The Sonics were just sold by the city of Seattle for $75 million. Seattle fans are devastated about the loss of their 41 yearlong basketball stronghold. Many NBA experts and reporters will tell you Seattle is a basketball town that loves their Sonics. And while attendance was among the worst in the NBA last year they were packing the house competitively in most years before that.
There was even an organization formed, called Save Our Sonics, that ultimately failed in its efforts to keep the team in Seattle. It’s been a great run but now Sonics fans will forever go sleepless in Seattle. Or will they? The Sonics are gone but could easily be on the way back.
If former Sonics owner Howard Schultz is truly committed to having an NBA team in Seattle and the Save Our Sonics organization can use its resources to find willing partners to resurrect the Sonics, it’s possible Seattle will have its team back more sooner than later.
Basically, if KeyArena is renovated to a sufficient level in the near future, the Sonics should return. But there is a structural problem outside of the building. Right now the NBA is in perfect balance.
There are 15 teams in each conference in three divisions. Putting another team in the West is going to give the Eastern Conference a competitive advantage as far as the playoffs are concerned by giving 15 teams a shot at eight spots versus 16 for 8 in the west.
Also there would be a division with six teams, which gives all the other divisions a competitive advantage. Now I’m sure Seattle fans could care less but the rest of the league might take umbrage with this. So what’s the solution? Schultz can put his money where his mouth is.
He is the chairman and CEO of Starbucks so he has money and good business sense. He will now have a community yearning for a basketball team. That means that with good marketing the returning Sonics in a newly renovated arena will draw great attendance. He sold the Sonics for $350 million and good businessmen reinvest their sales.
The money from the sale should be worth close to $400 million today. Now all he needs is a team to buy. His opportunity to purchase is right now. The Memphis Grizzlies are currently for sale. They have been around for just 13 years. They are a team whose entire history involves their search for a belonging.
They started in Vancouver but couldn’t develop a fan base. Now in Memphis they’re facing the same problem. The attendance in Memphis has been consistently well below the league average. Memphis is as much of a basketball town as Vancouver was. The Grizzlies have never enjoyed a strong following.
I’m not positive about this but the value of the Grizzlies is probably less then what Schultz sold the Sonics for. Schultz could buy the Grizzlies with the intent of moving them to Seattle and reviving the Sonics. Then this maligned franchise would have a devoted following and Seattle would have a team again. It’s a win-win situation.
That’s the simple but expensive solution. Even the logistics work out. If Memphis were to end up back in Seattle they would switch from the Southwest division to the Northwest division. They would switch places with Oklahoma City. This would geographically put Oklahoma City in the right division.
It would also give David Stern a convenient way out of the Seattle problem. There won’t be much of a clamoring from Memphis to replace a team they barely know exists. Seattle can’t say that. They’ve been invested in the NBA for over 4 decades. And it should stay that way.
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3 months ago
My first reaction was, "here is another guy who thinks nobody cares about the Grizzlies", but boy was I surprised to keep reading and find out that the creator of this drivel thinks that "Memphis is as much of a basketball town as Vancouver was." WOW! Not only are you just flat out wrong about the "team they (Memphians) barely know exists," but you just solidified yourself, the purveyor of this non-sense, as a know-nothing twit.
Memphis has been a hotbed of basketball and basketball talent since the 1950's, when Memphis State went to their first NCAA tournament. In the 1960's, fire marshals had to stop the play in the middle of games to clear the aisles of people. In 1970's, Memphis had a team go to the National Championship Game and an ABA team that was one of the hardest tickets to get in the city. In 1985, another Final Four appearance, and yet another National Championship game in 2008. Then came the Grizzlies, or maybe you know them as the soon-to-be-Sonics... in case you haven't been keeping up, the Grizzlies have been to the playoffs 3 times in the past 7 years, more than I can say for the "previous Seattle Sonics". Next to Elvis and BBQ, basketball is the thing people know best in the city of Memphis.
I won't even start listing the names of players that have come out of the city.
David, do everyone a favor and research your topics before you start writing about them.
I wouldn't attach this article to any resume you might be sending in for a "sportscasting" job. Anybody who knows anything about basketball, knows that Memphis is a basketball town. Obviously, you don't know anything.
from 3 months ago
Memphis Tigers, yes. Memphis Grizzlies, no. Since they've made the playoffs so often maybe you can explain to me how attendance has been poor even in those years.
3 months ago
For a team that has never had a box office attraction type player, I'd say the Grizzlies have done OK for themselves. Memphis has shown they will come out and watch a winning product, even if the star power isn't on the floor. In the 2003-2004 season for example, the team was lead by second year players Pau Gasol and Shane Battier. Most people in Memphis and around the league still didn't have a good idea of who these players even were. Seattle on the other hand, had an All-Star in Ray Allen, and an up and coming star in Rashard Lewis. Memphis was ahead of Seattle in attendance numbers that year.
Here's something to think about.... When was the last time Seattle wasn't in the bottom one-third of the league in attendance?
I still am baffled as to why you would think that just giving another city's team to Seattle is the right answer here. Two wrongs do not equal a right. The city of Seattle should have done something about KeyArena instead of just whining that the guy who owns the team is taking them elsewhere. Explain to me how David Stern, who has a problem with the stadium in Seattle right now, is going to let Howard Schultz a.) buy the Grizzlies to move them to KeyArena and b.) move the Grizzlies out of one of the nicest stadiums in the league in the FedEx Forum. It just doesn't make any sense.
Maybe YOU don't care about the Grizzlies. Maybe Chad Ford and the talking heads at ESPN don't care about the Grizzlies. Maybe the NBA doesn't care about the Grizzlies right now, but that doesn't mean that nobody cares about them. There are plenty of people in Memphis, that despite only being here for 7 years, care very much about the franchise.
from 3 months ago
I just think they have a chance with Memphis putting the team up for sale to rectify their situation. I don't see Stern adding a team in the league until after the international expansion. I just don't expect the same outcry in Memphis that Seattle has shown. Maybe I'm wrong.
On a somewhat similar note, I'm interested to see how well people show to the Memphis Tigers games next year now that they've lost the core of that team.
3 months ago
I believe that you are wrong. The Memphis Grizzlies organization means a great deal to the community. I will refer you to an older article in the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/14/giving/14sandomir.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
It is my belief that the outcry from the community would be tremendous from the city if the team were to leave. Sure there are people in Memphis that dislike the Grizzlies and have since even before they arrived, however the organization continues to help a great deal of people, season ticket holders or not, who care about the Grizzlies.
In reference to your comment about the Memphis Tigers, I will refer you to rivals.com or any other scouting website. I feel it's a safe assumption, when I say Memphians will be out in great numbers to watch the returning starters; Antonio Anderson, Robert Dozier, and Shawn Taggart, line up with top recruit Tyreke Evans. If attendance falls off, I would look to the quality of the home schedule this season vs. last year's, and not the city's love for the Tigers.
from 3 months ago
lol, shawn taggart. he needs to stop shooting midrange jumpers.
from 3 months ago
true.
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