Check out my latest article regarding Save Our Sonics....
I'm posting this request on SC.com to try to encourage people to be active participants in keeping our team here. Each Sonics fan needs to ask themselves often what they are doing to help. Based on the numbers we clearly have active members here at Sonicscentral who have not taken the time to register for action alerts to keep the team here. Please go to www.saveoursonics.org, register for action alerts, and offer any help you can.
We have identified three core areas requiring research that we would like to convert into talking points, fact sheets and or general content for the Save Our Sonics & Storm website.
Please reply to me with a confirmation of your continued interest in volunteering as a researcher for Save Our Sonics & Storm and also be sure to indicate which of the three areas you have a preference to research. We would like two independent researchers for each topic below to provide writers with information to create the final content. We need source information and bullet points from you, the writers will be crafting the documents, so please don't worry about grammar, spelling (except for names) or aesthetics. The writing volunteers will take charge of that aspect. We are just looking to accumulate as much raw data as we can in this phase.
I-91 and Citizens for More Important Things FUD
We need to collect as many "facts," public statements, claims and background information on this topic. We want the names of the donors, the amounts of their donations, any statements made in the media whether formal (articles/quotes/mailings) or informal (message boards, PI talk backs) and in general anything that this organization is saying with regard to the Sonics, the Storm, the ownership groups, the proposed tax packages or anything else related to professional basketball in Seattle. This organization is vocal and is spreading a great deal of Fear Uncertainty and Doubt with regards to basketball in the Seattle Area. While we, as an organization, do not take a stand on Initiatives or intend impact the political process in any way, we would like to be informed of what is being said and done by an organization that is working so hard to sway public opinion against keeping professional basketball in Seattle.
Financial Impacts of Sports
We are looking for summaries and key points from studies, papers, articles or anything regarding the financial impacts of professional sports on an economy. We want to know what has been reviewed and what they have found. We want to know what teams have moved and what the impacts were to the new location as well as the former location. How much did it cost to bring a team back to the city that lost a team? Who paid? Any information on what existing NBA stadiums are owned publicly and privately and how the arrangements are set up will also be useful.
Impacts of Women's Basketball
The Storm provide a small impact in terms of the size of the fan base, the economic impacts and the media presence, but they have some unique impacts with regards to their participation as a professional women's basketball team. We are looking for formal (studies, academic papers, articles) and informal (testimonials, quotes) data that outlines what professional athletics for women brings to a community.
The research done on these topics will likely lead to further research projects and we have a number of other topics we may want to explore next, but these are the three we decided we wanted to start with as they seemed the most pertinent.
We expect to begin these research projects the first week of September and would like to hear from you by September 1st! Thank you again for volunteering and we look forward to hearing from you.
Patrick Sheehy
Save Our Sonics & Storm
shoisson@comcast.net