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June 7, 2012
There are very few cities that understand what the fine people of Seattle are feeling this morning. The anger. The bitterness. The anguish. The pure disgust and hatred for the carpet-bagging owner that ripped your heart out and stomped on it. We all know how that feels here in Cleveland. Watching the Oklahoma City Thunder win the NBA’s Western Conference last night is one last kick in the gut to the Pacific Northwest.
Back in 1995, Art Modell stood all smiles with the Governor of Maryland, Parris Glendening and told the world “I leave Cleveland, Ohio after 35 years, I leave a good part of my heart and soul there. I will never forget the kindness of the people, the fans that supported the Browns for years. But frankly, it came down to a simple proposition. I had no choice.”
I’m not here for dredge up the past. We all know Modell had a choice. It was called selling the team. He was a terrible businessman and was all out of money. He had two choices to bail himself out – sell the team or move them to a different city for a sweetheart deal. He chose the latter. Art played the “the city won’t build me a new stadium” card as long as he could. Meanwhile, less than two years later, the city of Cleveland broke ground on a new stadium on the old site on the lake front, 74.7% of which was publicly funded.
I still say shame on the NFL and then-Commissioner Paul Tagliabue for ever allowing Modell to operate the way he did and leave a town which sold out every single game for 20-plus years. Tags thought everything would be OK, because he would work out a way to repay the city. Even though we would get our team and colors back after a three-year hiatus (and we all know, its just not the same) and the success on the field hasn’t been anything close to what we had hoped for, at least we have a team to cheer for.
What does Seattle have today? No team and the records and history that went to Oklahoma City with it.
I confess I didn’t know what the Sonics meant to the city until I watched the amazing and sad documentary about the team’s move titled Sonicsgate. For those who don’t know the story of how why the team moved, here’s a brief synopsis:
Howard Schultz, the chairman and CEO of Starbucks Coffee, was the owner of the Sonics in 2006. He was a very unpopular figure after buying the team, swooping in, changing the culture, feuding with star player Gary Payton, and attempting to run the team like he ran Starbucks. His tenure as Sonics owner was best described in an ESPN.com article from 2006 by Frank Hughes:
That, in a nutshell, is Howard Schultz, an entrepreneur whose romantic attention was focused exclusively on his basketball team for about a year. Then things didn’t quite go the way he envisioned, he got bored and discouraged, and he decided that he wanted out (regardless of the impact on people’s lives).
After five years, Schultz sold the team to an Investment Group led by Clay Bennett, an Oklahoma City businessman. Schultz claimed he sold to Bennett’s group because they would do everything they could to keep the team in Seattle. Meanwhile, from day one, it was obvious that just wasn’t true, despite what Bennett said publicly. Like Modell, Bennett claimed that the city needed a new city funded arena. NBA Commisioner David Stern went on record agreeing with Bennett’s assessment. However, Bennett and his people put together a $500 million arena proposal to the city that was never realistic. The arena was proposed in the Renton area at the I-405/1-5 corridor, one of the busiest traffic areas in greater Seattle area. It was just a simple move of covering their bases, so when the arena deal wouldn’t pass, they could leave Seattle and say “well the city never stepped forward, so we had to move.”
Meanwhile, the Sonics still had a a Key Arena lease with the city through 2010 with a lame duck team.
Lawsuits were filed. Private emails were leaked. The NBA, Bennett’s Group, and the city of Seattle eventually settled on breaking the lease, with the city receiving $45 million and the possibility of an additional $30 million by 2013 if a new team hadn’t arrived.
So it is bad enough that the NBA and Bennett’s group ripped the team out of the city, leaving it without it’s most cherished franchise. Then the salt in the wound came from the leaked emails. This is from the Seattle Times in April of 2008:
On April 17 last year, team co-owners Clay Bennett, Aubrey McClendon and Tom Ward talked about whisking the Sonics away to Oklahoma as soon as possible even though it would mean breaching the KeyArena lease, according to the city’s motion filed in U.S. District Court in New York City.
“Is there any way to move here [Oklahoma City] for next season or are we doomed to have another lame duck season in Seattle?” Ward wrote.
Bennett replied: “I am a man possessed! Will do everything we can. Thanks for hanging with me boys, the game is getting started!”
Ward: “That’s the spirit!! I am willing to help any way I can to watch ball here [in Oklahoma City] next year.”
McClendon: “Me too, thanks Clay!”
That exchange occurred just after the Washington Legislature refused to authorize taxpayer money for a $500 million Renton arena Bennett had proposed.
In an e-mail exchange later in April, Bennett told McClendon it was “quite likely” the team would play in Seattle another year but that he was “attempting quietly and without litigation” to “work through the lease.”
The Sonics were to Seattle what the Browns were to Cleveland. It was their team. During their great years in the late 70’s and early 80’s as well as the Shawn Kemp/Gary Payton teams of the mid to late 90’s, the Sonics were selling out night after night. They were averaging just under 2,000 less than capacity even in the lean years before the move.
Does this sound familiar to any of you?
People forget, but the 1994 Cleveland Browns were a playoff team. They went 11-5 and hosted a wild card game. They were coached by Bill Belichick, had the NFL’s top ranked defense in terms of points allowed (12.8 per game), and had a solid running game with Leroy Hoard leading the way. They were fun to watch.They were a team on the rise, but when the rumors started to swirl in 1995 after a 3-1 start, the swoon began. Belichick knew he was a dead man walking and after the team lost to the Bengals in OT to fall to 4-4, Modell announced the move. Mid-season!
The team would finish 5-11, but after the move to Baltimore, things of course took off for them. Thanks to the incredible drafting of Ozzie Newsome, the Ravens were the 2000 Super Bowl Champions and have become a perennial contender and model franchise ever since. Modell sold 49% of the team in 2000 and the remaining 51% in 2004 to Stephen Bisciotti. He was forced to sell in 2000. Why? Because “despite a no-cost stadium lease, all revenues from parking, concessions, and TV, as well as a reported $25M Maryland subsidy, Modell’s ownership of the Ravens resulted in continual financial hardships.”
According to Bisciotti’s bio on the Ravens website: “Steve’s initial investment to the team provided funds to secure free agents for the 2000 Super Bowl XXXV championship team.”
Raise your hand if that makes you ill.
Worst of all for Browns fans all over the country was watching Modell raise the Lombardi Trophy. I can never get that image out of my head. Old Uncle Artie grinning from ear to ear with his joke of a son, sperm lottery winner David Modell, with cigar in his mouth by his side. My blood is boiling. I have to stop.
Sonics fans have to have had that same pit in their stomach’s last night when the Thunder – their team, with their star player, Kevin Durant, who played in their city before the move – won the Western Conference Finals for the first time since the move. And there was Bennett, looking out of place and awkward, with his white t-shirt on over his buttoned-down, right smack dab in the middle of the trophy presentation.
It is tough to quantify just how ill Seattle fans feel compared to how we felt back in 2000. Both were pretty fresh wounds that hadn’t and never will completely heal. My old friend, Mike Dolin (no relation, so relax people) grew up in Cleveland, is an Ohio State grad, has been living in Seattle since 2007. He, like so many of us, felt completely betrayed when the Browns were taken from us. Sadly for him, he had to witness this same thing happen in the city he now calls home. I asked him, as someone who saw both horrific situations from the inside, how he thought these two were related:
In looking back on it, I can honestly say, as devastated as I was when the Browns moved, Seattle was just as wronged as Cleveland, and maybe even more so. The Sonics were Seattle’s first pro team, and only champion (’79). They were engrained in the fabric of the city, much like the Browns and Cleveland.
More from Mike:
To put it into perspective, this would be like Modell becoming frustrated that he couldn’t get a new stadium built. Instead of investing in a new stadium himself with other private inverstors, he sold the team to Steven Bisciotti in ’95. Bisciotti then told Cleveland he had every intention of keeping the team in Cleveland, but the taxpayers would have to build basically the New Cowboy Stadium in the most heavily congested area of the city. All the while Bisciotti would be sending emails back and forth with his other Baltimore investors to ensure them that the move was happening.
So yes, I feel for you all in Seattle deeply this morning, as all Clevelanders should. You were screwed by the NBA the way the NFL screwed us here. No doubt about it. For those who haven’t seen the Sonicsgate documentary that I spoke above before, it is a must-watch, thought-provoking piece that will make your skin crawl.
As ESPN and Grantland.com’s Bill Simmons said “The Sonics were stolen from Seattle – STOLEN – literally, and if you don’t believe me, watch this movie.”
Here is the trailer:
Here it is in long form, director’s cut:
Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman
90 Comments
That’s EXACTLY the reason that I hate the fans of the Ravens. They stole our team even knowing how it felt to lose the Colts back in ’84. I’m glad we got an expansion team and didn’t steal anything.
I hope you guys get a new (expansion) team too.
Thanks, great article, to be honest it hurts to see the thunder go to the final, when it should be the Seattle Supersonics in the finals, routing for the Thunder is like routing for a cheating ex girlfriend or ex boyfriend team, it breaks your heart PERIOD!!!!!
and the hypocrisy of that ESPN 30for30 movie (band plays on) was thick.
lol.. 4 guest likes.
a. you’re mistaken to think the celtics or red sox are more popular than the pats. i’m here, i know. (not that either are in jeopardy of moving.) likewise, it’s news to me that the giants are bigger than the niners.. not sure that’s true. la doesn’t have a team. so ok, the cardinals are bigger in st louis than the rams. i’m not sure i buy this — but none of counters the point “more valued IN GENERAL.
b. do you really think the sonics were as big or bigger to seattle than the browns to cleveland? not sure where to go from there. if we start from ‘browns are more important to its region than any other PRO team’ and then allow stipulations for the packers, steelers, redskins… then we have a loose community of four cornerstone teams and it seems simply argumentative to attempt to place the sonics into that group.
c. if you don’t know how local economics affects the psychic fabric affects to skewed importance of sports teams in places with few economic or natural options, check out the miami heat home games next time you have a chance. also works for: why DOESNT LA have a football team?
i can feel a twinge. yes.
tell ya what –> seattle fans representing here on this board for this subject is impressive (to me anyway).
denny! long time no hear!! **bro hugs**
Never been to Seattle but it still strikes me as a pretty good sports town. Like Cleveland with the 455 straight Indians sellouts in the 90’s, they seem to have transferred their passion to another sport–i.e., the Seahawks, who legitimately may have the loudest fans in the NFL (and that’s saying something). Plus the Mariners seem to draw fairly well despite being unwatchable offensively for years (not to mention the soul-crushing experience of following a team that has “grinded” under Wegdie the last 2 years). The one knock on Seattle, I suppose, is that’s it’s so far away from the rest of the country that, geographically, it’s a sports island with few natural rivals. There were the Blazers in the NBA but obviously that’s out the window. Still, with a market its size and the corporate community, there’s no way they should only have 2 teams. Here’s hoping they get the Sonics back sooner rather than later.
Definitely feel for Seattle. Will never forget the feeling when the browns left town. Whether Bennett and modell negotiated in bad faith, lied, or whatever, they both ripped the fabric of a town from two loyal and supportive fan bases. Sure, the browns were back when Baltimore won it’s super bowl, but that did not make us feel any better. Have you seen the browns teams we’ve been running out there for the last dozen years or so? Happy to root aginst okc unless lbj is playing against them. Woe is me. Ps – we also felt your pain when the refs were handing that sb to pukesburgh.
For as much as I respect Durant, I lost tons of respect for OKC and the fan base after I saw the “Thanks Seattle” shirts that some bozo company printed up. It might not be fair to paint the whole fan base that way, but it was just completely classless and soured me on the whole team.
That being said, I will obviously pull hard for them if the Heat somehow find a way out of the hole they’re in. But I don’t see that happening.
Hmm, I remember visiting Seattle a couple years before the Sonics moved and seeing a bumper sticker saying their big 3 sports were baseball, football, and skiing. I doubt Seattle was big on the Sonics…
Bay Area are kinda bandwagoners. Right now I would say the Giants are biggest for us. Candlestick sucks, and they are moving south anyway. There has been a resurgent fandom after last years success. The Warriors actually have a surprising following given their history.
If your measure of a “Sports Town” is how much a city sticks by their team when they suck – SF is a Dubs town (and they are moving here! 🙂 ). If it’s how much of the colors you see, the Giant’s own this place.
Totally agree BrownsFanSF. I live in SF and you have it spot on.
Hey TD, can you *please* proofread this thing. Thanks.
Thanks Dude, i appreciate your understanding, as i watched the trophy presentation last night i was literary shaking with anger….yes, there is definitely a feeling of gloom in the air here in Seattle today, i think last night was the first time it really hit home for allot of people….2 good things thought, it has more people than ever talking about it and we have an Arena deal on the table, hopefully last night motivated enough people to get this deal wrapped up and done so we can move on to finding a new team….the Sonics will rise again, and when we do, OKC will be #1 on our minds….Thanks Again Cleveland, best of luck and Seattle love you, J
As a die-hard Sonics fan thanks for recognizing our pain. Most of the country could care less because they’ve never had this feeling but Cleveland understands. The worst feeling for me right now is knowing that not only does OKC now have a group of young, talented, athletic, hard-working guys led by superstar that is the antithesis of jthe prima donna superstars of today, they will have this group together for a long time and probably build a dynasty. Trying to look at the Thunder as an objective observer, I see an amazing talented team with few holes that work together, and play good basketball despite their inexperience. They’re only going to get better and that is scary.
I’m embarrassed to say I only watch the NBA to root against OKC. I’m sure Cleveland did the same with the Ravens, especially during their run in 2000.
it’ll get weirder when they draft a 28 year old point guard late in the first round out of europe coupled with the “next lebron” at SF early in the first round, and then all the great former seattle players say he’s nothing special. itll get ten times weirder if this happens while byron scott is the general manager
a hundred times weirder if scotts spending his offseason with the cavs radio network
Nice to meet another Bay Area Cleveland fan! Come down to R-Bar when the Browns season starts, it’s a good Backers spot. (Sutter and Polk)
if you want to troll, leave your garbage at ESPN
In the settlement with Clay and his group Seattle actually kept the name and the colors. There is a actually a clause in the new arena deal that says any NBA team playing there must be named the Seattle Supersonics. And while they agreed to a “Shared History” (No one knows what that actually means) the championship trophies, banners, retired numbers, ect are on “loan” from OKC at a Seattle museum. If/when Seattle gets a team back, getting to keep those banners and trophies is a whole other battle that we’ll have to fight when we come to it.
hold on “bro” this article is directly addressed to the city of Seattle, of which I am a resident, How the fuck does that make me a troll? Explain that to me? moron.
ATTN: consulted with friend who knows…
me: you spent time in seattle.. were the sonics a big deal?
friend: oh yah, huge. pretty intense fans. whenever i was there i noticed that they were a big deal. huge.
so.
Before I reply to your overly sensitive remark at the bottom let me hit your main point first.
You’re saying that Cleveland fans shouldn’t have been hurt as much because we had a new team when the Ravens won it in 2000. That makes no sense. The team we had in 2000 was a shell of the team we lost. Why should be feel better about OUR team getting taken away and winning a super bowl just because we get to watch a replacement team go 3-13?
Not to mention you’re comparing agony. Something that can’t be measured. So this argument is pretty much moot. If you are in the mood to compare heartbreak however I wouldn’t take on Cleveland sports fans.
And as far as your little tantrum at the bottom of your reply, you need to calm down. I threw in a sarcastic reply to the statement you made that I didn’t agree with. I’m sorry you got upset by it, but if you can’t handle a little sarcasm you probably should go on the internet. Trust me I’m not the nicest guy on this site, but I’m definitely not the biggest A-hole either. If you can’t handle that I’d hate to see how you’d react to some of the heated debates that go on.
Don’t get so worked up.
Fair enough, thanks for the follow up.
This was a fantastic article. Clay Bennett is the only force in the NBA that could approach my disdain for the Heat, and now one of those pieces of crap will win a championship (unless, of course, Boston can sneak in).
Riveting!
lol. seemed like a good idea at the time.
ok, good to hear that the name/colors at least will remain. the history will be known to the locals which is the really important thing (though nice to have recognized by the league)
please read the “before your comment”
the language in your posts is not acceptable here.
Great piece indeed sports have really changed this is commentary on what happened in Seattle is one of the many reasons why I’m no longer a sports obsessed person. Like I said last week since these owners run their hobbies as businesses I’m now doing the same with my sports viewership/followship whatever you want to label it. Have a product worth the time and investment and I’ll consider being a consumer.
As far as Seattle goes it’s a shame that OKC has only gotten better since it’s arrival. It’s hard to root against young superstars like the Thunder have or the work Presti and most importantly Scott Brooks has done. Top that off with the potential face-off against the Miami Heat and it’s pick your poison for Clevelanders. I think almost all would pick rooting for OKC.
Hopefully if Seattle gets another basketball team they will do it right. Hopefully lessons will have been learned by the debacle of the return of the supposed Cleveland Browns. I don’t think much was done the right way once it was learned Cleveland would be getting another team. 1999 was a long time ago and I’d debate whether we still have a real team.
Uh, if by “I’m here” you mean you live in Boston then you live under a rock. The amount of Red Sox gear to Pats gear; the way in which the identity of this town is tied up in their Sawx. It’s not comparable. And once the Belichick – Brady era thankfully draws to a close the Pats fandom will dissipate. Like it or hate it (and I hate it with a vicious passion) Red Sox Nation is here to stay.
That’s a long way of saying you’re way off base in this comment thread. You can argue that Browns fans are more numerous, or more rabid (and almost surely are both) but that doesn’t mean there aren’t hundreds of thousands of people in Seattle feeling what we felt when their team wins a title within 5 years of being stolen. There’s no need to compete over self-pity.
They drafted Ray Lewis in 1996 with the pick they got for trading down in the first round in 1995 to take “Special Teams Ace” Craig Powell. So basically the Browns last draft pick in Cleveland was used on Ray Lewis. And yeah, I don’t get why we need to “one or the other is worse” comparison here.
What I’ve always found noxious about the “Thunder Model” is when we’re told that fans have to be willing to lose 60 games for 3 seasons before they can start rooting for wins. Easy to do for a franchise that’s playing lame duck games in another city before shipping off to OKC to reap the spoils. Opened with a lousy season and then went 50-32 in their second season there. Much as I don’t want to restart the tanking debate, it’s always struck me as completely unfair that the ultimate tank job ended up rewarding a group of people who never had to suffer.
Good luck Seattle on the quest to get the team back. Wish they’d expand to 32 teams so it doesn’t come at the expense of another.
noting that Miami also “tanked” in a little different matter to clear the payroll decks. of course, their fans didn’t suffer because they just don’t show up unless they are good (actually, they still don’t show up)
redsox sell more pink hats.
live under a rock?
let me just say this: you’re a jackass.
Thats ironic because a friend of mine consulted me from Seattle
friend: You live in the Cleveland area… are the fans still clinging to a past that predates our “expansion” basketball team to validate their status as a “football” town?
me: Oh yeah
friend: And are they so wrapped up in their failure complex that they refuse to accept that anyone anywhere in the world could have a sports team mean as much to them as the Browns mean to these losers?
me: unfortunately
friend: And do those people make moronic arguments like “football is IN GENERAL” more popular than basketball even if you are clearly talking about a “SPECIFIC” circumstance like Seattle where the trend is bucked and basketball is more popular?
me: Well you know, our public education is failing along with our business so..
friend; Tell them that it was worth it lose my beloved Sonics to gain perspective and not become a whining sniveling degenerate loser who is is simaltaneously espousing the greatness of my franchises past and declaring no one suffers like my franchises fans.
me: I’ll pass it along but I’m guessing I’m going to get called names.
http://sportscrack.blogspot.com/2012/06/tri-city-herald-paper-salutes-sonics.html
Good question raised by J.A. Adande in a recent tweet: “Before you automatically cast LeBron as the villain, would you rather have a player leave town or an entire franchise bolt?” Personally, as much as I was hurt by Lebron leaving the Cavs, I’d rather see the Heat win than Bennett’s Sonics/Thunder.
Yes Cleveland u are the only city to fully understand what we are going through we are sadly going down the road u had to endure watching the Browns leave becoming the Ravens and having to watch the Ravens win the Super Bowl we are one series from having to endure the same pain…..the funny thing is the Cleveland people will be upset if Miami wins because of Lebron and the Seattle people will be upset if OKC wins……..all we can do here in Seattle is hope the arena passes in August so we can go about trying to get the Kings up here that is only way we are going to heal and let this go by getting a team back….hey I visited Cleveland about 6 yrs ago and I enjoyed it your city unfairly gets a bad rap…….at least the Browns moved to a real city in Baltimore where as the Sonics moved to Oklahoma City what a joke some place I and most of humankind have no desire to ever visit.
Seattle sports fans have suffered as much as Cleveland or any other city…..Mariners 35 seasons no world series appearances. Seahawks cheated out of winning the Superbowl by horrible calls from the refs even people in Pittsburgh said we got robbed!!…..Sonics our only team to win the championship 1979 gone moved to a redneck backwater cowtown that nobody in their right mind would ever want to visit and may have to watch them win multiple nba championships that should have been ours….so I don’t want to hear about other cities pain we have suffered as much as anybody.
One of my favorite articles I’ve ever read on here.
Ive been rooting against the Heat & OKC all playofs, such a shame that one of them has to win.