council@saveoursonics.org
Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:52 pm
From Brian Robinson.
For the record this e-mail address has been set up to deliver messages to all members of the Seattle City Council. If you haven
Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:15 pm
Ive got a response from Mr Richard McIver
Mr. Dam,
You are among a number of citizens who have emailed me to express a
hope that the Sonics will remain in Seattle now that a local investor
group has stepped forward with an appealing proposal. It certainly
would be my hope that the team can be retained.
While I have little hope that Clay Bennett can be convinced that the
team should stay, I am encouraged that this local investor group has
indicated its willingness to truly partner with the public sector to
retain the team. Of course, Mr. Bennett has said the team is not for
sale, but perhaps either the New Orleans or Memphis teams might be, and
could be moved to Seattle. There are a lot of variables involved in
making this vision viable, but it does give me some hope.
Professional sports are an important asset for any city of the size of
Seattle. Taxpayers here have demonstrated a willingness to accept
additional taxes to help finance a place for professional sports teams
to play, but there is a limit to what the public should be expected to
swallow for the privilege of having professional teams. As you may
remember, when Howard Schultz owned the team, he wanted a $220 million
refurbishing of KeyArena, of which he was only willing to contribute
about $19 million. Clay Bennett has indicated he wants a whole new
arena to the tune of $500 million, to be built primarily with tax
dollars.
I believe the economics of professional basketball are broken, yet
cities are expected to help perpetuate the system by building new state
of the art arenas that are then declared to be obsolete in a decade or
less, long before they are ever paid off. In 2006, Seattle citizens
rejected the model when they voted overwhelmingly in favor of the
citizen-generated Initiative 91, limiting our ability to partner with
professional sports teams to those deals that provide a reasonable
financial return for the investment of taxpayer dollars.
I believe the offer of the local investor group to split the cost of a
$300 million refurbishing of KeyArena with taxpayers shows a willingness
to work with taxpayers, something we didn
Mr. Dam,
You are among a number of citizens who have emailed me to express a
hope that the Sonics will remain in Seattle now that a local investor
group has stepped forward with an appealing proposal. It certainly
would be my hope that the team can be retained.
While I have little hope that Clay Bennett can be convinced that the
team should stay, I am encouraged that this local investor group has
indicated its willingness to truly partner with the public sector to
retain the team. Of course, Mr. Bennett has said the team is not for
sale, but perhaps either the New Orleans or Memphis teams might be, and
could be moved to Seattle. There are a lot of variables involved in
making this vision viable, but it does give me some hope.
Professional sports are an important asset for any city of the size of
Seattle. Taxpayers here have demonstrated a willingness to accept
additional taxes to help finance a place for professional sports teams
to play, but there is a limit to what the public should be expected to
swallow for the privilege of having professional teams. As you may
remember, when Howard Schultz owned the team, he wanted a $220 million
refurbishing of KeyArena, of which he was only willing to contribute
about $19 million. Clay Bennett has indicated he wants a whole new
arena to the tune of $500 million, to be built primarily with tax
dollars.
I believe the economics of professional basketball are broken, yet
cities are expected to help perpetuate the system by building new state
of the art arenas that are then declared to be obsolete in a decade or
less, long before they are ever paid off. In 2006, Seattle citizens
rejected the model when they voted overwhelmingly in favor of the
citizen-generated Initiative 91, limiting our ability to partner with
professional sports teams to those deals that provide a reasonable
financial return for the investment of taxpayer dollars.
I believe the offer of the local investor group to split the cost of a
$300 million refurbishing of KeyArena with taxpayers shows a willingness
to work with taxpayers, something we didn
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:17 pm
Lisa Brown, Frank Chopp and Gregoire are pieces of **** they lost us the sonics anything now is a pr stunt that is far too obvious and theres no way Bennet will sell the team now that he has a clear path to OKC
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:49 pm
Who says Bennett was ever willing to sell the team?
Bennett gave them one year and a $500 million proposal and said "here, make it happen." And then when that didn't work out, which it shouldn't have, he apparently decided it made more sense to move the team to a smaller market with an arena that's just as state of the art as ours is. Whatever.
Bennett gave them one year and a $500 million proposal and said "here, make it happen." And then when that didn't work out, which it shouldn't have, he apparently decided it made more sense to move the team to a smaller market with an arena that's just as state of the art as ours is. Whatever.