Mentally Drained. Help Needed
Posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 at 7:18 am by Brian Robinson
As the roller coaster begins to take it’s toll I am teriffied at the prospect of this fan rally. We need a good showing and we need help. The original intention was to not have a presence at this game due to the lack of TV coverage. When the news broke it had to come together really quickly.
If you can help by making signs or banners to bring to tonights game and rally please do so. If you want to volunteer to come as early as 5pm we will be setting up and can use all the help we get. Otherwise please come to the W. Entrance at 6:00pm to be part of the rally.
In general I am very happy with the dialogue coming from political leaders in the last 24 hours. The tone of conversation has certainly changed and suddenly it is sounding like political leaders have the chance to swoop in and be heros. That is what they really needed and it bodes well for chances even while we are under the gun. Clay’s rhetoric is hard to handle and hearing it drains me, but I try to understand that there is a purpose behind it. Hopefully they are still doing it for negotiating purposes rather than really looking to leave. I don’t know and waiver on my opinion.
Today could be the final hoorah for both Bob Hill and Rick Sund and if so I want to say thank you to both of them. While they get criticized pretty heavily and I do not always agree with their decisions they have both been tremendous to me and by default good to the fans of this site.
Rick in particular I owe an apology to. Each time I see him he immediately asks “What can I do to help save the Sonics?”(hold your punchlines please). About 10 days ago I had a chance to get articles posted on realgm.com and nbadraft.net that would provide coverage for SOS&S. Rick instantly offered to do the interview and made himself available for a good 40 minutes without waiting for the normal process. He was extremely candid both on and off the record and I appreciate his willingness to do it. It’s embarassing that I have not had the time yet to draft the articles. I apologize to him for wasting his time but will use the comments as draft season approaches. He should be commended for wanting to help so bad and I can assure you all the Rick feels very personally accountable for the way this season has gone. He’s a good guy.
I’ve always felt Bob likes me because I as “basketball questions”. He enjoys talking about plays, technical matters, and on the court stuff. Great teacher who gets going with an explanation then suddenly says “I have to show you this” and runs to the whiteboard to diagram plays on the court. The beat writers don’t care much about the actual game of basketball and get frustrated. I love it. The players who are supporting him make the same statemements off the record as on and in many ways he’s going to get a bum deal. Again I disagree with his decisions sometimes and understand why he probably has to go. He also has a really great relationship with his kids that is fun to watch. I’ll celebrate the new coach but understand that there were some mitigating factors in Bobs tenure here that will probably never surfact publicly.
Best wishes to both gentlemen. I hope you continue to drop by here and read once in a while.
April 18th, 2007 at 7:38 am
FYI here is the link to Clay Bennett’s complete interview yesterday.
http://www.king5.com/sports/sonics/index.html
April 18th, 2007 at 7:57 am
I’m in Spokane and feel helpless…
Anything I can do from here?
April 18th, 2007 at 8:05 am
“Anything I can do from here?”
Find your local reps and contact them and let them know what the team means to you. Do so respectfully and ask what they would need to have in the bill to support something getting done.
If they say they won’t support it no matter, remember them during election season because in the end they do represent you.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:54 am
One thing needed is if someone could compile a list of quotes made by various government officials during the last year on this arena situation. Anyone that could help with this please email them to brian@sonicscentral.com.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:02 am
NObody has talked about “The King County Events Center”
everyone knows it wont be called that.
How come the naming rights revenue cannot be entirely used to help pay back the public investment?
April 18th, 2007 at 9:09 am
“How come the naming rights revenue cannot be entirely used to help pay back the public investment?”
Because that is something that would be negotiated between the PFD and the tenants of the building.
What I’d like to see is a commitment from the team on thier portion of what they’re offering. I’d like to see the PFD be able to negotiate with the team that naming rights be first used to cover any overruns in the costs of the project, thus creating a cap on the public investment into the project.
Ross Hunter brought up a solid point yesterday which is that one thing he really wanted to know is who would be in charge of managing the building. If it is the PFD and the tenant is making what amounts to a 20% investment into a community project, I don’t know that you could ask for much more than that.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Unclear how much naming rights will bring as it varies from market to market. Maybe they can get $100+ million over 20+years or maybe not. Lump sum payments upfront seem unlikely. Safeco was $36 million over 20 years. Qwest Field was $75 million over 15 years 3 years ago. Will they beat Qwest Field or get in-between? I don’t think it is a certainity to beat. This stream probably produces under 15% of the total public bond repayments.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Its a start.
And if morons like us can find simple solutions like this, how come billionaire businessmen cannot?
April 18th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Naming rights have always been assumed in the finance plan just not identified as that but rather as “private investment”, making it seem like money was coming from Sonics but it is money coming from advertisers in a mostly public financed building and this ownership group has not said if it will make any contribution out of their own pocket yet for a building intended to raise their profitability and franchise value.
Bennett’s wife’s family sold their interest in the Spurs about 2 years before they got their new arena and avoided making a private contribution.
FedExs Arena in Memphis generated $90 million from naming rights over 20 yrs, A few arenas in major markets have generated a lot more.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Bennett in NY Thurs/Fri for NBA board of governors meeting. Probably not on the agenda but I would imagine there will be some talk about arena situation and what comes next.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:58 am
“Naming rights have always been assumed in the finance plan just not identified as that but rather as “private investment”, making it seem like money was coming from Sonics but it is money coming from advertisers in a mostly public financed building and this ownership group has not said if it will make any contribution out of their own pocket yet for a building intended to raise their profitability and franchise value.”
Without the tenant the building doesn’t get the naming rights. It’s a catch 22 when it comes to financing.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:06 am
“Without the tenant the building doesn’t get the naming rights. It’s a catch 22 when it comes to financing”
Who’s the tenant of the Sprint Center in Kansas City?
April 18th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Keep fighting guys !
I really don’t want to become a “OK City Sonics” fan
April 18th, 2007 at 10:13 am
“Who’s the tenant of the Sprint Center in Kansas City?”
They paid less than half of what Qwest paid for Seahawks Stadium over a longer term. Had that been the ‘future home of the Kansas City Sonics’ it would have gone for a lot more.
Not to mention KC got Sprint to pay more for the rights to name the building with the expectation that they’d go out and find a major tenant to occupy the arena.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Tentative lineup for tonight. Kathy Koeller, Mayor of Renton. Fred Brown, Bob Blackburn, not to mention Steve and I. Ron Simms and a couple of the KJR guys still mulling over their invitations.
Brian
April 18th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Sounds like a good lineup Brian. If Sims comes, his comments may be quite important.
Scott you are correct on the tenant ’s role in creating naming rights value. It is a joint production. They can call it private investmen, that is the normt. I’d prefer that not the total private investment Some sort of contribution to construction or maintenance by upfront payment or stream of rent or ticket taxes seems necessary like in the Sacramento proposal. Lease agreement was intended for later and would get to that but by putting that off many get the impression that it is a freeride for billionaires. Whether it would be entirely or just a great business deal remained to be determined later. There would be some value when trying to get the big chunk of public money to be able to point to “private contributions” more concretely than the Sonic pr campaign has.
April 18th, 2007 at 11:16 am
hey so where exactly is the Westside courtyard?
By the teamshop?
The seattle center?
The will call area?
April 18th, 2007 at 11:28 am
“hey so where exactly is the Westside courtyard?”
Meet by the Suite entrance which is right behind the team shop.
“I’d prefer that not the total private investment Some sort of contribution to construction or maintenance by upfront payment or stream of rent or ticket taxes seems necessary like in the Sacramento proposal.”
Agree completely. Which is why I said I’d like to see the ‘naming rights’ money be used as the layer against overruns. If there’s limited overruns then its pretty safe to say that the remainder could be returned to the team. But without question there should be some up front stream of revenue, which could later be spread however you want it.
April 18th, 2007 at 11:39 am
James Donaldson confirmed. Fred Brown still a maybe.
Please sunshine…
April 18th, 2007 at 11:54 am
‘naming rights’ money used as the layer against overruns
is a creative idea that could be worked into the mix though to do so assumes there are enough funding sources to cover the estimated costs without the full use of the naming rights and that would take new sources. an incentive to avoid costoverruns does serve a purpose.
Boeing as the naming right partner seems a natural first target and might reduce land acquisition cost. Maybe the building could be designed to clearly serve some office or meeting space needs of them directly or their worldwide contracting partners including in China. Build a hotel next to arena for needs for visiting buyers or maybe even consider making upperbowl suites multipurpose- entertaining and lodging. Or use some upperbowl or concourse square footage as luxury condos. A mini but full range neighborhood.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Maybe a Chinese bank, shipping company or major exporter could buy inside arena advertising presence of some kind (like for a creative arts space?) and the right to have Sonics play a few games in China every year.
Maybe they can try to get a “local” type tv deal there too.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
If part of the purpose of the events center is major meeting needs of large local businesses try to get Microsoft, etc, to prepay for 10 years worth of meetings and apply it toward construction costs or at least have the guaranteed future revenue on the books and in the pr campaign. As a civic gesture and as a business recognition they are a beneficiary of the new arena.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
If Bennett wanted to move 5-10 games to OKC and use that to get a local tv contract there to help cover the payroll and fulfill his local pride quest I could live with it.
There was talk about trying to get 1 game in Vancouver next year.
If you pursued some combo of this activity (OKC, BC , China) to get multiple local tv contracts that would be impressive and value added business activity- if you could sell it to those communities and fellow owners. Maybe it wont pan out but I’d explore it.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
TV rights and merchandising getting to be larger slice of the business. Arenas as solution maybe to the 90s solution not the 2010 and beyond solution.
Hope Bennett actively pursues market parity with his business partners thru more favorable league revenue sharing either by sharing part of local tv money or using luxury tax and player escrow collections more heavily to meet revenue parity goals.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
I’m stuck out here in Chicago, but when I heard the news, I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest. Wish I could be there with you guys, but know that there are people all over the country in support. Save Our Sonics!
April 18th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
great job brian and everybody.screw work ill be there.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Keep on Fighting guys, you’re doing a great job.
“I really don’t want to become a “OK City Sonics” fan :(”
Yeah, I’m not interested in this as well.
April 18th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Are we changing the location to East court yard now?
And that’s by the fountain right?
April 18th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
“Are we changing the location to East court yard now?
And that’s by the fountain right?”
Yeah that’s correct.
Right in that area and you’ll find us.
April 18th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Some themes and ideas for future rallies… Here are some ideas that we need to put forth to legislators and decision makers, to sway their opinions. We need to ask or state:
1) What will you tell your children when they ask, “Why has the professional basketball team left town?”
2) Don’t be fooled by the idea that money lost in an arena will go toward social services…
3) We should remind them of the contributions to the community by Ray Allen’s “Ray of Light” foundation… These foundations also contribute greatly to the social services of our community.
4) We need to remind them of the longstanding presence of the Sonics in our community. This isn’t like losing a team that was only here for 6 years (Vancouver Grizzlies).
5) We need to tell them that we will boycott the vote for all legislators who vote against keeping the team in town.
6) We need to remind them of the economic boost that a new arena could provide to the area for non-sporting events…
I’ve already put these ideas forth in letters, and I’ll continue to do so. Finding the right argument (emotional, rational, etc.) is key to swaying public opionion…
April 18th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
What does Bennett mean when he says that the suggested private model is not viable when he’s exploring other private models? Did the talks with the Bellevue developers at initial purchase blow up? I’m still trying to come up with rough sketches.
April 18th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
At today’s construction prices and in this size market a pure private arena always sounded like bluster and a timewaster to me but perhaps there might be some model that worked- privately financed, partially repaid by ticket taxes, high ticket prices and tax credits. The Pepsi Center was a version of this, but a much cheaper version. Owning the realestate adds value to the franchise at least in short and intermediate term but in real longterm the arena will depreciate and cost repairs. But you could try to largely overlook that if you dont intend to own for life or think you can get a renovation deal later.
April 18th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Assuming nothing is settled in a special session, I anticipate OKC makes an offer for Ford Center rennovation in December (or Bennett tells them what he’d need to consider it) and then Jan/Feb is a window for offer/action here and by March Bennett makes a choice to stay or file for relocation.
April 18th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
How is Bennett’s proposed arena triple the cost of the Pepsi Center? There is inflation but certainly not at 200% over 8 years. A creative solution is indeed necessary.
TK, your predicted scenario is correct, but the price is going to go up from this year.
Speaking of year to year, the Ross Hunter interview indicates that the proposal did not calculate interest rates, which would hurt the state. Finance people help out here!
April 18th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
I assume Sonics want new arena primarily to improve financial operating bottomline? Are there other ways that could be accomplished that would be more palatable to public officials and the community?
Here are some ideas that could be considered:
1. Buy $1 million worth of advertising a year from Sonics for government educatin programs (public health, environment, etc.)
2. Pay Sonics $2 million to run youth basketball, education and self-esteem programs.
3. Buy $1 million of tickets to use for hosting visiting potential relocating businesses and trade partners.
4. Allocate a $1 million to hire local performers for pre-game, halftime and postgame entertainment.
That could be a $5 million change in there bottomline each year and I think you could probably sell it. This might not the total or longterm solution but it might be a partial, short-term good faith offer.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Well it wouldnt be a full $5 million profit change I miscalculated on the economic development tickets- $100,ooo might be enough for that but you get the idea.
reduce their costs, increase their revenues while serving other legit public purposes.
April 19th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Another way you could change things would be to pay the arena bonds with ticket taxes the first 10 years before going to the set of local taxes proposed that arent available right away. This could shave several hundred million off the total interest cost and could change the politics of the bill because then the users of the facility would be stepping forward and making the first wave of payments (along with the naming rights and some contribution from owners).
January 24th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
I am saddened by the prospect of losing our Sonics to Oklahoma City. Seriously, WTF, Oklahoma City? What the heck is out there to attract new young talent in the NBA? They dont deserve Durant.