With LawsuitFest 2008 pitting Howard Schultz against Clay Bennett’s legal dream team, it appears that our friends in Seattle are crying over spilled starbucks. Everyone seems to realize that OKC is better for the NBA except for a delusional Yahoo! writer and some sporadic chatter at the Dark Tower’s website.
As a City, we’ve endured this garbage before when we temporarily borrowed the Hornets from the underwater Orleans. They needed a place to stay, and we had a place for the then-horrible Hornets to play. This poor little market produced better attendance than Boston, Houston, and that zit on Puget Sound, Seattle the last year the Hornets played downtown.
At the time I said repeatedly — and got flamed, repeatedly — that the right thing to do would be let the Hornets fly home. I had faith that the NBA’s financial department would have a brain, see our home attendance, and provide us an opportunity for a team. I was right then and I am right now.
Clay Bennett played a role that few would want to play. The people of Seattle ostracized the owner of their team based on his residence in Oklahoma. He spent $350,000,000.00 on that franchise — more money than the entire GDP of an independent country. If Bennett gets the green light from the NBA to move that team to just inside the gates of hell, it is his right to do so.
The fact is, we’re profitable and Seattle is not. Had the City of Seattle, the State of Washington or the people of Seattle lifted a finger other than to complain the same “woe-is-me” song they sing about their Warshington Huskies since their fluke against OU in 1985, I would feel sorry for them. Dressing up like a bunch of hippies and crying at a town square is not going to make a market profitable. New arena? Yes. Schultz’ business sense, no.
The longer this cavetching continues, the more inclined I am to push renaming the Ford Center the “Sonic” Center, rip on former Seahawk Steve Largent’s dismal career, and boycotting Starbucks. Anyone else in?
Starbucks closing map, some possible OKC locations: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/flatpages/businesstechnology/locationsofstarbucksstoresclosingacrossthenation.html
Did Schultz have a clause in the contract for the sale of the team that Bennett would not move the team? If not, the is no case.
Hmmm, notice the Starbucks closest to the Dark Tower is closing. Coincidence? I think not . . .
No way the Starbucks across Broadway Extension is closing. It opened about two months ago.
If Schultz (or as Dean Blevins refers to him - “the Starbucks Guy”) proceeds with the lawsuit, we should just call our team the Oklahoma City Sonic Drive-Ins.
Or, for the ultimate name, Oklahoma City SuperSonic Cheeseburgers.
…with tater tots and a vanilla Dr. Pepper.
No onions.
I already avoid Starbucks on the basis that I’m not a pretentious douchebag who needs an over-priced beverage to improve my self-image…
…so I guess I’m in too.
Oh, and Ryan. Starbucks is closing 600 stores across the country, and most of them are fairly new locations.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1310ap_starbucks_closings.html
Just wanted to check something … are you going to rip on Steve Largent’s dismal football career of catching things, his dismal political career of losing to Governor Sleepsalot, or his dismal lobbying career?
Really? Steve Largent dismal career of catching things? Yeah, most HOF’s have pretty dismal pro careers. Nice statement jackass.
Maybe Sam wanted to say Brian Bosworth’s dismal career, but just didn’t know any better?
I meant his dismal political career against our charismatic governor, Brad “I-look-like-Ralphie-from-that-Christmas-time-movie” Henry. As for his great football career, isn’t Stevie the only guy to have his number un-retired then re-retired…? Special player, or footnote in history?
*Ouch*Ouch*Ouch*
I am mortally wounded by your caustic wit, Elo Melgo!
Not.
Any career spent catching things sounds dismal to me, especially if you’re doing the catching in Seattle instead of someplace more noble and dignified, like Oakland.
How nice of Kelvin to take time away from the myriad of phone calls he has to make to post a comment or two.
I’ve always had a preference for strong coffees, and Starbucks seems better than doubling up on the Folgers. There are 7 Starbucks within 5 miles of my house here on the northwest side of the city (if you include the ones inside Target (2) and Barnes & Noble). That is too many.
We should have had the foresight to open Cafe Du Monde franchises. Yes, it wouldn’t be the same without the smells of the French Quarter, but beignets trump Starbucks’ iced lemon pound cake any day. I’m happy to have an NBA team, but I would take the Hornets/Cafe Due Monde over the ?????/Starbucks any day.
OKC doesn’t deserve an NBA team. They tried to steal the Hornets from New Orleans but failed. Now they stole the Sonics from Seattle.
Can’t you stupid inbred hicks stop stealing things you idiotic cleetchasers.
Maybe Bobby Stoops and Jimmy Paris orchestrated this theft.
I’m pretty sure Steve Largent set some pretty impressive NFL records. That’s pretty dismal.
Yah, those football hall-of-famers really botched their career.
This is an angry post.
I’m more than willing to get behind a Starbucks boycott, as I am a pretentious douchebag who needs an over-priced beverage to not taste like charred shit. I can most certainly get behind some Largent bashing, as well. Let’s not bring the Boz into this, if we can help it though.
On a different note: Bill, by “tried to steal” do you mean, “gave a home, allowed to flourish, and actually gave a shit about a team NOLA didn’t particularly care all that much about”? If we were talking about the Saints moving here and OKC trying to keep them, things would be different– but we aren’t, and they’re not. The Hornets were New Orleans for three seasons before they moved to OKC for two.
I love and feel for New Orleans as much or more as I loved the Hornets being in my hometown, and I’m glad that they are back in New Orleans, playing well, and being supported. But come on- don’t demonize OKC for supporting a displaced team, or even for wanting that team to stay (in a town it had been in nearly as long as it had been in New Orleans, in the town in which the team was located when CP3 started playing, in a town that gave the team far and away more support than it had received in New Orleans.)
God, how much cooler would it have been if Clay Bennett had actually bought Tonga and moved it to OKC. I’d love to have a little piece of the South Pacific in downtown OKC.
No I mean steal as in stealing them from Seattle.
Apparently you dont understand what steal means. Sort of like Oklahomans dont understand that Bobby Stoops is overrated and didnt even recruit half of the players on the national championship team.
Apparently Bill doesn’t know what steal means. Clay Bennett and his ownership group paid $350 million for the Sonics and bought them from Mr. Starbucks. See, when you pay for something for an agreed upon price, that means you bought it. When you take it without paying, that’s stealing.
I understand that Seattle fans feel a sense of ownership of the team, but that sense of ownership is a fantasy. The owners of the team were a group of very rich men who lived in your town. They sold the team to a group of very rich men who live in our town. No one stole anything.
I’ve come to understand during all this Sonics nonsense that I’d rather have an NBA team and be disliked than not have an NBA team and be liked.
I was going to say what Common Sense said, so I guess, Ditto!
Never understood pro sports fans … was it Jerry Seinfeld who observed that pro fans are rooting for clothes?
just my opinion, but every reference to seattle including some sort of starbucks analogy is pretty lame. just like every reference to oklahoma from not-the-sonics fan having to do with tumbleweeds and banjos and farm sodomy. “crying in their lattes,” “spilled starbucks,” “half-caf mocha vente gellato…” is that all anyone knows about seattle? even if it is, it’s time for a new punchline. how about making fun of the town because its most famous residents smell like fish (you know, pike place fish market?)? while this little jab is certainly not a prize winner, it is a step up from the java cracks. and since when does spawning a multi-gagillion dollar coffee enterprise considered to be a cause for mockery? i don’t patronize that place because i brew my own and consider 6 dollar coffee to be wasteful and bad for my girlish figure. i guess people think starbucks is a synonym for panty-waist, tree-hugging, bleeding heart liberal or something. but last time i checked, folks in red states are drinking that shit, too. oklahoma included.
“i guess people think starbucks is a synonym for panty-waist, tree-hugging, bleeding heart liberal or something. but last time i checked, folks in red states are drinking that shit, too. oklahoma included.”
Yep. All the panty-waist, tree-hugging, bleeding heart liberals who are in the minority in the red states are drinking that shit too. A dog is a dog, regardless of where it lays its head or leaves its fleas.
Oh, to be married to a Gaylord.
This is truly the most brilliant writing by any journalist, ever. I’m sure, besides being quite erudite, Sam is quite handsome and has a wonderful personality. He deserves a raise.