Bill:
You are The Man right now in sportswriting. You almost always nail the issue and leave me laughing. That’s why I cannot make heads or tails out of your column on the Sonics leaving Seattle. Outrage, yes. But nothing new. Did you miss the Hornets leaving Charlotte and David Stern’s role in the creation of the Bobcats? Shameless in Seattle is a sequel to that sorry episode.
“How could he allow one of the 30 NBA fan bases to be extorted? How is this OK?,” you ask. Well, in the case of Charlotte, Stern was the extortionist. Stern backed George Shinn’s complaints, begun in the mid-90s, that a then six-year old building full of 23,000 fans 41 times a year was not good enough, that Charlotte had to come up with a new, sky-box heavy arena. Or else.
When local voters shot that down in June 2001, Stern, Shinn, and the NBA openly shopped a playoff team around the country. I’ll spare you all the local skullduggery that within months of the Hornets departure had taxpayers on the hook for a $265 million ($450m. plus capitalized cost) arena for an NBA franchise, but rest assured Stern and the NBA were not disinterested parties.
That is evident by the fact that Stern hand-selected the owner for the new franchise and forced Bob Johnson on the community despite warnings that his lack of local ties to Charlotte and his intent to run the team out of his Bob Johnson stable of businesses would be a problem. Take one look at the Bobcats revolving door front-office — now stocked with former Stern associates — and see if the imperious billionaire was a good fit for Charlotte — or for David Stern.
Since the Bobcats moved into their new building in 2005 — a move accompanied by galloping ticket price increases the team is still rolling back in an indifferent market — Stern has regularly chided the local community to support the team. Or else.
He has been hostile and condescending. In December 2006 Stern jumped on a local TV reporter for daring mention that Allen Iverson did not want to be a Bobcat, accusing Charlotte of having “an inferiority complex” and being “too negative.” A couple weeks later Stern let Johnson hand back his money-bleeding WNBA franchise to the NBA without protest and began the infusion of league office execs to Charlotte. Stern helped Johnson throw league veteran exec Ed Tapscott under the bus instead.
Stern is, in effect, ghost-managing the Bobcats. The reason is clear. If Johnson keeps losing money, but tires of subsidizing the losses Stern can either open up the TV revenue-sharing question or…go to Charlotte taxpayers for additional subsidy. This would probably take the form of a re-worked arena deal similar to what Nashville did to keep its NHL franchise. And should Charlotte balk?
Say hello to another round of extortion.
Later,
Jeff A. Taylor
Charlotte USA
