Kudos to Sam Machkovech at the Slog for making the inevitable comparison between the Sonics situation and the plot of the movie “Major League,” where the widowed owner of the Cleveland Indians wanted to move the team to Miami. In order to do this, she filled the roster with a bunch of washed-up no-names so that the attendance would fall to levels that allowed her to move the team.
If nothing else, the speculation that Clay Bennett is secretly trying to lose for the same reason might be the most intriguing thing about the Sonics right now (they’re now 0-7, the worst record in the NBA). I think we’ll know the fix is in if Jim McIlvaine ends up back in a Sonics uniform sometime this year.
FUCK CLAYBOY – FUCK THE CARPETBAGGERS – FUCK THE NBA
Introducing the Seattle Sounders, your 2009 MLS Cup Champions!
(Okay, the latter is a bit optimistic, but not as much as you might think……)
The sooner the Sonics move, the better off we’ll all be!
Though I’m saddened to hear that Drew Carey will be a minority owner in a soon-to-fail Major League Soccer franchise that will draw limited attendance in Seattle.
What’s next? Big league mumbly-peg?
The Piper
So…are Sonic airballs…”J-UST a bit outside?”
The Piper
@2
So what’s your prediction? How long will Seattle’s MLS team last?
2 The majority owner is Paul Allen. It would appear that for whatever reason, he finds this more interesting than Dreamworks.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t start out by blowing 50 mil to bring in a past-his-prime English star and his past-her-prime pop star wife.
@4…Lee…
No matter how long, it will be too long…
The area went down this path once before many years ago with the old NASL or whatever it was…Even signed Pele…which meant too much payroll…leading to el foldo…
If Paul Allen has to lose money, this is probably as good a way to do it as any.
The Piper
@6 If Paul wants to lose bigtime money, I recommend cocoa futures.
To him, the money he is at risk for with a soccer franchise is like you or I losing a nickel in the gumball machine.
@2: Well, since Drew Carey is a die hard wingnut, it won’t break my heart if the franchise folds.
But good luck to him all the same.
@7…PTBAA…
I’ll take that nickel…wouldn’t you?
The Piper
@8
Well, since Drew Carey is a die hard wingnut
I’m not sure what you’re basing this on. He’s more of a moderate libertarian.
@10…Lee…
Oh? Go to Reason.org, and watch some of the videos he’s made. I love the one he did in support of privately financed and owned toll roads as a means to relive congestion in S. California…and it’s not theoretical; they exist, and they work!
The Piper
@11
The folks at Reason are not wingnuts. I think Hit and Run (their blog) is what conservatism looks like when conservatives use their brains. I’m a huge fan of a lot of what they do. They represent the intelligent right in this country. I don’t always agree with them, but they definitely live in the reality-based world.
10 He’s also a former Marine sergeant, and don’t you forget it, maggot!
Okay, I’m following the “Major League” analogy to a point, but if they start putting up pictures of a Clay Bennett and start taking off his clothes with each win, then I think I’m going to be sick.
Okay, I’m following the “Major League” analogy to a point, but if they start putting up pictures of a Clay Bennett and start taking off his clothes with each win, then I think I’m going to be sick.
No need to worry. With this team, he’d probably finish the season fully clothed.
Fuck the Sonics and fuck their turd owner.
His bidness pardner is a significant contributor to the Swift Boat Sack Oo Shit Evil Worthless Turd Liars.
Eat shit, bark at the moon, drop dead, whatever.
Even if he weren’t tied to the Swift Boat Pieces Of Shit, I say no more welfare for the richest of the rich. $400M for an arena is $400M too much.
There’s the road, asshole.
@11 Explain to me how a “privately owned” toll road can make money from any toll rate that 99.9999% of car owners cna afford to pay without government subsidies. Let’s start with a typical 50X100 foot Seattle lot priced at $200,000 and figure out how many of those you need for the right-of-way, then work down from there … it might work if the taxpayers GIVE these so-called enterpreneurs a public road that’s already been paid for by taxpayers … but then, that’s pretty much the standard Republican “free market” business model these days, anyway.
@16 Couldn’t agree more. Seattle is more a soccer town, anyway. Clay Bennett and David Stern can go jerk each other off in a men’s room somewhere. I don’t care where, as long as they’re not here.
I’ll help them pack. Love the game, love the happy memories, but we’re better off without Clay Bennett in our community.
And Oklahoma is welcome to the 15-67 JV team they’re likely to get. Enjoy the white elephant, okies!
Piper, MLS is (unfortunately) a single-entity organization. In a nutshell, the ‘owners’ of each MLS club are actually investors in the entire league, with MLS using very strict rules on player salaries and whatnot to control costs and minimize losses. The entire roster of all 13 MLS clubs currently in operation, not counting Designated Players such as LA Galaxy’s David Beckham, Chicago Fire’s Cuauhtemoc Blanco and New York Red Bull’s Juan Pablo Angel (whose individual salaries are counted beyond each team’s salary cap – each team is allowed one such player on their roster) make less than Alex Rodriguez made this year with the Yankees. Being an MLS ‘owner/investor’ is a grand-scale equivalent of buying a McDonald’s franchise, and several teams are actually now profitable, especially those that have their own smaller parks (let’s face it – it can be a big game, with a hot crowd, but a crowd of 25K or so looks awful in a stadium designed for three times as many people), most within the range of 18-25K capacity.
And with the cachet and history the Sounders name has, not to mention that it’s very possible that the team that hits the field in 2009 will be pretty much the same team that won the USL First Division championship this year, and beat three or four MLS clubs en route to making the semis of the USSF’s Lamar Hunt US Open Cup tournament, the Sounders could be a popular and profitable club very quickly. Not to mention that Carey is far more knowledgeable on soccer than most of us would give him credit for. He’ll probably wind up being the member of the ownership group (after current Sounders chairman Adrian Hanauer, of course) who brings the most to the table as far as how to actually run the club.
I should’ve warned you, Piper. I don’t have a problem with you for not liking soccer, but don’t get me started on the subject of soccer. Or rugby, for that matter.
You all need to reread http://www.horsesass.org/?p=3300#comments
Remember these political “negotiators” were voted in my you the Kook Leftist Fringe of FUWA!