an open letter to my city

[rivendellrose]

Dear Seattle:

The Sonics do not love you anymore. Quit whining and screaming about how you'll win them back (with a lawsuit? Has Starbucks CEO Schultz completely lost his frigging mind? One would think he'd be more concerned with, y'know... trying to keep his multi-billion dollar coffee company from going down the tubes and taking the city's economy with it) and GET THE HELL OVER IT.

They cheated. They left you. It's over.

Go to a bar, sing along to some sappy country music, and get on with your life. They weren't even a very good boyfriend team to begin with.

This message brought to you by a sane Seattle-ite who never much cared for our basketball team to begin with, and certainly doesn't like them after all this stupid hubbub.

Comments

[nightsinger.livejournal.com]

I agree with this post in its entirety.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU.

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

My reaction all along has been "What, are you still here? Don't you have another city somewhere that actually gives a shit about basketball? Fuck along, now."

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

(I'll admit I was also secretly hoping their departure would result in an opportunity for an NHL team to move here, but I know that's unlikely.)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

They'll probably be playing hockey in Hell before we have an NHL team here, sadly.

...Unless of course we're annexed by Canada. In which case I welcome our new hockey-stick-wielding overlords from the North. XD

[nightsinger.livejournal.com]

DUDE. Being annexed by Canada would be AWESOME, eh? XD

I'd totally welcome the better candy and healthcare.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I mean, I'm not a huge hockey fan, but it's a small price to pay. ♥

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That was pretty much my reaction even before this thing started... but it only got worse when they tried to get Renton to buy them for a while. (Hell, no - not in my half-home-town, thankyouverymuch. Renton is just starting to get not-ass, it doesn't need a basketball team! It can't afford a basketball team! And unless they're taking out the Wal-Mart to put in a stadium, there isn't enough room. Although if they were to take out the Wal-Mart for it... I might just sign up for that idea. Which do I hate more, Wal-Mart, or the Sonics? Hmm. Tough choice....) And then still worse when they failed to leave after that...

It's just been a total shitstorm, and I just want them GONE already. People need to get their heads out of their butts and deal with the fact that the team wants to leave, and they're being asses about it. Why would we want them to stay, at this point?

IAWTP

[very-improbable.livejournal.com]

I would also add:

Good god, Sherman Alexie, don't you have anything better to do than whine in the goddamn Stranger about the Sonics every goddamn week? Nobody died.

I mean, I add that quietly, because I know intellectually that I live in a total glass house where anyone else's emotional investment in fannish obsessions is concerned, BUT STILL.

Re: IAWTP

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Seriously? I don't read the Stranger as often as I probably should, so I missed that completely. Gah. You really would think a guy like him would have better things to do with his time. :P

Re: IAWTP

[very-improbable.livejournal.com]

He has a short (couple paragraphs) feature called Sonics Death Watch in the back matter, with the comics and I Saw U notices, where he whines about his deep spiritual attachment to that motherfucking basketball team.

Again, I know this is not a grown-up way to respond to another person's fannish pain, but goddamn if he doesn't make me more eager to see the end of that motherfucking basketball team every time I see him going on about it.

Re: IAWTP

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

ARGH.

No, I totally get that. I mean... if he was just upset about them leaving, okay, whatever. I don't get it, but I would be pretty damned pissed if... the Seattle Rep decided to pick up and leave. (Seriously, that's the closest example I can think of that I would actually care about). But if they went around behind the city's back and were assholes about it like the Sonics have been? I'd be SO over it by this point. It's been almost 2 years since the whole fiasco started, hasn't it??

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

What's all the hubbub?
I could just google it, but then I wouldn't have the chance to say 'hubbub'.

The Story As I Know It

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

(With help from David Horsey of the Seattle PI).

Seattle's basketball team said a few years ago that if we didn't build them a pretty new stadium (tm) like we did for the Mariners and the Seahawks, they were going to take the kids their toys and leave us.

A few sane people pointed out that this really would not be a big deal. (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20060407/cartoon20060407.gif)

They talked about moving to Bellevue. They talked about moving to Renton. They got a good deal from Oklahoma. (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20060719/cartoon20060719.gif) At which point everyone sane assumed that was the end of it. (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20070815/cartoon20070815.gif)

Everyone sane was wrong.

The city panicked and started a new round of negotiations. A private donor (possibly Howard Schultz of Starbucks? That would explain his involvement in the current iteration of the saga...) wanted to put up the money or something, but then... I stopped paying attention for a while, I guess. Anyway. There was some kind of deadline last week, and the word was that they were Going For Real This Time. (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20080410/Cartoon20080410.gif)

Then internal memos came out indicating that the Sonics hadn't ever meant to make a deal, and Howard Schultz wants to sue them for leaving (I don't get that, either, so I can't help on that one...), and someone else is trying to make a new deal...

Basically, we've been had (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20080413/Cartoon20080413.gif).

Re: The Story As I Know It

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

With pictures! Yay!

Re: The Story As I Know It

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I have fangirlish love of David Horsey's comics. ♥

[yortabegga.livejournal.com]

The first quote I heard about the sonics were sold and now needed a new stadium was "why should the region be held hostage by a sports team?"
I'm glad they are gone. I know if I told the city I was going to move to another state unless they paid off my house and built a new better on in its place they would say "see ya". good riddance.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That quote pretty much captures it.

I'll be glad when they're really and finally gone, and when the stupid papers drop the whole subject.