Ownership

[August Us Seazr]

Well, the team has been up for sale for a while. Nobody is burning a path to Bob Johnson's door yet. So let's have a place where we can discuss all things regarding the upcoming (I hope) passing of the torch to an owner that is not hemorraging money.

Lets start the round table by asking some basic questions:

1- Would an ownership change be good for the team in terms of local interest, ad sales, etc?
2- Would an ownership change bring fundamental change to how the front office operates?
3- Speculate a little on who the next ownership group could/should be.

That ought to be enough to chew on for a while. Let's have a good discussion!

[fatlever]

i think the sale of the team could be a long drawn out process. potential buyers are probably waiting for the bottom to hit and waiting for bob to get desperate.

1. any change at this point would immediately be viewed as a positve move (short term) by the local fans/businesses. the relationship between bob and the city is now toxic and beyond repair. i wont debate whether or not bob's reputation is justified, but a change will be good.

2. i would hope so.

3. i have only heard 2 names: jordan and the guy from houston.

[Rich4114]

I heard Ray Woolridge was looking to buy a team.....

[August Us Seazr]

I heard Ray Woolridge was looking to buy a team.....

And he should too. Just not the Bobcats. Maybe the Angels (the ones from Hell!)

[Paydro70]

I'm in agreement with Fats... a change in ownership will not happen soon, but when it does we will probably be happier as fans. It's hard to be worse.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

Don't jinx it. Things can ALWAYS get worse.

1 & 2 - only if the new owners actually do things smart. Bob's biggest failings as an owner had more to do with business & personal decisions. An energetic, exicted owner who is visible at most games would go a long way towards making folks feel less bitter IMHO for instance. Similarly having good front office people in charge of getting the team seen and heard would be good too. If we get another part time owner then things are likely to not improve so much. There are PLENTY of local advertising folks who could do good stuff ... if ownership doesn't decide to just use some faceless national agency.

3 - Jordan ... but only if he really decides to put in more face time. Other than that it would be nice to see someone youngish who is actually into sports.

[e4Nf6]

As bad as Bob Johnson is, this kind of thing terrifies me. David Stern has proven again and again that they will not stop owners from moving teams, no matter the past success of the club or how bad a market they are moving to. If they won't stop somebody stealing Seattle's team to move it to OKC then what chance do we have?

Shin and Bennet wrote the playbook and anybody could follow it....

1. Say publicly that you will do everything possible to keep the team where it is.
2. Privately do everything you can to poison the market and make moving inevitable.
3. Move the team to your home-town, or another place where you can ride in as the conquering hero.

[Paydro70]

They'd have to wait a minimum of like four years to move the team.

As some jerk named Spectre said on inside hoops: "The penalty to move the team is 200 million bucks until 2010. From there it's a very gradual drop to 150 million in 2030."

Unless someone is going to put a LOT of money up to buy this team and relocate it, it's not going to be leaving Charlotte.

What's worse than Bob Johnson? His front office is inept, he's cost-conscious, and he's been critical of the city. At least there's a chance we get bought by Jay-Z or something.

[spectre_]

They'd have to wait a minimum of like four years to move the team.

As some jerk named Spectre said on inside hoops: "The penalty to move the team is 200 million bucks until 2010. From there it's a very gradual drop to 150 million in 2030."

Unless someone is going to put a LOT of money up to buy this team and relocate it, it's not going to be leaving Charlotte.

What's worse than Bob Johnson? His front office is inept, he's cost-conscious, and he's been critical of the city. At least there's a chance we get bought by Jay-Z or something.

He might be a jerk but man is he smart!

There's always a chance a guy like Bennett could come along. Wasn't he looking at a fine of over 100 million but somehow got out of it?

Paydro...for that the least you could do is give your thoughts to that QCH post I made in the FA thread.

[Huskies1947]

Is this team portable in terms of lease?

[Paydro70]

Are you serious? Did you read the two posts right before you?

[August Us Seazr]

Is this team portable in terms of lease?

A. Define portable.
B. See Los Angeles Clippers.

[August Us Seazr]

I got to thinking this morning how the league wanted Charlotte back in the league after the Hornets departed for the bayou. And how we had two (essentially flawed, as time has proven) ownership groups clamoring to be the one to put the NBA back in the forefront in Charlotte. And how the NBA saw fit to make Bob Johnson the first majority owner in the league to be African-American. And how he brought in Michael Jordan to run the basketball side of things. And how things went so horribly wrong.

Five full years- a complete axe job on the front office that started things off, C-Set, draft lottery disaster after disaster, playing our way into later draft positions, drafting debatable talent... can the basketball gods be any more angry at us?????????

I don't know how most of you feel, but to me, the problem with this franchise is that we are not a team that is looking to putting the next building block on the roster. We are a team that is looking to put the next arse in a chair at TWC Arena. Evidence includes 2005 draft, pick 13, 2006 draft, pick 3, and our effort in the 2007 draft (Names not provided to keep as positive a spin on this as I can.)

It seems to me that the ONLY thing that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jordan have done that has benefitted the Bobcats team is to hire Larry Brown. My only question is, was that GENIUS, or was it the only LUCK the Bobcats staff has been able to secure?

My opinion is that the C-Set debacle essentially ruined Bob Johnson and made promoting the Bobcats difficult if not impossible, considering the number of local people who had axes to grind regarding the local tax implications of building the arena. Everything else has been a secondary consequence of bunker mentality. The end result being a team with not much balance and a whole lot of holes to fill-through the end of last season.

If our draft this year pans out, I fully believe that we are one rebounding power forward short of having a very competitive team. This should be addressed in the 2010 Draft. There are now three questions to be asked here...
Will we have a 1st rounder in 2010?
Will Bob Johnson still own the team then?
Will we screw the 2010 Draft up too?

If the Bobcats are to be sold, I want to see some form of local ownership as part of the ownership group. That means that anyone with a residence in the Pacific Northwest should be told "No, Thanks." It also wouldn't hurt to see some involvement by people like Rick Hendrick, Humpy Wheeler, and Hugh McColl. Individuals who know what it takes to make a venture successful, without having to learn on the job.

[catsandheels]

If the Bobcats are to be sold, I want to see some form of local ownership as part of the ownership group. That means that anyone with a residence in the Pacific Northwest should be told "No, Thanks." It also wouldn't hurt to see some involvement by people like Rick Hendrick, Humpy Wheeler, and Hugh McColl. Individuals who know what it takes to make a venture successful, without having to learn on the job.

I agree with you as long as we sell the team to someone local i dont see us bein moved. There is still hope for the bobcats if we can actually get an owner that is goin to put the time and money in to making us a really good team. We are only 1-2 players short of being a contender in the east but the owner wont let us spend the money just so he can sell the team.

[August Us Seazr]

Just got a look at page 34 in the Okafor/Chandler thread.

It reminds me of another failing of our current ownership/(mis)management. How many teams have been in the lottery for five full years and only managed to collect complimentary players? Other than the Bobcats? Other than la Clippers, I don't know of any.

Five years with no catalyst. Five years with no "Clutch" player. Five years with no drafted Power Forward of consequence. With Michael Jordan running the show, no less. From the looks of things on the surface, he should know what Horace Grant provided the Bulls in his glory years. And yet, three years after he was annointed in charge of bball ops, we haven't had a sniff at a good power forward- or any other player that is a GO-TO SCORER.

I am a shameless homer. I've never been ashamed of it either. If the Bobcats become Clippers-East, I'm sticking with them. But when the ownership changes, I think I want MJ to be trying to buy in with the Bulls. He sure isn't helping us very much. And I think that FIVE consecutive fourth place finishes in the division should make him antsy to improve- not just to get to the playoffs, but to actually improve within the division. We aren't going to seed very well in the playoffs if we are trying to do it from fourth or fifth place.

I wonder if his Nissan and Lincoln-Mercury customers in Durham are as dissatisfied with his staff at those car dealerships as I am with his Bobcats front office!

Sharpening the Claws!

[August Us Seazr]

Postscript to the previous thread--

If getting that GO TO GUY means having a little less talented people somewhere on the roster, I'm willing to accept that, given the current financial situation.

What I'm not willing to accept is the appearance that THE FRONT OFFICE ISN'T EVEN TRYING!

[catsandheels]

Postscript to the previous thread--

If getting that GO TO GUY means having a little less talented people somewhere on the roster, I'm willing to accept that, given the current financial situation.

What I'm not willing to accept is the appearance that THE FRONT OFFICE ISN'T EVEN TRYING!

Who would u classify as a go to guy that the cats could actually have a chance to get?

[e4Nf6]

I agree, with just a little more effort, we definitely could land a Wade/Lebron/Kobe type. We just have to try a little harder.

[SWedd523]

I agree, with just a little more effort, we definitely could land a Wade/Lebron/Kobe type. We just have to try a little harder.

Or catch a string of luck. We do make some stupid moves, but we have some terrible luck.

[Walt Cronkite]

E4, you're hard to please! I'd settle for a Brandon Roy, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Danny Granger type player...