David Stern Talks Sonics

Posted on March 5, 2008 - Filed Under Sonics, Sports

“Not good,” Stern said when asked how he feels about the NBA potentially losing the Seattle market.

“We’ve been there for 41-years and it’s been a great market. I guess the question should be,’how do the city council and state legislature (of Washington) feel?’.

“It’s not a fair question on us.”

“I think it is unfair how it has been shifted back to us,” Stern explained.

Wait a second. It’s not a fair question for the NBA Commissioner? If David Stern honestly thinks that Seattle is a great market for the NBA and the Sonics, then he would be working on a deal to keep the team in Seattle. There are at least two NBA franchises that are younger than the Sonics and have revenue issues that are as bad, or worse than the Sonics. Why isn’t he trying to facilitate a move of those teams to Oklahoma? Because he and Clay Bennett are friends.

Seattle average attendance last season was 15,631 which is down from the previous years 16,198. There were four teams below our average, including Memphis, Charlotte and Portland. New Orleans (who played in Oklahoma after Katrina) averaged 17,880. Charlotte and New Orleans have the two worst team valuations in 2004-2005 (see data from Forbes) so it makes sense to me that you take a team like Charlotte or New Orleans and move them to Oklahoma.