Hawks to be Sold After Revelation of Racist E-Mail by Owner

Whether his plan is a good one is irrelevant (earlier in the thread I said I didn't think it was).

The idea that he should be happy with increased values based on licensing is not how business works and if he were to be satisfied with that, he should be fired.

We also do not know how many other factors he discussed prior and after that e-mail.

The idea that the profitability of Hawks has any bearing on the content of his e-mail is flawed in my opinion.

Your other points are perhaps are valid, I just don't believe they have any weight in judging his comments.

 

heyp... I didn't see him saying it was the best course of action... The Hawks of course have made personnel changes as well... Both on the court and off, so clearly it wasn't the only course he took. Maybe he did think it the best course.

Nobody can get into the mind of someone else. However, it appears at least, that he isn't racist... Just up against a "problem" he couldn't solve easily and this acted somewhat dumbly in an attempt to fix. I put problem in paranthetics as the problem is the one in his head of not enough profits, and how to fix. So perhaps not racist, just not well thought out.

Consider he frequently caveated his statements with his reasoning. Perhaps obvious way to deflect possible inherent racism... Or perhaps just how he thinks - again not racist just not to smart here. Consider it was a squad that previously catered extensively to the AA community. So he's racist in 2012... But not previously racist?

Not that I have a horse in this race. Maybe he is subtly racist.

Big data is great. It's clearly taking over. But there's also plenty of people, including in tech and including in big data, who go with gut. We're not computerized humans yet so even extremely data driven CEOs make plenty of gut calls every day from a management perspective. Some of his gut call in this case seemed a little misguided.

Also, lol to the guy who said what if roles were reversed... Nobody would care. But that's part of being in a historically and currently oppressed minority group. You "can" say things about white males that you can't say about AA or females... Two of the most oppressed groups in history.

 

I think the issue is that when addressing attendance he went directly to race as a factor in attendance while completely ignoring the primary basis for attendance in most NBA cities which is winning. The Hawks would probably have a significantly higher season ticket base if they hadn't mostly sucked ass for thirty years.

 

It goes without saying that if a team is more successful, attendance usually goes up. But even then, you still want to study demographics and how you can maximize ticket prices - by targeting more affluent demographics, or at least making sure they also feel welcomed.

Should he have written: "I want to sell more tickets, let's win more." Yeah, great insight there.

 

More offensive to southern whites than blacks as he says himself he hasn't heard of any muggings or crimes around the arena but blames the perception on racist white people.

No matter, will be looking forward to the next owner to fall. I fully believe this is coming from a Sterling investigation that is showing the hypocrisy of all the other racist owners who pretended to be saints while kicking his racist ass out.

 

Can they bust Cuban for his asian baby shoe factory already?

 

Anyone else think this might have something to do with Sterling threatening to release info about other owners...skeletons in the closet of NBA owners. Could this be Sterling revealing the email behind closed doors and saying if Silver doesn't do something about this owner then he got unfairly singled out and threatens to sue?

 

According to that link, Detroit is over 85% predominantly black, more than Atlanta which is 55% or so. I don't have demographics sales on hand, but something tells me that 15 percent of the population isn't the majority of those fans attending games (not including other races).

Those games are likely predominantly black and were top in attendance those championship years without of the silly whites afraid to come to games due to being a minority stuff.

I actually think it's a very good comparison and perhaps we even agree here.

If the stadium is in a poor location, due to traffic, or needs to be around more affluent fans (white and black) than that is another idea of why sales are better in Detroit those years rather than race.

If it's a poor sports town for the NBA due to market size or demand, like others that have relocated (I don't know off hand if Vancouver, Seattle or Sacramento are sales and demographically, or their reasons for moving) than that is another one.

By the too many blacks not enough whites logic, should be much worse for the Pistons, but it wasn't. They likely simply had a better product and perhaps location.

 

Yeah, for instance, does Atlanta even sell mini-plans? I couldn't find any on their STH site. Together we lucking out on Yao Ming, Les's move to sell mini-plans helped build the Rockets to a 100% sell out team.

 

You have to understand the structure of their ownership group. He is controlling owner but there are MANY minority owners in that ownership group.

He's being trying to sell since 2011, however since he is doing it privately, he has to get all the minority owners to agree.

This way, be creating a scandal, he wins because;

a) The NBA is involved in negotiating the sale, so they can potentially find more buyers.

b) The NBA can dictate the sale to all minority owners so basically he can railroad the sale through without consulting with minority owners.

 

Wait. Aren't you making a pretty big assumption, that he'll all of sudden get more than market versus the market offers he was getting prior, which he rejected before. He might lose, instead -- and end up with the price that he was previously rejecting.

The Hawks should sell for at least what the Bucks and Kings just sold for. Maybe he didn't like that offer before.

Also, why would he need consent of the minority owners to sell his shares? Silver is only selling his controlling interest. Maybe Levenson was trying to convince them all to sell their shares along with him, because that probably brings top dollar vs just selling his controlling interest.

You could be right in the end if all the minority owners cash in now, too, but I don't see any reason to believe that the Market will bring more money merely because the NBA is overseeing the sell.

 

Blacks are so cheap sometimes

 

Could be. This quote makes it look like Danny Ferry said something that started the investigation. As others have pointed out, it might make ATL less appealing to Paul Millsap - although he did start his career in Utah IIRC and also IIRC their team owner seemed to have his own thoughts about diversity before he passed.

 

He also said he wanted more white cheerleaders. Since discriminating by race is illegal based on the Civil Rights Act, he's either suggesting his organization currently has racist hiring practices by favoring black cheerleaders, or it should have racist hiring practices by favoring white cheerleaders.

 

Noticed Detroit popped up and being from the area I can chime in. The Pistons play their games in Auburn Hills which is a suburb of Detroit about 20-25 miles north of Detroit. Auburn Hills is located in Oakland County which is the richest suburb in Metro Detroit and has a population around 1-1.5 million people. But the Pistons have always been 4th on the totem pole for Detroit teams. The only time they drew was during the Bad Boys era and the Brown/Carlisle teams that went to 6 straight Eastern Conference Titles. Even when Grant Hill came in and was one of the top 5 players in the game in the mid-late 90s the Pistons did not draw too well.

The Pistons are the only Detroit team whose attendance depends on their play. The Lions, Tigers and Wings do well regardless. Part of what helps that cause is they are all in the city which is only a 30 minute max drive from anywhere in the metro area. With the Pistons if you live in the southern or western suburbs you are looking at a 45-60 minute commute.

 

While they may not have generally done much in the playoffs, they do have the second longest active streak in the NBA with respect to making the playoffs - 7 years.

 

Kudos to him for acknowledging his despicable email statements...but that being said, it seems that someone got access to that email that may have forced his hand. Regardless...He wont get anything close to the billions that Donald Sterling received for his franchise.

 

That has 100% to do with being in the East. I live in GA, and don't know a Hawks fan.

 

My point was they haven't sucked for the past 30 years as the poster I was replying to stated. 3 of the past 7 years they had a winning percentage of 57%, 60% and 64%. Regardless of a team's conference, if they make the playoffs, they are doing something right.