You haven't heard about a local buyer because the Maloofs have continually refused to sell the team, until now. Im sure you'll hear about a new group from Sacramento in a day or two so you won't have to wait long.
I'm sure they looked, but if those figures are to be believed, the conglomerate are paying 100-150m extra to bid everyone else out of the market, is there even anyone in sacramento with pockets deep enough to do that?
As storied as the Supersonics name is, the Kings also have a long history. It'd be a shame to put the Kings to death to revive the Supersonics. Seattle SuperKings? Seattle Sonic Kings? As for the local Sac buyer, I doubt there'll be one because the financials won't support as high a purchase price in the Sacramento market. You can play make more money in Seattle than you can in Sacramento. To have a local buyer, you'd need someone who'll plunk down a half-billion for simple civic pride. There aren't a lot of people like that.
Sonics. The city got Clay Asshat to give up the team name and colors as part of their out of court settlement. I'd expect the exact same uniforms.
I feel so bad for Sacramento. Some of favorite non-Rockets NBA memories are those Chris Webber Kings teams with the deafening crowds and cowbells. It's a real travesty that they never one a title. The writing's been on the wall for a while that they were going to leave, whether it was selling them to Hansen or the Maloofs making a run to another city with an arena already built. It will be so convenient to see the Rockets play twice a year without having to travel to Portland. And I'll definitely buy some cheap seats to go watch Aaron Brooks and Chuck Hayes play against any random team. I'm looking forward to sports fans starting to care about the NBA again. The only people who follow the NBA now seems to be translplanted fans of other teams. It's been in the works for a while, but it caught me a bit off guard today. Great news for Seattle.
It's California's fault. The state is poorly run and as such doesn't have money to build stadiums. Not that I am upset about that; if California had its act together, Houston would have never been awarded the NFL expansion team.
I wouldn't be surprised. It's the only business they still own. They sold off their beverage distribution and Casino. This is all they have left
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Within 10 months, Seattle might have Russell Wilson, the Sonics and legalized mar1juana. I'm putting my house on the market.</p>— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillSimmons/status/289107495694237696" data-datetime="2013-01-09T20:32:52+00:00">January 9, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
If this happens, don't forget what it means for Portland: Their rival is back from the dead! It's great for them too.
As a sacramento native i still cannot believe this is happening. The Maloofs have the audacity to sell the team after the city was willing to build the arena? Travesty. These Maloofs are broke as a joke wasted the city council of sac's time and efforts over the past 2 years. In addition the fans in the city thought they had an arena deal done. It was approved by all parties including the Maloofs.....this is what is so sickening. If seattle wants a team it shouldn't be at the expense of sac town. With that said i'm a rockets fan and in the end doesn't make much of a difference.
It's funny how people try to act like they know something.. Seattle kept the rights to SUPERSONIC, colors, logos etc. That's why OKC doesn't have Sonic alternative unis.
Bennett had the right to those when he moved, but Seattle and Howard Schultz filed their lawsuits against Bennett and the move. It was some interesting testimony, but Schultz dropped his suit. The city and Bennett settled out court with a number of stipulations. Bennett got to take his Thieves to OKC Seattle agreed to drop any claims on keeping the team in Key Arena through the end of the lease. Bennett agreed to pay the city a good bit of money if they built an arena in a certain time period (this expired, so no money for Seattle) Seattle got to keep the team colors, logo, and name. Not sure about the team records, but that would make sense.
Part of me wishes they bring the Sonics back because i'm from Vancouver, but part of me don't because of how much of big cry babies some of the sonics fans had been in the past few years.
