OKC throws Tulsa a bone...

[Big Red Ron]

Per the Daily Oklahoman...:texan:

When the Sonics move to OKC, the WNBA team "Storm" will be allowed to take up residence in the BOK arena!

Yay, Tulsa is getting proffessional Baskeball afterall!

;)

[Mjcpr]

Meh. I'm sure we'll support that as well as any of our other minor sport endeavors.

:rolleyes:

[Hamhock]

I bet I could scoreboard most of the WNBA players, mano y hermano

:texan:

[Pricetag]

Meh. I'm sure we'll support that as well as any of our other minor sport endeavors.

:rolleyes:
There are about 4,000 (8,000 if we're playing for the championship) Talons fans who would beg to differ with you on that point. :D

[Boomer.....]

But WNBA, ugh. :(

[NormanPride]

If I go to their games, will they mug me in the parking lot? :(

[Scott D]

But WNBA, ugh. :(

a team that has been to the playoffs 3 of the last 4 seasons, won the wnba title 2 years ago...and most importantly..has Sue Bird on the roster.

http://images.askmen.com/imagesmodel/2003_sep/sue_bird/sue_bird_150.jpg

[Boomer.....]

a team that has been to the playoffs 3 of the last 4 seasons, won the wnba title 2 years ago...and most importantly..has Sue Bird on the roster.

http://images.askmen.com/imagesmodel/2003_sep/sue_bird/sue_bird_150.jpg

But still only draws 1000 fans.

[GottaHavePride]

If I go to their games, will they mug me in the parking lot? :(

I'd let Sue Bird mug me anywhere she wanted.

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Sue Bird is the greatest thing to happen to Tulsa if this happens!!

[KC//CRIMSON]

I wonder if they will change their name?

[OklahomaTuba]

Well, can't be any worse than that LPGA shiat that runs thru here every year.

[Scott D]

But still only draws 1000 fans.

and the mariners draw like 10k and the seahawks outside of this recent run draw about 20k.

[royalfan5]

My question for the Tulsan's(Tulsalites?) is would you rather have a WNBA team or find 5 bucks?

[Sooner_Bob]

My question for the Tulsan's(Tulsalites?) is would you rather have a WNBA team or find 5 bucks?


Is it a new $5 bill?

[Boomer.....]

Definitely 5 bucks. At least I could use that.

[royalfan5]

Is it a new $5 bill?
no, just a regular one.

[Big Red Ron]

heh.."five bucks," he says.

It isn't looking good for KC to get an NBA team anymore.

[KC//CRIMSON]

Meh, no biggie. We've got plenty of other Pro Sports.

[Big Red Ron]

True dat!

But Oklahoma sure is becoming a Basketball Mecca.

;)

[mdklatt]

Pfft. If Tulsa had lured an WNBA team on it's own you Tulsa lovers would have been touting it as the greatest thing since hills and trees.

[KC//CRIMSON]

I wonder if they will change their name?

To what? The Tulsa Layoffs?

running away......

[colleyvillesooner]

Well, can't be any worse than that LPGA shiat that runs thru here every year.

You saying you're better than them?

;)

[GottaHavePride]

To what? The Tulsa Layoffs?

running away......

ZANG!

[GottaHavePride]

You saying you're better than them?

;)
:pop:

[Big Red Ron]

To what? The Tulsa Layoffs?

running away......The Tulsa Trees...no, the Tulsa River Rats, or maybe the Tulsa Sewage Surfers.:pop:

[mdklatt]

The Tulsa Trees...no, the Tulsa River Rats, or maybe the Tulsa Sewage Surfers.

Most WBNA teams have singular names, like Sky, Shock, Mercury, Storm, etc.

Tulsa Riot

[Mixer!]

Tulsa Riot

Not sure if I should spek you or neg you for the historical context.



:O

[mdklatt]

Not sure if I should spek you or neg you for the historical context.



:O


Take your pick--don't you still give out gray spek?

[Mixer!]

Of course! I'm a N00b! :D

[Scott D]

Most WBNA teams have singular names, like Sky, Shock, Mercury, Storm, etc.

Tulsa Riot

the WNBA teams also have a singluar name that relates to the name of the NBA franchise.

[KC//CRIMSON]

Most WBNA teams have singular names, like Sky, Shock, Mercury, Storm, etc.
Those sound like stripper names.;)

[mdklatt]

Those sound like stripper names.;)

They've got to get butts in the seats somehow.

[Big Red Ron]

:D Isn't the WNBA a serious draw for the gay/lesbian/multi-gender/bi/bi-currious/social misfits of any stripes types?

Tulsa is going to be a perfect fit.

Kathy Taylor?:O

[OklahomaTuba]

:D Isn't the WNBA a serious draw for the gay/lesbian/multi-gender/bi/bi-currious/social misfits of any stripes types?

Tulsa is going to be a perfect fit.

Kathy Taylor?:O

Maybe they can play their homo games @ ORU? :D

And Kathy Taylor didn't get her private jet munchin the kitty carpet.

[SoonerInKCMO]

the WNBA teams also have a singluar name that relates to the name of the NBA franchise.

And I still don't know why the Minnesota team isn't called the Bitches.

Heh. Jesse Ventura suggested that on his radio show before he ran for governor. Still can't believe they elected that weirdo.

[Big Red Ron]

Maybe they can play their homo games @ ORU? :D

And Kathy Taylor didn't get her private jet munchin the kitty carpet.I think she was moonlighting. Her and Kim "Rodham" Holland are awful close...

:pop:

[OklahomaTuba]

I think she was moonlighting. Her and Kim "Rodham" Holland are awful close...

:pop:

HA!

Kim Holland, what an interesting lady she is.

http://www.oid.state.ok.us/www2.oid.state.ok.us/images/Commissioner.jpg

Is she? ;)

[GottaHavePride]

And I still don't know why the Minnesota team isn't called the Bitches.

Heh. Jesse Ventura suggested that on his radio show before he ran for governor. Still can't believe they elected that weirdo.

I'm just waiting for Carl Weathers to get elected governor somewhere.

[KC//CRIMSON]

Sonics best bet to land in Oklahoma City
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com


This early in the process, only one thing is clear about the sale of the Seattle SuperSonics:

Oklahoma City, rather suddenly, is an NBA promised land.

That's because little OKC, as of Tuesday, has two teams that desperately want to play there.

Seattle and New Orleans, sadly, might not be able to claim even one team that feels that way.

Combined.

The Hornets never can admit this publicly, of course, with New Orleans still in the early stages of its complicated, unenviable recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. But it's not exactly revealing a league secret to say that the Hornets, selfish as it sounds, would prefer to stay in their new city.

The Sonics, meanwhile, were just purchased by a group whose front man -- Oklahoma's own Clay Bennett -- repeatedly has stated that his goal is bringing a major-league franchise to Oklahoma. For keeps.

So …

For Oklahomans not to wind up with one of these two teams, or both, would require an unlikely combination of events:

1) The Hornets' scheduled return to New Orleans for the 2007-08 season, amid considerable and understandable skepticism that the city will be ready for a full-time commitment to NBA basketball that quickly, has to proceed smoothly.

And …

2) Seattle city officials and/or voters would have to sanction the arena renovations and/or lease amendments that would make it viable for the Sonics to stay in a city where they were the first pro sports franchise back in 1967.

Don't bet on No. 2.

When it comes to No. 1, it doesn't really matter what the Hornets want, even though they'd inevitably insist that their reservations about a New Orleans return stem from the financial troubles the team had there before Katrina. Hornets coach Byron Scott said it in March when the Hornets played their first game back at New Orleans Arena: "I don't think we get to make the decision [to stay or go]. It's the commissioner."

It's commissioner David Stern, who's so determined to re-establish the NBA in the Bayou that he already has awarded the 2008 All-Star Game to New Orleans. Chances are Stern would allow the Hornets to stay in Oklahoma City only if New Orleans' city leaders come to him say they're not ready to take the team back.

In Seattle, by contrast, Stern has complained about the Sonics' working conditions even louder than the Sonics have. On a media conference call before the playoffs began in April, Stern bluntly voiced his frustrations about the Sonics' inability to make progress on a new arena lease or funding for a new building, saying: "They are not interested in having the NBA there."

Critics of outgoing Sonics owner Howard Schultz -- and there are scores -- would say that the Starbucks magnate was never interested in spending what it takes to win in the NBA. The Sonics were essentially a .500 team in Schultz's reign -- going 209-201 with just two playoff appearances in his five full seasons in charge -- and have gained a reputation as a non-player in free agency … even when dealing with many of their own free agents.

His reputation will be soiled even further if the Sonics do leave for good, in spite of what his coffee exploits have done for the locals, after Schultz's consortium sold the club for $150 million more than they paid.

Yet Schultz backers counter with the contention that even he couldn't afford to spend, largely because of a revenue-sharing arrangement he inherited with the city that Stern has termed as the most onerous arena lease in the whole league, worse even than Portland's.

I, too, have often questioned Schultz's frugality with the Sonics given his Starbucks riches -- and his attempts to secure a more favorable lease or public funding for a new arena or renovations were met with similar scoffs -- but it has been suggested by impartial observers in Seattle that the Sonics are on a course for bankruptcy without significant changes to their current set up. No matter how wealthy the boss is.

Caught in the middle, of course, are the Sonics' diehards, who stand as the most likely group in the Seattle-Oklahoma City-New Orleans triangle to be left without a team. (The speculation already has started about Paul Allen moving the Trail Blazers from Portland to Seattle, but that might not be any easier than keeping the Sonics.)

I can't imagine that Stern, in spite of all the tough talk, wants to abandon them after a 40-year relationship. He'll undoubtedly be hoping that the arrival of out-of-town ownership in Seattle will convince the local government that the threat of relocation is more real than ever, leading to a deal that can keep the Sonics where they were born … and leave the increasingly attractive OKC market open for another team that might need it.

But let's face it.

It's much easier to imagine the new Sonics moving into the raucous Ford Center when the Hornets leave, a building so loud that it's often referred to as the Arco Arena of the Midwest and/or the spectacular new BOK Events Center in Tulsa, designed by superstar architect Cesar Pelli which is scheduled for completion in 2008. You suspect Bennett and Co. will like their OKC/Tulsa options better than anything they hear from Seattle between now and August 2007.

The third scenario is that, should the Sonics relocate to OKC, and New Orleans is unable to support the return of the Hornets, Oklahoma ends up with two teams once the BOK Center is completed. Think Sonics/Trailblazers type rivalry, fueling the in state feud between OKC and it's little brother Tulsa. (No way that would ever happen.)

The Sonics' lease at KeyArena runs through 2010, but Bennett said Tuesday that his group has the contractual freedom to explore its outside options if a new agreement can't be hatched in a year. The Bennett-led Sonics could try, at that point, to buy their way out of the lease and are bound to find a willing partner or two in the city legislature to avoid a scenario that would surely appeal to no one in Seattle -- playing out two or three seasons as a lame duck.

It's too early, again, to describe any of this as a lock. Bennett, according to league sources, has some Nashville ties, too. You never know. Maybe the Hornets wind up staying in Oklahoma City, if New Orleans isn't ready, and maybe the Sonics head for Tennessee.

The lone certainties at work here are that Bennett was very well regarded in San Antonio during a stint on the Spurs' board of directors in the 1990s … and that Oklahoma City, nowhere to be found on anyone's NBA map this time last year, is a certifiable hot spot now.

The Hornets want to stay. The Sonics want to go there. Someone else surely will apply to take over the town if given the chance.

I'm sure the OKC folks don't want to lose the Hornets now. Not with the irresistible Chris Paul coming off a Rookie of the Year season and not with George Shinn spending money (on Peja Stojakovic and Tyson Chandler) like never before.

Yet there are worse fates than having two NBA teams lust over you. I can think of sadder scenarios than Oklahoma City, for so long branded a minor-league town, absorbing Bennett's Sonics and joining forces with a hometown owner who, unlike Shinn, has a sterling reputation.

[bri]

Sweet! An influx of tall bisexual women!

Finally, this Vision 2025 thing is starting to pay off. :D

[hurricane'bone]

Sonics best bet to land in Oklahoma City
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com


This early in the process, only one thing is clear about the sale of the Seattle SuperSonics:

Oklahoma City, rather suddenly, is an NBA promised land.

That's because little OKC, as of Tuesday, has two teams that desperately want to play there.

Seattle and New Orleans, sadly, might not be able to claim even one team that feels that way.

Combined.

The Hornets never can admit this publicly, of course, with New Orleans still in the early stages of its complicated, unenviable recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. But it's not exactly revealing a league secret to say that the Hornets, selfish as it sounds, would prefer to stay in their new city.

The Sonics, meanwhile, were just purchased by a group whose front man -- Oklahoma's own Clay Bennett -- repeatedly has stated that his goal is bringing a major-league franchise to Oklahoma. For keeps.

So …

For Oklahomans not to wind up with one of these two teams, or both, would require an unlikely combination of events:

1) The Hornets' scheduled return to New Orleans for the 2007-08 season, amid considerable and understandable skepticism that the city will be ready for a full-time commitment to NBA basketball that quickly, has to proceed smoothly.

And …

2) Seattle city officials and/or voters would have to sanction the arena renovations and/or lease amendments that would make it viable for the Sonics to stay in a city where they were the first pro sports franchise back in 1967.

Don't bet on No. 2.

When it comes to No. 1, it doesn't really matter what the Hornets want, even though they'd inevitably insist that their reservations about a New Orleans return stem from the financial troubles the team had there before Katrina. Hornets coach Byron Scott said it in March when the Hornets played their first game back at New Orleans Arena: "I don't think we get to make the decision [to stay or go]. It's the commissioner."

It's commissioner David Stern, who's so determined to re-establish the NBA in the Bayou that he already has awarded the 2008 All-Star Game to New Orleans. Chances are Stern would allow the Hornets to stay in Oklahoma City only if New Orleans' city leaders come to him say they're not ready to take the team back.

In Seattle, by contrast, Stern has complained about the Sonics' working conditions even louder than the Sonics have. On a media conference call before the playoffs began in April, Stern bluntly voiced his frustrations about the Sonics' inability to make progress on a new arena lease or funding for a new building, saying: "They are not interested in having the NBA there."

Critics of outgoing Sonics owner Howard Schultz -- and there are scores -- would say that the Starbucks magnate was never interested in spending what it takes to win in the NBA. The Sonics were essentially a .500 team in Schultz's reign -- going 209-201 with just two playoff appearances in his five full seasons in charge -- and have gained a reputation as a non-player in free agency … even when dealing with many of their own free agents.

His reputation will be soiled even further if the Sonics do leave for good, in spite of what his coffee exploits have done for the locals, after Schultz's consortium sold the club for $150 million more than they paid.

Yet Schultz backers counter with the contention that even he couldn't afford to spend, largely because of a revenue-sharing arrangement he inherited with the city that Stern has termed as the most onerous arena lease in the whole league, worse even than Portland's.

I, too, have often questioned Schultz's frugality with the Sonics given his Starbucks riches -- and his attempts to secure a more favorable lease or public funding for a new arena or renovations were met with similar scoffs -- but it has been suggested by impartial observers in Seattle that the Sonics are on a course for bankruptcy without significant changes to their current set up. No matter how wealthy the boss is.

Caught in the middle, of course, are the Sonics' diehards, who stand as the most likely group in the Seattle-Oklahoma City-New Orleans triangle to be left without a team. (The speculation already has started about Paul Allen moving the Trail Blazers from Portland to Seattle, but that might not be any easier than keeping the Sonics.)

I can't imagine that Stern, in spite of all the tough talk, wants to abandon them after a 40-year relationship. He'll undoubtedly be hoping that the arrival of out-of-town ownership in Seattle will convince the local government that the threat of relocation is more real than ever, leading to a deal that can keep the Sonics where they were born … and leave the increasingly attractive OKC market open for another team that might need it.

But let's face it.

It's much easier to imagine the new Sonics moving into the raucous Ford Center when the Hornets leave, a building so loud that it's often referred to as the Arco Arena of the Midwest and/or the spectacular new BOK Events Center in Tulsa, designed by superstar architect Cesar Pelli which is scheduled for completion in 2008. You suspect Bennett and Co. will like their OKC/Tulsa options better than anything they hear from Seattle between now and August 2007.

The third scenario is that, should the Sonics relocate to OKC, and New Orleans is unable to support the return of the Hornets, Oklahoma ends up with two teams once the BOK Center is completed. Think Sonics/Trailblazers type rivalry, fueling the in state feud between OKC and it's little brother Tulsa. (No way that would ever happen.)

The Sonics' lease at KeyArena runs through 2010, but Bennett said Tuesday that his group has the contractual freedom to explore its outside options if a new agreement can't be hatched in a year. The Bennett-led Sonics could try, at that point, to buy their way out of the lease and are bound to find a willing partner or two in the city legislature to avoid a scenario that would surely appeal to no one in Seattle -- playing out two or three seasons as a lame duck.

It's too early, again, to describe any of this as a lock. Bennett, according to league sources, has some Nashville ties, too. You never know. Maybe the Hornets wind up staying in Oklahoma City, if New Orleans isn't ready, and maybe the Sonics head for Tennessee.

The lone certainties at work here are that Bennett was very well regarded in San Antonio during a stint on the Spurs' board of directors in the 1990s … and that Oklahoma City, nowhere to be found on anyone's NBA map this time last year, is a certifiable hot spot now.

The Hornets want to stay. The Sonics want to go there. Someone else surely will apply to take over the town if given the chance.

I'm sure the OKC folks don't want to lose the Hornets now. Not with the irresistible Chris Paul coming off a Rookie of the Year season and not with George Shinn spending money (on Peja Stojakovic and Tyson Chandler) like never before.

Yet there are worse fates than having two NBA teams lust over you. I can think of sadder scenarios than Oklahoma City, for so long branded a minor-league town, absorbing Bennett's Sonics and joining forces with a hometown owner who, unlike Shinn, has a sterling reputation.


Thats not in that news story.

[bri]

"Little brother". Nice.

Hey OKC, Guthrie called. They want their state seal back.

[KC//CRIMSON]

That's not in that news story.

You know what? You're right. That's what I get for doing a C&P from some Tulsa developer hack wannabe.....:rolleyes:

http://mb22.scout.com/fouinsiderfrm36.showMessageRange?topicID=6286.topi c&start=141&stop=148

[tulsaoilerfan]

Sweet! An influx of tall bisexual women!

Finally, this Vision 2025 thing is starting to pay off. :D
I'll second that; Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird!!!!!!!!!Yummy!!!!!:D

[Shaz-Bot]

and the mariners draw like 10k and the seahawks outside of this recent run draw about 20k.

No reason to diss my Squawks.

Team Year G Total Average
Seattle Seahawks 1983 8 486,036 60,755
Seattle Seahawks 1984 8 493,657 61,707
Seattle Seahawks 1985 8 476,842 59,605
Seattle Seahawks 1986 8 492,921 61,615
Seattle Seahawks 1987 8 421,956 52,745
Seattle Seahawks 1988 8 494,103 61,763
Seattle Seahawks 1989 8 481,233 60,154
Seattle Seahawks 1990 8 466,241 58,280
Seattle Seahawks 1991 8 484,914 60,614
Seattle Seahawks 1992 8 514,984 64,373
Seattle Seahawks 1993 8 438,676 54,835
Seattle Seahawks 1994 8 420,136 52,517
Seattle Seahawks 1995 8 364,372 45,547
Seattle Seahawks 1996 8 357,570 44,696
Seattle Seahawks 1997 8 462,124 57,766
Seattle Seahawks 1998 8 500,210 62,526
Seattle Seahawks 1999 8 522,656 65,332
Seattle Seahawks 2000 8 498,885 62,361
Seattle Seahawks 2001 8 446,322 55,790
Seattle Seahawks 2002 8 493,306 61,663
Seattle Seahawks 2003 8 512,150 64,019
Seattle Seahawks 2004 8 533,436 66,679

http://www.kenn.com/sports/football/nfl/nfl_sea_attendance.html

[Big Red Ron]

HA!

Kim Holland, what an interesting lady she is.

http://www.oid.state.ok.us/www2.oid.state.ok.us/images/Commissioner.jpg

Is she? ;)She's toast!

Meet your new Insurance Commissioner....

http://www.case4commissioner.com/images/caseportrait.gif

http://www.case4commissioner.com/

[Big Red Ron]

"Little brother". Nice.

Hey OKC, Guthrie called. They want their state seal back.Hey Tulsa, Oklahoma State called. They want their inferiority complex back.























:pop:

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Wow comparing anyone to Okie Lite may be too harsh ;)

[Pricetag]

Hey Tulsa, Oklahoma State called. They want their inferiority complex back.
Careful tossing those stones in your house of glass. It seems to me that OKC is desperate to be regarded as a "big time" city by the rest of the country. The reaction to the whole Charles Barkley thing was case in point.

[Big Red Ron]

Careful tossing those stones in your house of glass. It seems to me that OKC is desperate to be regarded as a "big time" city by the rest of the country. The reaction to the whole Charles Barkley thing was case in point.Meh, there's fighting the good fight and well, you know...:D

[Big Red Ron]

Wow comparing anyone to Okie Lite may be too harsh ;)Lord, I'm sorry for saying that. It was wrong......but it was funny.

[mdklatt]

Careful tossing those stones in your house of glass. It seems to me that OKC is desperate to be regarded as a "big time" city by the rest of the country. The reaction to the whole Charles Barkley thing was case in point.


Kind of like Tulsa's reaction to being the punchline of an Expedia commercial, huh?


:pop:

[BlondeSoonerGirl]

Careful tossing those stones in your house of glass. It seems to me that OKC is desperate to be regarded as a "big time" city by the rest of the country. The reaction to the whole Charles Barkley thing was case in point.

Oh, I don't know...


I'm sorry, but I really get tired of Oklahomans poor-mouthing Oklahoma. We have a really dumb inferiority complex. When given opportunities like this we generally exceed everybody's expectations. I guess it helps that everyone has very limited expectations of us.

I've been on this board since '99-2000 saying this major league sports could work here. Back then it was the Blades vs. Blazers argument. Back then, almost nobody would agree that OKC could even HALF fill an arena for major league sports. They were proven wrong last year, so now they say "yeah, but..."

So, we don't believe in ourselves. Same song, different verse. Do you know who does believe in OKC? David ****ing Stern, that's who.

[bri]

Yeah, but David ****ing Stern also believes that NBA refs are, like, ept.

So, you know, f*ck him. :D

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Bri you just got whistled for a foul on Dwayne Wade....two free throws in the home opener for Miami!!

[Big Red Ron]

Bri you just got whistled for a foul on Dwayne Wade....two free throws in the home opener for Miami!!heh, good one.