No Sports in a Sports City

Ah, Seattle.

Home of the 12th man in Football.

Home of the Mariners, where one pitcher has his own section of fans.

Home of MLS's Sounders.

Home of no NBA teams since 2008.

Seattle is one of the towns who has a constant buzz about their teams.  They are the city who cheered so loud during a football game, the nearby university (U of Washington) registered a 3-point earthquake.  This is a city that has Mariners memorabilia everywhere, even during these last few leans years.  There is still Supersonics memorabilia around this city even after being abandoned nearly four years ago.  Sorry, Oklahoma City, I grew up in one of your suburbs (Mustang), but I will never root for your Thunder, the team that used to be the Supersonics.  In a time where so many NBA teams are so mismanaged and so many fans need to dredge care out of Give A Fuck Bay in order to even care about the local NBA team, the NBA pulled out of a city that genuinely cared about their team.

There is a proposal in Seattle to build a new stadium.  SafeCo Field is state of the art and friggin awesome!  QWest, now Century Link (the Clink) are state of the art.  And now the city of Starbucks and Microsoft takes aim at once again getting an NBA team.  Or possibly an NHL team, or, heaven forbid, both.  But Seattle is still classy.  They've been the jilted lovers.  They don't want to take another city's team.  The downside to that is that, after the recent lockout, the operating losses for mid-and small market teams (seriously, if you can't manage to make money in American sports, for the love of God, never breed), and the low attendance for teams, it is highly unlikely that Stern and company are going to be in any shape for expansion.

Right now, the NBA owns one of its own teams (don't get me started on Stern's meddling in the CP3 trade) in the New Orleans Hornets (who packed up and ran out of Charlotte in 2002).  Since New Orleans did just trade CP3 (the fact that they did isn't what gets my hackles up, but that Owner's Monkey Stern blocked the trade because Paul would have gone to a major market, only to trade him to the same major market, just another team) the Hornets have gone way downhill.  Since they won against Linsantiy and the Knicks on Friday, the Hornets are all the way up to 7 victories.  Attendance is down because their best player is now the LA Clippers best player.  New Orleans is riding high on the successes of the Saints, but with no baseball, New Orleans would feel the hurt of going back to being a one sport city. They would also be one of the cities to have two NBA teams leave (the Jazz moved to Utah in 1979 because, you know, when I think Jazz, I think Utah).

Another possibility of a team for Seattle is one that has practically moved out of their stadium and turned off the lights already--the Sacramento Kings.  What could be better for King County than to have the Kings play NBA ball in Seattle.  If Sacramento doesn't build a new stadium, the Kings are gone.  They almost moved to (you guessed it) LA (Anaheim) putting 3, count 'em 3! NBA teams in the LA area!  And Owner's Monkey Stern has already all but signed off on it.  Sacramento hasn't been relevant in the NBA since the Clinton administration.  But they suddenly have a core of young talent (if they can afford to pay them once their rookie contracts are up) to build on.  If the Kings are already gone, then why not go to King County, Washington?  They want a new stadium, Seattle is building it.  They want a new city that is growing despite the economy?  Seattle is still booming away.

My trip to Seattle this month was strangely subdued.  This was my second time into the town when there were no major sports going on.  The first time, I didn't know enough about the pulse of the city to be able to tell.  But this time, after visiting the city during the height of baseball season last June and baseball/football last September, Seattle felt more subdued.  People were excited about seafood and Pike Place, which are normal tourist busy points.  The area was buzzing about a recent visit by Andrew Zimmer and Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, which had aired the week before my own trip.  But the stadiums were still.  The Sodo district (where all three current Seattle teams play) was quiet.  There was a Presidents of the United States of America concert, but even that was downtown.  Key Arena was silent. The nearby Space Needle and Experience Music Project being a bigger draw.

There are always things to do in Seattle.  But when the sports are done, there isn't a unity that comes with the support of a team.  There isn't a feeling of citywide celebration, even being there on the weekend before Mardi Gras, that comes with a sports team when they are bringin it.  Seattle is one of the cities that needs, needs needs sports year round.  Right now, there is nothing between January NFL and St. Paddy's day when the Sounders start up again.

Move the Kings, move the Hornets (and for the love of God, rename them), or resurrect the Sonics, but bring the NBA back to Seattle.

And, as always, send Stern packing.