Dear new Sonics ownership group (part two)

Dear new Sonics ownership group (part two)

I still think you have no real intention of keeping the team in Seattle. I just feel like that needs to be said up front to get it out of the way and to make certain that there is no misunderstanding.

The other day representatives of the Sonics went to the Washington State Legislature and presented what they called a plan. The plan included no diagram or blueprints of an arena. the plan included no firm estimate of cost for building the arena. The plan picked sites which are not necessarily even for sale as potential locations for the arena. The plan still managed to ask the government to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars. In effect, they offered a non-plan or a wish list.

Presenting a non-plan as a plan is not trying. It is lame and for show, so that when you move the team you can say you tried.

In the time since the Sonics were sold (the same day I heard the Lynnwood Hooters closed, I am still torn over what made me angrier at the time) the new ownership group has announced timetables that they have not stuck to, presented a non-plan to the government, mounted no defense against a local ballot measure (that easily won) against the public funding of arenas, and watched no real groundswell of support for the team to remain emerge.

Hardcore sports fans, KJR listeners, and virtually no one else has jumped on this bandwagon. I have looked to see if there would be a surge in people wearing Sonics shirts, hats, and coats in a public display of support for the team. Over the holidays I went to the Alderwood Mall and found one person wearing a Sonics hat while I saw a number of people wearing M's stuff.

A new multi-purpose arena in this region is probably a good idea. I think Key Arena is okay, but I feel very crowded and squeezed in while attending sporting events there. I attend the occassional Sonics game, Storm game, and the like and just feel like the remodel of the 90s was not worth the time and effort. They could have done it right and didn't. The arena in Spokane was built about the same time and the new arena in Everett are both places I would rather go to sporting events in.

However, it seems to me that the attempt here is half-hearted. If the new ownership group really wanted the support of the fans in an effort to rally people to hound the legislature (think 95 after the ballot measure failed for the M's and how the M's owners were detailing the need for a retractable roof or 97 when the Seahawks made certain soccer dimensions could be accomodated) then much more than we have seen needs to be done.

People want specifics. The vagueness of issues surrounding this arena and the future of the franchise in a region with the level of political fatigue this region has (in less than a dozen years we have had the WTO, the Nisqually Earthquake and subsequent never ending Viaduct issue, a mayor assaulted, major ballot initiatives and public funding issues for other pro sports teams, strippergate, etc ...) and the tepid reaction to the Sonics ownership approach hardly seems surprising.

It is stunning that the new ownership group did not have blueprints in hand when they purchased the team, since part of the decision to purchase the team should have been playing out a scenario about the arena needs. I cannot believe that the new owners spent hundreds of millions to buy something without a plan and they cannot expect the legislature to spend a similar amount on what has been presented to them.

"Give us hundreds of millions and then we will figure it out" is not going to work. There is not enough leadership politically to get votes for something like that, and there shouldn't be.

I hope the Sonics stay. It would be cool if there was a true first class arena here for a variety of purposes. I hope I am wrong.