Two key figures in the Seattle SuperSonics saga spoke recently about the prospects of a return of the NBA to Seattle: Steve Ballmer and David Stern.
Hold your pitchforks, Green-and-Goldies.
Ballmer was in town last week, and while attending a Rotary Club of Seattle event, he spoke with Todd Bishop of GeekWire. Bishop asked the one-time Microsoft CEO, now owner of the L.A. Clippers, how he’d pitch the viability of Seattle as a market to his fellow owners should expansion be considered at some point.
“Number one, Seattle did a very good job of supporting a basketball team for a long time,” [Ballmer] said. “Number two, Seattle’s gotten much more affluent since the time the Sonics left and moved to Oklahoma City.”
Seattle is “the most affluent city in America” without an NBA team, he said. “There’s no question. This would be the best place to put, if there’s expansion, to put an new basketball team in the United States.”
He made a very strong point about the economics of the league and how appealing a market like Seattle is to owners. “There is no shortage of potential business support, fan support, high ticket prices,” he noted.
In comparing season ticket prices, Ballmer points out that Seattle would be closer to Los Angeles on the scale than it would be to a market like Memphis.
“There’s a franchise in Memphis — It’s a great thing to have a franchise in Memphis — it’s probably the poorest city where the NBA has a franchise. But a season ticket per game on the floor might cost $250 in Memphis, it might cost $3000 a game in L.A., just to give you a contrast. Seattle would be more towards L.A., I’m sure, than it would be towards Memphis.”
Part of the discussion of the growing affluence in the Emerald City centered on the impact of Amazon on the city and the region, as well as the overall tech boom in the area.
With the tech boom, the transforming landscape of Seattle, and the growing population, Ballmer also brought up one of the prevailing questions of Seattle’s current solution to redevelop KeyArena into a new arena at Seattle Center: traffic.
“There’s a lot of things that would make Seattle a great place. Having a great arena will be fundamental, an arena that is accessible,” Ballmer said. “One of the great queries I have is, with all the traffic around Amazon headquarters, how much more tricky would it be to get to KeyArena now than it was when I had season tickets to the Sonics for 20 years? I hope the answer is, ‘Somebody’s got it figured out,’ because otherwise, that is an issue.”
Traffic is a primary focus of both the Oak View Group, the investment group behind the proposed arena project, and the city. The public-private partnership view Seattle Center as vital to the growth of the city over the next few decades, and are working to find realistic solutions to address concerns.
Ballmer, of course, was a principal in two potential Sonics efforts, one to try to keep the team from moving to Oklahoma City in 2008, and the second as a partner with Chris Hansen to try to purchase the Sacramento Kings and relocate them to Seattle. A big part of the reason that attempt failed was that, in large part due to the Sonics exit, the NBA wanted to make sure every effort went into keeping teams from moving.
“[...] I mean, it’s part of the reason why I was happy to buy a team in L.A. I went to see the commissioner right after I retired, and he said, “Look, we’ve learned our lesson. We don’t want teams to move.” So if you want to buy a team, don’t expect to be able to buy it and move it to Seattle.”
An big architect of the successful effort to keep the Kings from fleeing Sacramento for the Pacific Northwest was none other than David Stern.
GeekWire’s Taylor Soper met with the former NBA commissioner at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, the ginormous annual trade show, in Las Vegas. Of course, he had to ask Stern his thoughts on the NBA making home again in Seattle.
“I do think that if they expand, or ever move a team, Seattle, my guess is, is first in line,” Stern said. “The big two at some point were Seattle and Las Vegas, but I don’t think there will be an NBA team in Las Vegas now because there’s NHL and WNBA and NFL. But Seattle is a good town. I think the NHL is going to go in there too. And that’s great. With Tim Leiweke planning to spend $600 million on Key Arena, that’s good for Seattle. But usually the first team in does very well.”
In the discussion, the point was reiterated the Ballmer has no intention of moving the Clippers north up I-5.
“Although a team in L.A. moving to Seattle, I have to say it’ll lose probably about half its value. So please don’t look at me to take the haircut even for our beloved city.”
Comments
Instant rage seeing the name "David Stern"
By Slica on 01.16.18 10:54am
It's always great
to hear them talk about "having learned their lesson" and "not moving teams anymore".
I mean, how great it is that they realized it after taking our team and we’re now having a way tougher time getting one back…
Anyways, given that we can’t change anything that happened in the past.
I really hope everything about the arena goes on as smoothly as it has to this point and we’ll be able to start watching the process of it being built by the end of this year.
At that point we’d be handing over the ball into the hands of the NBA and basically tell them "it’s your turn" to make the return of the Sonics happen.
By Silvio on 01.16.18 11:27am
i think the grizzlies
will move, they are losing too much money
By ballenz on 01.30.18 3:17pm
Uh...Steve, I get that you're looking at overall demographics of the city and whatnot for your pricing model.
But do we really want that kind of message for Sonics fans? "Welcome back Sonics! Unfortunately your city is super rich so regardless of your job status you’ll still have to pay out the wazoo."
By Drunk Viking on 01.16.18 11:30am
$3k per game for courtside seats? Cheap!
Seriously, thanks for assuming that everyone who lives in Seattle is super rich. Should be an interesting ticket pricing correction coming after the first year or two.
By Throbert Bedford on 01.16.18 12:08pm
Too bad John Hammond isn't in charge.
"Steve, the Sonics are not just for the super rich."
By Drunk Viking on 01.16.18 12:52pm
That’s Not the Assumption
The assumption is that Seattle’s super rich would be willing to pony up $3k/game for court side seats. Pricing would always be based on supply and demand, and a limited number of courtside seats would command a premium. That has nothing to do with what the market will bear across the arena, in all seating areas. Unless every game’s a sellout, there will be plenty of ticket deals. And if every game is a sellout, that’s good for the health of the franchise.
By Journeyman223 on 01.16.18 6:58pm
Plus maybe we'll get lucky and see Dr. Niles Crane courtside when their star is having a cold streak.
By Drunk Viking on 01.18.18 8:30am
The compare/contrast to Memphis is quite telling...
Make non mistake – this was a very calculated statement. He softened the comment by saying "It’s a great thing to have a franchise in Memphis…" but that’s nothing more than throwing Memphis a bone. Ballmer comparing where Seattle would be and using Memphis as the compare/contrast point was a subtle way of saying that the "poor" franchises in the NBA can’t compete with the wealthy ones.
By ksmith1984 on 01.16.18 1:12pm
It's interesting
given that there are troubles with the current ownership group of the Grizzlies and the possibility of a sale of the franchise.
Also, I think their lease will be "cheaper to be bought out" starting in 2021, the same year GP mentioned as a possible return date.
Though, I’d certainly take an expansion team over a relocated one.
By Silvio on 01.16.18 1:47pm
with stern out
I think the silver will approve the move back to seattle
By ballenz on 01.30.18 3:19pm
Exactly What I Thought
We’ve heard a lot of whispering about the league wanting to get all 30 teams back in the black before they considered expansion, and we were wondering who the problem children were in the 30.
Well, there’s your answer, right there.
By MartinHughes on 01.16.18 6:08pm
Right of First Refusal
Last I read, two of the minority shareholders were evoking their right to buyout majority shareholder Robert Pera to become the new majority owners. If this power move succeeds, I have a difficult time seeing the Grizzlies relocating.
By Sixth Man on 01.16.18 11:47pm
could be right...
Are those minority shareholders Memphis guys who have unbridled loyalty to Memphis? Or are they businessmen first? For the very reasons Ballmer mentioned, the market valuation of the team in Memphis is significantly less than a team would be in Seattle. If a team in Seattle is worth $1b more than the team is in Memphis, are the owners loyal enough to Memphis where they pass-up that type of gain?
Also, it ultimately may not be fully up to the team owners. I do not know to what extent Memphis is a financial outlier in the NBA but the league could force for the decision simply by what the owners do with revenue sharing. At some point you could see a large swath of NBA owners get fed-up with subsidizing the operations of an NBA Memphis team when a Seattle team would operate in the upper half or upper 3rd of the league without any luxury tax subsidies. The Grizzles received (in ‘16/’17) $32 million in revenue sharing and I suspect that number might be growing. If league owners don’t see an end in sight, it’s going to be awfully damn difficult for them to swallow the annual subsidies to Memphis when a move to Seattle would immediately increase profitability of their respective franchises. Of course, it’s more than just Memphis that is receiving money right now, so i suspect the league won’t do anything unless Memphis is #32 in the league and by a significant margin. We have a few years before any action will be taken one way or the other…
By ksmith1984 on 01.17.18 6:10am
would they swap with ballmer
other owners have swapped franchises in the past. Maybe Ballmer offers the clippers to Pera, and he takes the Grizzlies to seattle?
By ballenz on 01.28.18 10:37am
i think the grizzlies will move
there is too much money in seattle to turnaway
By ballenz on 01.30.18 3:19pm
"high ticket prices"
I puked in my mouth a little when I read that. This team will obviously be marketed to "young professionals" when it does come back. Gross. Maybe Amazon can just pre buy every seat for every game and offer them to their employees as a work perk like they do with movies at Cinerama.
By jasonnn. on 01.16.18 3:41pm
Hopefully not.
In Russian soccer league, there is a way of boosting attendance by giving out free tickets to students, government employees and low-level military personnel. Teams that support such a "system" are disliked by others. Attendance isn’t everything, but is an important thing.
By 206SportsFanInRussia on 01.16.18 9:16pm
Demographics
The NBA, NHL, and MLS generally attract younger consumers with more discretionary income. The average MLB and NFL consumer is significantly older than those of other leagues. This is not exclusive to Seattle. It’s a sports consumer trend prevalent across the US and Canada.
By Sixth Man on 01.16.18 11:41pm
Keep in mind I'm no financial analyst, but I think the amount of discretionary income for young people is highly volatile from market to market.
Here in Seattle it makes more sense, with all the tech start-ups and such. With a lot of other cities though, I’d expect that to be with older fans.
By Drunk Viking on 01.18.18 8:31am
A couple quips in there by both. Stern's "usually the first team in does very well" irks me for some reason
and not because its likely true or because I dont want the NHL to succeed…just seems like he is saying that is something they will think about (not being in an NBA arena ((that NHL rents).
Also Ballmer’s last bit about losing half its value if he moved the team to Seattle. So you telling us Steve that expansion shouldnt be over what 1.25 billion (based off people talking the 2 billion number before)?
By Trolltossin on 01.16.18 11:50pm
That's the way I read it on both points.
By Throbert Bedford on 01.17.18 9:39am
I read it as a positive
"Usually the first team in does very well" sounds to me like the NBA needs to address getting a team in Seattle with urgency, if an arena ever gets built. The NBA needs to get the corporate boxes and season ticket commitments before the NHL team does.
By LMF-Sonic on 01.17.18 11:50am
The Clippers may lose half of their value if you
moved them to Seattle today, but Seattle will likely crack the top 10 in media markets over the next 20 years with a shot to go even higher. Plus, he’s talking about a second rate team in LA that doesn’t own or operate its arena (and doesn’t look to be anywhere close to doing so). They will always be worth more in LA, I get that, but I don’t think the gap is as large as some make it out to be.
Also, the Lakers are potentially going to land some huge names this offseason ( Paul George and LeBron have been linked to them), while the Clippers are trending down, I’m surprised he doesn’t have an issue with living in their shadow. That’s never going to change either.
By itsanospreybich on 01.17.18 10:29am
"Plus, he’s talking about a second rate team in LA that doesn’t own or operate its arena (and doesn’t look to be anywhere close to doing so)."
They wouldn’t own or operate their arena here, either.
By harkening on 01.17.18 11:01am