Why did the Seattle Supersonics move to OKC?

[Goudelock]

There are about a million different versions of why it happened on the internet (Seattle was greedy, Stern was a liar, Bennett was a greedy liar, etc.). So what's the real reason behind their relocation?

[M4P]

City didn't agree to finance a new arena and the new owner had one ready in OKC after Schultz sold the team (this is in layman's terms of course).

[The Penguin]

Seattle tax payers wouldn't build a new arena, Clay Bennett lied and said he would get one built, OKC voters would build an arena.

[asdfgh]

There are about a million different versions of why it happened on the internet (Seattle was greedy, Stern was a liar, Bennett was a greedy liar, etc.). So what's the real reason behind their relocation?

Basically what happened was that because of Hurricane Katrina the Hornets were forced to temporarily leave New Orleans and move to Oklahoma City. OKC was very supportive of the Hornets but Stern didn't want the bad publicity of having the team leave New Orleans permanently, so when the Hornets returned to Louisiana, he tried to find another team to move to Oklahoma.

The Sonics were looking for a new arena because the Key Arena is considered too small for modern NBA standards. Seattle however had only recently built stadiums for their baseball and football teams and the people didn't want to pay for a third very expensive facility. Stern then arranged for Schultz, the Sonics and Starbucks owner to sell the team to a group of Oklahoma businessmen who while claiming they would do everything they could to keep the team in Seattle, all they were really interested was getting a team and moving it to OKC.
Did Stern know what the Oklahoma businessmen were planning to do? Of course he did. Did Schultz know? He claims that he didn't, but I don't believe him. Stern simply wanted to reward OKC for supporting the Hornets, and he did everything he could to rob Seattle of a team. We saw that in Sacramento or now in Milwaukee, cities who also have an arena problem, the NBA is doing everything they can to keep the teams where they belong.
If the NBA really wanted to keep the team in Seattle, they would have arranged for Ballmer, a life-long Sonics fan and season ticket holder, to buy the team.

[KobeBryant24]

Because Stone Cold said so

[mastermixer]

There are about a million different versions of why it happened on the internet (Seattle was greedy, Stern was a liar, Bennett was a greedy liar, etc.). So what's the real reason behind their relocation?

Basically what happened was that because of Hurricane Katrina the Hornets were forced to temporarily leave New Orleans and move to Oklahoma City. OKC was very supportive of the Hornets but Stern didn't want the bad publicity of having the team leave New Orleans permanently, so when the Hornets returned to Louisiana, he tried to find another team to move to Oklahoma.

The Sonics were looking for a new arena because the Key Arena is considered too small for modern NBA standards. Seattle however had only recently built stadiums for their baseball and football teams and the people didn't want to pay for a third very expensive facility. Stern then arranged for Schultz, the Sonics and Starbucks owner to sell the team to a group of Oklahoma businessmen who while claiming they would do everything they could to keep the team in Seattle, all they were really interested was getting a team and moving it to OKC.
Did Stern know what the Oklahoma businessmen were planning to do? Of course he did. Did Schultz know? He claims that he didn't, but I don't believe him. Stern simply wanted to reward OKC for supporting the Hornets, and he did everything he could to rob Seattle of a team. We saw that in Sacramento or now in Milwaukee, cities who also have an arena problem, the NBA is doing everything they can to keep the teams where they belong.
If the NBA really wanted to keep the team in Seattle, they would have arranged for Ballmer, a life-long Sonics fan and season ticket holder, to buy the team.

I basically agree with this BUT:

I think your putting too much emphasis on "Stern simply wanted to reward OKC for supporting the Hornets, and he did everything he could to rob Seattle of a team"

I think the #1 reason that Seattle doesn't have a team is because the city/ taxpayers wouldn't come to an agreement to finance a new stadium for years before they left. -If not for that, they would have a team.

[asdfgh]

There are about a million different versions of why it happened on the internet (Seattle was greedy, Stern was a liar, Bennett was a greedy liar, etc.). So what's the real reason behind their relocation?

Basically what happened was that because of Hurricane Katrina the Hornets were forced to temporarily leave New Orleans and move to Oklahoma City. OKC was very supportive of the Hornets but Stern didn't want the bad publicity of having the team leave New Orleans permanently, so when the Hornets returned to Louisiana, he tried to find another team to move to Oklahoma.

The Sonics were looking for a new arena because the Key Arena is considered too small for modern NBA standards. Seattle however had only recently built stadiums for their baseball and football teams and the people didn't want to pay for a third very expensive facility. Stern then arranged for Schultz, the Sonics and Starbucks owner to sell the team to a group of Oklahoma businessmen who while claiming they would do everything they could to keep the team in Seattle, all they were really interested was getting a team and moving it to OKC.
Did Stern know what the Oklahoma businessmen were planning to do? Of course he did. Did Schultz know? He claims that he didn't, but I don't believe him. Stern simply wanted to reward OKC for supporting the Hornets, and he did everything he could to rob Seattle of a team. We saw that in Sacramento or now in Milwaukee, cities who also have an arena problem, the NBA is doing everything they can to keep the teams where they belong.
If the NBA really wanted to keep the team in Seattle, they would have arranged for Ballmer, a life-long Sonics fan and season ticket holder, to buy the team.

I basically agree with this BUT:

I think your putting too much emphasis on "Stern simply wanted to reward OKC for supporting the Hornets, and he did everything he could to rob Seattle of a team"

I think the #1 reason that Seattle doesn't have a team is because the city/ taxpayers wouldn't come to an agreement to finance a new stadium for years before they left. -If not for that, they would have a team.

Most cities show resistance when it comes to paying for a sports arena that will be operated by a private enterprise. The same thing happened in Sacramento and is happening now in Milwaukee. My point was that while in other cases, the NBA does everything possible to not move the team, in Seattle's case, they didn't.

[atlantabbq99]

There are about a million different versions of why it happened on the internet (Seattle was greedy, Stern was a liar, Bennett was a greedy liar, etc.). So what's the real reason behind their relocation?

Basically what happened was that because of Hurricane Katrina the Hornets were forced to temporarily leave New Orleans and move to Oklahoma City. OKC was very supportive of the Hornets but Stern didn't want the bad publicity of having the team leave New Orleans permanently, so when the Hornets returned to Louisiana, he tried to find another team to move to Oklahoma.

The Sonics were looking for a new arena because the Key Arena is considered too small for modern NBA standards. Seattle however had only recently built stadiums for their baseball and football teams and the people didn't want to pay for a third very expensive facility. Stern then arranged for Schultz, the Sonics and Starbucks owner to sell the team to a group of Oklahoma businessmen who while claiming they would do everything they could to keep the team in Seattle, all they were really interested was getting a team and moving it to OKC.
Did Stern know what the Oklahoma businessmen were planning to do? Of course he did. Did Schultz know? He claims that he didn't, but I don't believe him. Stern simply wanted to reward OKC for supporting the Hornets, and he did everything he could to rob Seattle of a team. We saw that in Sacramento or now in Milwaukee, cities who also have an arena problem, the NBA is doing everything they can to keep the teams where they belong.
If the NBA really wanted to keep the team in Seattle, they would have arranged for Ballmer, a life-long Sonics fan and season ticket holder, to buy the team.

So basically what you are saying is that Seattle losing their team was an act of god? .... thats awesome!

[The1llness]

Clay Bennett helped broker New Orleans temporary home in OKC after Katrina hit so Stern promised to return the favor by helping him move a team out there.

A year later, he bought the Sonics and demanded a $500 million arena in Renton while committing only minimal private money which he knew was going to get shot down and it would give him an out to move to OKC.

[dc]

Most cities show resistance when it comes to paying for a sports arena that will be operated by a private enterprise. The same thing happened in Sacramento and is happening now in Milwaukee. My point was that while in other cases, the NBA does everything possible to not move the team, in Seattle's case, they didn't.

I agree with that. It basically came down to whether or not taxpayers would fund a professional arena, but the NBA has given cities like Sac and Milwaukee far more rope to come up with something. The NBA and Milwaukee been trying to hammer out an arena plan for how long now?

Sacramento said NO to a publicly financed stadium for the better part of 15 years. Then they finally caved in when the threat of their team leaving was staring them right in the face (after all, at this point the Sonics moving from Seattle served as a real example of what would happen to them if they didn't cave).

IMO, it was Seattle taxpayers giving the finger to Stern and the NBA that really did it in. They passed the referendum banning public taxes for private stadiums and basically told the NBA, "Hey, you wanna move? We dare you. Go build a stadium yourselves."

At that point, Stern was pissed and basically wouldn't do anything to keep the team from moving. Then his buddy Clay hatched his sinister plan (no doubt with Stern's help) and we all know the rest. It was basically Seattle taxpayers giving Stern the finger and the "we don't need you" attitude that did it. Sac and Milwaukee, for all the wrangling and resistance they showed to cough up the money, never outright told Stern to go f^&K himself.

The stuff about the Hornets, Katrina, and the move from Charlotte to NO in the first place also rings true.

[WIN]

Because Stone Cold said so

WHAT?

[kodo]

There’s a lot of players involved, but at the end of the day the city didn’t care about the Sonics. That was the year the Seahawks were going to the Superbowl, the Mariners were untouchable, abandoning the Washington Huskies would cause politicians to lose their jobs, and the people in Seattle are more interested in hiking, kayaking, snowboarding more than team sports.

Seattle has only 650,000 people, it’s smaller than San Fran and it was trying to support 3 major pro teams and a very expensive college team in the Huskies. Just the renovation to Husky Stadium cost $280 million…the Sonics as a franchise were sold for $350 million….with Kevin Durant.

TLDR: The city of Seattle only had enough money to pick 3 of four teams, and they chose the Seahawks, the Mariners, and the Huskies.

If Seattle had chosen the Sonics and renovated Key Arena, Stern would not have moved the Sonics and found another team for OKC.

[mastermixer]

Would make an interesting 30 for 30

[NekiEcko]

There’s a lot of players involved, but at the end of the day the city didn’t care about the Sonics. That was the year the Seahawks were going to the Superbowl, the Mariners were untouchable, abandoning the Washington Huskies would cause politicians to lose their jobs, and the people in Seattle are more interested in hiking, kayaking, snowboarding more than team sports.

Seattle has only 650,000 people, it’s smaller than San Fran and it was trying to support 3 major pro teams and a very expensive college team in the Huskies. Just the renovation to Husky Stadium cost $280 million…the Sonics as a franchise were sold for $350 million….with Kevin Durant.

TLDR: The city of Seattle only had enough money to pick 3 of four teams, and they chose the Seahawks, the Mariners, and the Huskies.

If Seattle had chosen the Sonics and renovated Key Arena, Stern would not have moved the Sonics and found another team for OKC.

First of all, I think this was going on during recession (I cant remember when the recession started) but I do not think you should blame the fans or the city for what happen. You should place the blame on Howard Schultz for not doing his homework (funny thing is that I work couple of blocks down from Starbucks HQ in Seattle) when he was dealing with Clay Bennett that he would never keep the team in the city of Seattle, also Clay Bennett for that crazy idea of having a arena in Renton and Olympia, knowing the fact the state will never signed anything stupid like that. Plus the Washington State administrative (Mr. Chopp) has some blame as well and City of Seattle was fools for not fighting to the end unlike the fans that was on the street want to keep this team.

To me, the greatest blame of this is NBA itself, they could have work together with the City of Seattle to get a nice stadium or even a plan to fixed Key Arena unlike how they are doing with the Kings and Bucks right now. Now David Stern was never a patience man or kind one either. If I was in the Stern shoes, I would allow Hornets to stay in OKC, grant expansion to Charlotte and New Orleans and move NO to Eastern Conference. At the end of the day, Seattle will come back one day but if NHL comes in before them (they are doing a better job in want to set up shop in Seattle than NBA right now), they might shut the Seattle market down for the NBA.

[flash22]

I blame Paul Allen. Guy had the cash to fund his own football stadium but didn't want to. Forcing the tax payers to foot the bill, this stopped any changes of second stadium being built for basketball.

[flash22]

There’s a lot of players involved, but at the end of the day the city didn’t care about the Sonics. That was the year the Seahawks were going to the Superbowl, the Mariners were untouchable, abandoning the Washington Huskies would cause politicians to lose their jobs, and the people in Seattle are more interested in hiking, kayaking, snowboarding more than team sports.

Seattle has only 650,000 people, it’s smaller than San Fran and it was trying to support 3 major pro teams and a very expensive college team in the Huskies. Just the renovation to Husky Stadium cost $280 million…the Sonics as a franchise were sold for $350 million….with Kevin Durant.

TLDR: The city of Seattle only had enough money to pick 3 of four teams, and they chose the Seahawks, the Mariners, and the Huskies.

If Seattle had chosen the Sonics and renovated Key Arena, Stern would not have moved the Sonics and found another team for OKC.

First of all, I think this was going on during recession (I cant remember when the recession started) but I do not think you should blame the fans or the city for what happen. You should place the blame on Howard Schultz for not doing his homework (funny thing is that I work couple of blocks down from Starbucks HQ in Seattle) when he was dealing with Clay Bennett that he would never keep the team in the city of Seattle, also Clay Bennett for that crazy idea of having a arena in Renton and Olympia, knowing the fact the state will never signed anything stupid like that. Plus the Washington State administrative (Mr. Chopp) has some blame as well and City of Seattle was fools for not fighting to the end unlike the fans that was on the street want to keep this team.

To me, the greatest blame of this is NBA itself, they could have work together with the City of Seattle to get a nice stadium or even a plan to fixed Key Arena unlike how they are doing with the Kings and Bucks right now. Now David Stern was never a patience man or kind one either. If I was in the Stern shoes, I would allow Hornets to stay in OKC, grant expansion to Charlotte and New Orleans and move NO to Eastern Conference. At the end of the day, Seattle will come back one day but if NHL comes in before them (they are doing a better job in want to set up shop in Seattle than NBA right now), they might shut the Seattle market down for the NBA.

So then Charlotte looses their team?

[shawngoat23]

I blame Paul Allen. Guy had the cash to fund his own football stadium but didn't want to. Forcing the tax payers to foot the bill, this stopped any changes of second stadium being built for basketball.

You blame the Sonics relocation on the Blazers owner who was among the only two owners (along with Mark Cuban) to vote against their move to OKC?

[Wreckus13]

I blame Paul Allen. Guy had the cash to fund his own football stadium but didn't want to. Forcing the tax payers to foot the bill, this stopped any changes of second stadium being built for basketball.

You blame the Sonics relocation on the Blazers owner who was among the only two owners (along with Mark Cuban) to vote against their move to OKC?

No, he is saying Paul Allen, who is the owner of the Seattle Seahawks, at that point had basically used up the stadium request in Seattle as the taxpayers didn't want to foot the bill for two stadiums.

Owners always do that too, they just stiff arm cities into footing the bill with threats of relocation, only in this case, it wasn't a threat.

[Cycklops]

Would make an interesting 30 for 30

Here's one documentary...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKP4KBCzRCM[/youtube]

[Thunderhead]

On the day in July 2006, when the sale of the Sonics to Clay Bennett was announced in a PC, Bennett told them they had one year to have a plan in place for a new arena, or he would have to look at his options.

That was reported in every major Seattle news outlet. How that gets spun into Bennett making a promise to build an arena , I've no idea.

Bennett hired an architectual firm to draw plans for a new arena, and it was in the $500 million price tag. Seattle revolted at spending that much money, which they considered exhorbitant. And a few years later, after losing the Sonics, they have plans for a new arena that exceed $500 million.

If Seattle was surprised that he decided to move the team after there was no arena plan in place , then its on them. Evidently , they did not believe him. But he never lied to them, he made it clear from day one.

You would think the threat of losing the team, would motivate Seattle to build an arena. But the support was not there.