Seattle Supersonics Moving To Oklahoma City?...The franchise was sold today.

[jeromechickenbone]

What does it matter? You can bet on a team whether they're located in Vegas or not...LOL.

LOL, do you have any idea how many bookies live / work in Vegas compared to anywhere else in the US?  All these players / coaches / refs would have all kinds of people up their asses.  Plus combine all the bullshit of All-Star weekend, and trust me, Vegas is not getting a team.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

What does it matter? You can bet on a team whether they're located in Vegas or not...LOL.

LOL, do you have any idea how many bookies live / work in Vegas compared to anywhere else in the US?  All these players / coaches / refs would have all kinds of people up their asses.  Plus combine all the bullshit of All-Star weekend, and trust me, Vegas is not getting a team.

Vegas mayor doesn't think gambling allegations will hurt city's NBA dream

LAS VEGAS -- Mayor Oscar Goodman is confident allegations that an NBA referee bet on basketball games won't damage Las Vegas' bid for a team.

If anything, Goodman said it could strengthen his city's case.

"I think that there's going to be a public recognition that Las Vegas does monitor this kind of alleged activity," Goodman said Friday.

"I don't want anyone's bad fortune to cause us good fortune, but I think it will cause people to look at Las Vegas in a light perhaps differently than they do, because we do in fact regulate this kind of activity."

The FBI is investigating allegations that veteran NBA referee Tim Donaghy bet on basketball games over the past two seasons, including ones in which he officiated. The probe also involves allegations that he had connections to organized crime associates, the kind of suspicious link the mayor says is closely watched in Nevada.

Though NBA commissioner David Stern previously had said he would not put a team in Las Vegas as long as there was betting on basketball, he amended his position earlier this year. He said a decision would be left to the owners and allowed Goodman to submit a proposal to them before the Board of Governors meetings in April.

After those meetings, Stern said a committee would be formed to further review Goodman's plan, and Goodman said there since have been "light conversations" with the league.

Goodman's proposal offered no compromise on gambling, such as a plan to prohibit action on a Las Vegas team. He doesn't think it's necessary, because the Nevada Gaming Commission and Gaming Control Board would keep a close eye on it.

"We're the only regulatory agency in the world that really looks at unusual activity as far as the movement of the line and that type of conduct," Goodman said. "That's why whenever red herrings are thrown up that somehow Las Vegas is a bad place because we have sports betting, I look at it just as a reverse. I think it's a good thing that Las Vegas has the type of regulation that makes sure that bad things don't happen."

Las Vegas hosted the NBA's All-Star Game in February, the first outside of a league city, and more than 20 clubs sent teams here for summer league earlier this month. USA Basketball is holding its minicamp here this weekend, and the FIBA Americas tournament, a regional qualifier for the 2008 Olympics, comes to the campus of UNLV next month.

"The players conduct themselves like gentlemen, the community embraces them, and there's not even the slightest hint of impropriety," Goodman said.

[jeromechickenbone]

LOL, of course the mayor of the town is gonna say that.  He'd be a complete idiot if he didn't.  Everything that Vegas markets is "What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas".  Vegas may have been close just a couple months ago, but no way it happens now.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

I still think there's a good chance.

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Sonics co-owner McClendon fined $250K

By Percy Allen
Seattle Times staff reporter

Aubrey McClendon is paying the price for comments he made to an Oklahoma City publication.

The NBA fined Sonics minority partner Aubrey McClendon $250,000 for comments he made last week in The (Oklahoma City) Journal Record about his hopes of moving the team to Oklahoma City.

Reached Wednesday night, league spokesman Tim Frank confirmed the punitive action.

Repeated messages to the Sonics were not returned.

McClendon, chief executive of Chesapeake Energy, came under fire after he told the Journal: "We didn't buy the team to keep it in Seattle, we hoped to come here. We know it's a little more difficult financially here in Oklahoma City, but we think it's great for the community and if we could break even we'd be thrilled."
In a statement following the Aug. 13 story, Sonics and Storm majority owner Clay Bennett said McClendon was "not speaking on behalf of the ownership group."

The Oklahoma City-based ownership group has set an Oct. 31 deadline to reach an agreement on a new arena in the Seattle area. If an agreement is not in place, Bennett has said he will petition the league to move the Sonics and Storm out of the region. Oklahoma City is the likely destination.

"They've got 60 days to make some decisions they haven't been willing to make in the past year, and if they make them in a way that satisfies Clay, then the team will stay there," McClendon told the Journal. "If they don't meet the requirements he's laid out, the team will move and Clay has indicated they'll come to Oklahoma City."

The state Legislature rejected Sonics ownership's proposal for a $400 million state contribution toward a $500 million Renton arena this spring and Seattle officials have said they'll refuse an early buyout of the team's KeyArena lease, which runs through 2010.

"It is my hope we will see a breakthrough in the next 60 days that will result in securing a new arena for the Sonics and Storm in the Greater Seattle area," Bennett said last week in a statement.

Bennett, who is chairman and controlling owner, McClendon, Tom Ward and Jeffrey Records each paid $50 million as primary owners in the Professional Basketball Club, which purchased the teams last year for $350 million from the Howard Schultz-led Basketball Club of Seattle. The PBC is an Oklahoma City-based consortium, which consists of the four primary owners, four minority owners and a total of 12 investors.

According to McClendon, the group attempted to buy the New Orleans Hornets, which spent the majority of the past two seasons in Oklahoma City, but turned its attention to the Sonics when Hornets owner George Shinn declined the group's offer.

"We started to look around and at that time the Sonics were going through some ownership challenges in Seattle," McClendon told the Journal Record. "So Clay, very artfully and skillfully, put himself in the middle of those discussions and to the great amazement and surprise to everyone in Seattle, some rednecks from Oklahoma, which we've been called, made off with the team."

The Oklahoma City energy tycoon had been a silent partner before his comments last week.

[Canuck]

I really hope the league doesn't let them move the Sonics, Seattle is a great basketball market a lot better than OKC. Hopefully their attendence records stay pretty high throughout the next few seasons as they rebuild and they solve their arena problem.

[Don Jacob]

i don't want to see a damn team in oklahoma. they'd be better off with a team in fresno or bakersfield. lol.

[J @ M @ L]

They should name the team:
Oklahoma City Bombers

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

LOL

[Fuck Your Existence]

They should name the team:
Oklahoma City Bombers

lmao

[Fuck Your Existence]

i don't want to see a damn team in oklahoma. they'd be better off with a team in fresno or bakersfield. lol.

fresno-bag chasers,baskerfield-trailer trash??

[thisoneguy360]

Fuck that keep them in Seattle

[Throwback]

moving a team is fucked up.

[Don Jacob]

i don't want to see a damn team in oklahoma. they'd be better off with a team in fresno or bakersfield. lol.

fresno-bag chasers,baskerfield-trailer trash??

 trailer trash....??

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

^^LOL@acting like you dunno what he's talking about...