I had no hope in the begining. got my hopes up bigtime, and then had completely and totally given up when a series of amendments come out including the implementation of a B&O tax on athletes.

Although I didn’t expect it to come around at this time I have to claim some involvement in that one. Hope the athletes don’t hate me for it.

This concept got started talking around about 3 years ago. We were dismayed by the competative disadvantage Seattle has due to a lack of income tax. Keep in mind that in Oklahoma City the state income tax is 9%. That means that for every game Shaq plays in OKC he has to declare 1/82nd of his paycheck as Oklahoma Income and pay 9% to the state. With NBA teams averaging about $60M in payroll that comes out to $10M per year that the state just collects (2 teams playing every night). They charge that tax and yet a team just moved there. New York and California have those taxes and they have multiple teams. So no I don’t think we’re going to see a mass exodus of professional sports from this town. No there is nothing dirty about it or different from most other markets. You pay the taxes where you perform. Period. They have had a much lower tax burden than players in other states for a long long time. The owners don’t give a damn what the tax burden on the players is. They care what the tax burden on the franchise is. Very critical difference.

So how do we resolve that inequity? Find a way to tax people who work in publicly funded buildings for their use of that building.

We wanted to do a “Public Facilities Use Surcharge” that would be enacted by a vote. There was a lot of research done and the determination was made that the income tax implications would be tricky. People looked into it. Told us a B&O tax was the only way it would fly. Suddenly here we have, a B&O tax.

The one thing I know very certainly is that this is likely to get contested in court and if it does there is no way they can co-mingle this with the general fund without finding that it violates state income tax restrictions(Unless those get changed as well). The thought was that this became much more justifiable legally if those charges went directly to fund the PFD’s that makes the work possible. So if this were to fly it should directly fund the creation and maintenance of public facility sports stadiums long term.

What this would necessitate would be the conversion of the key, or the creation of a new building as a public facilities district operated by the county. This also has always been in play. It was the easy way to do a KeyArena model circumventing the city law of I-91 that did not apply to county facilities. Greg Nickels was VERY protective of Seattle Center and Ron Simms very aggressive in wanting it. A difficult dynamic was created. Maybe Dow Constantine and Mike McGinn work better together or have different priorities. It’s like the roofline of KeyArena. That was ridiculously important to Nickels who viewed it as a historic element. I personally could care less about it. Different people have different priorities.

So an interesting day. Friday is the end of session. I have a tough time thinking they would put this stuff in here if it wasn’t going to get voted in. The timing tells me that deals may have been cut.

I have been very busy. Haven’t followed this close so I can’t say for sure what is going on.

Also a tremendous group of guys who I just enjoy and respect. Every time I go to an event I feel like I get to schmooze off all the work they’ve done promoting and people say “there is Brian Robinson from Save Our Sonics” without realizing that the real difference makers are Adam, Reidster, Ian, Collin, Camp, and the crew. Tip of the hat to you boys. I totally love and respect you all. We’ll be good friends for a very long time.

Nice little event at KeyArena yesterday. Not a huge deal but nice that we continue to have this great relationship between the fans of the former team.

I don’t mind the Oklahoma City posters in our last thread at all. Throw the questions out boys. Know that we’re sensative on the issue but you would be to. We’re all just doing the best we can with the situation. I think it is an interesting dialogue. Just stay polite to each other.

The difference between Seattle and North Carolina? A big part of it is timing. The city is just not into support of these types of projects right now. We’ve funded the Mariners and the Seahawks and it all seemed like gravy until the tech bubble burst. Now people are leary about spending those dollars. The timing sucks in terms of team history. We ALWAYS supported our team at levels above other cities. That is what makes this all so shitty. When they were the top of the league we were tops in support. When they were mediocre to poor we were still top third in attendance. In their last couple of years, despite a completely crappy team and tremendous adversity we still had more fans than many other teams do today. I’m totally proud to be a fan from this city and don’t have to slam another city to say it. They should have treated us better. That’s why we’re pissed.

Another thing is that as a region the liberal leftists of Seattle just do not share the same conceptual support for giving money to big business in thoughts that the money comes back to the community as a region like Oklahoma or North Carolina. That ideology is not limited to basketball but reflected in the business community in general. We’re still kicking the crap out of most regions economically so I can’t say that it has been a bust but it is really frustrating sometimes.

I never expected legislation to pass for an arena this year but have to confide that I got my hopes up at the last minute. It stunk that it didn’t happen. The votes weren’t there. People are frustrated. The small silver lining that we’re stuck with accepting is that they passed the taxes in a way that they are now authorized, but King County will never agree to utilize them. What that sets up for the next couple of years is the concept of King County making a request to change what they can be used for and the legislature authorizing those “pre-exising taxes” to be used the way the county wants them to at the counties request. They can make the duel claims that they are simply respecting the autonomy of the county to spend their own money as they see fit and that they are not authorizing any new taxes for sports. It does set up the future game marginally better as we continue to lower our expectations.

Going to be lots of teams available and eventually we’ll get one. If the fans of our city are as classy as overall the fans of OKC have been to us I’ll be happy.

I’m really excited to get involved in the Hood Classic this Summer if the guys will let me. I’m also excited to see what happens with all the NBA free agent chaos this summer. I think that will draw me back in. No sense in being bitter forever.

Go Mariners.

Damn Kevin Durant is good.

Save Our Sonics Hosts “Bring Back The Sonics Night” at KeyArena

February 24, 2010 – Seattle, WA

Nonprofit group Save Our Sonics (SOS) presents “Bring Back The Sonics Night” at KeyArena on Tuesday, March 2 at 8:00 P.M. during the final Seattle University men’s basketball home game of the season.  The event is billed as a celebration of the Sonics 41 years in Seattle and a rally cry to bring the team back.

Fans can purchase special $6 tickets to the game using the promo code: “Sonics”. 

• Ticket link – Special Offer Code = Sonics
• Facebook Event

Seattle University is sponsoring the event, providing an opportunity for the region’s basketball fans to remember 41 years of SuperSonics basketball while cheering on a Seattle U team that finishes its first season after returning to Division 1 play. Save Our Sonics will present a special tribute to Bob Blackburn, the legendary Sonics broadcaster who passed away last month at age 85, and Sonics legend Slick Watts will be in attendance with his community foundation.

The local filmmakers behind the critically acclaimed documentary film “Sonicsgate: Requiem For A Team” will also be in attendance, showing clips from the movie and continuing to expose the tragic events caused the Sonics to relocate to Oklahoma City in 2008, where they were re-branded the “Thunder.” All signs of the Sonics’ 41 years in Seattle have been stripped from KeyArena, including the championship banners and retired jerseys the city gave up when then-Mayor Greg Nickels allowed the team to break its lease and relocate.

“Sonicsgate” brought national exposure to the issue after collecting more than 80,000 online views and being named “The Most Persuasive Grassroots Flick of 2009” by Sports Illustrated.  SOS co-founder Steven Pyeatt says he hopes the “Bring Back The Sonics” event at the Seattle U game will help focus some of that energy into changing the local politics that ultimately failed to keep the Sonics in town.

### 

I literally used to take this day off of work. I would tell everybody that I was unavailable, come into the office anyway, and just sit at my computer all day hitting the refresh button.

The only time I ever scheduled a substantive meeting on the trade deadline was the day Gary Payton was traded. Huge meeting, mutli-million dollar deal. I was walking down the stairs to go to my car when it was announced so I raced back up, got the details, jumped in the car. I had to sit through the whole meeting for about 2 hours. It was hell.

So today nicely I don’t have a team to distract me but there is TONS of action. Trades happening in unusual fashion before the deadline. Lots of intrigue regarding whether a new CBA will affect the 2010 draft class. If you sign these guys to big contracts, or get left with the big contract and the CBA changes then it can destroy your franchise. Remember Shawn Kemp’s rear loaded deal with Cleveland?

Big salaries swapping and it is just stunning how many former Sonics and Sonics second round draft picks are involved.

Carl Landry a both key trade components. Big Baby Glenn Davis may go to Charlotte for a former lottery pick. I hated those picks even when they were imediately traded. I am sure I wanted Euros. At least in the case of Landry the Euro I wanted them to draft was Marc Gasol who has been a hell of a player.

Sacramento is in trouble. They trade Kevin Martin for cap relief? Who are they going to try to sign that is better than Kevin Martin. If you have a team with no stars, hunkering down and saving money, with Paul Westphaul as your coach you need to see the writing on the wall.

Although I hadn’t realized that rookie Tyreke Evans was doing so well. Did he make Kevin Martin that expendable? Are SG’s really that easy to draft?

While I am at it can I say that Kevin Durant if F’ing amazing. Caught the end of the OKC Dallas game the other day and it broke my heart.

Anyway I love the trade deadline. I’m going to watch it closely.

The Senate passed a pretty vague bill.

The House Bill, HB 2912, passed the House today.

There has been some progress. The Senate went first, the House went second. Does either side want to tinker with the other side’s bill? They kind of have to agree. The Senate bill is missing Workforce Housing.

Let’s see where this goes.

This has gone pretty far, I am ok with the House bill so far.

[originally posted at ManyWordsForRain, below is a few comments I made while observing today's debate on HB 2912]
Mr Baker said…
HB 2912 is being debated on the House Floor right now.
February 16, 2010 11:48 AM
Mr Baker said…
Husky stadium was just cut out of the House bill.

Both bills passed, they need to be reconciled.
February 16, 2010 11:56 AM

We needed a new thread.

Seriously I think the Thunder are likely to make a good sized move this deadline that will make us jealous. There are some teams jockying for cap space and they have it. I could see them pulling off a deal with NY, Chicago, Cleveland, or someone else in which they get a nice established player for virtually nothing. They know they aren’t going to be luring free agents and Presti has some brains.

Post your trade thoughts here.

First, to repeat Camp Jones’ last post, here is a Bob Blackburn Tribute video that Sonicsgate editor Darren Lund put together using old photos and audio from the ‘79 Championship series:

Vimeo –>  http://www.vimeo.com/9037452
or YouTube –> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx0ILaa93pw

R.I.P. to a legend.

Also, for anyone who wants to make a road trip south and all the Portland people who support our cause, we have two reasons to hit Rip City next month:

Tuesday, Feb 9th — OKC Blunder @ Portland Blazers  Wear your Supes gear and raise a ruckus like we did last year. Never let them forget. Game on!

Saturday, Feb 20th — Sonicsgate Portland Premiere Screening @ the Beer And Movies Festival! Tickets and Details here
–> www.bamfestpdx.com

Too busy to come down?  Don’t worry, we’ll be sure to ’sext’ you from Greg Oden’s phone.

SEATTLE – The owner of the former Seattle SuperSonics has tentatively settled a federal class action lawsuit brought by the team’s season ticket holders, KING 5 News has learned.
Clay Bennett has agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle the claim.
The season ticket holders alleged Bennett breached a contract by not allowing them to renew their seats after the team left for Oklahoma City in 2008.
The settlement affects about 800 people and means Bennett won’t need to testify again in Seattle.
A judge just needs to sign off on the deal.

Good for you season ticket buyers that were quite possibly lied to by Clay Bennett.
Since the case will be settled the claims will not be proved one way, or another.

Adios, agujero del culo!