Still working on figuring out the best time for this feature. Any thoughts on when you'd like to see it? As always, let me know in the comments or via Twitter, Facebook or e-mail. Be sure to leave your submissions for upcoming editions as well!
Video Of The Day: Relient K - Sadie Hawkins Dance
I've always liked this song. For one thing, it's a nice anthem for us somewhat nerdy types. For another thing, it reminds you of the dangers of egotism; thinking you're a big deal usually is a prerequisite to a fall.
My Links:
- None of the stories I've written this week have been posted yet, but you can check out this video I did for The South Delta Leader on the opening of the new Canada Line transit system Monday:
The Best Of The Intertubes:
Hockey:
- The great Tom Benjamin fills Greg Wyshynski in on the five reasons he loves hockey. Benjamin's long been one of my favourite writers, so it's pretty cool to see why he likes the game [Puck Daddy].
- Benjamin also has a good look at the Red Wings' signing of Todd Bertuzzi [Canucks Corner].
- David Backes and Ryan Kesler playing together for Team USA? That might be a bit awkward after Kesler's comments about Backes' wife during last year's playoffs [Nucks Misconduct].
- Chemmy brings us a public service announcement on behalf of Leafs' defenceman Luke Schenn [Pension Plan Puppets].
- Claude Lemieux will join a cast of former NHLers and figure skaters on the CBC figure skating show Battle Of The Blades this fall. Think of it as Dancing With The Stars, but on ice. Will Kris Draper go all Tonya Harding on Lemieux? [James Mirtle, From The Rink].
Football:
- Joe Posnanski breaks down the real reason Brett Favre came back. It's not what you think; it's much, much worse! [JoeBlog]
- Minda Haas gets her hands on a Heisman Trophy. Could she be a darkhorse candidate this year? [Getting To First Base].
- lowercase breaks down the Mountain West Conference [The Phoenix Pub].
- It's not just the Raiders' coaches who fight. But who would have guessed the Bills would be next? [Los Angeles Times, via The AP's Dave Goldberg].
Baseball:
- Ian Hunter on the surprising humanity of Roy Halladay [The Blue Jay Hunter].
- Keith Law takes down the Jays' failure to sign three of their first four picks [Drunk Jays Fans].
- Aaron Fischman looks at the state of the Dodgers [Dodger Blue Blog].
- Will Carroll has some nice praise for Joe Posnanski's The Machine (which will be released to the general public on 09/09/09!). "If there's a better sports book this year, I haven't read it." Can't wait to buy this one. [Twitter]
Basketball:
- Chuck Knoblockhead examines the real reason behind the Rick Pitino restaurant affair, with the help of Bill James and "Babermetrics" [Style Points].
- Did Shaq steal his reality TV show plan from former Suns' teammate Steve Nash? [Fully Clips]
- A Kevin Garnett Chelsea jersey? Would have expected KG to show better taste than that. [Ball Don't Lie].
- Nat looks at the Raptors' acquisitions of Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems [Heels on Hardwood].
Soccer:
- Sam breaks down Manchester United's disappointing loss to Burnley [The Canadian Stretford End].
- Ginge looks at if World Soccer Daily host Steven Cohen is going after Antony Ananins, the man who organized the advertising boycott of Cohen's show [Ginge Talks The Footy].
- Looking at the MLS teams heading in to the playoffs [Avoiding The Drop].
Other Sports:
- Usain Bolt follows in JFK's footsteps [Chris Chase, Fourth-Place Medal].
That does it for today's edition of The Link Train. Send me your submissions for tomorrow!
Showing posts with label Drunk Jays Fans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Drunk Jays Fans. Show all posts
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Wanted: Better Blue Jays owners
One of the most interesting themes around the Blue Jays lately is the discussion of how their ownership has changed [Stephen Brunt, The Globe and Mail] since the death of Ted Rogers. Rogers CEO Nadir Mohamed recently said the company remains committed to the Jays in a conference call, but talked of "bringing costs in line" [Jeff Blair, The Globe and Mail]. Those comments, as well as the recent trade of Alex Rios for nothing [Bob Elliott, Toronto Sun] and Scott Rolen for prospects, have led to speculation that Rogers may sell the team, as well as plenty of indignation over the team being run like a business.
However, that indignation is misplaced in my mind. There's nothing wrong with running a team like a business; after all, a business-driven approach led to Billy Beane's Moneyball strategy in Oakland. That exact approach is more difficult to execute these days, but the business principles behind it of finding undervalued assets, developing them and then selling them for more than their true value still hold true. In fact, they often apply across sports; see Mike Gillis' "Moneypuck" plan with the Vancouver Canucks.
The problem is that Rogers is currently approaching the problem from the wrong end. What they see is declining revenues. Perhaps the best example is the rapidly falling attendance) [Sports Business Daily]. The Toronto Star's Garth Woosley wrote that the Jays' average home attendance is the 25th-worst in baseball this year and that they're the worst draw in the majors on the road. Now, the Jays' attendance hasn't always been bad, even recently; Baseball Reference indicates that they were in the upper half of the AL for the last two years and eighth the year before that.
The apparent solution for Rogers? Bring their expenses in line with their revenues. Reduce payroll to a level that will allow them to make a profit despite diminished attendance. You have to think that's at least a factor [Drew Fairservice, Ghostrunner on First] in the deal that sent third baseman Scott Rolen to Cinncinnati, even if general manager J.P. Ricciardi pulled a song-and-dance about "personal reasons" [Robert MacLeod, The Globe and Mail] (where have we heard that one before?). Moreover, they'll actually only save around $5.25 million thanks to sending cash to the Reds in the deal, as Ian Hunter of Blue Jay Hunter reported on Twitter. Still, from a fire sale point of view, it's a start. The Rios trade is another logical step in that direction (Jeff Blair, The Globe and Mail), especially as it's being called "the largest salary dump in MLB history" [Buster Olney, ESPN.com]. The real revelation of their intent will come this winter, though, when they have to make decisions on again trying to trade Roy Halladay and other veteran players.
In my mind, though, cutting payroll to match revenues will only beget a vicious cycle. Toronto is not a market where most people go to view talented prospects or enjoy a day at the ballpark; Toronto fans tend to get behind winning teams or teams that have a buzz around them. The best example is the Toronto Argonauts; during their Grey Cup campaign in 2004, they drew a ton of interest, but they've struggled since then and are barely noticed in their home market these days. The Raptors are also a strong case in point; they attracted relatively little interest during the early years when they weren't all that good, but have been coming on strong in recent years with a couple of playoff runs. Last year's step back hurt them a bit. It's a similar story with Toronto FC; sure, they haven't acheived much on the field yet, but their fans have been incredibly restless considering how new they are to the league. Even in the first season, there were plenty ticked off that they weren't already in the playoffs, and that discontent has grown over time. That's motivated the team to add older veterans like Dwayne DeRosario in hopes of winning now.
NFL International vice-president Gord Smeaton gave me the perfect quote on this when I interviewed him for the Queen's Alumni Review last fall about the NFL and their games in Toronto. "Toronto isn't a sports city," he said. "It's an entertainment city." To me, that's a perfect way to describe it. Sure, there are plenty of diehard fans who will go to games whether their team is awesome or atrocious, but they're not the ones most important to the bottom line. The difference between making money and losing it are the fans who show up only when there's something to see, and those fans are a significant force in Toronto.
Now, the Leafs are largely an exception to this, as they get plenty of interest and support even when they're awful. Part of that's due to sheer demographics, though; there are so many diehard Leafs fans in the area that there's tremendous demand for tickets regardless of how they're playing. However, for many years they stuck to the "middle way" of doing enough to make the playoffs but not enough to win it all, never really taking time to rebuild; in my mind, that was at least partly due to business-driven fears of what would happen if they ever missed the playoffs. Seeing as MLSE's largest stakeholder is the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, there's a good reason one of the best Leafs' sites out there is called Pension Plan Puppets. Ironically, since then, the Leafs have taken several steps in the right direction, hiring general manager Brian Burke and going into full rebuilding mode. They're still getting great fan support, and they'll be good again in the future.
Unfortunately, the Jays under Ricciardi have adopted the Leafs' old business plan; do enough to keep fans coming, but never enough to contend. They never increased their payroll to a level where they could compete with the Yankees and Red Sox in the present, but they were just as unwilling to go into a rebuilding mode and try and compete with cheap prospects a few years down the road. The middle way is inoffensive, as the team's always good enough to offer false hope (see their hot start this year) despite their lack of accomplishments. Moreover, it gives some fans a smug sense of superiority; "Well, at least we're not as bad as the Orioles or the Pirates!" That is misplaced; those organizations may be worse at the moment, but they're attempting full-fledged rebuilds and could be very good down the road. Look at Tampa Bay's turnaround last year. Meanwhile, the Jays persist in the long journey towards mediocrity.
There is perhaps some hope, though. If the team is sold, new owners may be more willing to invest in building a solid franchise. Even if Rogers hangs on to them, they may not be as tight-fisted as many fear. Toronto Sports Media reported that Prime Time Sports host Bob McCown said last night that Ricciardi should be gone by the end of the year and the payroll next year would jump to $100-120 million. With the Jays' promising young pitchers, that might just be enough to contend. A contending team with a new general manager would likely restore the fans' faith and dramatically increase attendance and interest (as well as ratings on the Rogers broadcasts of Jays content on The Fan 590 and Sportsnet), paying for itself and more in the process. There is a risk, though; if that money isn't spent wisely (hello, Vernon Wells!), the team could be worse off than before, with a losing record, lacklustre attendance and a massive payroll. I can't see the cautious suits at Rogers making that kind of a gamble on their own, but interim president Paul Beeston might be able to convince them; after all, Beeston was there during the glory years and knows just how well the city will support a good baseball team. He also knows what it takes to build a winner. If this payroll increase is in fact the case, the Rios deal might actually make some sense, as it would give the Jays more room to maneuver [Dustin Parkes, Drunk Jays Fans]. Given Rogers' track record, I'll believe it when I see it, though.
However, that indignation is misplaced in my mind. There's nothing wrong with running a team like a business; after all, a business-driven approach led to Billy Beane's Moneyball strategy in Oakland. That exact approach is more difficult to execute these days, but the business principles behind it of finding undervalued assets, developing them and then selling them for more than their true value still hold true. In fact, they often apply across sports; see Mike Gillis' "Moneypuck" plan with the Vancouver Canucks.
The problem is that Rogers is currently approaching the problem from the wrong end. What they see is declining revenues. Perhaps the best example is the rapidly falling attendance) [Sports Business Daily]. The Toronto Star's Garth Woosley wrote that the Jays' average home attendance is the 25th-worst in baseball this year and that they're the worst draw in the majors on the road. Now, the Jays' attendance hasn't always been bad, even recently; Baseball Reference indicates that they were in the upper half of the AL for the last two years and eighth the year before that.
The apparent solution for Rogers? Bring their expenses in line with their revenues. Reduce payroll to a level that will allow them to make a profit despite diminished attendance. You have to think that's at least a factor [Drew Fairservice, Ghostrunner on First] in the deal that sent third baseman Scott Rolen to Cinncinnati, even if general manager J.P. Ricciardi pulled a song-and-dance about "personal reasons" [Robert MacLeod, The Globe and Mail] (where have we heard that one before?). Moreover, they'll actually only save around $5.25 million thanks to sending cash to the Reds in the deal, as Ian Hunter of Blue Jay Hunter reported on Twitter. Still, from a fire sale point of view, it's a start. The Rios trade is another logical step in that direction (Jeff Blair, The Globe and Mail), especially as it's being called "the largest salary dump in MLB history" [Buster Olney, ESPN.com]. The real revelation of their intent will come this winter, though, when they have to make decisions on again trying to trade Roy Halladay and other veteran players.
In my mind, though, cutting payroll to match revenues will only beget a vicious cycle. Toronto is not a market where most people go to view talented prospects or enjoy a day at the ballpark; Toronto fans tend to get behind winning teams or teams that have a buzz around them. The best example is the Toronto Argonauts; during their Grey Cup campaign in 2004, they drew a ton of interest, but they've struggled since then and are barely noticed in their home market these days. The Raptors are also a strong case in point; they attracted relatively little interest during the early years when they weren't all that good, but have been coming on strong in recent years with a couple of playoff runs. Last year's step back hurt them a bit. It's a similar story with Toronto FC; sure, they haven't acheived much on the field yet, but their fans have been incredibly restless considering how new they are to the league. Even in the first season, there were plenty ticked off that they weren't already in the playoffs, and that discontent has grown over time. That's motivated the team to add older veterans like Dwayne DeRosario in hopes of winning now.
NFL International vice-president Gord Smeaton gave me the perfect quote on this when I interviewed him for the Queen's Alumni Review last fall about the NFL and their games in Toronto. "Toronto isn't a sports city," he said. "It's an entertainment city." To me, that's a perfect way to describe it. Sure, there are plenty of diehard fans who will go to games whether their team is awesome or atrocious, but they're not the ones most important to the bottom line. The difference between making money and losing it are the fans who show up only when there's something to see, and those fans are a significant force in Toronto.
Now, the Leafs are largely an exception to this, as they get plenty of interest and support even when they're awful. Part of that's due to sheer demographics, though; there are so many diehard Leafs fans in the area that there's tremendous demand for tickets regardless of how they're playing. However, for many years they stuck to the "middle way" of doing enough to make the playoffs but not enough to win it all, never really taking time to rebuild; in my mind, that was at least partly due to business-driven fears of what would happen if they ever missed the playoffs. Seeing as MLSE's largest stakeholder is the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, there's a good reason one of the best Leafs' sites out there is called Pension Plan Puppets. Ironically, since then, the Leafs have taken several steps in the right direction, hiring general manager Brian Burke and going into full rebuilding mode. They're still getting great fan support, and they'll be good again in the future.
Unfortunately, the Jays under Ricciardi have adopted the Leafs' old business plan; do enough to keep fans coming, but never enough to contend. They never increased their payroll to a level where they could compete with the Yankees and Red Sox in the present, but they were just as unwilling to go into a rebuilding mode and try and compete with cheap prospects a few years down the road. The middle way is inoffensive, as the team's always good enough to offer false hope (see their hot start this year) despite their lack of accomplishments. Moreover, it gives some fans a smug sense of superiority; "Well, at least we're not as bad as the Orioles or the Pirates!" That is misplaced; those organizations may be worse at the moment, but they're attempting full-fledged rebuilds and could be very good down the road. Look at Tampa Bay's turnaround last year. Meanwhile, the Jays persist in the long journey towards mediocrity.
There is perhaps some hope, though. If the team is sold, new owners may be more willing to invest in building a solid franchise. Even if Rogers hangs on to them, they may not be as tight-fisted as many fear. Toronto Sports Media reported that Prime Time Sports host Bob McCown said last night that Ricciardi should be gone by the end of the year and the payroll next year would jump to $100-120 million. With the Jays' promising young pitchers, that might just be enough to contend. A contending team with a new general manager would likely restore the fans' faith and dramatically increase attendance and interest (as well as ratings on the Rogers broadcasts of Jays content on The Fan 590 and Sportsnet), paying for itself and more in the process. There is a risk, though; if that money isn't spent wisely (hello, Vernon Wells!), the team could be worse off than before, with a losing record, lacklustre attendance and a massive payroll. I can't see the cautious suits at Rogers making that kind of a gamble on their own, but interim president Paul Beeston might be able to convince them; after all, Beeston was there during the glory years and knows just how well the city will support a good baseball team. He also knows what it takes to build a winner. If this payroll increase is in fact the case, the Rios deal might actually make some sense, as it would give the Jays more room to maneuver [Dustin Parkes, Drunk Jays Fans]. Given Rogers' track record, I'll believe it when I see it, though.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Sonics reaction: the morning round-up
As I wrote in my Out of Left Field post on the Sonics settlement earlier this morning, there are only two scenarios by which this abrupt reversal on the city's part makes sense in my mind. The first is that they've actually obtained a more substantial guarantee of a replacement team than was indicated in the settlement deal: the second is that they were hornswoggled into accepting a bunch of cash and a number of vague promises for the future in return for their franchise.
This second, more depressing scenario, which I picked as seeming more likely at the moment, seems to be the predominant belief in Seattle for the present. As columnist Steve Kelley of The Seattle Times wrote today:
"Basketball died in Seattle Wednesday afternoon. It died because too many people who should have cared didn't. It died of neglect. It died because all of the powers-that-be stopped paying attention. ... Basketball is dead, and don't look for any miracle resurrections. Chances are good that an entire generation will grow up in this town without the NBA to watch."
Jim Moore of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, who generously took the time to speak with me earlier in the day, relates a great interview with writer Sherman Alexie in his column:
"I can't believe this is even happening."
Neither can Sherman Alexie, the author and Stranger contributor and witness who testified during the Sonics trial on the fans' behalf. The longtime season-ticket holder likened the players to Greek gods, and now they're gone.
"There's death and divorce, No. 1 and 2 in terms of stress and grief, and this is No. 3," Alexie said.
A year and a half ago in his Death Watch series of Stranger columns about the Sonics, Alexie said he cried 20 times since the sale of the team to Clay Bennett and the Oklahoma City group. Many more tears were shed Wednesday night.
"The Sonics were indigenous to the city," he said. "They were created here, their entire history existed here, and now they've died."
Alexie recognizes that the settlement made economic sense, but said: "I didn't realize that was our fight. The court case was never about that. The city decided to put a monetary figure on the love of the game and love of the Sonics. I didn't expect that to be an issue."
Moore's Post-Intelligencer colleague Art Thiel is also unhappy:
"Now we know the price of possession.
Now we learn the cost of neglect.
The 'man possessed,' Clay Bennett, showed that he will do just about anything to gratify himself and his fellow Oklahomans by offering another silly payment for NBA ball, yet one the Seattle political leadership lacked the guts to refuse.
Obliterated for cash is 41 years of sports and civic history. So much for the city's passionate courtroom argument that the pro basketball team was of irreplaceable value.
New York, if you fancy the Space Needle, bring your checkbook and a really big hacksaw. We'll deal. As with the Sonics, it's privately owned and not used by a majority of voters, and its structure is a World Fair relic that maybe could use an upgrade.
To paraphrase a famous punch line by Winston Churchill, we know what we are. We're just quibbling over price. ... As for the additional $30 million due in 2013 if Bennett hasn't helped get another franchise for Seattle -- please. Bennett being forced to help Seattle scrounge a team is like hiring Yosemite Sam to be an anger-management counselor.
Besides, as Bennett has proven throughout this sordid affair, $30 million to him and his petrol pals is like $100 to the rest of us. They'll make that in the next month's gas-price gouges, and won't have to pay it for five years. And how about that five-year wait? In today's economy, is anyone betting on anything five years out?
The notion that the NBA will create an expansion team -- probably in tandem with a second city, for a scheduling- friendly 32-team league -- is based on two wafer-thin assumptions: That the national domestic market will be flush, and that the 2009 Legislature in a declining economy will authorize tax money to trick up KeyArena on spec, as opposed to the three other times it said no when the economy was good and Seattle had a team. Good luck with that."
Seth Kolloen of Sports Northwest Magazine and Enjoy the Enjoyment, who generously took the time to do an interview with me the other day, weighs in on the NBA's illusory promises:
"This thing about how "the NBA agrees that a renovated KeyArena is an acceptable facility" is silly. It doesn't matter what the NBA says--it matters what an owner says. An NBA owner could play in the Ingraham High gym if he felt like it (ok, not really, but you get the idea)."
Constable Echelon over at Hotdog & Friends discusses both the despair in Seattle and the league-wide implications of this decision (language warning, if you care about that).
"I’m currently studying a little revolutionary era France. I’ll admit it’s always been a little hard to wrap my head around the idea of a society so unjust that the only recourse for the common man was to take to the streets, round up those responsible, and cut off their heads. I imagine that insatiable bloodlust started with those people feeling like I feel right now.
Obviously I’m being dramatic. It’s just a basketball team. In theory I’ll get over this.
I know that professional sports owners don’t care about me. I’m poor. I have maybe a couple hundred bucks a year to give them. My chief benefit is the ambience I help provide for the people in the suites. They only care about me when I’m the only exploitable revenue stream, and if a team is counting on regular fans to keep it profitable they are fucked.
...
The current NBA business model requires a massive amount of public money to keep teams profitable. Someone has to pay for Kenny Thomas’s contract, after all. Now Seattle has provided a delightful example for the league to scare the shit out of other markets with. We’re a nicely above average region replete with affluent demographics that’s out of the way enough that people don’t get too outraged at how we’ve been treated. If the league doesn’t care about our 41 years of rock solid fan support and consistently winning basketball teams, what hope does anyone have?"
Mr. Baker at SonicsCentral blames the political leadership for selling out.
"No team for the fans, cash for the city, an IOU from Clay Bennett if we cash the IOU from the State of Washington, nothing for the fans.
We were screwed. That offer was not going to get worse with time, and with a court win, they took money from somebody that has money, but the mayor, Mayor Nickels, said it wasn’t about the money in his testimony; it was about enforcing the lease, and retaining NBA basketball in Seattle; neither happened.
Thanks for almost rising to the challenge Mayor Nickels.
I hate Clay Bennett, I watched him lie, and now I watched Mayor Nickels let him get away with it."
And now, some reaction from the rest of the league:
Henry Abbott of TrueHoop talks about how this case affects the fans.
"It was never, in my mind, an Oklahoma City vs. Seattle thing.
It's an owner vs. fans thing.
Sports operate in a bizarre realm. The fans, who are the paying customers, provide the revenue, passion, and love that make any league worthwhile. But those same fans who are such an essential part of the franchise have no legal standing at all. They have no signed agreements. The team has no obligation to them at all.
So fans are, legally, vulnerable. And although everyone acknowledges they are central to the enterprise, they can be trampled by owners, who pay for the right to do what they would like with a team.
I'm from the school of thought that says just because you have the tiger by the tail doesn't mean you must yank. I'm for respecting the people involved, even if you can get away with hurting them. That's character.
Instead we have something that's something like the worst marriage ever, back in the days before women had rights at all. Both partners play key roles, but one can lie, cheat, hit, and all the rest of it, while the other can only be stoic."
John DeShazier of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, who understands how close his own city came to losing their team to Oklahoma, despises the way Seattle fans were treated.
"It's business, so it doesn't have to be nice, neat and topped by a ribbon.
It's business, so it can be packed full of half-truths and outright lies, with passions strewn throughout a city and region and fans left to feel used and ignored.
It's business. But that doesn't mean it's not heartless, disingenuous and undeserving what Clay Bennett and his Oklahoma City ownership group did to Seattle. It doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye and thank the heavens it wasn't New Orleans that was preyed upon by a group of men who attempted to deceive so often and so poorly, they comfortably would have fit on the witness stand for the BALCO grand jury. ... But in the history of moves -- from the Colts sneaking out of Baltimore in the dead of night, to Art Modell dragging his Cleveland Browns franchise to Baltimore, to the Grizzlies moving from Vancover to Memphis and the Hornets from Charlotte to New Orleans -- few have been more littered by deception from an ownership group.
It's business, so at the end there's no guarantee everyone will be holding hands and singing.
But that doesn't mean anyone should feel comfortable with how this deal came about, doesn't mean anyone deserves what Seattle got, the way Seattle got it."
By contrast, Berry Tramel of the Oklahoman (a paper owned by Clay Bennett's inlaws), is gloating and encouraging Oklahomans to feel no shame.
"When the Sonics come to Oklahoma City, most everyone west of Spokane and lots of folks east of there will look at OKC and quote Gomer Pyle.
Shame, shame, shame!
Shame on Oklahoma City for swiping the Sonics from the loving arms of Seattle. Shame on Oklahoma City for not waiting on an expansion team.
Don't buy it. Don't listen to it. Don't let anyone spoil your celebration. Don't let anyone make you feel guilty.
Because here's what major-league ballteams do.
They move. Always have, always will. ...
If the NFL can leave Greater Los Angeles, where's the calamity in the NBA leaving Seattle?
The Seattle crowd likes to warn Oklahoma City that if Clay Bennett can put the screws to Seattle, he will do the same thing to his hometown.
Maybe. Maybe not. Frankly, I'm not all that interested in a history lesson from a city that built a new palace for the Seahawks and a new palace for the Mariners and then wants to start lecturing other cities, warning them about the dangers of giving into disgruntled franchise owners."
There are still a few voices with a bit of optimism, suggesting they believe in the first scenario or at least think settlement was a better option than continuing to fight it out. Among them is Kelley's Times colleague Jerry Brewer, even though he still casts severe doubts on the success of this strategy in today's column:
From M-V-P chants to M-O-U rants. Oh, how the Sonics have fallen. The city, after exhibiting a chest-poking resolve to keep the Raiders in their KeyArena lease, folded. Once intent on letting the Sonics go only with a guarantee that NBA basketball would return to Seattle, Mayor Greg Nickels settled for a tub of cash and a promise from the NBA to be nice. David Stern won't shoot spitballs at Nickels anymore. Stern will keep the mayor updated on relocation or expansion opportunities ("Um, sorry, mayor, nothing yet. Call back next century, OK?"), and he won't curse after hanging up the phone. ... Perhaps if all parties had negotiated with sincerity and purpose from the beginning, this predicament could've been avoided. In the end, the city stopped playing hardball because it couldn't win with that approach. Not with Czar Stern leading the NBA. So will diplomacy yield better results? Who knows? Right now, it's just awkward seeing the combatants refraining from sticking their tongues out at each other.
By contrast, John McGrath of the Tacoma News-Tribune appears to be a confirmed believer in the first scenario, and he's sure the city will get another team in the near future:
"But once you have concluded the grieving process, understand this: The NBA is coming back to Seattle, coming back to KeyArena, coming back in green and, yes, in gold.
A franchise owned by Oklahomans who envision the dour, robotically efficient San Antonio Spurs as the model of pro-basketball success is leaving, to be replaced by a franchise owned by Seattle businessmen who’ve got this intriguing notion that the winning and consistently entertaining Sonics teams of the George Karl era might be a more pertinent blueprint.
The Sonics will return because the city of Seattle backed out of a fight that would’ve rendered the “winners” as bloodied and battered as the 1950s middleweight boxer who prevailed over Jake LaMotta in a split decision.
Beyond draining tens of millions of dollars – pocket change – from the bottomless bank account of Bennett and his buddies, forcing the Oklahoma owners to fulfill the final two years of their team’s KeyArena lease accomplishes precisely what?
It sours fans, further poisoning pro basketball’s already toxic climate in Seattle. Two seasons of Spurs Lite was tough enough. Can you imagine two more seasons?
More important, two years of attempting to humiliate Bennett – a man I sense is constitutionally incapable of saying “pardon me” after spilling his coffee on a fellow first-class airline passenger, much less humiliation – forever dooms Seattle’s chances of reconciling with the NBA.
Sure, the league is run by a commissioner, David Stern, whose every breath contributes to a smug alert. When he spoke on behalf of Bennett’s half-baked campaign for a thoroughly modern, $500 million arena in King County, Stern championed the proposal less as an opportunity than a threat.
If the Sonics leave, he said in so many words, Seattle can kiss the NBA goodbye.
The posture was firm, the rhetoric inflexible. More recently, behind the scenes, Stern was quite more amenable to a truce with Seattle: Let this team go, we’ll have your back the next time there’s a franchise-relocation opportunity.
As city of Seattle attorney Tom Carr, speaking to KJR a few minutes after the settlement-disclosure press conference, put it: “Having the NBA pleased with you is a lot better than having the NBA mad at you.”
In other words, suck it up, and try to consider David Stern less as the czar of an evil empire than a friend of the disenfranchised.
Just a hunch, but I’m predicting an NBA team calling itself the Sonics tipping off at KeyArena for the 2011-12 season."
Let's hope he's right.
This second, more depressing scenario, which I picked as seeming more likely at the moment, seems to be the predominant belief in Seattle for the present. As columnist Steve Kelley of The Seattle Times wrote today:
"Basketball died in Seattle Wednesday afternoon. It died because too many people who should have cared didn't. It died of neglect. It died because all of the powers-that-be stopped paying attention. ... Basketball is dead, and don't look for any miracle resurrections. Chances are good that an entire generation will grow up in this town without the NBA to watch."
Jim Moore of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, who generously took the time to speak with me earlier in the day, relates a great interview with writer Sherman Alexie in his column:
"I can't believe this is even happening."
Neither can Sherman Alexie, the author and Stranger contributor and witness who testified during the Sonics trial on the fans' behalf. The longtime season-ticket holder likened the players to Greek gods, and now they're gone.
"There's death and divorce, No. 1 and 2 in terms of stress and grief, and this is No. 3," Alexie said.
A year and a half ago in his Death Watch series of Stranger columns about the Sonics, Alexie said he cried 20 times since the sale of the team to Clay Bennett and the Oklahoma City group. Many more tears were shed Wednesday night.
"The Sonics were indigenous to the city," he said. "They were created here, their entire history existed here, and now they've died."
Alexie recognizes that the settlement made economic sense, but said: "I didn't realize that was our fight. The court case was never about that. The city decided to put a monetary figure on the love of the game and love of the Sonics. I didn't expect that to be an issue."
Moore's Post-Intelligencer colleague Art Thiel is also unhappy:
"Now we know the price of possession.
Now we learn the cost of neglect.
The 'man possessed,' Clay Bennett, showed that he will do just about anything to gratify himself and his fellow Oklahomans by offering another silly payment for NBA ball, yet one the Seattle political leadership lacked the guts to refuse.
Obliterated for cash is 41 years of sports and civic history. So much for the city's passionate courtroom argument that the pro basketball team was of irreplaceable value.
New York, if you fancy the Space Needle, bring your checkbook and a really big hacksaw. We'll deal. As with the Sonics, it's privately owned and not used by a majority of voters, and its structure is a World Fair relic that maybe could use an upgrade.
To paraphrase a famous punch line by Winston Churchill, we know what we are. We're just quibbling over price. ... As for the additional $30 million due in 2013 if Bennett hasn't helped get another franchise for Seattle -- please. Bennett being forced to help Seattle scrounge a team is like hiring Yosemite Sam to be an anger-management counselor.
Besides, as Bennett has proven throughout this sordid affair, $30 million to him and his petrol pals is like $100 to the rest of us. They'll make that in the next month's gas-price gouges, and won't have to pay it for five years. And how about that five-year wait? In today's economy, is anyone betting on anything five years out?
The notion that the NBA will create an expansion team -- probably in tandem with a second city, for a scheduling- friendly 32-team league -- is based on two wafer-thin assumptions: That the national domestic market will be flush, and that the 2009 Legislature in a declining economy will authorize tax money to trick up KeyArena on spec, as opposed to the three other times it said no when the economy was good and Seattle had a team. Good luck with that."
Seth Kolloen of Sports Northwest Magazine and Enjoy the Enjoyment, who generously took the time to do an interview with me the other day, weighs in on the NBA's illusory promises:
"This thing about how "the NBA agrees that a renovated KeyArena is an acceptable facility" is silly. It doesn't matter what the NBA says--it matters what an owner says. An NBA owner could play in the Ingraham High gym if he felt like it (ok, not really, but you get the idea)."
Constable Echelon over at Hotdog & Friends discusses both the despair in Seattle and the league-wide implications of this decision (language warning, if you care about that).
"I’m currently studying a little revolutionary era France. I’ll admit it’s always been a little hard to wrap my head around the idea of a society so unjust that the only recourse for the common man was to take to the streets, round up those responsible, and cut off their heads. I imagine that insatiable bloodlust started with those people feeling like I feel right now.
Obviously I’m being dramatic. It’s just a basketball team. In theory I’ll get over this.
I know that professional sports owners don’t care about me. I’m poor. I have maybe a couple hundred bucks a year to give them. My chief benefit is the ambience I help provide for the people in the suites. They only care about me when I’m the only exploitable revenue stream, and if a team is counting on regular fans to keep it profitable they are fucked.
...
The current NBA business model requires a massive amount of public money to keep teams profitable. Someone has to pay for Kenny Thomas’s contract, after all. Now Seattle has provided a delightful example for the league to scare the shit out of other markets with. We’re a nicely above average region replete with affluent demographics that’s out of the way enough that people don’t get too outraged at how we’ve been treated. If the league doesn’t care about our 41 years of rock solid fan support and consistently winning basketball teams, what hope does anyone have?"
Mr. Baker at SonicsCentral blames the political leadership for selling out.
"No team for the fans, cash for the city, an IOU from Clay Bennett if we cash the IOU from the State of Washington, nothing for the fans.
We were screwed. That offer was not going to get worse with time, and with a court win, they took money from somebody that has money, but the mayor, Mayor Nickels, said it wasn’t about the money in his testimony; it was about enforcing the lease, and retaining NBA basketball in Seattle; neither happened.
Thanks for almost rising to the challenge Mayor Nickels.
I hate Clay Bennett, I watched him lie, and now I watched Mayor Nickels let him get away with it."
And now, some reaction from the rest of the league:
Henry Abbott of TrueHoop talks about how this case affects the fans.
"It was never, in my mind, an Oklahoma City vs. Seattle thing.
It's an owner vs. fans thing.
Sports operate in a bizarre realm. The fans, who are the paying customers, provide the revenue, passion, and love that make any league worthwhile. But those same fans who are such an essential part of the franchise have no legal standing at all. They have no signed agreements. The team has no obligation to them at all.
So fans are, legally, vulnerable. And although everyone acknowledges they are central to the enterprise, they can be trampled by owners, who pay for the right to do what they would like with a team.
I'm from the school of thought that says just because you have the tiger by the tail doesn't mean you must yank. I'm for respecting the people involved, even if you can get away with hurting them. That's character.
Instead we have something that's something like the worst marriage ever, back in the days before women had rights at all. Both partners play key roles, but one can lie, cheat, hit, and all the rest of it, while the other can only be stoic."
John DeShazier of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, who understands how close his own city came to losing their team to Oklahoma, despises the way Seattle fans were treated.
"It's business, so it doesn't have to be nice, neat and topped by a ribbon.
It's business, so it can be packed full of half-truths and outright lies, with passions strewn throughout a city and region and fans left to feel used and ignored.
It's business. But that doesn't mean it's not heartless, disingenuous and undeserving what Clay Bennett and his Oklahoma City ownership group did to Seattle. It doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye and thank the heavens it wasn't New Orleans that was preyed upon by a group of men who attempted to deceive so often and so poorly, they comfortably would have fit on the witness stand for the BALCO grand jury. ... But in the history of moves -- from the Colts sneaking out of Baltimore in the dead of night, to Art Modell dragging his Cleveland Browns franchise to Baltimore, to the Grizzlies moving from Vancover to Memphis and the Hornets from Charlotte to New Orleans -- few have been more littered by deception from an ownership group.
It's business, so at the end there's no guarantee everyone will be holding hands and singing.
But that doesn't mean anyone should feel comfortable with how this deal came about, doesn't mean anyone deserves what Seattle got, the way Seattle got it."
By contrast, Berry Tramel of the Oklahoman (a paper owned by Clay Bennett's inlaws), is gloating and encouraging Oklahomans to feel no shame.
"When the Sonics come to Oklahoma City, most everyone west of Spokane and lots of folks east of there will look at OKC and quote Gomer Pyle.
Shame, shame, shame!
Shame on Oklahoma City for swiping the Sonics from the loving arms of Seattle. Shame on Oklahoma City for not waiting on an expansion team.
Don't buy it. Don't listen to it. Don't let anyone spoil your celebration. Don't let anyone make you feel guilty.
Because here's what major-league ballteams do.
They move. Always have, always will. ...
If the NFL can leave Greater Los Angeles, where's the calamity in the NBA leaving Seattle?
The Seattle crowd likes to warn Oklahoma City that if Clay Bennett can put the screws to Seattle, he will do the same thing to his hometown.
Maybe. Maybe not. Frankly, I'm not all that interested in a history lesson from a city that built a new palace for the Seahawks and a new palace for the Mariners and then wants to start lecturing other cities, warning them about the dangers of giving into disgruntled franchise owners."
There are still a few voices with a bit of optimism, suggesting they believe in the first scenario or at least think settlement was a better option than continuing to fight it out. Among them is Kelley's Times colleague Jerry Brewer, even though he still casts severe doubts on the success of this strategy in today's column:
From M-V-P chants to M-O-U rants. Oh, how the Sonics have fallen. The city, after exhibiting a chest-poking resolve to keep the Raiders in their KeyArena lease, folded. Once intent on letting the Sonics go only with a guarantee that NBA basketball would return to Seattle, Mayor Greg Nickels settled for a tub of cash and a promise from the NBA to be nice. David Stern won't shoot spitballs at Nickels anymore. Stern will keep the mayor updated on relocation or expansion opportunities ("Um, sorry, mayor, nothing yet. Call back next century, OK?"), and he won't curse after hanging up the phone. ... Perhaps if all parties had negotiated with sincerity and purpose from the beginning, this predicament could've been avoided. In the end, the city stopped playing hardball because it couldn't win with that approach. Not with Czar Stern leading the NBA. So will diplomacy yield better results? Who knows? Right now, it's just awkward seeing the combatants refraining from sticking their tongues out at each other.
By contrast, John McGrath of the Tacoma News-Tribune appears to be a confirmed believer in the first scenario, and he's sure the city will get another team in the near future:
"But once you have concluded the grieving process, understand this: The NBA is coming back to Seattle, coming back to KeyArena, coming back in green and, yes, in gold.
A franchise owned by Oklahomans who envision the dour, robotically efficient San Antonio Spurs as the model of pro-basketball success is leaving, to be replaced by a franchise owned by Seattle businessmen who’ve got this intriguing notion that the winning and consistently entertaining Sonics teams of the George Karl era might be a more pertinent blueprint.
The Sonics will return because the city of Seattle backed out of a fight that would’ve rendered the “winners” as bloodied and battered as the 1950s middleweight boxer who prevailed over Jake LaMotta in a split decision.
Beyond draining tens of millions of dollars – pocket change – from the bottomless bank account of Bennett and his buddies, forcing the Oklahoma owners to fulfill the final two years of their team’s KeyArena lease accomplishes precisely what?
It sours fans, further poisoning pro basketball’s already toxic climate in Seattle. Two seasons of Spurs Lite was tough enough. Can you imagine two more seasons?
More important, two years of attempting to humiliate Bennett – a man I sense is constitutionally incapable of saying “pardon me” after spilling his coffee on a fellow first-class airline passenger, much less humiliation – forever dooms Seattle’s chances of reconciling with the NBA.
Sure, the league is run by a commissioner, David Stern, whose every breath contributes to a smug alert. When he spoke on behalf of Bennett’s half-baked campaign for a thoroughly modern, $500 million arena in King County, Stern championed the proposal less as an opportunity than a threat.
If the Sonics leave, he said in so many words, Seattle can kiss the NBA goodbye.
The posture was firm, the rhetoric inflexible. More recently, behind the scenes, Stern was quite more amenable to a truce with Seattle: Let this team go, we’ll have your back the next time there’s a franchise-relocation opportunity.
As city of Seattle attorney Tom Carr, speaking to KJR a few minutes after the settlement-disclosure press conference, put it: “Having the NBA pleased with you is a lot better than having the NBA mad at you.”
In other words, suck it up, and try to consider David Stern less as the czar of an evil empire than a friend of the disenfranchised.
Just a hunch, but I’m predicting an NBA team calling itself the Sonics tipping off at KeyArena for the 2011-12 season."
Let's hope he's right.
Monday, May 12, 2008
The greatness of soccer songs
Some of the finest things about soccer are the inventive anthems each team's fans come up with. They can reference a past triumph, immortalize a particular player, or mock rival players, teams, fans and even the referees. They're also one of the prime reasons why soccer is so much more interesting and interactive than other sports: most North American pro sporting experiences involve blasting canned music (occasionally all right), doing "The Wave" (see Drunk Jays Fans for a great takedown of that one), running stupid animations on the scoreboards (Ben Knight had a nice rebuke of those), or trying to pump people up via the stupid NoiseMeter (no outside destruction of this is needed).
Songs have always been a hallmark of the European soccer experience, but they've caught on in North America as well: the Whitecaps have long used "White is the Colour" (a takeoff on the popular Chelsea song "Blue is the Colour"), and TFC supporters have come up with some fantastic new variants. My favorite TFC one is below, traditionally used after a call goes against the Reds (note: language warning. To the tune of "My Darling Clementine"):
Who's your father, who's your father, who's your father, referee?
You don't have one, you're a bastard, you're a bastard, referee
Who's your girlfriend, who's your girlfriend, who's your girlfriend, referee?
You don't have one, you're a wanker, you're a wanker, referee.
The other great thing about songs is everyone can get involved in creating them. With this in mind, I figured that Sunday's Premier League title was a deserving occasion to add a couple of new verses to the old standard, "Glory, Glory, Man United" (to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic: note, these are in the style of the original song's verses, not the modified verses often used in the Man United version). Here they are:
The pie-eaters are crying at the rugby pitch in vain
The Blues are jumping off the Bridge, much to their mothers’ shame
The Gunners fired blanks all year, the Scousers did the same
As we go marching on!
Glory, glory Man United
Glory, glory Man United
Glory, glory Man United
The Reds are marching on!
Ronaldo boldly stepped up to convert the penalty
Ryan Giggs drilled home a strike, passed good old Sir Bobby
Rio, Vidic and Van der Sar kept our own net ball-free
And we’ll keep marching on!
Glory, glory Man United
Glory, glory Man United
Glory, glory Man United
The Reds are marching on!
Now we’re marching off to Moscow seeking European glory
Where France and Germany have failed, we can complete our story
We’ll beat Roman on his home turf; tell Uncle Avram sorry
For we’re still marching on!
Glory, glory Man United
Glory, glory Man United
Glory, glory Man United
The Reds are marching on!
Songs have always been a hallmark of the European soccer experience, but they've caught on in North America as well: the Whitecaps have long used "White is the Colour" (a takeoff on the popular Chelsea song "Blue is the Colour"), and TFC supporters have come up with some fantastic new variants. My favorite TFC one is below, traditionally used after a call goes against the Reds (note: language warning. To the tune of "My Darling Clementine"):
Who's your father, who's your father, who's your father, referee?
You don't have one, you're a bastard, you're a bastard, referee
Who's your girlfriend, who's your girlfriend, who's your girlfriend, referee?
You don't have one, you're a wanker, you're a wanker, referee.
The other great thing about songs is everyone can get involved in creating them. With this in mind, I figured that Sunday's Premier League title was a deserving occasion to add a couple of new verses to the old standard, "Glory, Glory, Man United" (to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic: note, these are in the style of the original song's verses, not the modified verses often used in the Man United version). Here they are:
The pie-eaters are crying at the rugby pitch in vain
The Blues are jumping off the Bridge, much to their mothers’ shame
The Gunners fired blanks all year, the Scousers did the same
As we go marching on!
Glory, glory Man United
Glory, glory Man United
Glory, glory Man United
The Reds are marching on!
Ronaldo boldly stepped up to convert the penalty
Ryan Giggs drilled home a strike, passed good old Sir Bobby
Rio, Vidic and Van der Sar kept our own net ball-free
And we’ll keep marching on!
Glory, glory Man United
Glory, glory Man United
Glory, glory Man United
The Reds are marching on!
Now we’re marching off to Moscow seeking European glory
Where France and Germany have failed, we can complete our story
We’ll beat Roman on his home turf; tell Uncle Avram sorry
For we’re still marching on!
Glory, glory Man United
Glory, glory Man United
Glory, glory Man United
The Reds are marching on!
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