OT Warriors for sale

wiff · Post #1 » by **wiff** » Thu Jul 9, 2009 6:04 pm

Chris Cohan, owner of the Golden State Warriors, is interested in selling the franchise, according to sources.

The unconnected sources confirmed Cohan was in negotiations with Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison recently. But Cohan and Ellison’s group couldn’t reach an agreement. Cohan is “still interested” in selling the team. One source said “he is tired of losing” and another said he is “looking to cash out.”

Now's your time Steve Balmer!

bruiser89171 · Post #2 » by **bruiser89171** » Thu Jul 9, 2009 7:03 pm

yes this would be awesome...i hope balmer has his eyes open to this..we have till december right? somthing like that

Post #3 » by **wizkid27** » Thu Jul 9, 2009 7:26 pm

Just wondering... would you guys want to take a team from Oakland after having gone through it yourselves? Or is it not a big deal as long as everything is done legitimately (all out in the open, no lies, underhandedness, etc.)?

wiff · Post #4 » by **wiff** » Thu Jul 9, 2009 7:28 pm

After the way we got shafted I could care less.

Do you like the Thunder any less because of how Bennett hi-jacked the team? Or do you think he did it legitimately?

Post #5 » by **wizkid27** » Thu Jul 9, 2009 8:29 pm

Oh no, I definitely don't like them any less by any means. I was just curious if going through that so recently softened your feelings on the issue

bruiser89171 · Post #6 » by **bruiser89171** » Thu Jul 9, 2009 11:35 pm

i dont care how we get a team..the warriors would be a good team to have..nice young and exciting...but jus have to hope balmer would do it..

mnkinga23 · Post #7 » by **mnkinga23** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 2:24 am

I don't want this to stir up any ill feelings or any strife, but even if Balmer or another group from Seattle buys a team (Warriors or otherwise) do you think that they could move it to Seattle? The economy is worse now than it was when the Thunder left, so would the public subsidies be there for a renovation of Key Arena or a new arena? However you feel about the way in which the team left, the problems that plagued the situation are at least the same and in some ways are worse because of the economy. I just know that if the team had to move to OKC this summer rather than last summer, it would have been a problem to get the bond issues passed that we needed to renovate the Ford Center.

wiff · Post #8 » by **wiff** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 4:27 am

mnkinga23 wrote:I don't want this to stir up any ill feelings or any strife, but even if Balmer or another group from Seattle buys a team (Warriors or otherwise) do you think that they could move it to Seattle? The economy is worse now than it was when the Thunder left, so would the public subsidies be there for a renovation of Key Arena or a new arena? However you feel about the way in which the team left, the problems that plagued the situation are at least the same and in some ways are worse because of the economy. I just know that if the team had to move to OKC this summer rather than last summer, it would have been a problem to get the bond issues passed that we needed to renovate the Ford Center.

Don't worry I'm not taking any of this personal. I know they are realistic questions. And I know you guys are just fans of a new sports team in town.

The situation now though is that Balmer has already said he will put 150mil of his own money towards a renovation of Key Arena. Something Bennett flat out refused to do.

Honestly right now is not an ideal time to move a team if the owner is looking for a public hand out. Balmer however has a ton of coin and who knows he might just pay for it himself. I'm sure Balmer wouldn't buy the team unless he feels the climate is right for him to move the team with support of the city.

But you bring up a great point mnkinga23 about it being hard for the bonds to pass for the team to move if it would have happened this Summer.

It absolutely pisses me off that the Mayor of Seattle settled out of court with Bennett and Co.

Aubrey Mclendon lost 40% of his wealth this last fall. I honestly think if the City had won the court case and made the Sonics play out their last two years in Seattle they would have been sold to Balmer when the economy went in the toilet. Man just thinking about that pisses me off.

Post #9 » by **wizkid27** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:42 am

Thanks for the objective and informative opinions wiff. I can't say that I really disagree with you on any of those points. It is definitely a tough sell for any city to put up a significant amount of money with the current economic status, not to mention one which so recently was burned by the exact same "company". I think that we will see no team movement for ~2 more years both due to the economic state and also the NBA's desire to seems like it's not just arbitrarily moving teams from city to city.

Post #10 » by **gswhoops** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:20 pm

Not that I came here to debate this issue (I was looking for some reading material on Ibaka) but the only two possibilities that had been discussed vis a vis the Warriors getting sold have been Cohen keeping the team or selling it to Larry Ellison, a Bay Area guy.

I don't think we'll be seeing the Seattle Warriors anytime soon.

Post #11 » by **Tommy Udo 6** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:56 am

gswhoops wrote:Not that I came here to debate this issue (I was looking for some reading material on Ibaka) but the only two possibilities that had been discussed vis a vis the Warriors getting sold have been Cohen keeping the team or selling it to Larry Ellison, a Bay Area guy.

I don't think we'll be seeing the Seattle Warriors anytime soon.

The Warriors home arena is called the ORACLE - sponsored by the same Larry Ellison.