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Graphic courtesy of okiedoke.com
From Protrade.com:
If you have ever seen the movie Major League? You know the situation. A jerk owns a professional sports team and wants to move them so they can make big money. However, the only way the team can be moved is if it is run into the ground. In Seattle this is going on right now. Here is an update as to what the Clay Bennett is doing in an attempt to move the team to Oklahoma.
Clay started off by alienating the City Counsel in Seattle making enemies of the board members, who are now completely against even working with him.
He then proceeded to demand that the county build him a brand new state of the art stadium. (In the case of most county owned arenas teams lease the arena for games, Bennett wants the county to give him the stadium.)
Bennett’s next genius move was to present to the Washington State legislature to get money for the arena. However, instead of getting someone with experience to do this he got Lenny Wilkins, who is a Sonics hero, but has no idea how to work in politics. Needles to say this failed miserably (the legislature would not even give Lenny a chance to present). Read more…
Graphic courtesy of okiedoke.com
From ESPN.com
By Jim Caple
It’s official. Art Modell, Robert Irsay, Donald Sterling and Jeffrey Loria are off the hook. The worst owner in sports history is Clay Bennett.
I know, I know. There is a lot of competition for that distinction. Why, to even achieve the honor of worst owner in Seattle sports history you have to beat out Ken Behring, George Argyros, Jeff Smulyan and Howard Schultz. But Bennett, or as my friend Rod calls him, “Cash-Us” Clay, accomplished it in a little more than a year. Just consider his most recent move.
The minute he was welcomed as an NBA owner in 2006, Clay Bennett, (center), started asking for a new arena.
Showing all the public relations and marketing savvy that has marked his tenure as owner so far, Bennett formally announced his intention to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City less than a day after the tip-off to the team’s home opener. “Welcome to the 2007-08 season, Sonics fans! And will the owner of a Prius hybrid please move your car — you’re blocking the owner’s U-Haul vans.” Cash-Us Clay released a statement declaring he will move the team as soon as he can break his lease at Seattle’s KeyArena or when he next sheds his skin, whichever comes first.
“From the beginning,” Bennett says in the release (we assume with a straight face), “it has been my absolute hope and expectation that we would be able to secure the necessary governmental commitments to build a successor venue to KeyArena.”
This would sound a lot more convincing had his partner and minority owner, Aubrey McLendon, not already revealed to an Oklahoma paper earlier this year that: “We didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here.” (McLendon, by the way, was a big donor to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which gives you some idea of this group’s tactics.) Read more…
Graphic courtesy of okiedoke.com
From ESPN.com
By Jim Caple
It’s official. Art Modell, Robert Irsay, Donald Sterling and Jeffrey Loria are off the hook. The worst owner in sports history is Clay Bennett.
I know, I know. There is a lot of competition for that distinction. Why, to even achieve the honor of worst owner in Seattle sports history you have to beat out Ken Behring, George Argyros, Jeff Smulyan and Howard Schultz. But Bennett, or as my friend Rod calls him, “Cash-Us” Clay, accomplished it in a little more than a year. Just consider his most recent move.
The minute he was welcomed as an NBA owner in 2006, Clay Bennett, (center), started asking for a new arena.
Showing all the public relations and marketing savvy that has marked his tenure as owner so far, Bennett formally announced his intention to move the Sonics to Oklahoma City less than a day after the tip-off to the team’s home opener. “Welcome to the 2007-08 season, Sonics fans! And will the owner of a Prius hybrid please move your car — you’re blocking the owner’s U-Haul vans.” Cash-Us Clay released a statement declaring he will move the team as soon as he can break his lease at Seattle’s KeyArena or when he next sheds his skin, whichever comes first.
“From the beginning,” Bennett says in the release (we assume with a straight face), “it has been my absolute hope and expectation that we would be able to secure the necessary governmental commitments to build a successor venue to KeyArena.”
This would sound a lot more convincing had his partner and minority owner, Aubrey McLendon, not already revealed to an Oklahoma paper earlier this year that: “We didn’t buy the team to keep it in Seattle; we hoped to come here.” (McLendon, by the way, was a big donor to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which gives you some idea of this group’s tactics.) Read more…
Graphic courtesy of okiedoke.com
From ESPN:
Over the weekend, several different TrueHoop readers sent me a link to the same article, by Erik D. Williams and Frank Hughes in the News Tribune.
It’s an article based on information supplied by an anonymous Sonic employee who was part of meetings last week with team chairman Clay Bennett, who represents the Oklahoma City-based group that bought the Sonics and Storm last year.
In the meeting, Bennett reportedly outlined some things Oklahoma City was prepared to do to entice the Sonics to move. That would reportedly include paying a long list of expensive things: legal fees associated with breaking the arena lease, settlement costs to the lease holders, moving expenses for Sonic employees, relocation fees due the NBA, a renovation of the existing arena in Oklahoma City, and eventually a new arena there too.
(If this is really the city’s offer to the Sonics, wow. That’s a lot of money! None of those things are cheap and these days arenas are $500 million or more. Meanwhile, an article published just last Friday says 16 of Oklahoma City’s schools are failing to meet basic federal education standards.)
Williams and Hughes explain the circumstances of the discussions, and Bennett’s reaction to the leaked information: Read more…