As expected,
Clay Bennett announced he wants to take the SuperSonics
to Oklahoma City this summer or soon thereafter. Luckily, our crack FanHouse dev-team just finished work on our 'bull%$@& to English' translator tool. Here are excerpts from Bennett's statement modified to... more accurately represent the situation.
"On behalf of the owners of the Seattle SuperSonics and Seattle Storm, I am
disappointed pleased that our efforts over the last fifteen months to
foster the development of a new multi-purpose arena in make fools of the people of the Greater Seattle area were
not successful. From the beginning, it has been my absolute hope and expectation that we would be able to
secure the necessary governmental commitments to build a successor venue to KeyArena bust ass to Oklahoma City ASAP. Even though our proposal for a new state-of-the-art multi-purpose facility to be built in Renton was thoughtfully developed
to purposely fail by a world-class team, was financially
reasonable ridiculous and was realistically
attainable impossible, we were unable to
persuade the Washington Legislature to vote on our bill make it clear to many folks we really don't want to be here. The region is still in need of a modern building, not just for the
Sonics and Storm NBDL and the Arena League, but also for the broad commercial and quality of life benefits such facilities provide
such as garlic fries." [...]
"Today we notified Commissioner Stern that we
have always intend
ed to relocate the Sonics to Oklahoma City if we succeed in
the pending litigation with the City calling in some favors, or are able to
negotiate an early lease termination bribe and/or blackmail city officials, or
at the end of the lease term honestly whenever we decide we've had enough of this Seattle crap; I mean, who's going to stop us, right? LOLpoliticians."
"We
have not made a decision regarding don't really give a crap about the future
location of the Seattle Storm. We
obviously don't appreciate the deep local interest and support for the Storm
and have begun to evaluate a future course of action for the team but will continue to blow smoke up your ass nonetheless." [...]
"We are also completely committed to providing our fans
in Oklahoma City a first class basketball, entertainment and social experience. We will do all we can to ensure that our fans
in Oklahoma City, sponsors
in Oklahoma City and marketing and broadcast partners
in Oklahoma City enjoy the highest value from their relationship with the Sonics and Storm.
Seattle, on the other hand, can piss off."Sincerely,
Clayton I. Bennett
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-02-2007 @ 4:32PM
captainbinky said...
TRADE BENNET
Reply
11-02-2007 @ 5:50PM
ron said...
Mr. Ziller what is the big deal???? Big business does this crap all of the time. You do not carry on if Ford or GM moves an assembly plant to Mexico, The NBA moves part of their operations to Arizona, MLB teams exit Florida for more money and perks,etc.etc. Why shouldn't the Sonics move if they can get a better deal wherever it may be???? I for one recently lost my job because the new owner for the market felt the same way and I am not bitter, that is LIFE.
Reply
11-02-2007 @ 6:58PM
Miss Gossip said...
you should patent this translator and sell it to Babel Fish.
Reply
11-02-2007 @ 6:58PM
TheHype said...
+3921 idiot points for ron. Sorry to hear about your layoff, but what you're basically saying is: don't complain when someone is giving you a turd shower.
In other words: TZ's decoding machine is brilliant, I need to order me one of them bad boys.
Reply
11-02-2007 @ 8:35PM
Stephanie Stradley said...
Genius translator.
+2 Miss Gossip, TheHype
Reply
11-03-2007 @ 5:37AM
Hollywood Ron said...
People care about the WNBA? News to me.
Reply
11-04-2007 @ 11:48AM
shiltsjoejoe said...
I think it is important to note that item 1 comes before item 2. Sadly, the events of the past 15 months have led me to believe that you care about neither. Your inactivity in assisting those who wish to keep the SuperSonics in Seattle further leads me to believe that you and Clay Bennett are walking in lockstep as he drags this franchise out of the Pacific Northwest and down to Oklahoma.
Mr. Stern, I cannot believe that you would willingly allow Mr. Bennett to follow through on his words. A group of local investors came forward on November 1, 2007, stating firmly that they had the resources in place to purchase the Sonics from Mr. Bennett. And yet, Mr. Bennett refuses to deal with them, and insists on hijacking the franchise.
How can you, as commissioner of this league, permit this to happen? Set aside the squabbles over arenas for a moment, and ponder this: If you were bothered by the negative publicity your league received after this debacle of a summer (the Donaghy scandal, Kobe Bryant, the neverending run-ins with the law), will you not be bothered by the firestorm of venom which will flow into your offices if you permit a team which has resided in a city for more than 40 years to leave town, when a group of local citizens is willing and able to prevent that from happening?
As a citizen of Seattle,WA. I remember vividly how you repeatedly parroted your party line of, “I have never let a franchise move on my watch as commissioner” to the people of this city Vancouver,B.C. Then, we watched as Michael Heisley took the Grizzlies to Memphis, and then later saw the Hornets move to New Orleans. Does that sentiment of loyalty to the cities which made your league rich still hold true? Or was it even true to begin with?
As commissioner of the league, you have the power to force Clay Bennett to choose between two options: either sell his interest in the Sonics to this new group, or force him to stay in Seattle.
Any other decision you make will further sully the horrible image your league already possesses.
A concerned fan,
Reply