that matters.

Maybe to you but I know the Jazz have lost some players and haven't been able to attract some due to the lack of "night life" Salt Lake City has.

You arrest people for rapping at a McDonald's drive thru.

I don't even want to know what they do to people who get busy in a Burger King bathroom.

They do whattheylike!

[Saintsfan]

Memphis- Just doesn't strike me as a basketball kind of town??

are you serious

I agree with the admrial. I would also say the same about Philadelphia. Philadelphia has one of the best bastketball (high school, college and pro) heritages of any city in the country.

Perhaps I should have said NBA kind of town.

[Wasatch]

After Safeco and Qwest, no arena was going to get any kind of financial support from state, county or city government. Both Shultz and Bennett knew that. Although the legislature's inability to pass the "give Seattle $30 million" bill last session is especially maddening.

But aren?t those stadiums mainly being paid off by a tourist tax?

[schtee]

David Stern has made it fairly clear that he is about growth not steady profits. The league has alienated its hardcore fan-base in favor of in-game music and pyrotechnics to draw in more casual fans. It's about pleasing new markets, not pleasing longtime fans. It's chasing short money over long money because at the first sign of boredom or trouble the casual fan will leave.

An arena can be sold out every night, but if there are not enough luxury boxes the NBA is not interested. Which is bizarre, because long-term Oklahoma City will not have as deep a corporate fan base as Seattle. I think it was more a matter of principle for David Stern, Seattle needed to be taught a lesson so that the next city that wavered on paying for an arena would be sufficiently scared.

The problem is in national tv ratings. In the playoffs, the casual fan, in my opinion, would be more interested in Seattle playing than Oklahoma City because of the name recognition and history. In the NFL, it doesn't matter so much which two teams play on tv, but in the NBA and in baseball, bigger markets tend to draw more eyeballs.