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Sports

What Makes Everyone So Sure the Sonics Really Are Coming Back?

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sonicsnodderChris Hansen and Steve Ballmer’s plan to buy the Sacramento Kings and move them to Seattle was presented as a done deal when the news came out earlier this week. However, Sacramento’s efforts to keep the team have dominated headlines ever since. What makes people so sure the Sonics really will come back? I’m here to tell you.

Q: Sacramento is putting together a counter-offer, funded by billionaires, to buy the team and keep them where they are. What happens if the NBA takes that offer?

A: The NBA can’t just “take an offer.” This isn’t an auction. NBA owners will vote, likely in April, on whether to approve the specific sale agreement between the Hansen/Ballmer group and Sacramento’s current owners, the mercurial and nearly-insolvent Maloof family. If the NBA rejects the sale, the team goes back to the Maloofs.

Q: Couldn’t the Maloofs then sell the team to the Sacramento group for the same price?

A: They could, but why would they? Now they have the leverage of a bidding war. They could drive the price up further and keep the franchise in a period of uncertainty–the last thing the NBA wants.

Q: Has the NBA ever cancelled a sale agreement?

A: They have, actually. In 1994, the league blocked the sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves to a group that intended to move the team to New Orleans. However, the league’s decision had less to do with the possible relocation of the team than the fact the new buyers — headed by a boxing promoter — didn’t actually have the cash to buy the team; their financing plan relied on unknown investors, unsigned loans, and future revenue from an unbuilt arena. Even so, the NBA’s rejection of that deal was called “stunning” at the time.

Q: If the sale is approved, won’t the NBA owners still have to approve the move?

A: Yes. And NBA commissioner David Stern has promised Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson the opportunity to argue that the team should stay before NBA owners vote. But NBA owners typically like to support the rights of their fellow owners to move their teams wherever they want. You may remember a team called the Seattle SuperSonics that wanted to move despite a massive outcry from fans, protests from two U.S. Senators, and a proposal to keep the team in Seattle by one of the richest men in the world. The NBA approved that move 28-2.

Q: So it’s a 100%-absolute-sure-thing?

A: Of course not. The NBA could find that Chris Hansen’s wealth is entirely tied up in risky Somalian goat futures. Steve Ballmer could be revealed as the true identity of Jack the Ripper. Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson could have compromising photos from the Annual NBA Owners Nazi Dress-Up Orgy. Nothing is 100 percent, but barring some unforeseen circumstance, the Kings will play here as the Sonics this fall.

Q: Is it fair that Sacramento fans are likely losing their team?

A: No, it is terribly unfair. It was also terribly unfair when the Kings left Kansas City for Sacramento under shady circumstances. It was unfair when the Sonics left for Oklahoma City. It’s unfair that society says we have to wear pants to work. If you’re going to wait around for life to be fair, you’d better bring a book.

You can buy that Sonics bobblehead for $75 from Gasoline Alley Antiques.

News, Sports

The Sonics (and the NBA) are Coming Back to Seattle!

sonicsnodder“You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” — Trad.

Our fight seems so silly now. You wanted a new home, we wondered what was wrong with the old one. Soon we stopped trusting each other, even stooped to name-calling. You started thinking you’d be better off with someone else. And — we’ll admit it — sometimes we thought that too. But then you left.

And we went crazy.

We made movies for you, we bitched out our friends for talking to you, we tried to pretend you didn’t exist. We even stalked you 3,000 miles away. We had to have you back. Of course we’ll build you a new place. Need a loan?

Now you’re coming back. And we are SO HAPPY.

—

Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer have negotiated a deal to buy the Sacramento Kings. They’ll ask and almost assuredly get permission to move the team to Seattle for the 2013-14 season. After five seasons without, Seattle will have an NBA team again.

The NBA was not a runaway success when it first came to Seattle in 1967. There had been no huge public demand, no heroic local owner — at first, the NBA didn’t even disclose who the owners were. Only 4,500 people came to the Supersonics’ first home game; the team was frequently outdrawn at Seattle Center Coliseum by a minor league hockey team.

As the Sonics improved and hockey left, Seattle embraced pro hoops. In 1979 the Sonics moved to the larger Kingdome and won an NBA championship. The team led the NBA in attendance in each of the next four seasons. From 1975 to 1998, Seattle was one of the NBA’s most consistently successful teams, missing the playoffs just five times.

Then things went downhill. A storm of shrinking state budgets, terrible coaching, terrible drafting, a petty and tone-deaf owner, and clueless local leadership pushed the team into the hands of out-of-town owners, who moved the franchise to Oklahoma City over desperate local protests.

While most fans of the former Sonics were in one of the various stages of grief, one man was looking to the future. And, thank God, that man is really, really rich. Seattle-raised hedge fund manager Chris Hansen started quietly buying land south of Safeco Field for a potential new arena.

Once his purchases became public, he negotiated first with the city and county to get political support for a new arena, and then with the mercurial owners of the Sacramento Kings to purchase that franchise. The NBA must still approve the sale and the move, but barring Hansen’s $951-million hedge fund going under, approval is a formality. The result: Largely due to Hansen’s patient, low-key efforts, Seattle will have basketball again in October and a state-of-the-art arena soon after.

In the next few weeks, you may notice strange behaviors from local sports fans — penciling out season ticket budgets on envelopes, suddenly taking an interest in a confused 22-year-old named DeMarcus Cousins, standing wordlessly and worshipfully outside KeyArena. Our minds are in the future now too, instead of the past. In about nine months, we’ll be proud hoops parents.

You can buy that Sonics bobblehead for $75 from Gasoline Alley Antiques.

News, Politics, Real Estate, Sports

City Council’s Two “No” Votes on Arena Justify Their Lack of Love

Apropos of nothing, a still from Grumpy Old Men.

On September 24, 2012, the Seattle City Council voted 6-2 to authorize Mayor McGinn to “execute a Memorandum of Understanding” with King County and ArenaCo, the last being the entity that, led by Chris Hansen, hopes to build a basketball arena in SoDo.

The Council’s Tom Rasmussen managed to miss out on this hotly debated vote. Richard Conlin and Nick Licata supplied the No votes. Both have now written explanations of their reasoning, with Licata seemingly of two minds about the deal. Concluding his analysis, Licata sounds more like a Yes: “In summary, I believe this proposal is a good one; it meets a high bar for public accountability. It is a rather solid tree in a forest of not such sturdy timber.”

But judging the proposal not simply on its merits, but on the other priorities of the city, Licata ultimately decides a new basketball arena is not Job #1. (He does not, however, suggest any alternative use of municipal bonding authority that the arena’s construction would forestall.) But fair enough.

This formulation, in contrast, is something of a drive-by: “They see someone purchase private land and in a couple of years get the city to buy it from him for double the price he purchased it for.” Since the purchase price has yet to be negotiated, it is premature to use the cap on the purchase price as the purchase price itself.

Conlin’s argument is pricklier from the outset. He says that though the revised agreement may do more to shield the city from downsides, it’s by no means clear that “we will wind up benefiting from it, or that it is a good use of the City’s time, resources, or financial capacity.” (In both Licata and Conlin’s arguments there is a tendency to elide the fact that basketball fans are also citizens.)

Conlin, who studied history as an undergraduate, sounds like a history major still when he argues that, “Only since World War II has it become customary for local governments to be primary funders–and the current trend may be away from public finance.” For one, that “only” refers to about 70 years. And his trend furnishes one example: the Golden State Warriors.

Licata and Conlin are, essentially, dismayed by a public-private partnership that they see as making off, somehow, with city monies. They sound particularly aggrieved by the new arena’s “self-funding” mechanism, where taxes paid by arena-goers would be directed to paying its debt. As politicians, both demonstrate the ability to annex notional revenues, and to cry out in pain at the thought of their hypothetical loss.

Speaking of notional revenues, both refer to “income” from Key Arena, which they half-rightly see as a white elephant. (“Half-” because it is a 50-year-old white elephant regardless of what happens with a new arena, though the two insist there’s a causal link. The more hard-headed wonks at Seattle Transit Blog are ready to knock it down, which is probably the best thing.)

Conlin claims the Key “made $310,000 on $6.6 million in revenues” in 2011. This is very similar to the “profit” the city looted from the Monorail for years, while foregoing essential maintenance and improvements; Key Arena’s infrastructure is in no better shape. Properly speaking, the Key’s depreciation wipes out any consideration of profit from operating expenses. Licata meanwhile mourns the $100 million in taxpayer money already spent: He could take comfort in realizing that works out to, over the Key’s lifetime, just $2 million per year.

News, Politics, Real Estate, Sports

City Council Covers Ass, Fans Get Free Beer in Seattle Arena Win-Win

Man Celebrates
Friend of The SunBreak David Swidler celebrates the arena news yesterday in Dingle, Ireland.

Would-be Sonics owner Chris Hansen can bait his hook and cast his NBA-team fishing rod now that he’s apparently steered his SODO arena proposal through the Straits of Seattle Politics.

City Council members Mike O’Brien, Sally Clark, and Tim Burgess yesterday announced their support for issuing up to $200 million in bonds to help finance the arena after Hansen altered the terms of his proposal to their liking.

Asked whether there was anything Hansen didn’t agree to, a smiling Burgess replied: “Nothing. We got it all.” The full Council is expected to approve the proposal Thursday.

The “new” arena deal announced yesterday isn’t substantially different than Hansen’s original proposal. The changes are symbolic, a redecoration of the deal’s iron-clad guarantees so councilmembers can explain them to feisty Magnolia grandmas who haven’t watched a professional sporting event since Frank Gifford retired.

With Hansen agreeing to such demands as a personal guaranty of the bonds, a conversation that would’ve required educating the anti-everything crowd about confusing topics such as “How things actually get done on Earth” can now go a little something like this:

Mrs. Syvertsen: “How can we be sure these fatcat developers aren’t ripping us off!?”

City Councilperson: “Well, ma’am, the loan will be fully paid back by revenues from the sports teams.”

MS: “What if sports goes out of business?”

CC: “Then Chris Hansen will pay back the loan personally.”

MS: “Well how do we know he’ll have the money? He could spend it all like some Goodtime Charlie!”

CC: “The city will audit him every year to make sure his net worth doesn’t fall below $300M.”

MS: “I can’t say I like your tone, you whippersnapper! What if the team leaves after the lease runs out? Why, an empty arena could be a haven of roguery for roller bladers, grunge musicians, and the Irish!”

CC: “In that case, the team will pay to demolish the arena, and give the land back to the city. But you will be dead by then. Hopefully.”

The deal’s propriety now seems immune to all conceivable scenarios–of course, we’ll have to wait and see if Nick Licata reads in Socialist Worker about a coming invasion by basketball-arena-hating aliens. Still, Hansen is ready to celebrate. In an open letter on SonicsArena.com, Hansen offered thanks to arena supporters, and an invitation:

All of the emails and letters to council members, the turnout at the City and County Council hearings, the rally at Occidental Park, and the flood of Green and Gold throughout our City for the entire summer…. Your voices were heard and your hearts spoke volumes. I really hope you all just appreciate how much it meant and what a difference each and every one of you made…And on that note, I would personally like to buy you all a beer at FX McRory’s this Thursday from 5-7. First beer for everyone is on me.

God bless Chris Hansen. After proposing one of the most generous arena investment deals in the history of American professional sports, he absorbed insults from anti-everything idiots, endured a misinformation campaign by the city’s newspaper, survived a blindside hit by the myopic Seattle Mariners and finally swallowed his privacy just so City Council members don’t have to explain capitalism to old ladies. Hansen may be buying the beer now, but if he does manage to hook an NBA team, he’ll get free pints in Seattle for the rest of his life.

News, Sports

The Mariners Give Seattle Hope Just When We Need It

If your Twitter feed includes many Seattle sports fans, Wednesday night was a scroll through Hell.

In the moments after the Oklahoma City “Zombie Sonics” Thunder advanced to the NBA Finals, the anger came in a flood. And those are tweets from professional writers! As you can imagine, those from regular folks were even more colorful. Happily, at this bleak moment, our town’s baseball team–if you’ve forgotten, they’re called the Mariners–look like they just might be emerging from a decade of irrelevance.

In a nine-game road trip over the last week-and-a-half against three of the best teams in the American League, the Mariners went 5-4 and scored 66 runs. A 21-8 romp over defending AL champs Texas was the highlight, the most runs scored by a team all season. (The Mariners also had a perfect game pitched against them this year, so they own the best and the worst team offensive performances in MLB. Baseball is weird!) The happy portent of the road trip wasn’t just that so many runs were scored, but who scored them–the outburst was powered by the Mariners’ young hitters. In the nine games:

–1B/DH Justin Smoak had 3 homers.
–C Jesus Montero had 12 hits.
–3B Kyle Seager drove in 10 runs.
–CF Michael Saunders hit .487.
–2B Dustin Ackley scored 9 runs.

None of these guys is older than 25!

Don Draper watches the 2002-2011 Mariners

The last 11 seasons of Mariners baseball have been ugly. No playoff appearances, six last-place finishes, two 100-loss seasons. Not to mention the off-field problems: disastrous trades, horrible drafting, awful free agent signings, and plummeting attendance. Still, there have been glimpses of competence. The Mariners won 88 games in 2007, and 85 games in 2009. But that success wasn’t sustainable. The best hitters on both teams were older than 30–expensive veterans whose salaries were rising as their production was diminishing.

In 2012, the Mariners’ best hitters are young. They’re getting better and they are under team control–that is, they aren’t eligible to become free agents–for several more years. The future, for the first time, seems bright. Cue Jimmy Cliff.

Saunders especially seems to have turned a corner after being one of baseball’s worst hitters last season. Check out these charts USS Mariner ginned up, showing how successful Saunders has been at that toughest of all batting skills, hitting the ball to the opposite field.

This weekend, Saunders and the rest of the Mariners get to measure themselves against baseball’s best team. The Los Angeles Dodgers come to town for the first time since 2000, for a three-game, Friday-to-Sunday series. I’m going Friday night–seems like a better idea than sitting at home thinking about the Thunder.

Sometime next week, the 45-year-old franchise that was the Seattle Supersonics will compete in just their 4th NBA Finals. The man who took the team to Oklahoma City could well end up hoisting a championship trophy. For Seattleites who rooted for the team in their 41 years here, it’s a tough pill to swallow. Here’s hoping the resurgent Mariners can make it go down a little more smoothly.

News, Sports

Could Soccer Be the Sport Seattle Finally “Beats L.A.” In?

How long must Seattle sports fans suffer at the hands, bats, shoulder pads, and now feet, of teams from Los Angeles? The Sounders are the latest local franchise to absorb annual Angelino assaults, having won just once in eight MLS matches against the L.A. Galaxy. They get another shot at the Galaxy tonight, at 7 p.m., at CenturyLink Field..

Culturally and aesthetically, we Seattleites have no desire to best Los Angeles. On our weekends we choose hiking over Hollywood, on our bodies we choose Burt’s Bees over botox. In sports, it’s different. A generation of Seattle sports fans has desperately desired to, and frequently chanted, “Beat L.A.” But our hopes, like a North Face sleeveless fleece vest on Rodeo Drive, seem misplaced.

Something about the words “Los Angeles” strikes #FAIL into the hearts of Seattle sports franchises: The dreadful ’70s and ’80s Mariners played the franchise then known as the California Angels as well as they played any other team, and went 66-60 against the Anaheim Angels. Then, in 2005, that franchise added “Los Angeles” to their name, and the Mariners have gone 49-83 against them since.

The Seahawks lost eight straight against the Los Angeles Raiders in the early ‘90s. The Los Angeles Lakers, behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, swept the Sonics four to zip in the 1987 NBA playoffs, and again in 1989.

Those late ‘80s Lakers/Sonics matchups may be the best comparison to the Sounders/Galaxy rivalry. Like those Lakers teams, the Galaxy are studded with stars. The supreme stud: David Beckham, one of the best-known people on Earth. The Galaxy also have Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane, who’ve both captained their respective national teams and are well-known to soccer fans worldwide.

The Sounders are a good team. But who the hell are they? Outside of Seattle, the names Fredy Montero, Mauro Rosales, and Brad Evans are known only to hard-core fans–much like the late ’80s Sonics Xavier McDaniel, Tom Chambers, and Dale Ellis.

(While we may argue whether Abdul-Jabbar or the X-Man had the better movie cameo, their relative on-court merits are indisputable.)

You may already be asking yourself: Why do Seattle teams get perennially mauled by those from Los Angeles. You obviously weren’t paying attention to the Black Bloc’s message yesterday. The answer is: Money.

Los Angeles has a larger local television market, so their teams get more lucrative local television contracts, which means more money, which means better players. According to ESPN’s recent (and awesome) survey of world professional sports team salaries, the average player on a Los Angeles professional team is making $3.8 million. The average player on a Seattle professional team is making $1.8 million. (Here, check my work!) Who do you think gets the better players?

It is no accident that the one Seattle team that has the best record against their L.A. counterparts–the Seahawks (11-13 against the L.A. Raiders)–are in the NFL, the one professional league where television contracts are negotiated only on a national level, with the revenue shared among the teams.

Until the other leagues decide to start sharing local television revenue (which, frankly, will never happen), Seattle teams will always be at a disadvantage. The inequity of television revenue may even keep us from getting another NBA team–the Maloof brothers, who own the Sacramento Kings, are considering moving to Anaheim, where they can command a piece of L.A.’s sports market. Even though Los Angeles already has two NBA teams, owning DVR-proof programming in such a large and influential market is more valuable than being the only show in town in Seattle.

Twice the money doesn’t always get you twice the player. But it helps. If you watch the Galaxy/Sounders match tonight (7 p.m., KONG TV), you’ll be watching a team with a $17-million payroll against a team with a $5-million payroll.

On the bright side, a large part of that payroll isn’t with the team today. Beckham, Keane, and starting goalkeeper Josh Saunders reportedly didn’t travel to Seattle. For once, a Seattle/L.A. will be a fair match.