Bye Bye Sonics

[bernie]

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The Sonics leaving will be a huge loss on the local economy

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Statements like this, in my opinion, assume that entertainment money does not go elsewhere.

Do you think that everyone who spent $500 a year on Sonics games is going to put $500 in their savings account instead? No, they are gonna buy Seahawks tickets, M's tickets, go to movies, go to restaurants, or buy other stuff, entertainment or otherwise.

Not as easy to measure as the loss in revenue in certain Queen Anne restaurants, but I stand by the assertion that people continue to spend (as a percentage of their income) roughly the same amount on entertainment whether they have a Sonics team to support or not.

And how much did the Sonics care about the local economy? They were fine with lower Queen Anne restaurants and bars feeding and getting drunk their customers for years, but then turned around and said give us $200 million so we can put food and drink venues inside the arena, so all that money would flow to them instead of all the local businesses.

KJS

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Kind of refers to what KJS is talking about..

Link

b

[ripdog]

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Both the owners and the local government are to blame. The Sonics leaving will be a huge loss on the local economy and its pathetic that the two groups couldn't come to an agreement. Its really really sad, you have one shrewd business owner whose bluff was called by a bunch of dumb politicians in a game where calling the bluff would result in a loss by all parties involved. gregoire is a horrible govenor and Nickles is even worse at Mayor. WA is sorely hurting for some legitimate politcal leadership. If it wasn't for Microsoft, that region would be [censored] because the local leadership doesn't seem to have a clue on how to do anything for the region.

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My issue is the city being basically held up every 10 years by franchises that want us to pay for everything and give them every last dime that is generated--OR ELSE!. Also, from what I've read and seen on TV, the city put together 3 offers, one that had the city paying $150,000,000 to the Sonics $50, and the Sonics never even replied. Sounds like a bunch of crybabies on the Sonics side IMO. I don't fault local leadership on this one.