Sat 5 Jul 2008
Could The Grizzlies Be Seattle’s New Team?
Posted by Jeff Sack under NBA Off The Court Issues
Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where the neon madmen climb.
They all fall there so perfectly,
It all seems so well timed.
An’ here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.
Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again Music & Lyrics Bob Dylan
Earlier this week when Seattle SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett reached an agreement with the city of Seattle, the dollar figure that was bandied about in the media was $75 million. That was what the city settled?for to allow the team formerly known as the Sonics?to escape their lease with the Key Arena, and head to Oklahoma City for the start of next season.
ESPN NBA reporter Ric Bucher however has discovered that there is another part of the deal that did not get reported on at the time of the deal. The?city of Seattle will be owed?an additional $30 million if they do not have a new NBA franchise in five years. Bucher believes that the NBA Board of Governors do not want to put another expansion team in the Association. So that would mean a current team would have to move it’s local. Bucher believes that the Memphis?Grizzlies could be the team to fill the vacuum. The Grizzlies have already located once in their brief existence, coming?from their original home in Vancouver. It is widely believed that team owner Michael Heisley wants to sell the team, and the fan base has not ever really been totally supportive.
Once piece of advice to all concerned if this comes to pass. Change the name, to something new. Do not call them the SuperSonics, because they will always be compared with the original. Get rid of the name Grizzlies also, the team has had it through two different cities without much success. Let? it be a fresh start for all involved, and in the end everyone will be much happier.
? Copyright 2008 thesackattack.net
7 Responses to “ Could The Grizzlies Be Seattle’s New Team? ”
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July 9th, 2008 at 2:41 am[...] Saturday July 5, I wrote the following story Could The Grizzlies Be Seattle?s New Team??The story was based on a report by ESPN NBA beat reporter Ric Bucher. In his report Bucher revealed [...]
July 5th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I don’t think Stern or Bennett want to have Bennett and friends dish out another $30 mil once they see that the honeymoon period in OKC won’t last that long. The Griz moving to Seattle would be a good move. The Griz haven’t been welcomed in the NBA and with the Sonics leaving Seattle the people of Seattle will see what they are losing and may want to pony up for a new stadium (maybe!), but that was a good play by Seattle to stipulate either an additional $30 mil or a new team!
July 7th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Why would the Grizzlies move to a dump in KeyArena, when they play in one of the top 5 arenas in the league? Why would the Grizzlies leave Memphis to go to a city that has been in the bottom 1/3 of attendance numbers for the past 10 years? Who is gonna buy the Grizzlies for Heisley’s inflated price, and then shell out even more cash to buy themselves out from under the long term lease owed to Memphis?
July 7th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
It’s a shame you’re posting a piece without getting any of your facts straight.
The primary reason that Seattle lost the Sonics is that the city refused to refurbish/rebuild Key Arena. This is not a problem in Memphis. Nor is corporate support.
From a recent Geoff Calkins article:
[quote] “There’s a separate non-relocation agreement, for starters, stating that “during the first 10″ seasons in FedExForum, the team “shall not relocate from the City of Memphis.”
That’s a simple “shall not relocate.” Enforceable by injunction. Hard to see how the team would get around that.
Starting in year 10 — which is a full six years from now — the team can move only if certain ticket and suite sales minimums are not met.
Even then, the city and county have the right to step in and buy enough tickets or suites to meet the minimums.
But say the city and county pass on that one. Say someone wants to buy the team and move it out of town. The city and county would still have the opportunity to find a local buyer to match the purchase price.
The hurdles are starting to stack up, aren’t they, Velma? And we haven’t even started talking about money yet.
Any out-of-town buyer would also have to pay off the debt service on FedExForum, a number that doesn’t dip below $100 million until 2015. And the buyer would have to pay back FedEx for a portion of the naming rights.
And the buyer would have to get the NBA’s approval and pay the NBA’s relocation fee, which would surely be a good deal more than the $25 million the Grizzlies had to pay to leave Vancouver.
Translation: The team isn’t moving anytime soon. It’s just not. In this time of finger-pointing and misery, it seems important to recognize that. [/quote]
July 7th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
The Sports Talk shows in Seattle were talking about this all day. Just leave Wallace back in Memphis. Don’t you guys like Rodeo and the Grand Old Opry? Come up some time to Seattle and see a real city.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Hey Sloppy Sonics…
You should have said “Elvis, BBQ and the Blues” ’cause if there’s a rodeo of any account here I haven’t heard of it and the Opry is in Nashvegas.
And did you even read the post before yours? Sheeesh! You had a team. Good luck gettin’ another.
Cheers to the X-Man!
July 10th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
All that rhetoric from GrizzledGrizzFan sounds an awful lot like what we Sonics fans were saying about three weeks ago… We got this lease, they can’t leave. Well… leases and all agreements were meant to be broken, as we have learned and especially meant to be broken by NBA teams.