It’s a story that begs for mixed metaphors, and simply reeks with irony.
The 50+ White Men who owned the Seattle Sonics, millionaires and billionaires from all industries, could not come up with the money to build a new arena for their basketball team. Nor could they convince the government that the taxpayers should foot the bill. An so with no solution in sight, they threw up their hands and dumped the team on some Oklahoma businessmen.
More white men. Even richer and more powerful than the Seattle group. They came up on private jets and dined in 5 star restaurants, convinced they could not fund their own stadium. And so, when their negotiations with the same government representatives yielded the same outcome, they threw their hands in the air and said, "We’re going to have to move."
And just when Sonics fans thought it was hopeless, who comes riding in on White Horses, but the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. And they said, "You see, well, we got a couple hundred acres of land just sitting around doing nothing, and we have all this cash sitting in the bank, and one day Johnny was driving down the road and said, ‘We should build a basketball arena there.’"
And now the most illogical, unbelievable scenario makes perfect sense. If a stadium works in Renton, why not Kent? Why not have an arena next to a casino? Why not build a rock arena / hoops court that leverages the already existing White River Amphitheatre?
And better yet, why didn’t any of the MBA’s working on this project for the last few years think of it themselves?
Now I’m not totally wild about driving 40 minutes for a basketball game. And you probably completely lose anyone that lives above Edmonds. But given all the scenarios, this seems to make pretty good sense, and beats having to start rooting for Portland.
Who would have thought – the Muckleshoots delivering a solution that neither Seattle or Oklahoma’s business elite could come up with.
