I just wanted to take a moment to thank all the people who have participated in and supported Sonicscentral.com throughout the years. This site has been a gathering place for Sonics fans, a hub of for Save Our Sonics followers before facebook replaced it, and a great outlet for me as a writer and a person through the years. I really value all the great friendships I made from this site and have poured my heart into articles here on more than one occasion.
As many of you know I got my start in basketball when Sonics Communication Director Marq Moquin first allowed me to attend Sonics media day in 2004 and then was kind enough to issue a media credential for Sonicscentral. We were a very popular blog talking about the sport of basketball long before all the political and business elements of the arena evolved. Despite this unique access I was very much just a normal fan who had kind of lucked into a cool situation.
In the space of 7 years my basketball world has changed considerably. I’m very happy with the fact that the fans cumulatively seem to have established ourselves as a legitimate force in that political and sports communities. We’ve been engaged by the media, political leadership, business community, and even the new ownership group in meaningful and respectful ways. I have gotten the chance to interact directly with Chris Hansen and convey to him a lot of the views and opinions that people have shared with me through the years. He is a thoughtful guy (is there any other adjective that has been used more with this story) who has listened and I think that when this happens we are going to be blessed with a franchise that cares for and takes input from its fans. I am so excited for that.
This is a wild ride for me and a big group of my friends. I never would have gotten here if it were not for all the support that I have been given through the years. I can’t tell you how many people I have asked to work for free. I cannot count the number of hours people put in towards projects that wound up never happening. All of it served the purpose of bringing the people together, keeping us active, learning a bunch of lessons through trial and error. Without their support we would never have been in position to make such a substantive difference in this fight.
The next 6 weeks are going to be hard fought. Everybody needs to be on their game and do whatever they can do. I hope that people will participate without being asked. Be active in the conversation, spreading information and utilizing social media and letter writing campaigns to spread our message. We are going to be very active meeting with council members and engaging the corporate community in this fight.
We’ve all been beaten up through the years. These are going to be the good times. I personally feel tremendously privileged to be sitting in the position I am and cannot wait to share the ride with all of my Sonics family.
Thank you. Lets enjoy the ride!