[OneBadLT123]

Originally Posted by Pimped Out

The owners made no attempt to make things work with the city. They made proposals they knew the city wouldnt approve. It was never their intention to stay in seattle. The blame falls on them, not the city

I feel this is true. Once the current owners bought the team, I believe they never had the intention of keeping it in the northwest. Those Oklahoma big shots had this in the back of their head the entire time.

I honestly feel, it was their intention from the point they signed on the dotted line to move the team to Oklahoma.

[Chan]

Originally Posted by OneBadLT123

While true, why cant the owners of teams front the bill, or at least 50% of it? I don't see why the tax payers or the city should be forced into situations like this when in fact the Sonics are a privately owned organization.

My dad owns his own business that benefits the community, why can he get the tax payers and city to pay for his facilities? I know this is a much smaller scale, but the point is the same.

The Rose Garden, Staples Center, and the Nuggets arena are all privately owned arenas near the west coast. I'm willing to bet the guy that owns Starbucks has more money than the guy who owns Denver's arena. Instead of investing himself, he pushed it onto Bennett. Bennett said the same thing Shultz said, and when the city gave him the same answer, Bennett wanted out.

[compsciguy78]

Seattle is biggest city in the USA with the highest white population.

Basketball just ain't that cool in Seattle...haha

[Marcus13]

Originally Posted by Pimped Out

The owners made no attempt to make things work with the city. They made proposals they knew the city wouldnt approve. It was never their intention to stay in seattle. The blame falls on them, not the city

While the offer that the team made the city might have been unreasonable, as far as i know, the city never made any kind of counter-offer. They basically said, you signed this contract and were not budging.

Neither side wanted to budge

[Chan]

Marcus, you don't know what you're talking about. The city said it didn't want to pay every single dime. Bennett refused all offers of splitting costs.

[BALLS]

Seattle did everything they should be expected to do to keep their team. The decision to move the team from Seattle was made by the NBA years ago, that's the only reason they approved the purchase in the first place. There was nothing Seattle could have done to keep the team once the sale went through.

This is how business works.

[Ghost]

Originally Posted by Marcus13

It's the city's fault, I don't see how anyone can be mad at the team's management at this point

It's the city's fault that they don't want to pay for a brand new stadium that this billionaire can afford.

[Marcus13]

Originally Posted by Chan

Marcus, you don't know what you're talking about. The city said it didn't want to pay every single dime. Bennett refused all offers of splitting costs.

That's not the way Bennett made it sound

[Chan]

Originally Posted by Marcus13

That's not the way Bennett made it sound

What are you, taking Bennett's word for truth? The city wasn't going to pay all 500 mil. Bennett refused to pay a dime for a free arena. There is no logical reason the taxpayers should pay for a terrible franchise.

[Cinco de Mayo]

Originally Posted by compsciguy78

Seattle is biggest city in the USA with the highest white population.

Basketball just ain't that cool in Seattle...haha