I wonder how many people they would have laid off if they actually signed Landry. Geez, dropping radio broadcasts is about as cheap as you can get as a pro team.
"they" (the city of Charlotte) are better off with the Bobcats. they were losing 15 million a year as a team and were the lowest in attendance...
George Shinn is the Bud Adams of the NBA. One of the stipulations Charlotte gave in order to build a new stadium for the Hornets was for Shinn to sell the team. Goes to show you what the city, where Shinn is from, thought of him.
business as usual, I'm sure the ticket agents and shop employees will be fine... http://www.nba.com/bobcats/release_workforce_reduction_080926.html
Honestly I don't follow the Bobcats that closely, but it doesn't look like they've done much at all to endear themselves to the local fanbase. It doesn't help that the fanbase was made cynical and borderline bitter by George Shinn. When it comes to an NBA team, Bob Johnson and the city of Charlotte are made for each other.
The franchise got off to a bad start when they chose "bobcats". I remember the "Charlotte Flight" that sounds so much better than the generic "bobcats" very unorginal.
As someone who moved here from Charlotte (and a former Hornets fan), I can tell you that there was a feeling beyond bitterness when the Hornets left. Case in point--the Baron Davis and Jamal Mashburn-led Hornets (the white headband team) swept the Heat in the first round and took Milwaukee to 7 games in the second round of the 2001 playoffs. There was a frenzy in that town that no one believed still existed. The mayor was wearing a headband. They placed an oversized headband on the Queen Charlotte statue at the airport, and so on. Hornets lost game 7 to Milwaukee. About a month letter, the city had the referendum. It tanked (57%-43% no). Rumore spread about the NBA trying to keep the team in town. People were passing "stories" of mysterious buyers of the team to keep them in town. Mark Cuban was on the sports talk radio all the time (ironically an Infinity-owned 610 AM) with Mark Packer (Billy's son) proclaiming that the Hornets were going nowhere. Turns out that David Stern actually went to NOLA to hand-deliver a check for $250 million to Shinn from a "mysterious" buyer. Shinn refused. Fast forward to the first off-season after the Hornets left, and a group led by Larry Bird wants a new team in Charlotte. This group included the knucklehead Steve Belkin (the same of Atlanta Hawks ownership disaster fame) and like 2 dozen other people. Later, Bob Johnson surfaces as also wanting to own a new team in Charlotte. AND Bank of America, Wachovia, and Duke Energy offered to front the city a $100 million loan for a new arena. After some discussion, the NBA selects Johnson to be the new owner. Key reason why--he alone could pay the $300 million expansion fee. How did the NBA know this? Because it was his $250 million check that Stern tried to give to Shinn. Revisionist history says that when Shinn refused Johnson's check, he made the decision to let the Hornets go to NOLA and give Charlotte a new team with the stipulation that a new arena be built. He did, even though the locals overwhelmingly prefered the Bird group. As far as the name goes, they did have a contest to name the team, and the ones that were most popular was the Charlotte Spiders, Copperheads, and Cougars (after the ABA Carolina Cougars). However thanks to some marketing consultant geniuses the finalists ended up being Flight, Dragons, and Bobcats (all of which were submitted by the public). There was a huge name unveiling ceremony at the center of downtown (5-8,000 people were there) and reveal what become the worst kept secret--the team would be the Bobcats. Now you have people who are just flat out racists there who are mad about Johnson being the owner and not Bird, and what makes it worse (to those people) is that until Larry Brown, he really didn't hire too many "public face" executives that weren't African American. So you have several missteps, not all of them Johnson's doing or his fault. But he knew this when he spent the $300 million to get it. The city was sour because of Shinnridge. Some in the city were sour because an arena was getting built anyway even though it was voted down. Sorry to be so wordy, but it's a pretty interesting story. I didn't even mention Ray Wooldridge (Richard Simmons' twin) who was probably the one who really greased the wheels for the Hornets to go to NOLA specifically and not to OKC (with its rent free arena), Norfolk (who had a deal with Smithfield Meats to build a new arena for the Hornets), Louisville (who is now building a new arena but was going to build one for the renamed Kentucky Colonels and call it the KFC Bucket), or Anaheim.
note to self: Don't ever work for the Bobcats. I just remembered I had a brief gig as a moderator on bobcatstalk.com... hahaha
NBA basketball in Charlotte is a waste of time. Bob Johnson may as well do himself and everyone else a favor and sell the team. Maybe Seattle or Las Vegas can get a team sooner than than we think. Or at the least let another owner try in Charlotte. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/story/258619.html It's hard to see, but Bobcats are a better team By Tom Sorensen tsorensen@charlotteobserver.com Posted: Friday, Oct. 17, 2008 The first half reminded me how much I miss the NBA. The Charlotte Bobcats were running and rebounding, sharing the ball and going to the basket, and at the break they led Orlando by 13. Alas, Charlotte didn't come out for the second half, and the Magic came back. Orlando won 94-84. This leaves the Bobcats 0-4 in games that don't count. They play four more before the games do. I boycotted the Bobcats last season. I didn't think much of ownership, management, coaching or the product. Other than that, they were great. This season is different. As dismally as they played in the second half at Time Warner Cable Arena on Thursday, they look more like a team than they have in their previous four seasons. They played like a team for Bernie Bickerstaff, the most underrated head coach in Charlotte sports history. But they were overmatched almost every time they stepped onto the court. If they stay healthy, and if Larry Brown can do what he does one last time, the Bobcats are capable of winning half their games. If they do, they will contend for the playoffs. To have even a chance to sell tickets, they have to contend. The Bobcats have gutted almost every facet of the operation that does not involve a bouncing ball, and that includes marketing. Marketing is important. Executives can't always control how players perform. But they can shape the experience. Even if a team loses, they can make fans feel as if they were part of something. This will be difficult since most of the people responsible for creating that feeling are gone. In this economy, many businesses have eliminated jobs, including the one for which I work. But a source tells me the Bobcats cuts were so severe the NBA questioned Bob Johnson, the Bob in Bobcats, about them. Johnson did not attend Thursday's game. (Few adults did; the game was a reward for students.) Despite the wildly supportive fans, hard times were evident. The soft drink machine in the press room was turned off. When the lights in the Charlotte locker room dimmed after the game, I figured that in a cost-saving move somebody would show up with a candle. Even in the twilight I could see the locker room refrigerator, which was stocked with Gatorade, water and protein drinks. Attached was a stop sign, and with it came a stern message: DRINKS ARE NOT FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION. When the Bobcats return Saturday to play Atlanta, statistics might be housed in the kind of box in which we sell newspapers. Deposit two quarters, take one sheet and DON'T ALLOW THE PUBLIC TO CONSUME IT. When I talk to personnel people and scouts from other NBA teams, they tell me Johnson is selling, or is about to sell, the Bobcats. I don't know if he is. But I wouldn't blame him. He's losing money and he can't be having fun. One reason rich people buy basketball franchises is so fans can walk up and shake their hand and tell them how much they appreciate the team. This works only if the owner is there.
man, oh man, this Bobcats situation is getting ugly fast... i wonder if there are any more teams on the nrink of collapse For weeks, NBA ownership and front office sources insisted that it was just a matter of time until Charlotte Bobcats owner Bob Johnson made official what had been privately held: He was selling his failing franchise. “He’s been quietly feeling the market out for buyers,” one league executive said. Yet, the economy crashed, a recovery appears a long way off, and finally Johnson told the Associated Press on Monday, “I’m not selling the team.” In these tumultuous times, Johnson probably felt he didn’t have a choice. This isn’t the economic climate to get maximum return on your investment. He’s lost tens of millions of dollars with the Bobcats, and truth be told, little suggests that’ll subside soon. finish reading Adrian Wojnarowski article
