Thunder attendance least of NBA’s problems

LOL at everyone on here who thought the Thunder would always be terrible

I am a sports fan but after going through the statements made here, I don't see myself watching the Thunder. Certainly I am not going to pay to watch some team lose over half their games. If I'm to spend money on sporting events, it will be at OSU.

Oklahoma city you reap what you sew! You deserve this from raping Seattle from their 41 year history and 13th largest marketplace. I hope you are all proud! A big "F" you to you Oklahoma and to Clay Bennett! Fans of NBA basketball: This system is broke. David Stern is Clay Clay's bitch. The NBA continues to lose money and fans in honest small town markets! History means nothing to David Stern. I understand the NBA is a business and is all about making money, but how many lives and hearts have to broke before fans say enough! ANY team in the NBA is vulnerable to be being violently ripped from their city and yes that does include LA and New York! Beware fans your town may be next! I hope Clay Bennett and David Stern both get run over by a tractor! They are pieces of SHITE! If you do not believe how evil Clay is then watch this documentary called SonicsGate! http://vimeo.com/7030942

I don't think it's appropriate to say bad things the owner. You have to believe that he is an intelligent person who is trying to do his best for his community. It was probably not appropriate for him to indicate in any way that he was going to keep the Sonics in Seattle. He bought the team to move them, which happens in his professional sports. This is the only professional sports team in their city. It is extremely unlikely that they will ever have any other kind of sports franchise. This is a very small market so I think the Seattle folks should be willing to cut them some slack. But the reality is that it will be extremely hard to recruit great athletes to come to Oklahoma City. You can look at it in any way that you want but Oklahoma City is still in the middle of nowhere and most professional athletes are just not going to be interested. The other part of this is that while they have been recruiting some good athletes, if Mr. Bennett is going to continue his involvement, then the franchise is probably in serious danger. I wish them the best.

I hate all of you people in oklahoma. You guys have no idea what the sonics meant to Seattle... And you guys are complaining about how you didn't get a SELLOUT. I hope you lose every single game you guys play in and that Clay Bennet gets ran over by a tractor...

All you people need to shut the hell up. For 3 years now, a NBA team, which has had a losing season, has had over 18 k people for each game. only 7 other teams can say that. OKC doesnt suck, you hear things and never know personally. i lived in okc for many years and have lived in New Orleans and Costa Mesa(LA), CA. i couldnt wait to get back, like any other city in the center of this country. What do other large cities have to offer that we dont. Actually, are metro is larger than portland, Salt Lake City, Memphis, Charl. and its not about population, its about ratings. OKC market ranks 15 overall in major sports market for television, and top 10 for all other sports like the olimpics,etc. We also have top 5 radio sports broadcasting ratings in the country. that is what matters. that is where populations get their information and that is where businesses make their money, through advertisement. Dumbasses, look at Buffalo, Green Bay. They sell out every NFL game, and their market are not even in the top 75. So, b4 you start saying stuff about population, and what determines what makes a franchise successful. Read demographic books, business articles. Not espn, blogs, sports magazines. Another thing. CP3 and coach byron scott both fell in love with okc, and live here in the off season. ANd i think CP3 is a top notch star. Calm down. You can be upset that we have a team, but dont say things that are not accurate and could possibly make you look unintelligent. GO THUNDER!!!

Bennett is a scrub. But so is Shchultz. But so is OKC. At the end of the day I still live in the mighty Northwest, and the Sonics were a good franchise for majority of the 41 years. Bennett completely gutted the team intentionally to decrease attendance and increase his chances of relocating. The draft picks of Durant, Green, and Westbrook were all excellent picks...but it won't matter, nobody wants to live in OKC and they will be a perennial bottom feeder. OK will always have Sooner football and thats it. Be content. The dream would be to become like a Portland or SA (which are both almost twice the population) but that won't happen. I understand Bennett has pride in his hometown, but it was a terrible business decision, they'll be lucky to last 10 years.

P.S. Atleast we never booed our beloved team. To hear that you guys are booing your team makes me sick. Have a little pride, thats your team. You should all be ashamed.

Guess what OKC. The reason the Sonics attendance was so low last year is because even though we all love the Sonics, and we still love the SONICS, nobody here wanted to give a penny to that shyster Bennett. He will be trying to get his $500 million basketball palace/mall/movie theatre/restaurants from you guys too. We rebuilt Key Arena back in the late 90's, and David Stern commended our city on what a great arena it was. So I give your guy's crappy arena about 5 more years before Bennett wants a new one. And he's a real estate developer. His whole goal of bringing the Seattle Sloppy Seconds to your city is because he wants to jack up the property values and raise your cost of living to the point to where none of you morons can afford to live there. And speaking of living in OKC, no self respecting basketball player is ever going to want to live in OKLAHOMA, so unless your team is willing to shell out a 30% premium on every salary, you'll never have any good players, the Seattle Sloppy Seconds are soon to be the Oklahoma City Used To Have Kevin Durant Basketball Club. So enjoy your years of mediocraty. I'd rather live in Seattle without the NBA than live in OKC and have a crappy basketball team that will eventually leave. Enjoy your winter of discontent douche bags.

As a former Vancouver Grizzly fan, I am saddened by what happened. Oklahoma City is only two months into their tenure and they are already having some problems? We had the worst team in NBA history for 6 years. In year 3 or 4, the team was in a 20 game losing streak. They came back after a long and disastrous road trip, and their first game was a sell-out. It was only when it became obvious that they were moving that the crowds started to dwindle. The league dumped Vancouver and Seattle for Memphis and OKC? This is supposed to be the best run organization in sports! I have the same feelings of good will towards Michael Heisley that Sonics fans have for Bennett.

I do have to disagree with our friend Ron. Seattle has lost some players in their various sports over the years. But I would venture to say that most franchises suffered the same thing. The Thunder have several challenges they will need to overcome in order to remain where they are. They really need some solid basketball people to take on the management of the team. The yes-men who allowed the dismemberment of the sonics are not going to be very effective. If you're looking for a place to spend money than find a strong general manager who can negotiate a deal to keep the owners out of the decision-making process. If that happens there is a chance for success. But unless something unusual happens OKC will remain a small market area and unless the people are completely different from the rest of the people in the country, in a short time they will grow bored with what is arguably one of the worst teams in the history of basketball. Jake has correctly pointed out that there have been some good selections of draft choices. That is a promising step forward. But once again I must agree with Ron. Superstar athletes are not going to be likely to choose to go to Oklahoma City. A player like Durant will certainly be courted by teams on either coast. It will be very hard to keep top quality players in OKC. Bennett seems to be an effective businessman. Someone earlier mentioned that he had a strategy and effectively destroyed the Seattle franchise to make the move easier. But he does not have the savvy to make an NBA franchise work. He is damaged and this one so bad that it will take years to recover. It looks like the Clippers, only worse. OKC will run out of time. If everything worked out perfectly they might contend for the title in 10 years. But that is highly unlikely. What the fans can expect is that our businessman Mr. Bennett will soon be coming to them with his hand out asking for tax money to create a better arena. Seattle said no to a $300 million request and the franchise moved because of that. His OKC ready to fork over 300 million or more? Well, maybe they will, but I wouldn't hold my breath. There are too many other legitimate needs in the community to dump $300 million or more into a sports stadium that benefits exactly 1 tiny group of people. I am giving them three years tops. The honeymoon will be over as soon as they post the worst record in NBA history, which they are well on their way to setting.

One thing that Bennetts group did take into consideration when moving the team to OKC, is that the players look at the market for local endorsements, they supplement their income that way. Seattle had a hard time with this part of the deal and lost several really good impact players over the years, not only in Basketball, but also Baseball and Football. OKC is in deep trouble, trying to get proven players that will turn your team around is going to be real tough. OKC is always going to be in a rebuilding mode any good player that got stuck in OKC will leave at their first chance. I have heard that Bennett is in big financial trouble, due to his Real Estate holdings, any truth to the rumor?

How about Memphis and their $250 million 18k seat arena, 4-year old arena that only sells 11k tickets a night? Interesting fact: Memphis metro area = 1.2 million people. Oklahoma City metro area = 1.2 million people. Both are far in a way the smallest markets in the NBA. Even Sacramento, San Antonio, Milwaukee have 2.0 million people. Seattle metro area = 4.0 million people.

I actually think as bad as the thunder are, they've made some good draft picks and will have enough expiring contracts to trade for decent players in the near future (I'm from Seattle btw). That being said, if they don't make the right moves, do you think Durant is gonna stay in Oklahoma City? I find that hard to believe, but i can't read his mind. The fact of the matter is, Oklahoma City can only sustain a team for so long. They may have good attendance, they may even have a playoff team in five years. But just look at all the other small market franchises in the history of the NBA (Spurs excluded). San Antonio is also a much nicer city than Oklahoma. Sorry Oklahoma City, your city sucks and is really depressing. No one not from the area would ever want to live there. FACT.

Like Sean Avery said.... OKC you got "SLOPPY SECONDS". Sonics were not a great product but people still went until Benett made it clear they were leaving, and like the above comment, basketball is boring unless its the playoffs or 2 great teams which OKC will not have to worry about for a decade.

the traffic is a lot better around the Space Needle...we don't need NBA basketball....it's kinda borring anyway....it's not like we had lebron or kobe......

Why would Seattle want the Thunder back now? They should continue to pursue the Hornets. In fairness to Mr. Bennett, I think he had a good strategy in order to secure the Sonics and bring them to OKC. Gutting the franchise and cutting loose the best players made it less tramatic to move a long established franchise out of that city. The problem is that this same strategy has made the Thunder nearly noncompetitive in the NBA. For anyone who has watched the NBA it is likely that we will see several years of bad basketball before this franchise is competitive again. Durant is a legitimate star. But let's be real. There is no way a top notch star is going to choose to make a lifelong career in OKC. When he can, he will leave. I did not think I would see the day when there would be an NBA team that would be viewed more unfavorably than the Los Angeles Clippers. I think we have found it.

Give us (Seattle) our team back!!

B real - you are absolutely correct.

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